Happy Independence Day

So, I realize it’s been awhile since my last post. Sometimes my life just doesn’t seem interesting enough to write about for the world to read. For the past couple of weeks I have been running KAYEC by myself while my counterpart was in the hospital and recovery from an operation. That was definitely an interesting experience. The kids have mostly been great, though. They have been planning a fundraising event to bring in more money for KAYEC. They want to host a movie night and charge a minimal fee for entrance. I’ll keep you updated on their efforts.

Mostly my days are actually pretty boring at this point in time. I don’t have any other projects except KAYEC right now. So I usually just hang out with the kids and help them with their homework (this week was adding and subtracting decimals). The highlight has usually been eating dinner with my site mate, Nicole. I would probably starve to death without her. We have a lot of fun attempting to make Mexican food with Namibian ingredients. Sometimes we fail. Sometimes we don’t.

Some other random but interesting things that have happened since my last update:

I got bitten by a dog.

I did not get rabies from the dog.

My Ipod was stolen.

My camera was stolen.

My Kindle was stolen.

I had my first stomach virus. And yes, It was awful. I still cannot eat meat. Don’t ask.

My Kindle was returned with little to no damage. There was a short video and some notifications that the Elvis songs the kid tried to download could not be completed.

My camera was returned (without me ever realizing it was missing and without batteries)

My Ipod was returned dead with no headphones.

(these things were all returned thanks to the detective skills of my amazing Namibian counterpart and the Namibian police department. Chasing of the perp was involved in the collection of these items. And yes, I did sing the COPS theme song as I ran)

I moved into my new place. It’s absolutely wonderful. One day I will post pictures, I promise.

Well that’s it for this post.

Until next time,

Happy Independence Day America. You are missed. 

KAYEC

            So far I LOVE the NGO (Non-Government Organization) that I will be working with for the next two years in Namibia. KAYEC (Katutura Youth Enterprise Centre) is an after school organization for children between the ages of 12 and 18. These kids are absolutely amazing. Every day they are faced with so many hardships, and yet they are still striving to do better in school and become leaders. It’s completely humbling to just sit and watch an older member voluntarily teach the younger members to read or to watch all of the children come together and facilitate an entire program for the community by themselves. Having worked with children of this age group and socio-economic level in both America and Namibia, it is definitely interesting to note the vast differences distinguishing the children between the two cultures. I cannot wait to set up a pen pal system with these children and a 4^th grade class in America. The cultural exchange will be amazing to see.

            Since starting at KAYEC I have personally facilitated two trainings with the children. One consisted of a fact or myth game aimed at teaching the kids about sexual and reproductive health and the other was a leadership training. I was genuinely surprised at my own ability to explain the different aspects of sexual and reproductive health to a group of middle school aged children from a different culture, whose preferred language is not English in a manner that they would understand it. The leadership training went extremely well, also. However, explaining the different types of leadership proved to be quite a challenge. They simply could not decipher the meanings between Democratic, Authoritative, and Laissez-faire leadership styles. There’s only so many ways I can break the information down, but in the end I think they understood it…. I think. Seeing as how all of these children are already leaders in so many ways, the rest of the training was a breeze.

In closing, I will leave you with some pictures and a video of the children I’m lucky enough to work with everyday J

Late Update!

So, a lot has happened since my last post (sorry). Life has been hectic recently and finding the time/internet connection to update is not always easy. So here’s an update on my life J

Site Visit: I visited my permanent site! I was advised not to put my precise location on my blog so talk to me if you don’t know where I am and would like to know more! I can say that I am in a pretty good sized town. I have a shopping store, post office and a few restaurants easily accessible. It’s somewhat a tourist town so it’s very pretty. I was NOT expecting to have so many amenities this easily available. I have electricity AND hot water available to me. Most of the streets in town are paved. Once you leave town and go to the less lucrative parts of the area (called the location) the streets are no longer paved and are either dirt or gravel. For my first couple of weeks I will be living in the location with a host family. After I get to know the community somewhat I will move in town. I have a site mate named Nicole. She is a volunteer with Peace Corps and has been in my community for a year already. She volunteers at the community hospital and she’s absolutely lovely. My after school youth group meets in the location everyday around two. I will spend a large portion of time tutoring these kids in Math and English (Yikes!). I will also teach them about HIV/AIDS and prevention when able. While in this community I will also pick up secondary projects. These will include working with any community organization/group to better the community that is not my primary assignment with the after school group.  

Language:  So language has been an extreme difficulty for me. There are two other volunteers in my group learning Khoekhoegowab and I have been having the most difficulty. My issue has been that I can read it just fine; I simply cannot speak it, nor do I understand when it is spoken to me. I have asked my instructor for extra lessons, but time is limited. We took a mid Pre-Service Training (PST) Language Proficiency Interview (LPI) and I scored Novice Medium. The levels are as follows (Novice Low, Novice Medium, Novice High, Intermediate Low, Intermediate Medium, and Intermediate High). In order to pass as required by Peace Corps Namibia, I need to score Intermediate Low. This means I need to raise my score two whole levels. The interview is strictly in your target language (Khoekhoegowab) and consists of the interviewer asking questions about your life in America, family, life in Namibia, host family, etc. In order to achieve Intermediate Low you must complete a role play in the target language (eeek!). Well, I recently took the last LPI… I have no idea how this happened but I passed! I even did the role play. I almost kissed my instructor! I was so proud! I answered almost every question 

Swearing in: Earlier this week I was sworn in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV). My swearing in ceremony was held in Windhoek and the Prime Minister was invited. This means it was somewhat of a big deal. I wore a traditional Damaran (one of the tribes that speak Khoekhoegowab) dress. My host mom in Okahandja had the dress made especially for me to wear to swearing in. Our swearing in was later on NBC (Namibian Broadcasting Channel)! Yup, I was singing in a different language on the Namibian news. Jealous?

Moving to site: On Thursday I officially moved to my permanent site. I’m so excited to be finished with training and be an official volunteer! My first three months at site will consist of me completing a needs assessment to determine what precisely my community wants and/or needs from me. This means I’ll be spending a lot of time just walking around and getting to know people and talking to community leaders and stakeholders.

Once again, sorry it took so long for this post! However, now that I’m at site, I will probably be updating less. I will maybe update once a month or when something of importance happens!

Stay classy, readers

Me in my Traditional Damaran Dress