Just call me Tangeeni!

So this past week I traveled from Okahandja to Ondangwa for my site visit.  I traveled for about 8 hours for a pretty eventful ride.  Here is how our day went:
8am- left in a two combi caravan headed north
845am- pulled off the road to check the tires because the car is driving weird
10ish am- stopped in Otjiverongo at the SuperSpar (what up?!?!)
1230pm-ish- dropped some peeps off in Tsumeb, went to pay an outstanding petrol bill from our supervisors trip down south, had to get petrol at a different station, our card did not work so we had to wait over an hour for them to try again, meanwhile we went into another Spar grocery store to do some prime time shopping for our host families
130pm-ish- finally get to leave Tsumeb
145pm- get pulled over for speeding and I swear they took our driver in their cop car but they didn't
3pm- cross over the red line and officially enter the north
4pm-ish- finally arrive in Ondangwa my new home :)

 The beginning of our journey.

 Renee, one of my fellow trainees, while we were stuck at the petrol station #2.  She was excited about our adventures along with me.  Renee will live about 15 mins from me at site. (15 minute drive, that is)

 This was the view from my site visit house.  It's very sandy up in Ondangwa.  The school I will be working at is in the background.

This is from our journey back to training.  It was about a 6 hour combi ride with Rick and Renee. Rick is a fellow SEED volunteer and lives in Ondangwa as well.  These two will most likely be the ones that I will see the most.  Great peeps.  :)

As for my new name.  I am working for an OVC (Orphans and Vulnerable Children) organization called Oonte.  My supervisor meme Shiimi is one of the most loving warm people I have met in Namibia so far and I love her.  She is a Christian and has been praying for my arrival and what I should be called.  She chose my new Oshiwambo name to be Tangeeni, meaning praise God for his many blessings.  It is pronounced Tan-gay-nee.  It is so cute, all the children at the OVC call me by this name and are such amazing children despite their hardships.  Many are orphaned due to AIDS/HIV.  It is heartbreaking but Meme Shiimi is sharing the love of God with them and they are truly beautiful. 

I am doing really well and have made many lasting friendships.  Thank you for your many prayers and support.  I love you all!  :)

Mopani worms, fire extinguishers, and site announcements, oh my!

So I know it has been a while but I still have limited internet access.  Please forgive me. :)

Let's start with this last Saturday.  It was our cultural cooking day and was quite an event.  All of our host families gathered to make us PCT's traditional meals from the different regions of Namibia.  There were worms, stomach, smiley's, dried fish, porridge, chickens feet, and many other interesting foods.  I, Melissa Nicks, ate a worm!!!  It is eaten a lot in O-land (where I will be located after swearing in) and I was told I had to try at least one.  Let's just say it may have tasted like chicken but my mind and body were dry heaving... yuck!  I ate a piece of a smiley (Goats head), it was pretty tasty.  I wasn't brave enough to try the cow's stomach, the texture freaked me out just looking at it.  My host mom and sisters came and it was pretty fun.  Definitely an experience. 
That same afternoon my host sister, host cousin, and few straggler trainees and I took the combi home,  It was a very tiring day so we were all ready to go home and take naps and then hang out a little later.  Well, everyone got out of the combi in front of me and as I was getting out I hit my hand on something, little did I know, that something was the fire extinguisher!!!  The car began to fill with pink smoke/powder!  I was trying to turn it off but couldn't breath so I had to back away.  Erwin our driver jumped out but forgot to put the car in park so it began to roll back.  As he jumped back in to put the car in park one of my friends, Jessica (the smart one), pulled the fire extinguisher out of the combi so she can try to stop it from blowing out fire retardant everywhere.  Meanwhile, my little sister and cousin are laughing hysterically, I am across the street apologizing for my clumsiness and giggling a little, and everyone starts laughing hysterically.  Long story short, I am not the first person to set off a fire extinguisher in the combi, someone set one off while the doors were closed and everyone had to shower off because they were completely covered in the dust.  We all had a great laugh and I think the fire extinguisher needed to be replaced and re-placed somewhere out of my reach. 

Site Announcements!!!!
So Yesterday was the day most of us PCT's have been patiently awaiting.  I knew I was going to O-Land but didn't know where or if there would be another volunteer near me.  Well, we went outside to a string outline of Namibia and papers scattered throughout the outline with schools and locations on them being held down by rocks.  I was the first name called by Linda my amazing APCD.  Everyone was watching me as I moved over to... Ondongwa!  I will be in a major town up north with Rick, one of my fellow SEED volunteers!  I am so excited!  I have PCV's all around me and am in a great place.  I will be working at a junior secondary school training the teachers on how to teach entrepreneurship and will also be working with an organization that works with Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC).  This job is perfect for me and I have I mentioned how stinkin excited I am?  I am on cloud nine.
We meet out supervisors this week and this weekend we travel to a week long site visit.  I can't wait.  I will live in a three bedroom house on a family compound.  So exciting!  I'll have to post pictures when I get back from site. 
As for now, I am running out of internet time.  I send all my love to you all back home.
BTW- Feel free to send me some love in the form of snail mail! :)

melissa.nicks' photostream

melissa.nicks' photostream on Flickr.

Here are some photos from my time in Namibia so far. I am extremely bad at actually taking photos... I will work on taking more. :)

Oshii li ngiini?

That means "Hi, how are you?"
I am doing pretty well here in Namibia. 
We are already on week 3 of training!  I feel like I have been in country for 3 months rather then three weeks!

I moved in with my host family and have inherited two little sisters- 4 and 10.  I also have inherited two dogs and four brand new puppies!  :)  They were born Sunday.

The food is still pretty good minus the canned fish/sardines.  Blech! 

I started language training and will be learning Oshindonga.  I love it so far.  I have an awesome language trainer named Meme Vicky.

The people in my group are pretty awesome. 

I have actually had an awesome amount of contact with back home.  I ended up buying an internet stick to use the internet on my computer but it gets kind of pricey.  I am currently taking advantage of a promotion called happy hour.  Its were you pay $10 and you have free internet access from 12am-5am.  It's hard on me but perfect for back at home.  I got to talk to all of my siblings and my parents within the past few days.  My love tank is overflowing!

Sorry for how jumbled this post may seem (It's 2:10am!)  :)  I am pretty sleepy but wanted to update my blog.  I am working on uploading pictures online so people can look at my adventures.  I'll let you all know when I get it all up there.  As for now you can check out the photos on my facebook that people in my group are posting.

It's crazy how I went from having no readers to having quite a few checking me out.  :) 
This is a special shout out to Steven V's dad! Hi!!! :)  Hope you are doing well.  Steven is awesome, you should be proud of him.  :)

Ok.  I am using too many smiley emoticons.  I'm going to take that as a sign that I need sleep.

Hope everyone is doing amazing!  I know we are here in Namibia.  :)
Peace Out!

PS.  I would LOVE to receive some snail mail aka letters