And Now Namibia!

Hello from Namibia! I am happy to say that I have finally made it here and I already love it. Just merely flying into South Africa those of us awake were able to witness probably the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen. Since I was not sitting on that side of the plane I do not have a personal picture to share with everyone so you are just going to have to trust what my tired eyes witnessed in my sleepy state. The orange African sun beginning to bring the electric blue sky into the pitch black of space is something I don’t think any artist could give justice to.  But then again, it might have been my over exhaustion and over excitement. Anyway, speaking of over excitement, let me just put it out there that a 5 hour layover in South Africa almost destroyed my wallet and any weight limit I was already slightly over. Everything I have never seen before from necklaces to dresses to serving spoons and pillows, I wanted to buy it all. It was then that I had to remind myself that I would be living here for two years probably about 10 times so expect cool souvenirs ;)

Anyway, NAMIBIA! We embarked off the plane right into the beautiful crisp clean winter air of Windhoek. It felt like a warm spring day so like perfect and the sun was warm and there were palm trees. I instantly knew I was in a good place. It took a while for the 40 of us to get through immigration so once that was completed and all the bags were accounted for the rest of the airport was cleaned out except for the near parade route of Peace Corps staff, current Peace Corps Volunteers and whoever else may have wanted to cheer for a bunch of stinky Americans after their 36 hour travel.  We were greeted with a traditional fried dough treat which was essentially a doughnut and some juice which mind you was not the apple/grape/orange/fruit punch like in the states they also threw in mango, guava, and some other color no one really knew. Of course we inhaled it.

A majority of the group has taken on the mentality that we never know when our next meal is so when food is presented we eat it all without question so far though we have been fed really well and for some of us this whole “Peace Corps diet” thing we thought was going to happen, has not yet. Please stay tuned for the starvation chronicles.

While were on the subject of food, I am sure everyone is curios what weird food I have had to eat in the past week. The answer: nothing weird, just delicious. Maybe they are just easing us into it but while every meal is meat based with a carb and a vegetable it is generally really tasteful. The vegetable might be a slice of cucumber and tomato but everything at the hostel place so far has been homemade (because we literally watch them make it outside of our room door). The meat always tastes good, we were served hot dogs for breakfast with our toast and fried egg. I could totally get used to hot dogs. The only down side right now is no fresh fruit and the coffee is instant. I made the mistake of listening to the suggestion of only two baby scoops in my cup and I drank coffee flavored water which I desperately needed more of soon after while falling asleep during a session.

So now you are probably wondering what I am doing all day. I wish I could tell you that I am taming wild animals and enriching the minds of all the Namibian students that I have but actually right now we are going through intense medical, security, cultural, and diversity training. All these efforts are to ensure that we will be able to be the best Peace Corps Volunteer we can be while at our site further away from everything. So for example, the doctors want us to call at any hour of the day in the event of an emergency, however a broken condom is not an emergency. Okay but seriously it is useful stuff and we have an awesome medical kit that we get to take with us. I feel like I can be a certified doctor with all the medical material I have (not really though)…. Other sessions on security informed us of the most common crimes such as theft and burglary, how to prevent them, and what to do in the event that it does happen (We call security man Joey).

Oooohhh let me talk about the weather. First of all, its winter here and let me tell you this is the best winter I have ever had. It drops to like 30 at night so its like freezing and the sun goes down at about 6pm and then in the morning its slightly chilly like a cool spring morning and then it gets HOT well not like Africa in summer hot but like 70 hot so in like 4 hours the temperature jumps like 30 degrees and its crazy and I love it. Can you tell I kinda love it? Its just perfect here. I’ll describe more later but that is about it in a nut shell. 

I made it to Africa!

I finally made it to Africa!! Greetings from Johannesburg, however by the time you probably read this I’ll be in Namibia. It has been a super long travel experience as I have only been asleep for a total of 6 or 7 hours since Sunday morning and it is now Wednesday. Combinations of nerves, excitement, early wake ups, and cramped airlines do not make for a restful experience. At least not for me, there are some lucky people who were able to sleep for a full 8 hours. So while sitting in an airport for the next few hours with no internet, phone, or energy for that matter, I figured I would let you all know what was up with what I will be doing over the next few weeks, months, and years.

            To begin with, for those that may not know I joined the Peace Corps after graduating from MSU with a degree in International Relations and Comparative Cultures and Politics. There are a number of reasons why I wanted to do this ranging from it being an item on the bucket list to not wanting to find a real life job to wanted to expand my experience and resume. What it boils down to is that it is something I have always wanted to do, knew I would eventually in my life, and now seems like the most perfect time. I don’t have a house, or a car, or a job, or a kid, or a pet, or a boyfriend to take care of so why not move half way around the world and live in a hut right? (We’ll get to the hut part.)

            I applied in November and now a short 8 months later here I am! My application process went pretty fast actually, there are many people who applied over a year or so ago so I got pretty lucky. After qualifying to be in the education sector teaching English I was placed in the country Namibia and here I am! I will be an secondary upper primary English teacher (English is their official language so I will not be teaching ABC’s per say) and that’s about all I know….. Seriously. When I arrive at the training center in Okahandja (an hour or so north of the capital Windhoek) I will be placed in an language group, taught the language, go through technical training, and briefing on health and security for the next three months. After that hopefully I will be sworn in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer and my two year service begins.

            The tricky part of all this is that I am left in the dark about most of the conditions that I will be living in for the next two years. In other words, I know for the first week I will be staying in a hostel with the rest of the Peace Corps Trainees but after those first six nights I move in with host family number 1 and that could be anywhere. Well, it will be in the city but it could be in a traditional home (i.e. what you may call a hut) or a more modern home (i.e. concrete walls). Electricity and running water might be hit or miss and internet will most likely be a no. SO there are many surprises coming my way to say the least and I am sure you will all be on your toes jut as much as I am. J

New Adventures! (In Blogging and Traveling)

As the final two weeks of my time in the US quickly coming to a close I figured it would be best to spend some of the time that I am laying in bed enjoying the comforts of a full size mattress with extremely comfortable sheets to learning how to work a blog. A task like this is slightly daunting since I have never really been one to journal, let alone write my daily occurrences for the world (or just my family and friends-but hey you never know) to read nor have I ever personalized/designed a web page (at least not since the MySpace days where you would spend hours trying to figure out between which two <>  to put a code to change a color of something).

Please anticipate that this will undoubtedly be a humorous blog however I will try my best to include as much about what I am doing and where I am living as possible. I personally wouldn't want to read a blog that detailed the timestamps of every activity I did each day so chances are I couldn't write one either. Have no fear, I will divulge any detail anyone may want to know from the time I wake up each morning to how many trips to the bathroom I take to what I see every day on my trek to work. Mostly though, this will be filled with my experiences because I am anticipating there will be many awkward, embarrassing, hilarious moments that can only come from a blonde-haired, blue-eyed white girl living in Africa as well as many eye-opening experiences, life lessons, and touching moments that I couldn't help but share with everyone I know. So lets begin:

For those who may not know this African Safari that I am referencing will actually be my service time with the Peace Corps in Namibia. For the next two and a half years I will be living somewhere in the country and teaching secondary English. English is their official language so I will not be teaching ABC's but rather more of the grammar stuff that I havent learned (or should have learned) since high school. On top of being a teacher for the next two years I will also take on a secondary project which will be something community based that I will determine once I start. This could be something like working on a library, organizing a women's group, starting a sports team, literally anything. So thats what I will be doing in a nut shell. Prior to that though I will be in intense training for the next three months where I will learn one of the languages of Namibia, learn about health, safety and security, and live with a host family. Training will be in a city called Okahandja which from the looks of GoogleMaps is a small city with a train station, some small markets, a cafe, a bank, and a football field (which remember is actually soccer). Everything a girl could ask for right? After that I move to my permanent location which is completely unknown to me. I could find myself in any situation imaginable from a house to myself with running water, electricity, and a view of the ocean to a thatched hut on a family homestead where my host momma will cook me food over an open fire everyday. I'm putting money on the latter that I end up in the middle of the desert because that will provide not only the most humorous experience but also the most memorable and noteworthy, not only to me but to those who may read this as well. So we are going to see how posting this first post goes and let the rest of the adventure begin :)