The Real Beginning
Thankfully, PST has come and gone and will never be back
again! I am so thankful to have this training portion of Peace Corps Service
over! I do miss seeing my friends on a
daily basis; but we will soon be reunited at the beginning of December for our
ReConnect conference in Windhoek. The
last week or so of training was incredibly hectic, saying goodbye to the host
families, spending time with the other trainees, studying for my Silozi
(language) exam, packing up all my supplies and mentally preparing to adjust
(again) to a new living environment.
Lindsay, Celme, Rosemary(Language Teacher), Janine, Matt
"The Caprivians"
The swearing in ceremony was held in the town of Okahandja.
It was held at the conference center/hostel where we stayed for a few nights
when we first arrived in Namibia back in July!
The Country Director, Gilbert Collins, the Deputy US Ambassador, and
Namibian Education officials were in attendance. A youth choir sang some African songs and we
sang some songs we had been practicing.
I actually tried to record the singing and also all the volunteers as a
group saying our oath. I hope when I am
able to access fast Internet I will be able to upload those videos to you
tube. Overall, it was a special day,
although I did not have much time to reflect on the magnitude of what it means
to now be a real Peace Corps Volunteer.
The ceremony ended with a light reception, many brief goodbyes, and
Matt, Janine, Celme and myself loaded up the combie (15 passenger van) with all our belongings for
two years and set off for the North. The
principals from our respective schools made the journey to attend the ceremony
and were driving us to Caprivi! To give
you an idea of the size of Namibia, I’m now as far from Windhoek (the capital)
as I was from Port Huron while I was living in North Carolina. We were squeezed into the combie with very
little air conditioning, but it gave us a taste of what traveling throughout
Namibia is like. There are really no
buses, just public transport combies that drive from city to city. Luckily, we did not make the journey in one
day. Peace Corps paid for us to stay in
a nice lodge in Rundu, one of the major cities in the North. Here is an excerpt of what I wrote that first
night in Rundu!
September 20,
2012
Sitting
at a lodge in Rundu with the Kavongo River and Angola outside the front door. Reflecting on the special occasion of Sept.
20. A date with relevancy equivalent to
that of my birthday. I feel really
really really proud of myself today!! A
“no- frills” ceremony had plenty of meaning behind it. Things came full circle when my Country
Director read a poem about Peace Corps service written (by chance) by my
recruiter, Meliah. I feel a lot of
anticipation and wonder of what the next 2 years will be and who I will
become. A few volunteers who are closing
their service at the end of this year were in attendance. I wonder what I will feel like when it’s my
turn to watch a new batch of volunteers being sworn in. I am part of a small and unique population of
Americans; I feel pretty special.
The second part of our journey began on Friday morning. We headed to Katima Mulilo. This is the major city of my region,
Caprivi. Celme is the volunteer who will
be living in town because her school is located on the outskirts. Since the region is fairly small is area,
many people commute to and from Katima everyday. For instance, my principal and his family
live in town but have a farm and cattle in the village areas. My school is a village school with grades k-10,
one class of each grade. If learners
pass Grade 10 they may continue on to grades 11 & 12, but would have to pay
school fees to go and live at a senior secondary school in a hostel.
Anyway, all four of us stayed the weekend in Katima and did
some shopping, cooking, and resting.
Celme’s house has been deemed “the palace”. It is a huge compound set up like an
apartment with 4 bedrooms and very large common rooms: kitchen, living room,
laundry, and courtyard. This house is
owned by the Ministry of Education and her principal arranged for her to stay
there. Right now there are two VSO
volunteers living there who also work for the Ministry. Monica is from Uganda and is working in
HIV/AIDS education and Joseph is teaching Technology and is from Kenya. However, they will not be there for too much
longer because VSO (volunteer service organization) is pulling out of Namibia
next year because the World Bank has classified Namibia as a middle-income
country; although, the disparity of wealth in Namibia is the highest in the
world. So go figure. Anyway, Celme’s house will be a great place
to crash on weekends and holidays when I need a dose of “town life.” Also, many other volunteers throughout
Namibia will come through Katima on the way to Victoria Falls. We are approximately 2 hours away.
I, on the other hand, am living “hut life.” I’ve already
posted on my blog the picture of my soon to be hut. Right now I am living in a nearby hut with a
tin roof. I have a host family that has
been very welcoming to me and I walk over to their huts for meals usually once
a day. The diet consists of porridge
(corn meal) usually river fish or some type of red meat, and some green veggies
that are similar to collard greens/cooked spinach. It is not terrible and I don’t enjoy eating
it. Food is only meant for sustenance
here. I am looking forward to cooking
for myself and trying to experiment with limited ingredients. I will write again later about “a day in the
life of Lindsay” once I am more settled in here. Right now, I am not officially teaching,
although I might help out with a few English classes. I have been siting around the staff room,
observing other teacher’s classes, and reading.
This is the portion of service deemed “phase 2.” It is meant to be a transition
phase. I am pretty bored, but do not
have a lot of energy to hit the ground running either. I’m still adjusting to the heat! I won’t have a full schedule until 1st
term begins in January. It will be some
combination of science and math classes, although I probably won’t find out for
sure until January :o) TIA (this is
Africa.)
Well I’m going to go heat some water for a bath. I take bucket baths outside in the privacy of
my lapa (fence made of reeds.) THANK
GOODNESS aunt Karen and Uncle Dave loaned me their solar shower! Otherwise, washing my hair would be a huge challenge!
Here is my new mailing address:
Lindsay O’Dell, PCV
PO Box 2236 Ngweze
Katima Mulilo, Namibia
This weekend, I was shopping and spending time in Katima. Luckily, Celme and I found a nice internet cafe today with fairly high speed internet. We purchased milkshakes and are relaxing and browsing. There is a good possibility that when I come to town on the weekends, I'll be able to Skype with everyone! In the village I get very basic internet, usually just enough kbps to check my email from gmail. I'm very relieved that I decent internet accessibility. Maybe I can upgrade my posts to twice a month!!
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