It's official. I am now a PCV and not just a wimpy PCT. I am going to my permanent site tomorrow (maybe... this is African transportation we're talking about here). I am so excited to unpack my suitcase from... what is it now... eleven weeks ago. This past week has been a blur and I am sure it will not slow down anytime soon. I start school on Monday. Ahhhh! I'm slightly scared, slightly excited and slightly exhausted. Anywho, I just wanted to pop in and let you know that I am still here but things are a little hectic. I'll let you know all the juicy details about our Swearing-In Ceremony today and also about my new site (if/when I get there...). Also, I have a new mailing address for those of you who telepathically know packages and letters make my day/week/month.
Jessica Royer
PO Box 261
Khorixas
Kunene, Namibia
Africa
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Bing-a-ling
I'm just walking my beat... Namibia's my beat and I'm walking it :)
My host mom and dad at the appreciation dinner.
Modal school. I'm on the left in the green (to the right of the PCT with the black shirt and head scarf). Bat boy is just in front of me and one to the left (in front of the PCT with the pink shirt)(he looks a lot more scary in this picture than he really is).
Me teaching some learners how to take self portraits.
The nine PCTs in The Bing! Christmas Eve in the grade 7 classroom.
Well. These are some thoughts from the past month... These are some un-proof-read thoughts from the past month. I hope you won't judge me... I can usually spell. Um, usually.
December 7, 2007
Every Friday in December and January is free SMS Friday. SMSes are text messages with MTC (my phone company here). You can message anyone in Namibia for free all day Friday. Well, you can imagine the frenzy this causes. And it is only multiplied by 10 between technology starved Americans. We send SMSes across the classroom, from the front seat of a taxi to the back seat or even play SMS tag…. We send them anywhere! Today, the name of the game was lame pick-up lines Namibian style (Actual Namibian pick up lines usually go something like “Marry me” and “Take me to America” and similar such romantic ideas) (Ours were much more unrealistic… but hilarious) (to us…).
I got an SMS pick-up line from a fellow trainee friend this morning that I thought was funny. I shared it with my friends who all thought it was equally funny. I said something about saving it for my blog… but luckly, my fellow trainees stopped to reason with me. They said I couldn’t send it to the states. They said there was no way it would make any sense in the states even with half an hour of explanation and so on.
But, alas, I will attempt the explanation. You must realize, however, that this will suck all hilarity out of the situation… but here it goes:
- People eat goat here. A lot.
- People eat all parts of the goat.
- Goat heads are the most valuable part.
- Goat heads are put in a pot of boiling water to cook them.
- As goat heads boil, the skin shrinks back and reveals the teeth.
- Since the goat’s teeth show after cooking they call cooked goat heads “smileys” because they look like they’re smiling.
You’ve got to be wondering how this relates to a pick-up line by now… and with the proper background, you are ready for the lame pick-up line SMS:
“If you were a goat I would put your head in a pot and boil you just to see your smile.”
See, funny, right?
Contrary to popular belief and logic, all of this is not to educate you on the shrinking skin dynamics of goats but is really an odd attempt to appreciate you for reading about my adventures in Namibia. I realized that the longer I spend in seemingly absurd situations, the more confusing I sound. Hopefully, by explaining some things… like goat heads… I’ll sound a little less crazy in the long run.
It’s working, right? Sanity is the first thing that came to mind when you read this post, yes?
December 9, 2007
A fuzzy puppy just pounced on my foot. And I’m starting to like (read: tolerate) instant coffee. It’s been a good day.
Last Tuesday, we met our host families. We will be staying with these families for one short month (during modal school). I am staying with a Lutheran Pastor in the small village, Otjimbingwe (we call it The Bing). The house is very very nice and big, by African standards. My room is decorated with dolphins and blue. All blue. Everywhere. It makes me laugh. In the house there is also my host mother, her two daughters, two nieces, two sons, one guard dog (Shakira) and four puppies. Tomorrow, though, all but the oldest son and father will travel to the farm for Christmas. The remaining three of us have been charges with protecting the house from theft over the holiday. A noble cause, I suppose, but it makes for a quiet Christmas.
Most of the kids (teenage girls mostly) were nice to me. They were very cautious of me at first and spent a lot of tome whispering. Today, though, they would wander into my room to ask me for my phone number, my sister’s name (the only one brother thing is a shocker to everyone) or how my school prep was going. I’m not sure if those are friendship questions but I felt better about the whole situation. Then it was time for Christmas. Most of the gifts I brought for the host family were pink. This was problematic seeing how all potential pink-lovers are leaving. I gave the girls some hair-ties (good for school uniforms according to mom), a purse, heart socks, a coin pouch, barrettes, and, of course, Tilikum carabineers. I let them duke it our as to who got what. Today, I also received free access to the kitchen. Sweet! “Be creative,” they said, “you must cook for yourself.” To an over-independent kid like me this was great news. So, off to the kitchen I trot to be creative. Apparently, this meant be creative tomorrow, though… fish is on the stove right now and I wasn’t the one to start it.
This will be the 5th night at homestay and things are going pretty well but they didn’t start out that way. On Tuesday night, I ate the wrong part of the goat, got laughed at and put my self in my room for the night to cry and text my mom (thank God for technology). Wednesday was much better because I could focus on modal school. I got to spend the morning with the 8th grade class. They basically threw me in a classroom and said get their names and ages and dismiss them in two hours… Distracting kids? I’m trained in that. I started out with the line up log… without the log. They had to get themselves in alphabetical order without speaking. I though it would be too easy for them. But it wasn’t. And nobody knew what to do with names that started with clicks. So, we downgraded to a spelling and math bee. The kids were so competitive (the good kind)(it was cute). I was also joined by one of our TRC (teaching Resource Center) Trainees. She drives in every day from Omaruru to work with us. She thinks we’re the best modal school. Mostly because we are… She’s a retired teacher from the Southern US. It’s been a lot of fun to work with her.
After we dismissed the kids, we started planning more for modal school. Basically, “planning” means constructing from scratch. Luckily, I’m working with 8 PCT girls from the states with no experience, lots of opinions and good old-fashioned American work ethics. It turns out I will be teaching grade 7 Natural Science, grade 8 Maths, and grade 10 Physics for the next three weeks. I am very excited about all of my classes (even though vectors are still a little fuzzy in my memory).
After our first day at work our language lesson for the afternoon was cancelled. All of us were still skeptical of the homestay situation so we got cooldrinks (it is one word and encompasses all drinks except alcohol) from the only store in the village – they sold out after the nine of us left. Then we escaped down to the riverbed to hide with the goats.
All that to say, I made it through the week and I am feeling more and more comfortable in my host family’s house (minus occasional cow heads in the kitchen sink). I think shopping with my host mom yesterday for some groceries and making tea and watching the news every night with the family has helped a bit. I also learned that “you must learn Nama [KK]” means “we wish you could hang out and be more relaxed” not “you suck because you can’t figure out our secret code”. I’m sure that sounds obvious to you rational-thinkers at home but it took me a few days to figure out… and. I think the paranoid side-effects of the Mefloquine is kicking in… or maybe that’s just me being paranoid…
I have so many more things to write about – like, my lesson plans, being addicted to cell phone facebook, and stories about quirky trainers with gold teeth who try to help you hang up you moss-quite-o’s (mosquito) net and get lost in your house while carrying a huge garbage can (actually… that’s the whole story…) But, all of these things will have to wait for another day. It’s 9:45 and that means way past my bedtime. Hey. Give me a break. I wake up at 4:30.
!gaise \om re! (sleep well)
\Nam (love), Jessica
December 13, 2007
Yesterday was mail day! The PC drove our mail out to the village; I got a Christmas box from my parents and a card from Bethany… Seriously. It felt like Christmas morning.
November to March is “rainy season” in Namibia. My PCT friend from Seattle and I brought rain jackets because of this. Um. No comment on how stupid we feel about that now. It really just means that the 10 days with 30 minutes of rain will fall somewhere in these five months. I do “miss the rains down in Africa” though because when it actually rains it’s beautiful. However, I also do not like the rain because before it rains it has to get ungodly hot. Yesterday was ungodly hot and in the evening clouds appeared. I was hopeful but there was no rain. This morning I woke up and it was a little cool and some of the clouds had stuck around.
I took advantage of the familiar weather and the fact that I had a tiny stocking hanging in my room. I woke up about an hour before my alarm (I can’t help it). I put my ipod on a Christmas mix and downloaded the Oregonian headlines on my phone. It was great! But then I had to come back down to earth, realize I was still in Africa, and get out of bed to go to school.
I was given creative license in the kitchen a few days ago but this morning was the first morning I actually got to cook for myself… not that this means I cooked for myself. I had cornflakes (I’m my father’s daughter).
Modal school starts at 7:40 in the morning with an assembly. The Americans usually get there about 7:05 but the keys don’t usually wander in until about 7:44. Most school classrooms here open to the outside. The hallways are the sand pits in between the buildings. We sit around in the sand pits comparing notes about learners, lesson plans and host families. At 7:40, the learners stand in lines under the big tree in the yard. They sing and then say the Lord’s Prayer. When they are dismissed they have to go to their classroom and stand in lines outside the door. The 9 American (women) teachers then let the girls in the and then the boys to find their seats. Every class must begin with “Good morning, class” “Good morning, Miss Jessica” “How are you, class?” “We are fine, Miss Jessica. How are you?” “I am fine. Thank you. You may have a seat.” It’s really still creepy to me but I’m not here to change the Namibian greeting policy. Then I take attendance. I know that you all were worried that I wouldn’t be able to take attendance, but, alas, do not worry. We got half an hour and diagrams on how to take attendance. All schools in Namibia take attendance one way. No other way is acceptable. On tally means that the leaner is there. This tally must be in the same color that the name is written in. Learners who are absent must have a lower case “a” written in red. The red is not as important as it being lower case but both are preferable… oh, gosh.
Anyway, 1st period is grade 7 (not 7th grade) Natural Science. We are learning about matter and it’s three phases. Today, we tried to talk about melting/freezing temperatures but it totally bombed. They got that melting and freezing happen at the same temperature. But when I tried to do an example with a thermometer they had never seen one. Then, once I explained a thermometer they didn’t have any experience with negative numbers and temperatures. The whole lesson downgraded to a lecture on number lines and negative numbers but they weren’t getting the connection. I’ll have to figure out what to do with them tomorrow.
Period 2 is grade 8 Maths. I really like this class. They are the worst behaved but I think that makes them more interesting. They talk all the time but it is mostly about math so I don’t really see a problem with it. We are going over the order of operations (BODMAS here, not PEMDAS). I did have a few normal examples then I did a really long equation that took up the whole board. Then I asked them to come up with an equation they thought would stump the class. All of theirs were way harder than mine. We’ll finish those tomorrow. I had to work on one of their long division problems for them because it involved decimals. Other than that, they are pretty up to par (which means they can add, subtract, multiply and divide – yippee!).
Period 3 is grade ten Physical Science. I decided to do Physics with them. I decided this when I found out that they were only adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing in grade 8. Little did I know that “grade 10” meant “anyone in the village who happens to be bored during summer break”. We’ve had grade 12, we’ve had university students and, I swear, some guys wandered over from the shebeen (she-bean) (bar) across the street. I would love to teach them physics but I don’t know if I’m the most qualified. They ask really great questions but some of them are making me stretch all the way back to my General Physics class at college.
Period 4 I’m off. And period 5, I become a lunch lady. We feed the kids everyday. It’s a perk of coming to school in summer. Today some small kids wandered into the schoolyard during fourth period. I was speaking KK with them and they weren’t making any sense. The PC driver who brought our TRC friend from Omaruru let me know that the kids were street kids who weren’t always there mentally… I guess I should have known… one of them had a petrified bat. Anyway, after all the learners finished getting their food, these kids were lined up so they could pretend to be school kids. They filed through and got food. It was cute… petrified bat or no…
The point of modal school, according to the PC, is to evaluate our teaching. This means that we will have evaluations everyday – surprise! They’re here to rate your class! Sort of visits. I don’t minds and have done well on most of my evaluations so far (today, I accidentally said the sun and moon rotate around the earth… er… oops). They only problems that arise are the differences between the American school system and the Namibian. In the Namibian school system, the ministry of education makes the syllabus. The ministry also makes the tests at the end of the year. I understand why they do this. They are trying to get all of the regions up to par. This wouldn’t be a problem id the syllabus (and subsequently, the tests) were good… but they are not. They syllabus requires, let’s say, grade 5 to go over topics 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Then grade 6 should cover 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. Then grade 7 gets 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10.5… and since tests are national, they have to get through the entire syllabus. There’s no time to get through the syllabus! Teachers have just enough time to do an introduction to every topic and them move on. My grade 8 class can do long division but if I threw a side-ball at them like decimal division they couldn’t do it. They have gone over division for five years but have never gotten more then an introduction. If the syllabus went more like: grade 5 is 1, 2, and 3. Grade 6 is 4, 5, 6 and grade 7 is 7, 8, 9, 10… it might make more sense, right? These kids don’t need to know about circuits and mirrors in grade 7. I didn’t learn about them until college… where I actually got to learn them and not just the vocabulary.
A lot of Namibian teachers push to get through the syllabus to stay on schedule without checking to make sure the kids get it. Today, we were told “a good teacher makes it through the syllabus” and “you all must work on time management”. I understand not wasting time but making sure the class gets the idea – important, right? And, by the way, I marked (graded) some national exams a couple of weeks ago in natural science. 20/100 is average, 30/100 is good, and 50/100 is downright impressive. You’re not allowed to mark an exam 0/100 so the lowest one I marked was 2/100.
I felt a little like crying after that conversation. You may think, well, the kids in my class will do better on the exam when I get done with them. But volunteers who have been here see little or no improvement in their learners scores compared to other teachers. The bogus syllabus coupled with students speaking a second (or third) language in school have done most of the damage before we get here…
After a whole afternoon of being immersed in Namibian logic I wanted to scream. And come up with a reason for being here.
I can’t end on a bitter note. And I’m not bitter, just American. So I will tell you about my favorite puppy. There are four – Vital, Shasha, Dangerman and the un-named one. The un-named one is my favorite. He came in the house today to watch me eat. At first he sat there wagging his tail. Then he stopped and one eye started to droop. Then he started to lean. Then he fell down asleep… which woke him up and his tail started wagging again. This whole thing happened about 4 times before I finished eating. It was so cute and I was laughing so hard my host family probably though I was crazy. Ai (my new favorite Namibian expression of exasperation).
A Few quotes from The Bing – you don’t have to understand them but they make me giggle.
“Alright. The kid's riding a donkey to the bar. We’re in Africa.” – general observation
“Well, TIN, I guess” –Me (This Is Namibia… watch Blood Diamond…)
“No, TIML.” –PCT friend (This Is My Life)
“I’m going to chillin’” – our trainer
“No… it’s ‘I’m going to chill’ or ‘I am chillin’’” – PCT
“Oh, I am chill…” – Trainer
“’Just for kicks’ means ‘just for fun’” – me
“Oh, just for kicks.” – Namibian, proceeds to make kicking motion while mumbling phrase to himself
“In America, are you having goats?” – Namibian
“Yes, for milk and cheese.” – PCT
“Do you think they would ship the meat when they are finished?” – Namibian
“I think that he can’t read. Maybe he should be in grade 8 instead.” – PCT with a problem
“Will he then be able to read in grade 8? No. He will stay in grade 9.” – Namibian solution
“I think my grade ten learner winked at me today” – PCT
“I just got a shot in a gas station parking lot. All my dreams have been fulfilled.” –PCT
“Hey-O.” – Me
“Oh, what does that mean?” – Namibian
“It means ‘hey’ or ‘hi’” – me
“Oh. In what language?” – Namibian
“English. It’s a song.” – me
“Hey-o… this is what I say-o” – another PCT helping me out
“Oh, I see, Hey-o” – Namibian, clearly not getting it
“We are closer to the city center now.” – Trainer
“There are 500 people here. There is no city.” – me
“Miss, where will you live while you are here?” – Grade 10 learner
“Khorixas in Kunene” – me
“Oh. You know what they have there?” – Grade 10 gets up and writes “KFD” on the board
“I do not know KFD.” – me
“Miss, it’s Kentucky Fried Donkey.” – learner
“Where are you from?” – man on street
“America” – me
“I want to marry someone with white skin like you.” – man
“You’d probably be better with a Norwegian. They’re whiter.” – Me
“No. They must be American.” – man
“Oh. Well. Good luck with that.” – me
*PCT friend walks up
“How about you instead.” – man
“Um, what…?” – PCT friend
*In a car
“Hey, Steve…?” – me to my language trainer
“Oh. Hallo my sister.” – Steve
*10 minutes pass in car
“Hey, Steve…?” – me asking another question
“Oh. Hallo my sister.” – Steve
*5 minutes pass in car
“Hey, Steve…?” – yet another question about language
“Oh. Hallo my sister.”
* laughing * - me
“Have I shocked you with my overly friendly nature?” – Steve
“That. And you’ve answered every question with Hallo” – me
“Is your brother bigger than me?” – grade 8 four and half foot tall learner
“Yes. He’s 24.” –me, laughing
“Oh. Miss, I am 25.”
“And your [PCT] friend, how old is she?” –Host dad
“24” –me
“Oh! Older than you? But she is shorter than you.” –host dad
“Um… yup…” –me
*Arib means dog in KK
“I have two aribs. How do you say two dogs, Steve?” –me
“Ariba means ‘up! Get up!’” –Steve
“In Khoekhoe, Steve, not Spanish.” –me
“Oh. Aribkha is two dogs.” –Steve
“I think it’s best to think of Christmas in Namibia like bottled ice tea. It tastes fine if you pretend it’s something else.” –PCT
“Hi Jessica. I am running out of vocabs. Kindly download some onto my human CD.” – Language trainer asking for impressive English phrases
“My host brother is a whiz with the saw. William-Sonoma should jump on the gourmet saw bandwagon, no?” –PCT
December 23, 2007
Right now is the most normal I’ve felt in weeks. It was the first Sunday of CBT that the Peace Corps didn’t plan anything for our group in the morning. I’m staying with a Lutheran Pastor and I was sure this meant I was headed for church. Normally, I love church. But… It is the middle of the summer, they put about three more people in each pew than actually fit, their services are three to four hours long and its all in Khoekhoe… And as tempting as all that sounded I really didn’t want to go. But I got up this morning, put on one of my two skirts I have with me and my bright green flip flops that don’t match anything and sat on the couch waiting for the other shoe to fall. The Pastors wife and his three daughters returned home yesterday unexpectedly (they did not say they were coming back until the 28th) but they were all going to church. It was about 20 minutes after the service was scheduled to start when the wife came in to tell me they were going to church and that I probably shouldn’t go. I don’t know what that meant but I didn’t argue. But I did make chocolate chip cookies. And Macaroni and Cheese… from scratch. I’ve figured out the white sauce… I’m awesome. Alfredo? Cheesy sauce? Garlic Sauce? I’ve got it down. I made cookies for the whole family but I didn’t make enough mac and cheese. I felt bad so I saved some for them to taste but I think it didn’t have enough meat for them… or any meat… so its still sitting in the fridge. When the family came home from church, they brought some members of the congregation with them. There are a lot of people in this village who just don’t have anything… nothing… There’s this one kid – I think I wrote about him earlier. He was the one with the petrified bat after school. Since then, this earned him the name “bat boy”. I even sing him his theme song any time he shows up for food in the afternoon. It’s the batman theme song, except at the end I say bat boy. I don’t think he’s caught on that it’s his song mostly because he doesn’t speak any English and the locals keep telling me he’s crazy. I think they’re wrong though. This kid’s got it together. I see him around town and he’s always got food in his hands. He knows how to work the system. Anyway, he walked in with my host family after church. So, what was I to do? I sang him his song and gave him a cookie. There were some other kids that came too. My host family gives them a tiny chore to do – like mop the front porch or coil up the hose – and then they get food. Since I’ve been in this village I’ve seen the decency of people more than I ever have: 28 year old drunkards with no future split their candy bars with street kids, the peace corps driver passes his newspaper on to the old man who always sits on the street corner, all of the grade tens (They weeded out all those who were older than grade 12. So now it’s just the nice mannered ones left. It’s turned into my favorite class.) walk me home because its sunset and similar such things. It makes me think that people are mostly good (I had never really decided before). Anyway, these kids all got a piece of the goat that was killed in the yard last night. The spinal column was on the menu today. I think this is a great system. It lets them get food but they’re not getting it for free. They come knowing they’re going to have to work for their food. It’s good because it gives them some dignity.
It’s really hot today (real hot. Not the average hot that it is every other day). But I braved the heat and came to school to work on my lessons for this week. But I brought my computer too. When I got here. I turned on some tunes. It’s been so long since I’ve heard American music out loud (not headphones). I missed it. Bad Mamma Jamma? Yes please. A little American Idiot? Alright. Some A Boy Named Sue? I could handle that. The combo of cookies, mac and cheese, some time to myself and my music at my volume (everything is always three times louder than necessary) made me feel human.
I’ve got exactly one week of CBT left. I think I can make it. I’ve finally decided on the reason I go through some of the hard things I do… when the lows are low, the highs are even better. For example, there’s a reason 3AM is the best time during finals week in college. It’s because you and your friends have gone crazy. That’s when the memories are made. During CBT, memories are made when all 9 Americans are fed up with their host families. They cram into their trainer’s tiny tiny living room, cut up one apple and candy bar with a Swiss Army knife and sit on the floor so no one can see white faces through the window. I laughed so hard I was crying. When the lows are low, the highs are high.
CBT isn’t that bad though. It’s just hard. Everything is permanently awkward. You’re always wrong… wrong way to wash clothes, cook, brush your teeth, go to bed, wake up, etc. Your host family knows exactly what you are doing at all times of the day. And American humor doesn’t fly most of the time in Namibia. The lows are low. The highs though, are bat boy, puppies, when your host dad finally chuckles at one of your jokes, trying to figure out your host family’s printer with your host brother and making him laugh at a spooler (if you know what a printer spooler is, let me know, because I hate them :] … ), having them name Chocolate chip cookies “Jessica’s specialty”, and getting invited to your learners’ soccer game. When the lows are low, the highs are high. That’s all I’m saying.
December 27, 2007
Here I am. Three more nights in this house. They just gave me ice cream and fruit. I should love them forever, no? Secretly, I am super duper looking forward to getting on with this process. On Sunday we go back to Okahandja to meet up with the rest of Nam 27. Then, on the 9th we have the swearing in ceremony and move to our permanent sites. It will be so nice to get to Khorixas because I won’t be living out of a suitcase anymore. I can cook for myself and clean for myself and shower when I want. But it will be kind of sad too because I’ll be away from some new friends (American and Namibian) and traveling to them is hard in this country.
CBT (Community Based Training) had a lot of ups and downs – I’ve covered those already. But things have been so nice since the whole family got back. They talk a lot about me, in front of me, in KK. But other than that things have been kind of relaxing… and surprisingly not awkward. We looked up horoscopes the other day. I translated phrases like “put your money where you mouth is” and “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”. We watched “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” on Christmas and spent a few hours going through my ipod. I still can’t fix the darn printer though. More people in the house means less attention on me – which I greatly appreciate. I’m just sad it couldn’t be this comfortable the whole time.
Christmas was really nice. I unwrapped some presents from home that came in the mail. Then, I made some cookies (bat boy showed up again. I swear he’s got a radar for food). I visited some friends and learners around the village then hung out at the house. It was actually a cold night too. So nice.
Wednesday and Thursday I gave finals for summer school. And tomorrow we’re handing out certificates. Tonight is the first night in awhile that I haven’t had anything to plan… I’m kind of lost and confused. I don’t remember free time. The Peace Corps has owned all of my time lately.
January 1, 2007
Ai. I don’t know if I can explain this past weekend without sounding completely crazy. Though, you have made it this far in my CBT ramblings. And I like you. I will try.
Friday morning was our last day of modal school. Some of the learners’ parents came to watch the certificates. Each of the grades (5-10) performed a song. Then we gave them their certificates. It was cute… and chaos… We took a whole school picture. I am sure I will post that at some point in time…. Someday when I have a lot of patience for Internet.
After the ceremony the other teachers and I were cleaning up the school. We had locked up all the classrooms and were about to go relieve the local store of all their cooldrinks. As some of the teachers were gathering things, I was standing waiting with another PCT in the schoolyard. Bat Boy was there. This was not a surprise. He came to almost every day of school and would sit in the yard waiting for food. I also found out from my host family that he is about 11, though he looks 7. This day he was cutting up a roll of tape. My PCT friend told him to stop because it was a perfectly good roll. This didn’t really fly because, well, he’s crazy and because he doesn’t speak English. I said that he had a knife (read: some sort of sharp object) and to not mess with him. My PCT friend thought this was sound advice and started walking away. In slow motion, I saw Bat Boy wind up to make a huge stabbing lunge at my PCT friend. Ai. I started screaming No. He stopped before he hit her. He thought the whole thing was hilarious. I was so angry. All the other teachers heard the screaming and came to see what was the matter. This only provided an audience for Bat Boy and he tried it again. This time he chose a poor target, though. One of our PCTs is from Chicago and she swore she would “beat him down” if he “weren’t a 6 year old”. We left the schoolyard quickly and a few of the grade ten boys were standing there. We asked them to ask Bat Boy to leave (this is where learning the local language would have come in handy). They went into the schoolyard, picked up Bat Boy, took his knife, carried him out of the schoolyard and told him to go. The whole situation is so absurd. It’s still a little surreal… and it kind of makes me laugh. We’re all fine. Don’t worry. I know to be more cautious of the one’s they tell me are not right in the head.
Friday night was birthday party for one of the PCTs. We made brownies and then walked up to the hill in town with the water tower. The view was gorgeous. Those pictures, I’m sure will make it to the Internet someday too. On the way home, the janitor at the school stopped me and asked me where I was coming from. He asked in KK… so I asked for a translation of the question. Then, I promised that I would have an answer in KK for him the next day (this usually works on ridiculous requests for anything. By tomorrow, they have usually moved onto another problem to solve). Anyway, I walked rest of the way home. When I walked in my host mother asked me in KK where I was coming from. I said the water tower and smiled at them all. Usually, they have to repeat a sentence in KK about 10 times and gesture a motion that indicates the word in order for me to understand. They were all so impressed that I didn’t want to give away my secret. Yet another absurd situation that made me laugh. I hope it made them more cautious about what they say in front of me… they never know what I’ll catch from their conversation… like my name. I always catch my name. Go figure.
Saturday morning we met at the secondary school’s home economics kitchen at 8:30 to cook for our host family appreciation dinner that night. We spent the day making American cookies (my job), baked beans (warmed in the can in the sun. Namibian sun is good for that), rice, chicken, sausage, American salad (the “American” just implies that mayonnaise was not involved) and punch. I think we did a really good job.
We started our party about 4:30pm. Each of the language groups got up and gave a speech in the language they are trying to learn. In the Bing, there were only two language groups. Mine was the KK group. There are three other girls that meet in my language class. The other 5 trainees in the Bing were learning Oshiherero. In our speech, we each said a line or two in KK. We had to apologize at the beginning for any mispronunciations. It is far too easy to swear in KK. If you forget to make a nasal sound instead of an alto sound… or if your tick sounds a little too much like a pop… you could suddenly offend someone’s mother. Then, when we finished our speech, we had our language trainer translate from KK to KK. The host families all laughed at this. Which was really good because it was a joke and they actually got my humor. Yippee.
After all our thank you speeches and we had passed out the obligatory certificates to the families, we served our dinner. Wow. That food got tackled. They like food here in Namibia. They like it a lot. And they like meat more. All that to say, our dinner went over well. It was actually a really fun party. And I think our host family felt appreciated.
Sunday morning a 40 passenger bus came to pick up the 9 of us. I don’t get it. But I did like the air conditioning, the free ride and four seats to myself. Saying goodbye to the host family was just like I was leaving for school in the morning. I will see my host mother and father at swearing in though. This is good because I left some pictures at their house and they will bring them to me at swearing in.
When we got back to Okahandja on Sunday we got to just hang out at our training center. This was so nice. I bought some cheese from Spar (my favorite Namibian grocery store. Only second to Super Spar). My PCT friend from Seattle got a package in the mail and didn’t want her Triscuits. I ate cheese and Triscuits and absolutely no meat for lunch. It was great.
Monday (New Year’s eve) we had a regular day of getting lectures from the Peace Corps on various topics. After it got closer to midnight, we had a little New Year’s Eve party in a dried riverbed nearby. An uneventful New Year’s Eve but it was good. At midnight, we had a hug circle and everyone got a hug from everyone else. Yet another absurd situation… I’m getting used to them, I think.
This morning, some of our group got up early and made an American breakfast for us and for our trainers (for a thank you to the trainers). They made pancakes, French toast, scrambled eggs, baked apple toppings and real coffee. It was so good. The trainers who were with us in the Bing kept joking that the eggs needed more mayo but I think they really liked the meal. I said next time we can make it an integrated American meal and put mayo and chopped up meat in the eggs then top it all with a little sprinkle of MSG (it comes in its pure form in a “spice” bottle here. Yum). The rest of today has been really chill. It’s been nice to recover from CBT. There was a poker tournament. I didn’t take part but I did laugh at the usage of “Deuce” “River” “Flop” and “Rainbow” (All worthy of a laugh, no? If you don’t think so maybe the movie “Lucky You” is for you). Then, we had a gift exchange. We drew names before CBT for secret pals. Today, we revealed who had and gave gifts. I got a bag of cookies and a candy bar from my secret pal. A trainer had me. I got my person lotion and some pens. It was fun. Also, we set up the Peace Corps’ projector to watch movies. Love Actually is playing right now. I can hear “All I want for Christmas is You” coming from the lawn. I just couldn’t sit in a big group anymore.
Well, I hope I don’t sound too crazy. It’s just one ridiculous situation after another. One minute you’re cutting up 400 Namibian Dollars worth of sausage for you host family and then you’re trying to explain to the trainers that not all Americans form hug circles on New Year’s eve and then you’re fending off a crazy child with a petrified bat and a knife… oh, gosh. Just know that I’m safe, clean, happy (when hysteria hasn’t taken over), well fed, too well fed, and did I mention well fed… More later, I’m sure. Love, J
My host mom and dad at the appreciation dinner.
Modal school. I'm on the left in the green (to the right of the PCT with the black shirt and head scarf). Bat boy is just in front of me and one to the left (in front of the PCT with the pink shirt)(he looks a lot more scary in this picture than he really is).
Me teaching some learners how to take self portraits. The nine PCTs in The Bing! Christmas Eve in the grade 7 classroom. Well. These are some thoughts from the past month... These are some un-proof-read thoughts from the past month. I hope you won't judge me... I can usually spell. Um, usually.
December 7, 2007
Every Friday in December and January is free SMS Friday. SMSes are text messages with MTC (my phone company here). You can message anyone in Namibia for free all day Friday. Well, you can imagine the frenzy this causes. And it is only multiplied by 10 between technology starved Americans. We send SMSes across the classroom, from the front seat of a taxi to the back seat or even play SMS tag…. We send them anywhere! Today, the name of the game was lame pick-up lines Namibian style (Actual Namibian pick up lines usually go something like “Marry me” and “Take me to America” and similar such romantic ideas) (Ours were much more unrealistic… but hilarious) (to us…).
I got an SMS pick-up line from a fellow trainee friend this morning that I thought was funny. I shared it with my friends who all thought it was equally funny. I said something about saving it for my blog… but luckly, my fellow trainees stopped to reason with me. They said I couldn’t send it to the states. They said there was no way it would make any sense in the states even with half an hour of explanation and so on.
But, alas, I will attempt the explanation. You must realize, however, that this will suck all hilarity out of the situation… but here it goes:
- People eat goat here. A lot.
- People eat all parts of the goat.
- Goat heads are the most valuable part.
- Goat heads are put in a pot of boiling water to cook them.
- As goat heads boil, the skin shrinks back and reveals the teeth.
- Since the goat’s teeth show after cooking they call cooked goat heads “smileys” because they look like they’re smiling.
You’ve got to be wondering how this relates to a pick-up line by now… and with the proper background, you are ready for the lame pick-up line SMS:
“If you were a goat I would put your head in a pot and boil you just to see your smile.”
See, funny, right?
Contrary to popular belief and logic, all of this is not to educate you on the shrinking skin dynamics of goats but is really an odd attempt to appreciate you for reading about my adventures in Namibia. I realized that the longer I spend in seemingly absurd situations, the more confusing I sound. Hopefully, by explaining some things… like goat heads… I’ll sound a little less crazy in the long run.
It’s working, right? Sanity is the first thing that came to mind when you read this post, yes?
December 9, 2007
A fuzzy puppy just pounced on my foot. And I’m starting to like (read: tolerate) instant coffee. It’s been a good day.
Last Tuesday, we met our host families. We will be staying with these families for one short month (during modal school). I am staying with a Lutheran Pastor in the small village, Otjimbingwe (we call it The Bing). The house is very very nice and big, by African standards. My room is decorated with dolphins and blue. All blue. Everywhere. It makes me laugh. In the house there is also my host mother, her two daughters, two nieces, two sons, one guard dog (Shakira) and four puppies. Tomorrow, though, all but the oldest son and father will travel to the farm for Christmas. The remaining three of us have been charges with protecting the house from theft over the holiday. A noble cause, I suppose, but it makes for a quiet Christmas.
Most of the kids (teenage girls mostly) were nice to me. They were very cautious of me at first and spent a lot of tome whispering. Today, though, they would wander into my room to ask me for my phone number, my sister’s name (the only one brother thing is a shocker to everyone) or how my school prep was going. I’m not sure if those are friendship questions but I felt better about the whole situation. Then it was time for Christmas. Most of the gifts I brought for the host family were pink. This was problematic seeing how all potential pink-lovers are leaving. I gave the girls some hair-ties (good for school uniforms according to mom), a purse, heart socks, a coin pouch, barrettes, and, of course, Tilikum carabineers. I let them duke it our as to who got what. Today, I also received free access to the kitchen. Sweet! “Be creative,” they said, “you must cook for yourself.” To an over-independent kid like me this was great news. So, off to the kitchen I trot to be creative. Apparently, this meant be creative tomorrow, though… fish is on the stove right now and I wasn’t the one to start it.
This will be the 5th night at homestay and things are going pretty well but they didn’t start out that way. On Tuesday night, I ate the wrong part of the goat, got laughed at and put my self in my room for the night to cry and text my mom (thank God for technology). Wednesday was much better because I could focus on modal school. I got to spend the morning with the 8th grade class. They basically threw me in a classroom and said get their names and ages and dismiss them in two hours… Distracting kids? I’m trained in that. I started out with the line up log… without the log. They had to get themselves in alphabetical order without speaking. I though it would be too easy for them. But it wasn’t. And nobody knew what to do with names that started with clicks. So, we downgraded to a spelling and math bee. The kids were so competitive (the good kind)(it was cute). I was also joined by one of our TRC (teaching Resource Center) Trainees. She drives in every day from Omaruru to work with us. She thinks we’re the best modal school. Mostly because we are… She’s a retired teacher from the Southern US. It’s been a lot of fun to work with her.
After we dismissed the kids, we started planning more for modal school. Basically, “planning” means constructing from scratch. Luckily, I’m working with 8 PCT girls from the states with no experience, lots of opinions and good old-fashioned American work ethics. It turns out I will be teaching grade 7 Natural Science, grade 8 Maths, and grade 10 Physics for the next three weeks. I am very excited about all of my classes (even though vectors are still a little fuzzy in my memory).
After our first day at work our language lesson for the afternoon was cancelled. All of us were still skeptical of the homestay situation so we got cooldrinks (it is one word and encompasses all drinks except alcohol) from the only store in the village – they sold out after the nine of us left. Then we escaped down to the riverbed to hide with the goats.
All that to say, I made it through the week and I am feeling more and more comfortable in my host family’s house (minus occasional cow heads in the kitchen sink). I think shopping with my host mom yesterday for some groceries and making tea and watching the news every night with the family has helped a bit. I also learned that “you must learn Nama [KK]” means “we wish you could hang out and be more relaxed” not “you suck because you can’t figure out our secret code”. I’m sure that sounds obvious to you rational-thinkers at home but it took me a few days to figure out… and. I think the paranoid side-effects of the Mefloquine is kicking in… or maybe that’s just me being paranoid…
I have so many more things to write about – like, my lesson plans, being addicted to cell phone facebook, and stories about quirky trainers with gold teeth who try to help you hang up you moss-quite-o’s (mosquito) net and get lost in your house while carrying a huge garbage can (actually… that’s the whole story…) But, all of these things will have to wait for another day. It’s 9:45 and that means way past my bedtime. Hey. Give me a break. I wake up at 4:30.
!gaise \om re! (sleep well)
\Nam (love), Jessica
December 13, 2007
Yesterday was mail day! The PC drove our mail out to the village; I got a Christmas box from my parents and a card from Bethany… Seriously. It felt like Christmas morning.
November to March is “rainy season” in Namibia. My PCT friend from Seattle and I brought rain jackets because of this. Um. No comment on how stupid we feel about that now. It really just means that the 10 days with 30 minutes of rain will fall somewhere in these five months. I do “miss the rains down in Africa” though because when it actually rains it’s beautiful. However, I also do not like the rain because before it rains it has to get ungodly hot. Yesterday was ungodly hot and in the evening clouds appeared. I was hopeful but there was no rain. This morning I woke up and it was a little cool and some of the clouds had stuck around.
I took advantage of the familiar weather and the fact that I had a tiny stocking hanging in my room. I woke up about an hour before my alarm (I can’t help it). I put my ipod on a Christmas mix and downloaded the Oregonian headlines on my phone. It was great! But then I had to come back down to earth, realize I was still in Africa, and get out of bed to go to school.
I was given creative license in the kitchen a few days ago but this morning was the first morning I actually got to cook for myself… not that this means I cooked for myself. I had cornflakes (I’m my father’s daughter).
Modal school starts at 7:40 in the morning with an assembly. The Americans usually get there about 7:05 but the keys don’t usually wander in until about 7:44. Most school classrooms here open to the outside. The hallways are the sand pits in between the buildings. We sit around in the sand pits comparing notes about learners, lesson plans and host families. At 7:40, the learners stand in lines under the big tree in the yard. They sing and then say the Lord’s Prayer. When they are dismissed they have to go to their classroom and stand in lines outside the door. The 9 American (women) teachers then let the girls in the and then the boys to find their seats. Every class must begin with “Good morning, class” “Good morning, Miss Jessica” “How are you, class?” “We are fine, Miss Jessica. How are you?” “I am fine. Thank you. You may have a seat.” It’s really still creepy to me but I’m not here to change the Namibian greeting policy. Then I take attendance. I know that you all were worried that I wouldn’t be able to take attendance, but, alas, do not worry. We got half an hour and diagrams on how to take attendance. All schools in Namibia take attendance one way. No other way is acceptable. On tally means that the leaner is there. This tally must be in the same color that the name is written in. Learners who are absent must have a lower case “a” written in red. The red is not as important as it being lower case but both are preferable… oh, gosh.
Anyway, 1st period is grade 7 (not 7th grade) Natural Science. We are learning about matter and it’s three phases. Today, we tried to talk about melting/freezing temperatures but it totally bombed. They got that melting and freezing happen at the same temperature. But when I tried to do an example with a thermometer they had never seen one. Then, once I explained a thermometer they didn’t have any experience with negative numbers and temperatures. The whole lesson downgraded to a lecture on number lines and negative numbers but they weren’t getting the connection. I’ll have to figure out what to do with them tomorrow.
Period 2 is grade 8 Maths. I really like this class. They are the worst behaved but I think that makes them more interesting. They talk all the time but it is mostly about math so I don’t really see a problem with it. We are going over the order of operations (BODMAS here, not PEMDAS). I did have a few normal examples then I did a really long equation that took up the whole board. Then I asked them to come up with an equation they thought would stump the class. All of theirs were way harder than mine. We’ll finish those tomorrow. I had to work on one of their long division problems for them because it involved decimals. Other than that, they are pretty up to par (which means they can add, subtract, multiply and divide – yippee!).
Period 3 is grade ten Physical Science. I decided to do Physics with them. I decided this when I found out that they were only adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing in grade 8. Little did I know that “grade 10” meant “anyone in the village who happens to be bored during summer break”. We’ve had grade 12, we’ve had university students and, I swear, some guys wandered over from the shebeen (she-bean) (bar) across the street. I would love to teach them physics but I don’t know if I’m the most qualified. They ask really great questions but some of them are making me stretch all the way back to my General Physics class at college.
Period 4 I’m off. And period 5, I become a lunch lady. We feed the kids everyday. It’s a perk of coming to school in summer. Today some small kids wandered into the schoolyard during fourth period. I was speaking KK with them and they weren’t making any sense. The PC driver who brought our TRC friend from Omaruru let me know that the kids were street kids who weren’t always there mentally… I guess I should have known… one of them had a petrified bat. Anyway, after all the learners finished getting their food, these kids were lined up so they could pretend to be school kids. They filed through and got food. It was cute… petrified bat or no…
The point of modal school, according to the PC, is to evaluate our teaching. This means that we will have evaluations everyday – surprise! They’re here to rate your class! Sort of visits. I don’t minds and have done well on most of my evaluations so far (today, I accidentally said the sun and moon rotate around the earth… er… oops). They only problems that arise are the differences between the American school system and the Namibian. In the Namibian school system, the ministry of education makes the syllabus. The ministry also makes the tests at the end of the year. I understand why they do this. They are trying to get all of the regions up to par. This wouldn’t be a problem id the syllabus (and subsequently, the tests) were good… but they are not. They syllabus requires, let’s say, grade 5 to go over topics 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Then grade 6 should cover 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. Then grade 7 gets 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10.5… and since tests are national, they have to get through the entire syllabus. There’s no time to get through the syllabus! Teachers have just enough time to do an introduction to every topic and them move on. My grade 8 class can do long division but if I threw a side-ball at them like decimal division they couldn’t do it. They have gone over division for five years but have never gotten more then an introduction. If the syllabus went more like: grade 5 is 1, 2, and 3. Grade 6 is 4, 5, 6 and grade 7 is 7, 8, 9, 10… it might make more sense, right? These kids don’t need to know about circuits and mirrors in grade 7. I didn’t learn about them until college… where I actually got to learn them and not just the vocabulary.
A lot of Namibian teachers push to get through the syllabus to stay on schedule without checking to make sure the kids get it. Today, we were told “a good teacher makes it through the syllabus” and “you all must work on time management”. I understand not wasting time but making sure the class gets the idea – important, right? And, by the way, I marked (graded) some national exams a couple of weeks ago in natural science. 20/100 is average, 30/100 is good, and 50/100 is downright impressive. You’re not allowed to mark an exam 0/100 so the lowest one I marked was 2/100.
I felt a little like crying after that conversation. You may think, well, the kids in my class will do better on the exam when I get done with them. But volunteers who have been here see little or no improvement in their learners scores compared to other teachers. The bogus syllabus coupled with students speaking a second (or third) language in school have done most of the damage before we get here…
After a whole afternoon of being immersed in Namibian logic I wanted to scream. And come up with a reason for being here.
I can’t end on a bitter note. And I’m not bitter, just American. So I will tell you about my favorite puppy. There are four – Vital, Shasha, Dangerman and the un-named one. The un-named one is my favorite. He came in the house today to watch me eat. At first he sat there wagging his tail. Then he stopped and one eye started to droop. Then he started to lean. Then he fell down asleep… which woke him up and his tail started wagging again. This whole thing happened about 4 times before I finished eating. It was so cute and I was laughing so hard my host family probably though I was crazy. Ai (my new favorite Namibian expression of exasperation).
A Few quotes from The Bing – you don’t have to understand them but they make me giggle.
“Alright. The kid's riding a donkey to the bar. We’re in Africa.” – general observation
“Well, TIN, I guess” –Me (This Is Namibia… watch Blood Diamond…)
“No, TIML.” –PCT friend (This Is My Life)
“I’m going to chillin’” – our trainer
“No… it’s ‘I’m going to chill’ or ‘I am chillin’’” – PCT
“Oh, I am chill…” – Trainer
“’Just for kicks’ means ‘just for fun’” – me
“Oh, just for kicks.” – Namibian, proceeds to make kicking motion while mumbling phrase to himself
“In America, are you having goats?” – Namibian
“Yes, for milk and cheese.” – PCT
“Do you think they would ship the meat when they are finished?” – Namibian
“I think that he can’t read. Maybe he should be in grade 8 instead.” – PCT with a problem
“Will he then be able to read in grade 8? No. He will stay in grade 9.” – Namibian solution
“I think my grade ten learner winked at me today” – PCT
“I just got a shot in a gas station parking lot. All my dreams have been fulfilled.” –PCT
“Hey-O.” – Me
“Oh, what does that mean?” – Namibian
“It means ‘hey’ or ‘hi’” – me
“Oh. In what language?” – Namibian
“English. It’s a song.” – me
“Hey-o… this is what I say-o” – another PCT helping me out
“Oh, I see, Hey-o” – Namibian, clearly not getting it
“We are closer to the city center now.” – Trainer
“There are 500 people here. There is no city.” – me
“Miss, where will you live while you are here?” – Grade 10 learner
“Khorixas in Kunene” – me
“Oh. You know what they have there?” – Grade 10 gets up and writes “KFD” on the board
“I do not know KFD.” – me
“Miss, it’s Kentucky Fried Donkey.” – learner
“Where are you from?” – man on street
“America” – me
“I want to marry someone with white skin like you.” – man
“You’d probably be better with a Norwegian. They’re whiter.” – Me
“No. They must be American.” – man
“Oh. Well. Good luck with that.” – me
*PCT friend walks up
“How about you instead.” – man
“Um, what…?” – PCT friend
*In a car
“Hey, Steve…?” – me to my language trainer
“Oh. Hallo my sister.” – Steve
*10 minutes pass in car
“Hey, Steve…?” – me asking another question
“Oh. Hallo my sister.” – Steve
*5 minutes pass in car
“Hey, Steve…?” – yet another question about language
“Oh. Hallo my sister.”
* laughing * - me
“Have I shocked you with my overly friendly nature?” – Steve
“That. And you’ve answered every question with Hallo” – me
“Is your brother bigger than me?” – grade 8 four and half foot tall learner
“Yes. He’s 24.” –me, laughing
“Oh. Miss, I am 25.”
“And your [PCT] friend, how old is she?” –Host dad
“24” –me
“Oh! Older than you? But she is shorter than you.” –host dad
“Um… yup…” –me
*Arib means dog in KK
“I have two aribs. How do you say two dogs, Steve?” –me
“Ariba means ‘up! Get up!’” –Steve
“In Khoekhoe, Steve, not Spanish.” –me
“Oh. Aribkha is two dogs.” –Steve
“I think it’s best to think of Christmas in Namibia like bottled ice tea. It tastes fine if you pretend it’s something else.” –PCT
“Hi Jessica. I am running out of vocabs. Kindly download some onto my human CD.” – Language trainer asking for impressive English phrases
“My host brother is a whiz with the saw. William-Sonoma should jump on the gourmet saw bandwagon, no?” –PCT
December 23, 2007
Right now is the most normal I’ve felt in weeks. It was the first Sunday of CBT that the Peace Corps didn’t plan anything for our group in the morning. I’m staying with a Lutheran Pastor and I was sure this meant I was headed for church. Normally, I love church. But… It is the middle of the summer, they put about three more people in each pew than actually fit, their services are three to four hours long and its all in Khoekhoe… And as tempting as all that sounded I really didn’t want to go. But I got up this morning, put on one of my two skirts I have with me and my bright green flip flops that don’t match anything and sat on the couch waiting for the other shoe to fall. The Pastors wife and his three daughters returned home yesterday unexpectedly (they did not say they were coming back until the 28th) but they were all going to church. It was about 20 minutes after the service was scheduled to start when the wife came in to tell me they were going to church and that I probably shouldn’t go. I don’t know what that meant but I didn’t argue. But I did make chocolate chip cookies. And Macaroni and Cheese… from scratch. I’ve figured out the white sauce… I’m awesome. Alfredo? Cheesy sauce? Garlic Sauce? I’ve got it down. I made cookies for the whole family but I didn’t make enough mac and cheese. I felt bad so I saved some for them to taste but I think it didn’t have enough meat for them… or any meat… so its still sitting in the fridge. When the family came home from church, they brought some members of the congregation with them. There are a lot of people in this village who just don’t have anything… nothing… There’s this one kid – I think I wrote about him earlier. He was the one with the petrified bat after school. Since then, this earned him the name “bat boy”. I even sing him his theme song any time he shows up for food in the afternoon. It’s the batman theme song, except at the end I say bat boy. I don’t think he’s caught on that it’s his song mostly because he doesn’t speak any English and the locals keep telling me he’s crazy. I think they’re wrong though. This kid’s got it together. I see him around town and he’s always got food in his hands. He knows how to work the system. Anyway, he walked in with my host family after church. So, what was I to do? I sang him his song and gave him a cookie. There were some other kids that came too. My host family gives them a tiny chore to do – like mop the front porch or coil up the hose – and then they get food. Since I’ve been in this village I’ve seen the decency of people more than I ever have: 28 year old drunkards with no future split their candy bars with street kids, the peace corps driver passes his newspaper on to the old man who always sits on the street corner, all of the grade tens (They weeded out all those who were older than grade 12. So now it’s just the nice mannered ones left. It’s turned into my favorite class.) walk me home because its sunset and similar such things. It makes me think that people are mostly good (I had never really decided before). Anyway, these kids all got a piece of the goat that was killed in the yard last night. The spinal column was on the menu today. I think this is a great system. It lets them get food but they’re not getting it for free. They come knowing they’re going to have to work for their food. It’s good because it gives them some dignity.
It’s really hot today (real hot. Not the average hot that it is every other day). But I braved the heat and came to school to work on my lessons for this week. But I brought my computer too. When I got here. I turned on some tunes. It’s been so long since I’ve heard American music out loud (not headphones). I missed it. Bad Mamma Jamma? Yes please. A little American Idiot? Alright. Some A Boy Named Sue? I could handle that. The combo of cookies, mac and cheese, some time to myself and my music at my volume (everything is always three times louder than necessary) made me feel human.
I’ve got exactly one week of CBT left. I think I can make it. I’ve finally decided on the reason I go through some of the hard things I do… when the lows are low, the highs are even better. For example, there’s a reason 3AM is the best time during finals week in college. It’s because you and your friends have gone crazy. That’s when the memories are made. During CBT, memories are made when all 9 Americans are fed up with their host families. They cram into their trainer’s tiny tiny living room, cut up one apple and candy bar with a Swiss Army knife and sit on the floor so no one can see white faces through the window. I laughed so hard I was crying. When the lows are low, the highs are high.
CBT isn’t that bad though. It’s just hard. Everything is permanently awkward. You’re always wrong… wrong way to wash clothes, cook, brush your teeth, go to bed, wake up, etc. Your host family knows exactly what you are doing at all times of the day. And American humor doesn’t fly most of the time in Namibia. The lows are low. The highs though, are bat boy, puppies, when your host dad finally chuckles at one of your jokes, trying to figure out your host family’s printer with your host brother and making him laugh at a spooler (if you know what a printer spooler is, let me know, because I hate them :] … ), having them name Chocolate chip cookies “Jessica’s specialty”, and getting invited to your learners’ soccer game. When the lows are low, the highs are high. That’s all I’m saying.
December 27, 2007
Here I am. Three more nights in this house. They just gave me ice cream and fruit. I should love them forever, no? Secretly, I am super duper looking forward to getting on with this process. On Sunday we go back to Okahandja to meet up with the rest of Nam 27. Then, on the 9th we have the swearing in ceremony and move to our permanent sites. It will be so nice to get to Khorixas because I won’t be living out of a suitcase anymore. I can cook for myself and clean for myself and shower when I want. But it will be kind of sad too because I’ll be away from some new friends (American and Namibian) and traveling to them is hard in this country.
CBT (Community Based Training) had a lot of ups and downs – I’ve covered those already. But things have been so nice since the whole family got back. They talk a lot about me, in front of me, in KK. But other than that things have been kind of relaxing… and surprisingly not awkward. We looked up horoscopes the other day. I translated phrases like “put your money where you mouth is” and “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”. We watched “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” on Christmas and spent a few hours going through my ipod. I still can’t fix the darn printer though. More people in the house means less attention on me – which I greatly appreciate. I’m just sad it couldn’t be this comfortable the whole time.
Christmas was really nice. I unwrapped some presents from home that came in the mail. Then, I made some cookies (bat boy showed up again. I swear he’s got a radar for food). I visited some friends and learners around the village then hung out at the house. It was actually a cold night too. So nice.
Wednesday and Thursday I gave finals for summer school. And tomorrow we’re handing out certificates. Tonight is the first night in awhile that I haven’t had anything to plan… I’m kind of lost and confused. I don’t remember free time. The Peace Corps has owned all of my time lately.
January 1, 2007
Ai. I don’t know if I can explain this past weekend without sounding completely crazy. Though, you have made it this far in my CBT ramblings. And I like you. I will try.
Friday morning was our last day of modal school. Some of the learners’ parents came to watch the certificates. Each of the grades (5-10) performed a song. Then we gave them their certificates. It was cute… and chaos… We took a whole school picture. I am sure I will post that at some point in time…. Someday when I have a lot of patience for Internet.
After the ceremony the other teachers and I were cleaning up the school. We had locked up all the classrooms and were about to go relieve the local store of all their cooldrinks. As some of the teachers were gathering things, I was standing waiting with another PCT in the schoolyard. Bat Boy was there. This was not a surprise. He came to almost every day of school and would sit in the yard waiting for food. I also found out from my host family that he is about 11, though he looks 7. This day he was cutting up a roll of tape. My PCT friend told him to stop because it was a perfectly good roll. This didn’t really fly because, well, he’s crazy and because he doesn’t speak English. I said that he had a knife (read: some sort of sharp object) and to not mess with him. My PCT friend thought this was sound advice and started walking away. In slow motion, I saw Bat Boy wind up to make a huge stabbing lunge at my PCT friend. Ai. I started screaming No. He stopped before he hit her. He thought the whole thing was hilarious. I was so angry. All the other teachers heard the screaming and came to see what was the matter. This only provided an audience for Bat Boy and he tried it again. This time he chose a poor target, though. One of our PCTs is from Chicago and she swore she would “beat him down” if he “weren’t a 6 year old”. We left the schoolyard quickly and a few of the grade ten boys were standing there. We asked them to ask Bat Boy to leave (this is where learning the local language would have come in handy). They went into the schoolyard, picked up Bat Boy, took his knife, carried him out of the schoolyard and told him to go. The whole situation is so absurd. It’s still a little surreal… and it kind of makes me laugh. We’re all fine. Don’t worry. I know to be more cautious of the one’s they tell me are not right in the head.
Friday night was birthday party for one of the PCTs. We made brownies and then walked up to the hill in town with the water tower. The view was gorgeous. Those pictures, I’m sure will make it to the Internet someday too. On the way home, the janitor at the school stopped me and asked me where I was coming from. He asked in KK… so I asked for a translation of the question. Then, I promised that I would have an answer in KK for him the next day (this usually works on ridiculous requests for anything. By tomorrow, they have usually moved onto another problem to solve). Anyway, I walked rest of the way home. When I walked in my host mother asked me in KK where I was coming from. I said the water tower and smiled at them all. Usually, they have to repeat a sentence in KK about 10 times and gesture a motion that indicates the word in order for me to understand. They were all so impressed that I didn’t want to give away my secret. Yet another absurd situation that made me laugh. I hope it made them more cautious about what they say in front of me… they never know what I’ll catch from their conversation… like my name. I always catch my name. Go figure.
Saturday morning we met at the secondary school’s home economics kitchen at 8:30 to cook for our host family appreciation dinner that night. We spent the day making American cookies (my job), baked beans (warmed in the can in the sun. Namibian sun is good for that), rice, chicken, sausage, American salad (the “American” just implies that mayonnaise was not involved) and punch. I think we did a really good job.
We started our party about 4:30pm. Each of the language groups got up and gave a speech in the language they are trying to learn. In the Bing, there were only two language groups. Mine was the KK group. There are three other girls that meet in my language class. The other 5 trainees in the Bing were learning Oshiherero. In our speech, we each said a line or two in KK. We had to apologize at the beginning for any mispronunciations. It is far too easy to swear in KK. If you forget to make a nasal sound instead of an alto sound… or if your tick sounds a little too much like a pop… you could suddenly offend someone’s mother. Then, when we finished our speech, we had our language trainer translate from KK to KK. The host families all laughed at this. Which was really good because it was a joke and they actually got my humor. Yippee.
After all our thank you speeches and we had passed out the obligatory certificates to the families, we served our dinner. Wow. That food got tackled. They like food here in Namibia. They like it a lot. And they like meat more. All that to say, our dinner went over well. It was actually a really fun party. And I think our host family felt appreciated.
Sunday morning a 40 passenger bus came to pick up the 9 of us. I don’t get it. But I did like the air conditioning, the free ride and four seats to myself. Saying goodbye to the host family was just like I was leaving for school in the morning. I will see my host mother and father at swearing in though. This is good because I left some pictures at their house and they will bring them to me at swearing in.
When we got back to Okahandja on Sunday we got to just hang out at our training center. This was so nice. I bought some cheese from Spar (my favorite Namibian grocery store. Only second to Super Spar). My PCT friend from Seattle got a package in the mail and didn’t want her Triscuits. I ate cheese and Triscuits and absolutely no meat for lunch. It was great.
Monday (New Year’s eve) we had a regular day of getting lectures from the Peace Corps on various topics. After it got closer to midnight, we had a little New Year’s Eve party in a dried riverbed nearby. An uneventful New Year’s Eve but it was good. At midnight, we had a hug circle and everyone got a hug from everyone else. Yet another absurd situation… I’m getting used to them, I think.
This morning, some of our group got up early and made an American breakfast for us and for our trainers (for a thank you to the trainers). They made pancakes, French toast, scrambled eggs, baked apple toppings and real coffee. It was so good. The trainers who were with us in the Bing kept joking that the eggs needed more mayo but I think they really liked the meal. I said next time we can make it an integrated American meal and put mayo and chopped up meat in the eggs then top it all with a little sprinkle of MSG (it comes in its pure form in a “spice” bottle here. Yum). The rest of today has been really chill. It’s been nice to recover from CBT. There was a poker tournament. I didn’t take part but I did laugh at the usage of “Deuce” “River” “Flop” and “Rainbow” (All worthy of a laugh, no? If you don’t think so maybe the movie “Lucky You” is for you). Then, we had a gift exchange. We drew names before CBT for secret pals. Today, we revealed who had and gave gifts. I got a bag of cookies and a candy bar from my secret pal. A trainer had me. I got my person lotion and some pens. It was fun. Also, we set up the Peace Corps’ projector to watch movies. Love Actually is playing right now. I can hear “All I want for Christmas is You” coming from the lawn. I just couldn’t sit in a big group anymore.
Well, I hope I don’t sound too crazy. It’s just one ridiculous situation after another. One minute you’re cutting up 400 Namibian Dollars worth of sausage for you host family and then you’re trying to explain to the trainers that not all Americans form hug circles on New Year’s eve and then you’re fending off a crazy child with a petrified bat and a knife… oh, gosh. Just know that I’m safe, clean, happy (when hysteria hasn’t taken over), well fed, too well fed, and did I mention well fed… More later, I’m sure. Love, J
Monday, December 3, 2007
Out And About
Hey all. I will be on my way out of our training town tomorrow for modal school (more about it below). I am going to a tiny village... I am really excited to teach math and science for a month but it is really remote. I will still have cell phone reception (in theory) which means I can still check my email and facebbook (in theory) if you need to get a hold of me (boy, I'm really roughin it). Otherwise, I'll see you and my blog about the same time as we all see 2008. Merry Merry Merry Christmas from the middle of the desert. I miss you all very much and I love getting news from home more than most things. Sorry if I haven't emailed back yet... its probably because I've read your letter at least 20 times by now and I am still enjoying reading it.
Love, Jes
December 1, 2007. World AIDS day.
On the 29th, it had been one month since I had left Oregon. In some ways it felt so much longer and in other ways I was still totally ignorant about this country. Since then, I have compiled a list of things that I have learned so far in my Peace Corps experience.
-Clothes can go a lot longer without being washed than previously thought.
-Points and stares are not discouraged by glaring back.
-Namibians can’t tell the difference between green and blue eyes.
-All white people look the same.
-Prices are sometimes marked N$4.99 or N$3.47… but a one cent piece does not exist,
so they have to round to the nearest five when they check you out.
-The point system, the one where you get points for hitting pedestrians, was
developed here. White people are worth the most.
-Fruit juice = sanity
-Ipods, or anything with headphones, are a gift from above… or dad. Either way, they’re invaluable.
-If you stand in one spot too long your flip-flops will melt to the pavement.
-Americans are very solitary people… we need alone time… Namibians do not.
-Roosters are from the devil.
-Nalgenes make good weapons.
-Mace is against Peace Corps policy.
-Your skin being seared off by the sun isn’t so bad as long as there’s a breeze.
-The speed limit is a suggestion including everything within +/- 100 KPH.
-Donkeys are edible.
-Mayonaise is a food group.
-70 Americans never agree on anything.
-Quakers are a mystery those who haven’t lived in Newberg. “…like the oatmeal?” is an acceptable response to a description of GFU.
-We’re all addicted to sugar and it’s not something to be ashamed of.
-Hysterical laughter is my coping mechanism… only after all the others have failed.
-Scabies only lasts 72 hours when not on a human.
-“our” is two syllables. So is “Clothes” (Ow-er and Clothe-es).
-HIV/AIDS is background music.
-“Now” means later and “now now” means now.
-The ABCs of AIDS: A is for Abstinance. B is for Being faithful. C is for Condoms. D is for Or Die… Have really run out of all other education tools…?
-Public trashcans are a great place to find new toys.
-Burn your trash.
-“Invigilate” is not a bad word… but it does mean you’re going to be bored for three hours.
-Peanut butter and jelly can be eaten for two weeks straight without too many side effects.
-Sunglasses are silly.
-Sweat patterns and farmers tans can be fashionable if you know how to wear them.
-Children make the best language coaches and translators.
Yesterday, we all traveled back to our training site from the sites where we were job shadowing. On Wednesday, we made decorations for the school Christmas assembly. All of the lower primary grades (1-4) came for a reading of the Christmas story. Then we painted their hands green so that they could press them on newspaper cut in the shape of Christmas trees. Then they all colored ornaments to hang on the trees. It was so cute but I am sure some of them had no idea what was going. Wednesday was also girls’ club. The Nam25er we shadowed made brownies for the girls. Then, Beth, the other 27 trainee at the site, taught the girls how to salsa dance. Salsa was the dance I was the worst at in Ballroom… but it all came back. I was sure the girls were going to be infinitely better than us but I was surprised at how confused they were. I do not think they had ever been exposed to any formal dance before. Thursday was the upper primary dance. Imagine middle school dances… The line separating the boys and girls exists in Namibia too - they we perfectly happy dancing on their respective sides of the cafeteria. The only thing that brought them together was the three Americans dancing in the middle. We taught them the electric slide, the running man, the dosie-doe, the shopping cart, swing dancing, the wave and the robot. It’s a little embarrassing getting schooled at your own dance moves by a 5th grader but I got over it pretty quickly. I attempted the waltz also but that was too much for them.
Friday, we got a ride with a German volunteer into Windhoek. Then we took a taxi to the taxi point… then we took another taxi to Okahanja… I don’t even know if I can describe taxis here. They are unique… smelly… crowded… but they are typically really nice cars. Anyway, getting back to our training center has been so nice. It is good to see familiar faces… ones that knew me in the US, if only for two days before we left. Today, we had a session in the morning about “modal” school (summer school in the month of December that will be our first official teaching experience in country). Modal school starts next week but our session this morning downgraded to mass expression of worry about spending Christmas with host families in the community. Sometimes we have trouble focusing. The Health workers spent the morning working with a World AIDS Day presentation at the grocery store. The rest of the day has been ours to recover and be alone together. I bought grapes and started another book. I put down “eclipse” after mercilessly being made fun of for reading about vampires… It wasn’t worth the fight. Plus, the book I’ve been waiting in line for was just finished… “Dark Star Safari” is the book we aren’t supposed to read while serving here. It is about the author’s travels to Africa but, according to rumor, turns into a call to remove all aid from Africa… personally, I think it will be a good motivator to start sustainable projects here instead of project that will crumble without volunteer support. I will let you know how the book turns out, though – I’m only on Chapter two.
Love, Jes
December 1, 2007. World AIDS day.
On the 29th, it had been one month since I had left Oregon. In some ways it felt so much longer and in other ways I was still totally ignorant about this country. Since then, I have compiled a list of things that I have learned so far in my Peace Corps experience.
-Clothes can go a lot longer without being washed than previously thought.
-Points and stares are not discouraged by glaring back.
-Namibians can’t tell the difference between green and blue eyes.
-All white people look the same.
-Prices are sometimes marked N$4.99 or N$3.47… but a one cent piece does not exist,
so they have to round to the nearest five when they check you out.
-The point system, the one where you get points for hitting pedestrians, was
developed here. White people are worth the most.
-Fruit juice = sanity
-Ipods, or anything with headphones, are a gift from above… or dad. Either way, they’re invaluable.
-If you stand in one spot too long your flip-flops will melt to the pavement.
-Americans are very solitary people… we need alone time… Namibians do not.
-Roosters are from the devil.
-Nalgenes make good weapons.
-Mace is against Peace Corps policy.
-Your skin being seared off by the sun isn’t so bad as long as there’s a breeze.
-The speed limit is a suggestion including everything within +/- 100 KPH.
-Donkeys are edible.
-Mayonaise is a food group.
-70 Americans never agree on anything.
-Quakers are a mystery those who haven’t lived in Newberg. “…like the oatmeal?” is an acceptable response to a description of GFU.
-We’re all addicted to sugar and it’s not something to be ashamed of.
-Hysterical laughter is my coping mechanism… only after all the others have failed.
-Scabies only lasts 72 hours when not on a human.
-“our” is two syllables. So is “Clothes” (Ow-er and Clothe-es).
-HIV/AIDS is background music.
-“Now” means later and “now now” means now.
-The ABCs of AIDS: A is for Abstinance. B is for Being faithful. C is for Condoms. D is for Or Die… Have really run out of all other education tools…?
-Public trashcans are a great place to find new toys.
-Burn your trash.
-“Invigilate” is not a bad word… but it does mean you’re going to be bored for three hours.
-Peanut butter and jelly can be eaten for two weeks straight without too many side effects.
-Sunglasses are silly.
-Sweat patterns and farmers tans can be fashionable if you know how to wear them.
-Children make the best language coaches and translators.
Yesterday, we all traveled back to our training site from the sites where we were job shadowing. On Wednesday, we made decorations for the school Christmas assembly. All of the lower primary grades (1-4) came for a reading of the Christmas story. Then we painted their hands green so that they could press them on newspaper cut in the shape of Christmas trees. Then they all colored ornaments to hang on the trees. It was so cute but I am sure some of them had no idea what was going. Wednesday was also girls’ club. The Nam25er we shadowed made brownies for the girls. Then, Beth, the other 27 trainee at the site, taught the girls how to salsa dance. Salsa was the dance I was the worst at in Ballroom… but it all came back. I was sure the girls were going to be infinitely better than us but I was surprised at how confused they were. I do not think they had ever been exposed to any formal dance before. Thursday was the upper primary dance. Imagine middle school dances… The line separating the boys and girls exists in Namibia too - they we perfectly happy dancing on their respective sides of the cafeteria. The only thing that brought them together was the three Americans dancing in the middle. We taught them the electric slide, the running man, the dosie-doe, the shopping cart, swing dancing, the wave and the robot. It’s a little embarrassing getting schooled at your own dance moves by a 5th grader but I got over it pretty quickly. I attempted the waltz also but that was too much for them.
Friday, we got a ride with a German volunteer into Windhoek. Then we took a taxi to the taxi point… then we took another taxi to Okahanja… I don’t even know if I can describe taxis here. They are unique… smelly… crowded… but they are typically really nice cars. Anyway, getting back to our training center has been so nice. It is good to see familiar faces… ones that knew me in the US, if only for two days before we left. Today, we had a session in the morning about “modal” school (summer school in the month of December that will be our first official teaching experience in country). Modal school starts next week but our session this morning downgraded to mass expression of worry about spending Christmas with host families in the community. Sometimes we have trouble focusing. The Health workers spent the morning working with a World AIDS Day presentation at the grocery store. The rest of the day has been ours to recover and be alone together. I bought grapes and started another book. I put down “eclipse” after mercilessly being made fun of for reading about vampires… It wasn’t worth the fight. Plus, the book I’ve been waiting in line for was just finished… “Dark Star Safari” is the book we aren’t supposed to read while serving here. It is about the author’s travels to Africa but, according to rumor, turns into a call to remove all aid from Africa… personally, I think it will be a good motivator to start sustainable projects here instead of project that will crumble without volunteer support. I will let you know how the book turns out, though – I’m only on Chapter two.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Happy Thanksgiving
November 22, 2007
Thanksgiving started out a little rocky. The night before, some stray dogs got in a west-side story brawl outside my flat. And then the roosters… oh, the roosters… The roosters and I are at war. Every home owns at least one. They start at 4:30am and continue until 7:00 or longer. This is to say, I have not gotten a complete night of sleep for a few days. When I arrived at school, my colleague who met me in Okahanja was joking about the culture shock the Peace Corps informed us of before we headed to our site. When she asked me how I was, I told her it was a major holiday in America and that I was a little sad. The word spread and I got happy thanksgiving wishes all day. Then, at the end of the day the teachers sang to me and gave me a thanksgiving/going away/see you next year card with $50 Namibian dollars. It was too much already… then, I got a hug from nearly every one of them.
I had a wonderful thanksgiving dinner at the tourist rest stop about 3km west of here. I had chicken, French fries, carrots, REAL coffee and guava juice. Real coffee was the kicker. They have a variety of instant coffee (all of which I am convinced do not have caffeine) and, maybe, if the grocery store is nice and wind is blowing the right direction they have one pack of ground coffee on the bottom self. I am still ok though because I’ve been rationing the pound of Stumptown I brought. I did not bring any for my two weeks of traveling around though. All that to say, I really enjoyed the coffee. The other Nam 27 trainee, our Norwegian SCORE friend and I celebrated Thanksgiving with about 8 black cats begging. Also, our VSO UK friend showed up later and offered us a ride home… Yes! My achin’ feet
Which smoothly brings me to my next point. I think I have redefined a “walk-able distance”. I have been staying on the far side of the location. It is about a 10-minute (maybe less) walk to town. My colleagues at the school are convinced I am crazy to walk this at any time of day, let alone in the heat… and to walk it everyday… for fun… unheard of. Today, I walked to town to refill my phone minutes, walked back to my flat, walked to the hospital, walked to town for internet, back to the hospital then 2-3k out of town for dinner. Oh, the comments I got. What can I say? “Miss Jessica must like the walking.”
I am a little wary to tell you of the flat that I am in as it is not mine. My coworker has been very generous to let me stay here and to put up with my American-ness. I will tell you about the other PCT’s flat though. She is staying in a dorm on the hospital grounds. Her flat used to be nurses’ housing. The ‘waiting room’ area is very nice-ish. The toilet room has a working toilet (amazing!) but the sink is filled with potpourri (it has not worked for awhile). The shower and bathtub work. The ‘kitchen’ does not have a sink… so they wash dishes, hands and teeth in the bathtub… but all this is perfectly fine with the mouse that lives in the corner.
There are many things that are going to take some patience. For instance, the water has gone out for the night… as well as the electricity. They go at unplanned intervals. Usually, it is not too much of a nuisance… unless, as in my case, the nalgene has gone dry, my teeth are dirty and I have to pack up to leave before sunrise tomorrow… All I have to say is, Thank God for headlamps and the fact that the PC will pay for all of my cavities for the next two years.
November 25, 2007
Drumroll, Please…And my permanent site: Khorixas (pronounced Core-e-haws). It is seriously the American old west. I expect there to be a cowboy walking by with spurs at any moment. Don’t be fooled though, the people are very African. It is the heart of Damara-land. There are many different tribes in Namibia… different races, some say. Tribal issues are raging in some cities. Windhoek has a different location for each tribe. They will not mix. Khorixas, though is mainly Damara. Which means two thing 1) There are not as many tribal conflicts and 2) they speak KhoeKhoe and LOTS of it. I am sure they would love for me to be fluent it their language. I only know because they told me… many times.
Town is two roads wide. They have a “Multi-Save” grocery store, a “PEP” everything store, a couple of bottle stores (alcohol), a post office (I have a box, I’ll get you that number soon), two tourist camps with pools, a private clinic, a bakery and approximately four Afrikaaner families (I only know from gossip). The location is huge… in my opinion. Three of the four primary schools are in the location. The hospital, small stores, soft serve ice cream, many bars, and a couple of take-away restaurants are in the location also. As I said before, I live on the far edge of the location, just before the squatter’s camp. The Donkerhoek is about 50 years old. A German volunteer came after independence and built a beautiful building to serve as a kindergarten. Land of contrast I am living in, it is placed right in the middle of the Donkerhoek. Are you kidding me? I suppose it goes with the beautiful youth center that no one really uses…
On Friday, Jill (the other NAM27 PCT in Khorixas. Her blog is called “sand in my shoes” But I don’t know the address) and I got a free ride from the hospital where she volunteers. They were picking up a nurse in Okahanja. The funny thing about rides here is that they are uncommon. So, when someone is driving a far distance they must have a full car… Jill and I were the second to be picked up. There was already a patient, I think, in the car. They we picked up three kids from the location and their electric piano. We ran a few errands in Khorixas before we headed out of town. We picked up another trainee in Outjo (the gateway to Etosha National Park) and dropped off one passenger. Then we traveled to Okahanja. We got a room at our retreat center. Oh, how amazing that retreat center was! Hot water! Flushing toilets! Pizza within a short walk!
Saturday morning we slept in… until 7. Sometime between 5 and 6 is the norm. We went to the bakery across from the taxi park for breakfast and another cup of real coffee. We all sat and stared with awe and fear at the taxi park. We couldn’t really figure out what was happening. Some taxis would pull up and honk and then the other drivers would swarm. We went back to the retreat center, got our bags, swallowed the lumps in our throats and walked out to the taxi stop. I was sure that three white girls with huge backpacks would cause some sort of swarm thinking they would be able to rip us off. When we walked around the corner, an older man said “Windhoek?” We said, “yup.” He said “hop in.” We said, “how much?” He said, “35.” The correct price is between N$35 and 45. It was so easy! We’ll see how often that happens again.
In Windhoek, I was getting dropped off at the Peace Corps office. I was there to meet a teacher from the NAM25 group. There is a lounge for the volunteers. It has fast free internet and a self full of books for us to borrow. Right now the selection is really good because group 25 is getting ready to go back to the states. There is also a self of stuff that wouldn’t fit in their suitcases. I got a lock for free. I also got a copy of the book Eclipse… Erin. The teacher I was meeting and I went to the mall to pass some time before the other trainee we were meeting arrived from her site. I got some Haviennas (sp?) flip flops and nail clippers. Sweet! There were a few other NAM25/27 groups getting together for a week of shadowing. We all went out to lunch together. It was a lot of fun.
I am currently at a school southwest of Windhoek. It is only a school. There’s literally nothing else here. The kids all stay in the hostel. There is a “college” across the street with 47 students. There they learn business skills mostly. It is beautiful here. The sunset and moon-rise last night were national geographic worthy. I can tell I would get a lot of reading done if this were my actual site. This is her last week here and all the kids are in national exams so I’m not really sure why I’m here to job shadow. It is a really nice time to chill and read though.
November 26, 2007
My “job shadow” has been going really well. Mostly we have been cooking (pizza, pancakes, apple pie) and watching season one of Lost. I had never watched consecutive episodes before but everyone is right, it is really addicting. We wanted to IMBD some questions we had about Hobbits and Polar Bears on tropical islands but, alas, it is luxury that is long gone.
The learners here are really great. We got to help some third graders with a Christmas craft project today. It was a lot of fun. During the reading of the Nativity story, it felt like I had just recently been sitting in a schoolhouse doing the same thing… Then it hit me! Christmas in July! Camp! Oh, gosh…
Yesterday, we walked about 7K to a “ghost” house. It was built by a rich German man before the World Wars. He lost his fortune in Germany and could never return. The furniture was looted and all the windows are gone but it is huge… and creepy. It reminded me of the Adam’s family.
That’s all for now. I am sure I will write later when I have actually done something note-worthy… unlike this post
:)
Thanksgiving started out a little rocky. The night before, some stray dogs got in a west-side story brawl outside my flat. And then the roosters… oh, the roosters… The roosters and I are at war. Every home owns at least one. They start at 4:30am and continue until 7:00 or longer. This is to say, I have not gotten a complete night of sleep for a few days. When I arrived at school, my colleague who met me in Okahanja was joking about the culture shock the Peace Corps informed us of before we headed to our site. When she asked me how I was, I told her it was a major holiday in America and that I was a little sad. The word spread and I got happy thanksgiving wishes all day. Then, at the end of the day the teachers sang to me and gave me a thanksgiving/going away/see you next year card with $50 Namibian dollars. It was too much already… then, I got a hug from nearly every one of them.
I had a wonderful thanksgiving dinner at the tourist rest stop about 3km west of here. I had chicken, French fries, carrots, REAL coffee and guava juice. Real coffee was the kicker. They have a variety of instant coffee (all of which I am convinced do not have caffeine) and, maybe, if the grocery store is nice and wind is blowing the right direction they have one pack of ground coffee on the bottom self. I am still ok though because I’ve been rationing the pound of Stumptown I brought. I did not bring any for my two weeks of traveling around though. All that to say, I really enjoyed the coffee. The other Nam 27 trainee, our Norwegian SCORE friend and I celebrated Thanksgiving with about 8 black cats begging. Also, our VSO UK friend showed up later and offered us a ride home… Yes! My achin’ feet
Which smoothly brings me to my next point. I think I have redefined a “walk-able distance”. I have been staying on the far side of the location. It is about a 10-minute (maybe less) walk to town. My colleagues at the school are convinced I am crazy to walk this at any time of day, let alone in the heat… and to walk it everyday… for fun… unheard of. Today, I walked to town to refill my phone minutes, walked back to my flat, walked to the hospital, walked to town for internet, back to the hospital then 2-3k out of town for dinner. Oh, the comments I got. What can I say? “Miss Jessica must like the walking.”
I am a little wary to tell you of the flat that I am in as it is not mine. My coworker has been very generous to let me stay here and to put up with my American-ness. I will tell you about the other PCT’s flat though. She is staying in a dorm on the hospital grounds. Her flat used to be nurses’ housing. The ‘waiting room’ area is very nice-ish. The toilet room has a working toilet (amazing!) but the sink is filled with potpourri (it has not worked for awhile). The shower and bathtub work. The ‘kitchen’ does not have a sink… so they wash dishes, hands and teeth in the bathtub… but all this is perfectly fine with the mouse that lives in the corner.
There are many things that are going to take some patience. For instance, the water has gone out for the night… as well as the electricity. They go at unplanned intervals. Usually, it is not too much of a nuisance… unless, as in my case, the nalgene has gone dry, my teeth are dirty and I have to pack up to leave before sunrise tomorrow… All I have to say is, Thank God for headlamps and the fact that the PC will pay for all of my cavities for the next two years.
November 25, 2007
Drumroll, Please…And my permanent site: Khorixas (pronounced Core-e-haws). It is seriously the American old west. I expect there to be a cowboy walking by with spurs at any moment. Don’t be fooled though, the people are very African. It is the heart of Damara-land. There are many different tribes in Namibia… different races, some say. Tribal issues are raging in some cities. Windhoek has a different location for each tribe. They will not mix. Khorixas, though is mainly Damara. Which means two thing 1) There are not as many tribal conflicts and 2) they speak KhoeKhoe and LOTS of it. I am sure they would love for me to be fluent it their language. I only know because they told me… many times.
Town is two roads wide. They have a “Multi-Save” grocery store, a “PEP” everything store, a couple of bottle stores (alcohol), a post office (I have a box, I’ll get you that number soon), two tourist camps with pools, a private clinic, a bakery and approximately four Afrikaaner families (I only know from gossip). The location is huge… in my opinion. Three of the four primary schools are in the location. The hospital, small stores, soft serve ice cream, many bars, and a couple of take-away restaurants are in the location also. As I said before, I live on the far edge of the location, just before the squatter’s camp. The Donkerhoek is about 50 years old. A German volunteer came after independence and built a beautiful building to serve as a kindergarten. Land of contrast I am living in, it is placed right in the middle of the Donkerhoek. Are you kidding me? I suppose it goes with the beautiful youth center that no one really uses…
On Friday, Jill (the other NAM27 PCT in Khorixas. Her blog is called “sand in my shoes” But I don’t know the address) and I got a free ride from the hospital where she volunteers. They were picking up a nurse in Okahanja. The funny thing about rides here is that they are uncommon. So, when someone is driving a far distance they must have a full car… Jill and I were the second to be picked up. There was already a patient, I think, in the car. They we picked up three kids from the location and their electric piano. We ran a few errands in Khorixas before we headed out of town. We picked up another trainee in Outjo (the gateway to Etosha National Park) and dropped off one passenger. Then we traveled to Okahanja. We got a room at our retreat center. Oh, how amazing that retreat center was! Hot water! Flushing toilets! Pizza within a short walk!
Saturday morning we slept in… until 7. Sometime between 5 and 6 is the norm. We went to the bakery across from the taxi park for breakfast and another cup of real coffee. We all sat and stared with awe and fear at the taxi park. We couldn’t really figure out what was happening. Some taxis would pull up and honk and then the other drivers would swarm. We went back to the retreat center, got our bags, swallowed the lumps in our throats and walked out to the taxi stop. I was sure that three white girls with huge backpacks would cause some sort of swarm thinking they would be able to rip us off. When we walked around the corner, an older man said “Windhoek?” We said, “yup.” He said “hop in.” We said, “how much?” He said, “35.” The correct price is between N$35 and 45. It was so easy! We’ll see how often that happens again.
In Windhoek, I was getting dropped off at the Peace Corps office. I was there to meet a teacher from the NAM25 group. There is a lounge for the volunteers. It has fast free internet and a self full of books for us to borrow. Right now the selection is really good because group 25 is getting ready to go back to the states. There is also a self of stuff that wouldn’t fit in their suitcases. I got a lock for free. I also got a copy of the book Eclipse… Erin. The teacher I was meeting and I went to the mall to pass some time before the other trainee we were meeting arrived from her site. I got some Haviennas (sp?) flip flops and nail clippers. Sweet! There were a few other NAM25/27 groups getting together for a week of shadowing. We all went out to lunch together. It was a lot of fun.
I am currently at a school southwest of Windhoek. It is only a school. There’s literally nothing else here. The kids all stay in the hostel. There is a “college” across the street with 47 students. There they learn business skills mostly. It is beautiful here. The sunset and moon-rise last night were national geographic worthy. I can tell I would get a lot of reading done if this were my actual site. This is her last week here and all the kids are in national exams so I’m not really sure why I’m here to job shadow. It is a really nice time to chill and read though.
November 26, 2007
My “job shadow” has been going really well. Mostly we have been cooking (pizza, pancakes, apple pie) and watching season one of Lost. I had never watched consecutive episodes before but everyone is right, it is really addicting. We wanted to IMBD some questions we had about Hobbits and Polar Bears on tropical islands but, alas, it is luxury that is long gone.
The learners here are really great. We got to help some third graders with a Christmas craft project today. It was a lot of fun. During the reading of the Nativity story, it felt like I had just recently been sitting in a schoolhouse doing the same thing… Then it hit me! Christmas in July! Camp! Oh, gosh…
Yesterday, we walked about 7K to a “ghost” house. It was built by a rich German man before the World Wars. He lost his fortune in Germany and could never return. The furniture was looted and all the windows are gone but it is huge… and creepy. It reminded me of the Adam’s family.
That’s all for now. I am sure I will write later when I have actually done something note-worthy… unlike this post
:)
Monday, November 19, 2007
"Miss Jessica"...from everyone
November 16, 2007
I woke up really homesick this morning. Luckily it is a beautiful morning with a nice breeze and strawberry jam with breakfast. During training we are staying at a retreat center associated with a church. I laughed when we first got here because I traveled so far and ended up at another retreat center… Tilikum, anyone? It is very nice here. They have a hibiscus garden and all of the rooms open into the central courtyard. We eat every meal outside in the courtyard. It’s also kind of like our living room (at night it reminds me of the Penn lobby). At first, we were convinced they were making and feeding us American food with a few variations to get us used to the country’s food. Since then we found out that we are getting average fare for the Namibian: Eggs, bread and peanut butter for every breakfast. The peanut butter they use it a brand called “Yum Yum” and quickly became one of our favorite phrases. Lunch and dinner are any combinations of meat (not white or lean), pasta, mayonnaise and, if we’re lucky, vegetables. It was hard to switch between a simple sugar diet (sweets, fruits, coffee drinks) to a complex carbs and fat diet. I’ve gotten over the worst of the sugar cravings… maybe…
Today, we have language training and classroom management sessions in the mornings. Then, after lunch, we find out sites for the next two years and have a session on transportation. Site announcements are the nervous energy this morning.
November 17, 2007
Well, I found out my site yesterday. After a long (bitter)(unorganized) day of lecture and language training we got to the good stuff. They took us out into the parking lot where they had made a huge map of Namibia. Each township or village had a brick in its spot on the map. They called our names one by one as we walked to our bricks. By the time they got to my name most of the map was full and people were wandering all over Namibia to see where their friends had ended up… No one told me not to tell where my site is… and I haven’t heard it was against any PC policy… but I’ll hold off on it for now.
When I got to my brick I was handed a letter. It was from the previous volunteer in the city. As I was reading my letter another current PCV offered a few tips about the area and the people there. It was so great to finally get some real information! I am in the same area as another volunteer who is working in health. She is very nice and I am looking forward to getting to know her a little better. Some of my “really good friends” (if that possible after two and a half weeks) are about three hours away or less. Three hours is relatively close in this country. The country is so vast and only has 2 million people. I have heard you can drive for hours and not see a soul.
I will be teaching grade 5-7 natural science at a primary school (1-7). The school has 600+ learners and 20 teachers. It is a hostel school but I still find it difficult to believe they put grade 1-3 in the hostel. It’s just so young! I was brushing my teeth this morning in the bathroom and was wearing a teal skirt with a ruffle at the bottom. The ruffle made me giggle seeing how I am not a ruffle person… then it came to me… I am an elementary school teacher! I can wear ruffles, and sweaters with apples on it, and sensible shoes and it’s all perfectly acceptable! This is the life! Graduate and, job.
Today supervisors traveled from all over the country to attend a workshop. We all met in the main hall at the training center. They called out areas and the supervisor and trainee would spot each other from across the room. My supervisor is very nice. It was really good to talk to her about the area and the school. Tomorrow, she is picking me up at the training center and we will travel to the city. Then, I get to spend a week at my site. More later.
November 19, 2007
I arrived at my site yesterday. It was about a four hour drive but we did stop at the Super Spar for groceries. There are groceries at my site but they are more expensive and have fewer options. When I got dropped off at my site all of the girls from the hostel were standing out side to sing “Welcome Jessica Welcome.” It was very cute but also very awkward so I started greeting every one of them. Greeting is very very very very important here. Hey you, at GFU, if you’re coming to visit, you need to get over not wanting to ask, “how are you?” without meaning it. “How are you?” “I am fine. Thank you. And how are you?” “I am fine, thank you.” Is unarguably required for every conversation. It has taken a lot of getting used to and I am sure that I have offended some already. Anyway, my colleagues asked if I would greet every child at the school. I said “Maybe…”
I am currently staying in a flat with one of my colleagues who teacher grade one. She is very nice and very relaxed so I feel at home. She leaves her door open all the time and there is a constant stream of little girls meandering through…. Sometimes stopping to stare at me.
Today, I met with the staff at the school. They also sang for me. Every morning there is an assembly out front of the school with all of the learners (Namlish (Namibian English) for student). They sang the Namibian national anthem (Check. I knew it.) and then introduced me. I had to say a few words so that they could hear my voice. It is so hard to speak to anyone here because I have to talk sooo slowly. My accent is very funny so I have to pronounce each word with a pause in front and behind it. It is very tiring sometimes even just to speak. I told the students hello and that I was very excited to be at their school.
I met the acting principal after that. The school’s principal passed away this September and my supervisor has been acting as principal since. She is very nice and it is a relief to talk with her. Her husband runs a tourist camp and her daughter lived in America for a while so she understands me a little faster. It sounds like they also have my best interest in mind – another huge relief at this point. They are really excited for me to be here also. It is nice but also a little intimidating. They are asking for a lot of help and I am not sure if I can do all of it in two years.
There is a donkerhoek (squatters camp) a stones throw away from the school. A lot of the learners come from the camp. This makes it very difficult because they do not have light or good roofs to do homework at night or in the rain. The school has a program that feeds the students at tea break though (funded by a foreign organization). The dynamic will prove interesting I am sure.
More later on my site. I am missing home very much right now. That said, I am loving what I am doing here. There have been many questions about home. They do not understand the everything is green concept. I have a phone. If you want the number you can ask my parents for it. I have an internet café in my town. So email is relatively accessible - though it is slow and more expensive than normal.
Alright, the other trainee in my town is waiting for me to finish this so we can go to the café. Lots and lots of love, J
I woke up really homesick this morning. Luckily it is a beautiful morning with a nice breeze and strawberry jam with breakfast. During training we are staying at a retreat center associated with a church. I laughed when we first got here because I traveled so far and ended up at another retreat center… Tilikum, anyone? It is very nice here. They have a hibiscus garden and all of the rooms open into the central courtyard. We eat every meal outside in the courtyard. It’s also kind of like our living room (at night it reminds me of the Penn lobby). At first, we were convinced they were making and feeding us American food with a few variations to get us used to the country’s food. Since then we found out that we are getting average fare for the Namibian: Eggs, bread and peanut butter for every breakfast. The peanut butter they use it a brand called “Yum Yum” and quickly became one of our favorite phrases. Lunch and dinner are any combinations of meat (not white or lean), pasta, mayonnaise and, if we’re lucky, vegetables. It was hard to switch between a simple sugar diet (sweets, fruits, coffee drinks) to a complex carbs and fat diet. I’ve gotten over the worst of the sugar cravings… maybe…
Today, we have language training and classroom management sessions in the mornings. Then, after lunch, we find out sites for the next two years and have a session on transportation. Site announcements are the nervous energy this morning.
November 17, 2007
Well, I found out my site yesterday. After a long (bitter)(unorganized) day of lecture and language training we got to the good stuff. They took us out into the parking lot where they had made a huge map of Namibia. Each township or village had a brick in its spot on the map. They called our names one by one as we walked to our bricks. By the time they got to my name most of the map was full and people were wandering all over Namibia to see where their friends had ended up… No one told me not to tell where my site is… and I haven’t heard it was against any PC policy… but I’ll hold off on it for now.
When I got to my brick I was handed a letter. It was from the previous volunteer in the city. As I was reading my letter another current PCV offered a few tips about the area and the people there. It was so great to finally get some real information! I am in the same area as another volunteer who is working in health. She is very nice and I am looking forward to getting to know her a little better. Some of my “really good friends” (if that possible after two and a half weeks) are about three hours away or less. Three hours is relatively close in this country. The country is so vast and only has 2 million people. I have heard you can drive for hours and not see a soul.
I will be teaching grade 5-7 natural science at a primary school (1-7). The school has 600+ learners and 20 teachers. It is a hostel school but I still find it difficult to believe they put grade 1-3 in the hostel. It’s just so young! I was brushing my teeth this morning in the bathroom and was wearing a teal skirt with a ruffle at the bottom. The ruffle made me giggle seeing how I am not a ruffle person… then it came to me… I am an elementary school teacher! I can wear ruffles, and sweaters with apples on it, and sensible shoes and it’s all perfectly acceptable! This is the life! Graduate and, job.
Today supervisors traveled from all over the country to attend a workshop. We all met in the main hall at the training center. They called out areas and the supervisor and trainee would spot each other from across the room. My supervisor is very nice. It was really good to talk to her about the area and the school. Tomorrow, she is picking me up at the training center and we will travel to the city. Then, I get to spend a week at my site. More later.
November 19, 2007
I arrived at my site yesterday. It was about a four hour drive but we did stop at the Super Spar for groceries. There are groceries at my site but they are more expensive and have fewer options. When I got dropped off at my site all of the girls from the hostel were standing out side to sing “Welcome Jessica Welcome.” It was very cute but also very awkward so I started greeting every one of them. Greeting is very very very very important here. Hey you, at GFU, if you’re coming to visit, you need to get over not wanting to ask, “how are you?” without meaning it. “How are you?” “I am fine. Thank you. And how are you?” “I am fine, thank you.” Is unarguably required for every conversation. It has taken a lot of getting used to and I am sure that I have offended some already. Anyway, my colleagues asked if I would greet every child at the school. I said “Maybe…”
I am currently staying in a flat with one of my colleagues who teacher grade one. She is very nice and very relaxed so I feel at home. She leaves her door open all the time and there is a constant stream of little girls meandering through…. Sometimes stopping to stare at me.
Today, I met with the staff at the school. They also sang for me. Every morning there is an assembly out front of the school with all of the learners (Namlish (Namibian English) for student). They sang the Namibian national anthem (Check. I knew it.) and then introduced me. I had to say a few words so that they could hear my voice. It is so hard to speak to anyone here because I have to talk sooo slowly. My accent is very funny so I have to pronounce each word with a pause in front and behind it. It is very tiring sometimes even just to speak. I told the students hello and that I was very excited to be at their school.
I met the acting principal after that. The school’s principal passed away this September and my supervisor has been acting as principal since. She is very nice and it is a relief to talk with her. Her husband runs a tourist camp and her daughter lived in America for a while so she understands me a little faster. It sounds like they also have my best interest in mind – another huge relief at this point. They are really excited for me to be here also. It is nice but also a little intimidating. They are asking for a lot of help and I am not sure if I can do all of it in two years.
There is a donkerhoek (squatters camp) a stones throw away from the school. A lot of the learners come from the camp. This makes it very difficult because they do not have light or good roofs to do homework at night or in the rain. The school has a program that feeds the students at tea break though (funded by a foreign organization). The dynamic will prove interesting I am sure.
More later on my site. I am missing home very much right now. That said, I am loving what I am doing here. There have been many questions about home. They do not understand the everything is green concept. I have a phone. If you want the number you can ask my parents for it. I have an internet café in my town. So email is relatively accessible - though it is slow and more expensive than normal.
Alright, the other trainee in my town is waiting for me to finish this so we can go to the café. Lots and lots of love, J
Monday, November 12, 2007
Ek es Skol Jevrou
They opened the cafe late for us tonight! More thoughts from me below (I didn't spell check them). And in response to the comments: chump change is a common phrase meaning no big deal. The lab is a pretty exciting place also - I had a conversation about fractional distillation with a science teacher here yesterday (they are missing labs here). And I miss sugar so much I eat it any time I can - I think I will not give up a chance if one presents itself in december... sorry.
November 8, 2007
Yesterday I found out that I was going to be learning Khoe Khoe Gowab (sounds like koi koi go baa). It is a clicking language. There are four different clicks. Then, on top of the clicks, each vowel has a low, high and nasal pronunciation. Today was my first language lesson. It was so fun to click, cluck and tsk. I can only make three out of four of the clicks right now but I find myself practicing them everywhere. Not all of the words in the language have clicks, however, those that do are meaningless without a click. Our trainer says that the conjugation is similar to Spanish. I do not know if I will make it as far as conjugating something, though.
November 9, 2007
Second lessons of KhoeKhoe today! It didn’t go as well as the first. Apparently, clicking is a skill you can loose overnight. It is just such a different noise you have to completely retrain your mouth. Honestly, I got a little frustrated today. Our lesson was on the various different combinations of goats that were possible. You may ask, “How many different combinations could there be?” Well, since you asked… I will just let you know that there are separate words for the following combination of goats: one male goat, one female goat, two male goats, two female goats, three or more male goats, three or more female goats, one baby goat, two baby goats and three or more baby goats. Obviously, this raises the question “what if we don’t know the sex of a goat when it hops over our fence? What do you call it then?” As it turns out, you can just remember the word for one male goat and get by in everyday life. This is where I discovered my silly American need to accomplish something in a class. All was solved a little later when I got to practice my KK conversation. Everyone around town, especially the little kids, love to listen us try. Mostly, the kids get a kick out of it but its fun to see them laugh.
Not everyone in my training group is learning KhoeKhoe. On Wednesday, we found out which language we would be learning. Each language is spoken in certain regions of Namibia. This gives us all clues to our final site assignment. However, we do not know our assignments until next week Friday. KK is spoken in many regions that are south of the Red Line (the area north of the line is the area Namibians fled while SA was in control). Other languages provide more clues than mine. For instance, those learning Silozi will be in the Caprivi Strip. Silozi has some similarities to Swahili so I like to eavesdrop in their group. Other trainees are learning one of the following languages: Oshiwambo, Otjiherero, Rukwangali, Thibukushu and Afrikaans. We all got basic Afrikaans lessons as well because it is the “second official language after English.”
Last night, I had the opportunity to hear a church choir practice. They sang in KK. It was beautiful! They insisted that we dance and sing with them. After we danced, they all sat down and it was our turn to perform. There were only about 10 of us there but finding a song to sing between us was difficult. I suggested “You ain’t nothin but a hound dog” but it was shot down in lieu of “Tula Pele” (a Namibian song we’ve been learning – those are the only two words in it). Thinking we were safe, they surprised us with a request for our national anthem. Oh gosh, ten people was not enough for those high notes but we made it through. Then, they insisted that we sing their national anthem as well. So, we sang the Namibian anthem also. Seeing how we have spent a week in this country, have learned two songs, their anthem and have spent time working on two of their languages, I thought that we had done a fair job. However, the choir had to stifle some laughs at us. I think that is something I will have to get used to. I know that I laugh at cultural misunderstandings but I think they are funnier when I actually know what was funny…
The church choir was in the location. The location can be found on the outside edges of the township. It is where the black people live. The middle of a township is know as “town” and it is where the whites live/lived. This is the way it was way back when but those expectations still exist. Some townships are only locations and some have many locations with a town in the center. It is an interesting idea and really different from our inner-city/suburb dynamic in America.
There is not much else to report these days. We have one more week this school type setting before we can experience more of the country through site visits, job shadows and host families.
I loved receiving some emails the last time I was at the Internet café. The line was so long I only had time to post a blog and download the emails onto a USB drive. Next week I will post this and send out my replies.
I hope that November rain is beautiful and cold. I hope that some of you are wearing fake Target Uhgs and I hope that you had a great cup of coffee today.
Very much love, Jessica
November 12, 2007
Yesterday, I got a chance to go to a church in the location. The service had started at least an hour before we got there. The church had huge windows in the back and as we pulled up it was almost a face off between the 15 volunteers and this huge congregation. The entire service was stopped for the MC to come out and greet us. Then he had us follow him to the front of the church. They cleared out the front two rows of pews for us to sit in. The old women who were sitting there were banished to the steps of the stage. This was done to keyboard music with a canned beat. The whole process was vaguely reminiscent of a Monty Python sketch. The service was held in four languages. English was the least used. Lucky one of our trainers was present and translated the message. The rest of the service we were on our own. The MC paused the service half way through to address us in English. He told us that even though we didn’t understand everything we belonged. He said that we were brothers and sisters simply because we shared a roof. Then, as becoming our custom, we all introduced ourselves and sang the Star Spangled Banner (just the PC group… on stage… for everyone). Why does our anthem have to be so hard to sing?
Saturday was also an interesting day. Lunch was all traditionally cooked. We killed chickens, ate goat face and liver, roasted peanuts, and made fat cakes. It would have been fun but I could only handle being outside for little bits at a time. The increasing summer heat has been getting to me these past few days. I can do what I normally do but lingering in the sun causes a lot of nausea. You may think it was the goat face but it wasn’t… it was the heat. Despite the heat, I did get to discover that fat cakes are where it’s at. The name may make you shy away but I am sure they have less fat in them than donuts.
Khoe Khoe lessons today were really fun. First, we accidentally learned a bad word. We were practicing a two-syllable word and kept pausing on the second syllable. Our teacher was obviously agitated about it. He finally educated us to the meaning of the second syllable on its own. Now I say that word as quickly as I can. Then, we learned how to say “Where are you from?” This phrase it fun for two reasons: One, because it doesn’t have any clicks and, two, because it sounds like an evil laugh. “Maba xu du ra ta ha?” Also, we got to learn yes and no. Yes is “i” (put it in the nose and say e) (I can’t find the nasal symbol on the computer). No is “hi-i” (put it in the nose and say e-e). The squeaking was making me laugh so much that I started crying.
This afternoon I need to work on getting a cell phone. Cell phones are very common in Namibia. Hopefully my cell phone will also act as a modem for my computer. I do not expect to have service and internet access totally set up for awhile. I will make sure to let you all know as soon as I have a number though.
I think that this will be my last post for about three weeks. I am leaving our training town to visit my permanent site next week. Then, straight from there, I am going to shadow another volunteer. I am unsure of internet access for those two weeks. If I get a chance to write I will. Otherwise, I will not be back in this town until the end of my shadow.
I love hearing stories from home! Please send them! I know it requires patience to get a reply but they make the world smaller. I heard a story about my cat yesterday from my dad and it was great.
Ok. I’ve got to go break the Namibian banking secret code to buy this phone. Wish me luck!
November 8, 2007
Yesterday I found out that I was going to be learning Khoe Khoe Gowab (sounds like koi koi go baa). It is a clicking language. There are four different clicks. Then, on top of the clicks, each vowel has a low, high and nasal pronunciation. Today was my first language lesson. It was so fun to click, cluck and tsk. I can only make three out of four of the clicks right now but I find myself practicing them everywhere. Not all of the words in the language have clicks, however, those that do are meaningless without a click. Our trainer says that the conjugation is similar to Spanish. I do not know if I will make it as far as conjugating something, though.
November 9, 2007
Second lessons of KhoeKhoe today! It didn’t go as well as the first. Apparently, clicking is a skill you can loose overnight. It is just such a different noise you have to completely retrain your mouth. Honestly, I got a little frustrated today. Our lesson was on the various different combinations of goats that were possible. You may ask, “How many different combinations could there be?” Well, since you asked… I will just let you know that there are separate words for the following combination of goats: one male goat, one female goat, two male goats, two female goats, three or more male goats, three or more female goats, one baby goat, two baby goats and three or more baby goats. Obviously, this raises the question “what if we don’t know the sex of a goat when it hops over our fence? What do you call it then?” As it turns out, you can just remember the word for one male goat and get by in everyday life. This is where I discovered my silly American need to accomplish something in a class. All was solved a little later when I got to practice my KK conversation. Everyone around town, especially the little kids, love to listen us try. Mostly, the kids get a kick out of it but its fun to see them laugh.
Not everyone in my training group is learning KhoeKhoe. On Wednesday, we found out which language we would be learning. Each language is spoken in certain regions of Namibia. This gives us all clues to our final site assignment. However, we do not know our assignments until next week Friday. KK is spoken in many regions that are south of the Red Line (the area north of the line is the area Namibians fled while SA was in control). Other languages provide more clues than mine. For instance, those learning Silozi will be in the Caprivi Strip. Silozi has some similarities to Swahili so I like to eavesdrop in their group. Other trainees are learning one of the following languages: Oshiwambo, Otjiherero, Rukwangali, Thibukushu and Afrikaans. We all got basic Afrikaans lessons as well because it is the “second official language after English.”
Last night, I had the opportunity to hear a church choir practice. They sang in KK. It was beautiful! They insisted that we dance and sing with them. After we danced, they all sat down and it was our turn to perform. There were only about 10 of us there but finding a song to sing between us was difficult. I suggested “You ain’t nothin but a hound dog” but it was shot down in lieu of “Tula Pele” (a Namibian song we’ve been learning – those are the only two words in it). Thinking we were safe, they surprised us with a request for our national anthem. Oh gosh, ten people was not enough for those high notes but we made it through. Then, they insisted that we sing their national anthem as well. So, we sang the Namibian anthem also. Seeing how we have spent a week in this country, have learned two songs, their anthem and have spent time working on two of their languages, I thought that we had done a fair job. However, the choir had to stifle some laughs at us. I think that is something I will have to get used to. I know that I laugh at cultural misunderstandings but I think they are funnier when I actually know what was funny…
The church choir was in the location. The location can be found on the outside edges of the township. It is where the black people live. The middle of a township is know as “town” and it is where the whites live/lived. This is the way it was way back when but those expectations still exist. Some townships are only locations and some have many locations with a town in the center. It is an interesting idea and really different from our inner-city/suburb dynamic in America.
There is not much else to report these days. We have one more week this school type setting before we can experience more of the country through site visits, job shadows and host families.
I loved receiving some emails the last time I was at the Internet café. The line was so long I only had time to post a blog and download the emails onto a USB drive. Next week I will post this and send out my replies.
I hope that November rain is beautiful and cold. I hope that some of you are wearing fake Target Uhgs and I hope that you had a great cup of coffee today.
Very much love, Jessica
November 12, 2007
Yesterday, I got a chance to go to a church in the location. The service had started at least an hour before we got there. The church had huge windows in the back and as we pulled up it was almost a face off between the 15 volunteers and this huge congregation. The entire service was stopped for the MC to come out and greet us. Then he had us follow him to the front of the church. They cleared out the front two rows of pews for us to sit in. The old women who were sitting there were banished to the steps of the stage. This was done to keyboard music with a canned beat. The whole process was vaguely reminiscent of a Monty Python sketch. The service was held in four languages. English was the least used. Lucky one of our trainers was present and translated the message. The rest of the service we were on our own. The MC paused the service half way through to address us in English. He told us that even though we didn’t understand everything we belonged. He said that we were brothers and sisters simply because we shared a roof. Then, as becoming our custom, we all introduced ourselves and sang the Star Spangled Banner (just the PC group… on stage… for everyone). Why does our anthem have to be so hard to sing?
Saturday was also an interesting day. Lunch was all traditionally cooked. We killed chickens, ate goat face and liver, roasted peanuts, and made fat cakes. It would have been fun but I could only handle being outside for little bits at a time. The increasing summer heat has been getting to me these past few days. I can do what I normally do but lingering in the sun causes a lot of nausea. You may think it was the goat face but it wasn’t… it was the heat. Despite the heat, I did get to discover that fat cakes are where it’s at. The name may make you shy away but I am sure they have less fat in them than donuts.
Khoe Khoe lessons today were really fun. First, we accidentally learned a bad word. We were practicing a two-syllable word and kept pausing on the second syllable. Our teacher was obviously agitated about it. He finally educated us to the meaning of the second syllable on its own. Now I say that word as quickly as I can. Then, we learned how to say “Where are you from?” This phrase it fun for two reasons: One, because it doesn’t have any clicks and, two, because it sounds like an evil laugh. “Maba xu du ra ta ha?” Also, we got to learn yes and no. Yes is “i” (put it in the nose and say e) (I can’t find the nasal symbol on the computer). No is “hi-i” (put it in the nose and say e-e). The squeaking was making me laugh so much that I started crying.
This afternoon I need to work on getting a cell phone. Cell phones are very common in Namibia. Hopefully my cell phone will also act as a modem for my computer. I do not expect to have service and internet access totally set up for awhile. I will make sure to let you all know as soon as I have a number though.
I think that this will be my last post for about three weeks. I am leaving our training town to visit my permanent site next week. Then, straight from there, I am going to shadow another volunteer. I am unsure of internet access for those two weeks. If I get a chance to write I will. Otherwise, I will not be back in this town until the end of my shadow.
I love hearing stories from home! Please send them! I know it requires patience to get a reply but they make the world smaller. I heard a story about my cat yesterday from my dad and it was great.
Ok. I’ve got to go break the Namibian banking secret code to buy this phone. Wish me luck!
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
I Found It!
I found the internet cafe! I found Namibia! It is hard to get time on the computers but here are some of my thoughts for the past few days:
October 29, 2007
Today was the first official day of “Staging” in Washington DC. This is a time for the Peace Corps to collect our final paper work and prepare us physically and mentally to go to Namibia. For such a monumental task they allot two days. The information is mostly common sense but it is really nice to be able to talk through a lot of things. We compared anxieties, aspirations and the most common goodbye line. It is a great mix of people though. We come from all over the country (70 total with 4 from Oregon and 3 from Washington!) and various backgrounds. For instance, we had to order Aloha pizza tonight instead of Hawaiian. I find it intriguing though that all this will be ‘chump change’ in a few days and we will find more in common in Namibia than we would in the States.
I did take the opportunity to check out the memorials and Smithsonian this morning during my free time. It was great to get to see some of the sights. Though, Dad, they do look just like the pictures. But now I have my own… J
I am missing everyone back home very much. Every so often I have to swallow a huge lump in my throat. The only solution is to think about getting to Africa. I am so excited for this opportunity! All of the pictures, videos and stories from Namibia they’re using for preparation are only making me more excited!
Another update to come!
11-3-07
Last night we made it to Namibia. We left our hotel in Washington D.C. at 5:30 on Wednesday morning. After a few inoculations (none for me, thanks to junior’s abroad), we headed to the airport. The flight to “Jo’burg” was 15 hours and 30 minutes. It was intense! But, thankfully, there were a lot of people to get to know and visit with. We spent Thursday night in Joburg. The hotel was very nice and very welcome sight for some smelly, jet-lagged Americans. Also, in South Africa we met our Associated PC Country Director. He was very nice and, as I was soon to find out, the most informative person in the PC thus far.
The flight to Windhoek (Vind-hook, for the natives, and Wind-hook for us) was only 2 hours long. Sitting in the window seat was a great opportunity to take in some incredible views. It was mostly bush (imagine Arizona-ish) but there were some great “mountains” (Oregonians would call them hills). When we landed in the airport, about 20 of us discovered that the airline just simply didn’t send our bags with us. There were only two who didn’t receive either of their two bags. I was lucky to get one of my bags. It was the bag with coffee, sharpies, sweatpants, one shirt, a sleeping bag, host gifts, and shoes. The other bag has all of my other clothes. The airline assured us that the bags would arrive that night or Saturday. I was a little skeptical. Those doubts of mine were reaffirmed today, when we got a second assurance that they would arrive today or Sunday. Despite the downer, I found myself and most of the other trainees in up-beat moods about the whole situation.
After filling out papers in the airport for our luggage, I walked around the corner to the bus to find a huge Namibian flag and about 20 white people shouting at me. They were representatives of all the volunteers currently serving in Namibia. Just talking to them briefly, I was a little jealous. They had already gone through all the hard things that I still have to figure out.
We boarded the buses and drove 45 minutes into Windhoek and 45 minutes out of town to our training site. When we arrived our trainers were standing out front singing loudly in all the different languages of Namibia. They continued to sing as we all got off the buses and walked behind us, singing us into the training center. It was an awesome reception. They ended their singing by singing the Namibian national anthem. Then they requested our group to sing our national anthem. There are 70 of us but I was sure that would not be enough to hide my voice. Luckily, our trainers hummed along with us. It could have been the hours of flying, being on the wrong side of the world or the Mefloquine but I got a little teary. We had a quick dinner, a few impromptu “goodnight” language lessons, washed some clothes (my only clothes) and hopped in bed for a long night of staring at the ceiling.
Today has felt like we have been in country for at least a week. The day was a little hard. The trainers gave us a lot of logistic information for our post. We also got a chance to learn about the school system. It was very very interesting considering we had little to no information through the whole process thus far. Nam 27 is the largest group. This is because we are implementing a new plan by the ministry of education. Also, the Caprivi Strip is now a safe place to send volunteers and about eight of our group will be heading to that tiny piece of land. Also, we learned that our group will be teaching mostly upper primary, grades 5-7. We met with a 2nd year PCV science teacher who alleviated some of our fears and may have created a few more. Overall, it seems like every situation will have it’s own challenges and reward. As we were reminded several times today, “this is the toughest job you’ll ever love”!
Tomorrow, the science teacher trainees are meeting to discuss site situations. I have to make a lot of decisions about what I would prefer in the way of town size, grade level and location of my future site. I know I can’t post this until a little later, but I could use some prayer. I have a lot of choices in the next 24 hours.
Much love, Jessica
November 6, 2007
Well, I flew out of Portland a week and two days ago but it might as well have been a month or so. I just want to give you a few quotes from our past few days of training that made me giggle:
“Don’t buy that fish … you might be buying yourself a coffin” –during a lecture on cooking and proper food preparation
“If you don’t lay down the rules from the beginning two years will be long time” –briefing on future classroom conduct. It’s really only funny with an African accent, I guess…
“We like to call shots candy. Please, report to room two for your rabies candy.” –trainer (I’m not immune to rabies yet. I need two more shots… ahem, candies. But being one-third immune makes you way more aware of stray dogs.)
“You say Quesha quesha quesha quesha and you send out a compliment” – trainer
“Wasn’t it wok-a wok-a wok-a wok-a…?” – us, later in town.
The Peace Corps is very good at allowing us time to adjust to the country. We have many Namibian trainers who were hired to teach us language, provide medical care and take care of logistics in general. They have spent a lot of time introducing us to the culture, politics, money, health information, songs, jokes, games and the many languages of Namibia. It has been so much fun to talk with them and learn about their country.
For instance, I spent a long time talking with Entertaining Ed (we all had to attach adjectives to our names to make them easier to remember. I was “Just”). I heard all about growing up in Namibia during the fight for independence. For those of you who don’t know (IFY), Namibia was occupied by South Africa. Namibia formed the South West Africa Peoples Organization (SWAPO). SWAPO and most of the population fled to the North and a little into Angola. SWAPO fought down from the North and eventually won their independence in 1990. I also got to learn about business in Namibia, Fishing, mining (Namdeb – for Namibia DeBere’s. I am unsure of spelling), and cattle are all big. We talked a bit about the fishing towns Swakopmund (Swa - coop – moon – d) and Oranjamund (Or – aun – g – moon – d). Oranjamund is in Namibia but you can only access it from South Africa. The government is working on building a road right now. “Mund” means “mouth of…” so Swakopmund means “the mouth of the Swakop River.”
They also have different words for river. One means a year ‘round river and the other refers to one that only runs for part of the year. Anyway, all that to say it has been really fun to learn about a new country. So far, the things I have heard make me very excited to see more of the country.
In fact, we were getting antsy about seeing more so a group of us climbed up a rocky hill nearby. It was really great to get some exercise after a long time in the training center. It was so beautiful at the top… and huge! It went on forever. The sky was awesome.
Overall, training has been very educational, a little too much at times (see: AIDS video), but mostly fun. Nam 27 has its quirks… but overall, they are a great group. They are so supportive of each other. When we had lost our bags (mine came late Saturday night) everyone was willing to share. It’s amazing what being on the other side of the world will do to strangers.
So, basically, all this means it that you all are going to have to visit me!
1) Because I miss you all very much and think of you often:
Mom: I saw tear art in the hills
Dad: The whole river conversation
Dan: I met and African Razor back that gave me some medicinal doggy slobber
Tilikum staff: I got Nam 27 trying to snap their fingers the “correct way”
… who am I kidding, too many to list here
and 2) because Namibia sounding pretty amazing!
Much love, Jessica
October 29, 2007
Today was the first official day of “Staging” in Washington DC. This is a time for the Peace Corps to collect our final paper work and prepare us physically and mentally to go to Namibia. For such a monumental task they allot two days. The information is mostly common sense but it is really nice to be able to talk through a lot of things. We compared anxieties, aspirations and the most common goodbye line. It is a great mix of people though. We come from all over the country (70 total with 4 from Oregon and 3 from Washington!) and various backgrounds. For instance, we had to order Aloha pizza tonight instead of Hawaiian. I find it intriguing though that all this will be ‘chump change’ in a few days and we will find more in common in Namibia than we would in the States.
I did take the opportunity to check out the memorials and Smithsonian this morning during my free time. It was great to get to see some of the sights. Though, Dad, they do look just like the pictures. But now I have my own… J
I am missing everyone back home very much. Every so often I have to swallow a huge lump in my throat. The only solution is to think about getting to Africa. I am so excited for this opportunity! All of the pictures, videos and stories from Namibia they’re using for preparation are only making me more excited!
Another update to come!
11-3-07
Last night we made it to Namibia. We left our hotel in Washington D.C. at 5:30 on Wednesday morning. After a few inoculations (none for me, thanks to junior’s abroad), we headed to the airport. The flight to “Jo’burg” was 15 hours and 30 minutes. It was intense! But, thankfully, there were a lot of people to get to know and visit with. We spent Thursday night in Joburg. The hotel was very nice and very welcome sight for some smelly, jet-lagged Americans. Also, in South Africa we met our Associated PC Country Director. He was very nice and, as I was soon to find out, the most informative person in the PC thus far.
The flight to Windhoek (Vind-hook, for the natives, and Wind-hook for us) was only 2 hours long. Sitting in the window seat was a great opportunity to take in some incredible views. It was mostly bush (imagine Arizona-ish) but there were some great “mountains” (Oregonians would call them hills). When we landed in the airport, about 20 of us discovered that the airline just simply didn’t send our bags with us. There were only two who didn’t receive either of their two bags. I was lucky to get one of my bags. It was the bag with coffee, sharpies, sweatpants, one shirt, a sleeping bag, host gifts, and shoes. The other bag has all of my other clothes. The airline assured us that the bags would arrive that night or Saturday. I was a little skeptical. Those doubts of mine were reaffirmed today, when we got a second assurance that they would arrive today or Sunday. Despite the downer, I found myself and most of the other trainees in up-beat moods about the whole situation.
After filling out papers in the airport for our luggage, I walked around the corner to the bus to find a huge Namibian flag and about 20 white people shouting at me. They were representatives of all the volunteers currently serving in Namibia. Just talking to them briefly, I was a little jealous. They had already gone through all the hard things that I still have to figure out.
We boarded the buses and drove 45 minutes into Windhoek and 45 minutes out of town to our training site. When we arrived our trainers were standing out front singing loudly in all the different languages of Namibia. They continued to sing as we all got off the buses and walked behind us, singing us into the training center. It was an awesome reception. They ended their singing by singing the Namibian national anthem. Then they requested our group to sing our national anthem. There are 70 of us but I was sure that would not be enough to hide my voice. Luckily, our trainers hummed along with us. It could have been the hours of flying, being on the wrong side of the world or the Mefloquine but I got a little teary. We had a quick dinner, a few impromptu “goodnight” language lessons, washed some clothes (my only clothes) and hopped in bed for a long night of staring at the ceiling.
Today has felt like we have been in country for at least a week. The day was a little hard. The trainers gave us a lot of logistic information for our post. We also got a chance to learn about the school system. It was very very interesting considering we had little to no information through the whole process thus far. Nam 27 is the largest group. This is because we are implementing a new plan by the ministry of education. Also, the Caprivi Strip is now a safe place to send volunteers and about eight of our group will be heading to that tiny piece of land. Also, we learned that our group will be teaching mostly upper primary, grades 5-7. We met with a 2nd year PCV science teacher who alleviated some of our fears and may have created a few more. Overall, it seems like every situation will have it’s own challenges and reward. As we were reminded several times today, “this is the toughest job you’ll ever love”!
Tomorrow, the science teacher trainees are meeting to discuss site situations. I have to make a lot of decisions about what I would prefer in the way of town size, grade level and location of my future site. I know I can’t post this until a little later, but I could use some prayer. I have a lot of choices in the next 24 hours.
Much love, Jessica
November 6, 2007
Well, I flew out of Portland a week and two days ago but it might as well have been a month or so. I just want to give you a few quotes from our past few days of training that made me giggle:
“Don’t buy that fish … you might be buying yourself a coffin” –during a lecture on cooking and proper food preparation
“If you don’t lay down the rules from the beginning two years will be long time” –briefing on future classroom conduct. It’s really only funny with an African accent, I guess…
“We like to call shots candy. Please, report to room two for your rabies candy.” –trainer (I’m not immune to rabies yet. I need two more shots… ahem, candies. But being one-third immune makes you way more aware of stray dogs.)
“You say Quesha quesha quesha quesha and you send out a compliment” – trainer
“Wasn’t it wok-a wok-a wok-a wok-a…?” – us, later in town.
The Peace Corps is very good at allowing us time to adjust to the country. We have many Namibian trainers who were hired to teach us language, provide medical care and take care of logistics in general. They have spent a lot of time introducing us to the culture, politics, money, health information, songs, jokes, games and the many languages of Namibia. It has been so much fun to talk with them and learn about their country.
For instance, I spent a long time talking with Entertaining Ed (we all had to attach adjectives to our names to make them easier to remember. I was “Just”). I heard all about growing up in Namibia during the fight for independence. For those of you who don’t know (IFY), Namibia was occupied by South Africa. Namibia formed the South West Africa Peoples Organization (SWAPO). SWAPO and most of the population fled to the North and a little into Angola. SWAPO fought down from the North and eventually won their independence in 1990. I also got to learn about business in Namibia, Fishing, mining (Namdeb – for Namibia DeBere’s. I am unsure of spelling), and cattle are all big. We talked a bit about the fishing towns Swakopmund (Swa - coop – moon – d) and Oranjamund (Or – aun – g – moon – d). Oranjamund is in Namibia but you can only access it from South Africa. The government is working on building a road right now. “Mund” means “mouth of…” so Swakopmund means “the mouth of the Swakop River.”
They also have different words for river. One means a year ‘round river and the other refers to one that only runs for part of the year. Anyway, all that to say it has been really fun to learn about a new country. So far, the things I have heard make me very excited to see more of the country.
In fact, we were getting antsy about seeing more so a group of us climbed up a rocky hill nearby. It was really great to get some exercise after a long time in the training center. It was so beautiful at the top… and huge! It went on forever. The sky was awesome.
Overall, training has been very educational, a little too much at times (see: AIDS video), but mostly fun. Nam 27 has its quirks… but overall, they are a great group. They are so supportive of each other. When we had lost our bags (mine came late Saturday night) everyone was willing to share. It’s amazing what being on the other side of the world will do to strangers.
So, basically, all this means it that you all are going to have to visit me!
1) Because I miss you all very much and think of you often:
Mom: I saw tear art in the hills
Dad: The whole river conversation
Dan: I met and African Razor back that gave me some medicinal doggy slobber
Tilikum staff: I got Nam 27 trying to snap their fingers the “correct way”
… who am I kidding, too many to list here
and 2) because Namibia sounding pretty amazing!
Much love, Jessica
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