Home Leave

I’m an expat. It feels weird to write that but in two weeks I am going back to where to I came from after two years away. Two years is a long time to be away from a place. A relationship ended and another one began. Beards and bellies have grown and have been shaved away. Babies have been born and people have married. And friends and family have passed away. Recently, a friend pointed out the fact that we were now expats. I had never liked the word before and I still don’t particularly like it but I understand it now. The topic of sports came up; he asked whether I would participate in the upcoming NFL draft. I confessed to having no idea who won the super bowl the last two years and asked if Sam Brady was still the quarterback for the Rams. Apparently, Sam Brady is not a person and I meant Sam Bradford/Tom Brady. One of them plays for the Eagles, I think it was Sam but I was drinking so I have no idea. One more incident of how much has changed. Okay well two things but they are basically the same to me. Tinder and Uber. I’m just going to assume you know what these are and I was always vaguely aware of the existence of the former but not the latter. Just two weeks back I met the new volunteers and they explained what this Uber was all about and I frankly thought it sounded a bit crazy. Yet, they had all used it! Please don’t make me Uber when I get home. So now that I am no longer living in the bush with limited to zero access to internet and living in town on a college campus I have decided to undergo a re-education process. This has been youtube videos of movie trailers, music videos, political debates (Donald Trump and Ben Carson-what is happening AMERICA), and video game trailers. Also, a friend gave me Ryan Adams album 1989, a cover of Taylor Swifts album, which is fantastic. I feel hip because I think that it’s pretty new. So, if I see you in the states next month a few things to keep in mind. Ask me about the Rugby World Cup or English Soccer because those are the only sports I have been keeping an eye on due to time and that’s what plays here. I have no idea about the rest but will politely feign an interest in them, especially if you buy me a beer. Just assume I haven’t heard of the movie/tv series/cultural event/youtube video/music craze/whatever from the last two years that you are talking about. But remember that volunteers have too much downtime and we pirate movies like no one’s business so yeah I did watch most of the nominees for Best Picture but have no idea what won. The same goes with tv series’. The rest is a work in progress. As far as everything else goes, I hear that people ask volunteers from AFRICA “Hows Africa?” So refrain from this. Just ask if I watched Sam Brady strike out the Cubbies last night.

Holiday travels: the good and the bad

The first week of December was Reconnect, which is when "Phase 2" ends and our group got together to discuss our first 3 months at site. I was looking forward to seeing everyone, finding out about their living situations and to get away from the village for a couple weeks. Reconnect was well just like training: boring but with much more drinking. There was wifi and a pool and we were in a beautiful spot on a hill outside the city. Oh and food, delicious food. Not mahongu and meat or canned fish and rice. After Reconnect, our (almost) entire group went to Swakopmund to spend another week together. Swakop is on the coast and felt like a German Miami. At first, I felt a lot of culture shock. Sitting at a cafe with white people everywhere, nice cars, nice houses; it was surreal. But after half a day I was able to adjust and seeing the ocean for the first time in a while helped the transition out of the village mentality. That first night I met a couple Germans and went bar-hopping with them; lots of jager. We ended up at a Afrikaner/German bar/club and I met a Herero named Daniel who knew some other Peace Corps Volunteers. We quickly became friendly and as he had his arm around my shoulders talking out of nowhere some drunk Afrikaner punched Daniel in the face. Immediately we were just shocked and kept asking him why he punched him. No response. Some German girl came and pushed us away warning us not to do anything stupid. So we did, I was drunk, Daniel probably was and we would have gotten our asses kicked. Also, it would not have been following the modus operandi of the Peace Corps to get into a bar fight. There was another incident of racism that I encountered in Swakop but I'll save that for those who want to ask me about it personally. Now, I had the chance to meet a young, liberal Afrikaner in Swakop who was just as open and tolerant as most college educated people in America and I met racist, college educated Afrikaners too. My whole concept of Namibia changed drastically during that trip and I couldn't wait to get back to the village. When I finally did come back to the village, I brought 5 friends with me. It made it an interesting experience to show other volunteers from all over the country what my living situation was like and one was definitely amazed at how big and nice my place is. So, I just sort of wrote this on a whim. Sorry if it is not as coherent, concise, or well-written as you hoped this to be but I wanted to write about what happened. The next couple weeks will be filled with more travel, going from Ondangwa to Rundu and then to Katima. I'm very excited to see Zambezi. Oshi li nawa!

Ok a proper blog entry

The main reason I have not written a blog entry for awhile has been because Peace Corps training was just too damn boring to write about. So you can guess then that I am done with training and now I am living at my site in the Oshikoto region, which is in the north, an area called Owamboland (commonly referred to as the 4 0's). 60% of the country lives in the 4 O's. My new home is on a homestead/farm about 5km or so from the school I am currently teaching at. Yes, I already started teaching but I'll get to that later. I live with a family, but the children of the parents live elsewhere throughout Namibia. So they mostly have nephews, nieces, and 2 'servants' living there. Altogether, there are 11-12 people living here. My Tate is the Headman of the village, a farmer, and the Head of Department for Languages. He's friendly, but we have some miscommunication every once ina while. I need to speak slower and he has to get used to my accent. My Meme is also very friendly, but our interactions have been limited. She is a principal at a junior primary school just near the homestead, and the school does not have electricity. I'll have to write seperate blog post about each of the various children and servants living at the homestead. I have 2 rooms and they are both much bigger than what I'm used to having. Back in the US, I was living in a tiny room and sleeping on a futon and living with 2 other people who rarely cooked or cleaned. And now I have a double size bed and a big room with a wardrobe and a seperate big room with a kitchen table, 4 chairs, a fridge, and hopefully a working stove. This is way more than I expected. Sleeping under my mosquito (just to keep me sane cause of I'm trying to get used to the wall spiders that keep my room clean of insects) is one of the best feelings. My pit latrine is great by the way. I get to pee at night under the stars and look at the milky way. That's what I'll leave you with.

I plucked a chicken

Last weekend I plucked a chicken but didn't kill one. That was a part of our Cross-Cultural Day which we spent with our language trainers, fellow trainees, and our host families. This was probably the biggest culture shock I've experienced so far, yet it was a lot of fun because everybody was participating. I watched one of my fellow volunteers slaughter a goat and several more do the same to a bunch of haggard lookin' chickens. Also, plucking chickens is not easy, but after you get over the initial shock its a very intensive process. You can essentially buy a live chicken here for the cost of half a rotisserie chicken that is then deep fried. I know this because I got a half-chicken for lunch the other day and now everyone knows me as that guy in the group. The half chicken was a great idea, and only cost around 2.75 USD. Which is an absurd price considering how difficult it is to kill, pluck, clean, and then cook a chicken. Oh did i mention I also cleaned the chicken I plucked but didn't kill. It felt like an interactive food science lesson.

Alright, this blog post has no focus other than the chicken theme i keep mentioning. I'm only writing this because I just happened to be at an internet cafe while I was downloading a program and figured why not.

Back to life in Namibia. Its awfully strange to think of what a short amount of time I've been here and yet how long that has felt like. I already feel very comfortable with my host family, my language trainers, my fellow trainees, and life in Namibia. Yeah, hand-washing clothes sucks already and I've only done it twice, and yes I hate bucket baths when its cold out but these aren't life altering inconveniences. These remind me of the way people would react to me back home when they found out I was moving to Africa for two years. "Woah, I could NOT do that!" Which makes me wonder, what about life here could people back home not do?

But that gets to a bigger question of what do non-Africans know about Africa. Which can be broken down into categories of poverty, oppression, death, HIV, and hunger. Yet, while those are factors here, they are factors everywhere else in the world. In some places in Africa they are magnified but here in Namibia, some are less than other countries while others are more likely. 

Anyways, someone once said, "Namibia is Africa for beginners." So there, that's my random ass blog post for the day. This country is awesome and I hope I can begin to write more about why I am beginning to love this place.

Staying with my fam and life in the Nam

Ok, so I have been in Namibia since the 24th of July and it is now the 5th of August. I apologize to everyone that I have not posted on here or informed them of what has been happening to me so far. The first week was awesome, very relaxing and full of new experiences. I'll start with the food, which is basically meat, meat, and more meat. All kinds of meat. So for example I went over to my friend Alyssa's house to hang out with her and her family, and her host dad served some Warthog meat, which was delicious. Also we played Fifa Street 2 and Grand Theft Auto San Andreas on his playstation 2.

Ok, but back to the food, Nambian's also love corn meal and rice. Those are the staples. I've had a chance to sample the local beers, so far they're all German style Lagers and Pilsners. Nothing great to talk about there. I just had a strange fruit last night, called Ekapa in Oshindonga, it was delicious but very dry. I have no idea how to descibe it. Oh yeah host family.

So I moved in last Tuesday night into the Nau-Aib neighborhood of Okahandja with Helvi Shilongo and her son Nicky. Mme Helvi (pronounced May-May Hel-vi) is so sweet and awesome. She is the same age as my mom back home and runs a Kindergarten out of the house and has a classroom/shack attached to the house, along with an outhouse for the children. She has 48 CHILDREN and only ONE helper. Just crazy, I hope my mom reads that. Nicky is 15 and in Grade 10, so he's taking a whole bunch of exams at the moment. He just friended me on facebook so if you want to find his name is King Dex. Also, he's written a rap song, has Drakes song as a ringtone, and plays soccer with his friends out front of our house.

Ok I dont have much more time. I had more to write but I'll just blurt out the rest in no coherent fashion. My language is Oshindonga, which means I'll be heading north but I dont find out my site till August 28th. Also my phone is connected. I'm going to download whatsapp so everyone who wants to contact me should use that or facebook messenger. Thats all for now. Hopefully these photo's upload.

Which they did not.

Timeline

Ok, every single peace corps blog always has a timeline of the application process so I figured this would be the best way to start this blog.

• 02/10/2010 - Information Meeting at UMSL
• 08/22/2010 - Start Application but then realise I have no idea when I'll graduate

In the meantime I studied abroad in Germany, interned at the International Institute, and then found out I was graduating in December of 2012.

• 09/22/2012 - Information meeting at WashU
• 10/09/2012 - Email with recruiter about gaining more leadership experience
• 10/17/2012 - Met with recruiter at WashU, got some more information, and felt ready to apply
• 11/14/2012 - Start application for the second time
• 11/20/2012 - Submit application
• 12/14/2012 - First email from regional recruiter about the next steps for an interview
• 01/08/2013 - Email about setting up interview
• 01/17/2013 - Interview! Which lasted 1 hour and 45 minutes
• 01/23/2013 - Uploaded more information such as transcripts and volunteer hours
• 01/28/2013 - Nomination! Education - English Teacher! July 2013!
• 03/05/2013 - Email from Placement Office!
• 03/18/2013 - Uploaded questions for the Placement Office (Just a few days late)
• 03/20/2013 - Invitation to serve in Namibia!
• 03/25/2013 - Accepted invitation

The medical debacle begins!
Aspiration statements and updated resume's were uploaded far too late.
But thankfully the Country Desk Officer was kind and understanding.
And I don't want to describe my painful medical process so I'll just say when I was finally cleared.

• 06/18/2013 - Medically Cleared with barely a day to spare.
• 06/21/2013 - Staging information! Philadelphia July 22nd!

Called the travel agency to set up my flight there and filling out more paperwork.

So that's what I've gone through so far to get to this point.
More information to follow.