Ondi hole...

I LOVE...

Walking around my village or town and white people staring at me because I am living as a local...

Greeting people in their native tongue and the smile that spreads across their faces...

My amazing friends and family here mo(in)America na(and) moNamibia...

Explaining to my colleagues that not all Americans are white and act the same...

When kids come up to me and tell me to give them money, I look at them and tell them to give Me money.  They just stare in confusion, I stare at them very serius.  Afterwards, I laugh...

Riverside, California...

Namibia. The whole country...

Learning about a new culture while teaching about mine...

Explaining that Americans do have a culture, not just one but many...

That when it is 'balls hot' and humid outside, that means the rain is coming.  Sure enough it is here by that afternoon...

 No matter how hard I try to speak proper English, Namlish always makes an appearance when speaking to people...

Getting letters and love mailed to me from home... (hint hint ;))...

These are a few of the things that I feel so blessed by and love about my current home and life.

Last Saturday I got to hang out with about 30 others PCV's at a local rest camp to celebrate our new group of volunteers coming to the north/Halloween/and MY birthday and my friend Danny's birthday too.  I had an amazing time.  There was beer and booze consumed by all but I was always safe and used my head(I promise mom and dad, I was smart but still had fun!).  The rest camp we stayed at is owned by some local Afrikaaners (native white people) and one of the groups that was there was a bachelor party.  Once they found out it was my birthday lets just say I didn't have to buy any more drinks and drank some interesting stuff.  Mostly the night consisted of getting to know my fellow volunteers that I will be serving with over the next two years, it was a lot of fun. 

Yesterday, my real birthday, was pretty great as well.  I started it out by talking to some of my family at midnight (happy hour is unlimited internet use from midnight-6am for N$10 for a week, awesome deal).  I woke up and opened some cards that were sent with me before I left home in August and they were all so sweet!  I definitely felt their love from so far away.  I was picked up by my OVC supervisor to attend a meeting about partnering with a local organization, when I came outside she sang happy birthday to me.  Her daughter, who works with us at the OVC, who also happens to be my first Namibian friend and facebook friend, saw it on facebook and they were so sweet wishing me happy birthday along with many blessings.  The day went pretty great, our meeting was very productive and successful.  After work my host family all wished me happy birthday. 


Some exciting news: there are a few new members of our family that share a birthday week with me.  Yesterday I noticed a cow outside of my window mooing like crazy... I looked outside below my window to see her newborn calf walking around inside our gated homestead.  My family has cows that they bring into a corral at night and during the day let them out to graze, the baby is too little to be outside all day so we have what I like to call calf daycare on our homestead to ensure his safety (I'm assuming it's a boy, I don't see any utters).  So we have a new baby calf and I also stumbled upon 5 new puppies that were born on Monday as well.  I love baby animals so it is the best birthday presents ever!!! :)

I apologize for the length of this wordy blog, but i had a lot to say.

I feel very blessed to be here in Namibia learning and sharing my culture.  Thank you to everyone that supports me and loves me for simply being my perfectly imperfect self.