Site Visit & More

Well I've been in Namibia for about 1 month and I like to say that I am currently living the luxury Peace Corps life.  The Central and Southern regions of Namibia are well developed with decent infrastructure, large cities, internet cafes, and other ammenties.  It is not readily apparent that we are living in Africa.  In the nice town of Okahandja we are going through Preservice Training (PST).  Language, safety, cross-cultural are the main topics, and sessions are usually interesting.  However, PST is also very draining because of long days and lots of information.  Also, on a positive note, I'm pleased to report that my host family here in Okahandja is awesome, couldn't have asked for better!!

Needless to say traveling to our permanent sites for a week was a much needed break from PST.  I am placed at Kanono Combined School in the Caprivi Region (far northeast corner of Namibia).  I am located ~50km from the large city of Katima Mulilo.  My school is located on a paved road and I have reliable internet access!! Here is a picture of my hut!  Unfortunately, I do not have electricity inside my hut, but I do have a gas stove and fridge. The school has electricity via generator.  My hut is located on the school grounds with other teacher huts.  I have 4 other volunteers who are all a n hour away from me or less.  My school (Kanono) is fairly small with pretty nice facilities.  There is one class of learners for each grade 1-10 for a grand total of 325 learners.  All of the staff seems friendly. 

To travel back to the training site of Okahandja we took a tourist charter bus overnight.  The trip was about 12 hours with stops.  On the way back to Katima from the village we were surprised by a family of elephants crossing the road!! It was so surreal!! 

I must say, I will soon be living in a pretty amazing place!