walk, walk, walk, walk...

In America we have some crazy stuff, but in Namibia there's even crazier stuff.  :)

These are a few of the random things that I always think of while walking around and want to share with you all but can never think of once I'm actually in front of the computer. 

Frogs.  Did you know frogs hibernate?  I didn't.  So we have what is called a rainy season. This rainy season can begin as early as December and go until as late as May.  Rainy season pretty much means flood season.  It rained a little in December and then it stopped and dried up, but with that first rain I began to notice frog cakes everywhere... that is the nice way of saying flat, ran over, dead frogs.  :)  I asked my friend why I didn't notice them before and he said they hibernate under ground and once the rains come they are EVERYWHERE!  He wasn't joking, they are EVERYWHERE!  Quite often I find my self singing the little green frog song as I walk through my village and notice all the little tiny frogs EVERYWHERE.  One morning I was walking and saw a guy carrying a string with about 25 big frogs on it... They actually looked like the singing frog guy from WB (I know, old school).

Prickly branches.  All the trees and bushes here have these insane spikes all over them!  They are on everything and when you step on them they really hurt!  Trust me, I know from experience.  I think its so weird how everything has these thorny long spikes and still the goats and cows gnaw away at they branches eating the leaves.  So weird.

Russian Hawks.  So one day I was hanging out at my friend Daryl's house when he yelled for me to hurry and run outside.  He pointed up at the sky and there flying above us were hundreds of these hawk like birds flying all over the place.  It was seriously cool and creepy at the same time.  He explained to me that every year around this time these hawks migrate from Russia or somewhere around there to Namibia.  I thought it was pretty interesting.  Then last week, I was sitting in my room reading when I looked out the window and saw the very same Russian hawks swarming around my house and in the fields surrounding my homestead.  It was crazy!  I wanted to go outside but couldn't help but think of the movie 'the birds' and freaked out a little.  :)

Flies.  Holy cow.  They are always here but with the rain they have gotten worse and multiplied like no other.  When I walk to town I walk for about 20 minutes or about 2 km through my village.  I start at my house and as soon as I leave the homestead a fly decides to join me on my walk and fly circles around me occasionally flying into my face but then continues to fly circles around me the whole 2km!!! It's really annoying but kind of funny at the same time.  Do they get dizzy?  We'll never know. 

Cows.  Most Namibian people judge their wealth by the amount of cattle they own.  My family has about 20-30, we also have three baby cows that are super cute... but they have to stay on our homestead during the day because they are too little to go grazing with all the big kids because they might wander off or get lost.  Toward the end of the day the babies really miss their mom so they start mooing and then the moms come and start mooing back.  If there are people outside the mom will even growl at them... I didn't know cows growled, I do now.  So walking around the village, usually toward town, there are cows everywhere.  They stare you down when you walk by and I can't help but wonder if a person has even been attacked by a cow just from walking by?  I should google it.  Anyway, with lots of cows comes lots of cow poop.  I used to not mind it so much because it gets so hot here the poop dries up and wont stick to your foot.  With rainy season here, it doesn't dry out as fast or it stays very very wet... it makes walking around that much harder, I now have to watch every step I take and hope not to slip in cow poo. 

I have more random facts for you all but I will save those for another day.... maybe a rainy day... since the rainy season is officially here!

School has started and the first two weeks were dreadfully boring, but today I got to team teach with my counterpart.  I helped her teach 8 classes of Entrepreneurship and it was actually fun!  The kids get involved and actually like to participate, it was awesome.  I am loving it here more and more every day.  I really am enjoying myself and learning a lot about others as well as myself. 
I miss you and love you all dearly!  (that was to my family and friends...)
So, to the strangers out there who might happen to stumble upon my blog, thanks for reading!  :)  Peace out!

Happy Nam-olidays!

Oh my goodness, where to start?

First, let me start by saying Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 
This holiday season did not feel like a holiday season one bit, but it was still spent with great friends.  I spent both holidays at "the rest camp" with Rick and some of our Afrikaaner friends.  They had private parties and we were invited.  :)  Christmas was more of a birthday party for one of the owners and his twin brother and new years eve was... well, new years eve.  :)

I spent the days in between lounging around at my friends house watching TV and sleeping in an air conditioned room... I am truly spoiled.  :)  Plus, he cooked for me.

Now, for the true Peace Corps travel experience.

This past Tuesday my friend, Rick, and I traveled from Ondangwa to Rundu.  Rundu is about 6-7 hours away and is located in the North East part of Namibia.  You must travel south from Ondangwa for about 2.5 hours and then north east for about 3.5-4 hours.  With my being a lady, we were able to travel the entire way free... well, mostly free.  We hitch-hiked and were picked up by some very nice people.  Our last ride was in a flat bed tow truck and the guy let us only pay $20 each instead of $100+ he charged the other passengers.  We arrived around 6:30pm to find our friend Gio's, who was supposed to come pick us up, phone had turned off and we didn't know where he lived.  Luckily our friend Alice had arrived in town that afternoon and came and got us before the sun went down.  Phew.  That night we hung out at Gio's house and ate burgers they made us for dinner.  The following day we decided to venture around town and stop in to see one of Gio's new friends about taking us on a sunset river cruise.  We arranged for the cruise and all was set for that evening, we were even invited to stop by early to swim in their pool before the cruise. 

Fast forward to 6pm when we are heading over to the river lodge for our cruise.  The owner/friend gave us directions via a map he drew telling us where to go.  Gio's taxi driver friend and neighbor both drove all of us to the river lodge/rest camp to go on this cruise.  Well somehow we got lost.  We made a lot of wrong turns and were off roading through the Rundu bush.  Imagine an OLD tiny car driving through tons of  weeds and grass on the faintest "road" aka tire tracks.  Well, it got to the point where the driver said he knew where we were trying to go but there were these big 'puddles' we couldn't drive through.  So we decided to foot it (walk there).  We started walking through the first puddle... it went about mid calf.  We walked through a couple more 'puddles' some of which went to our knees and were so murky and slimy is was disgusting but we kept walking because we were told that we were very close.  Mind you, our driver had never been there, he was just assuming.  Arg.  After about half an hour of footing it through they ponds/puddles we climbed a fence because Gio swore this was his friends property, little did we know it was not and we were trespassing on someone elses land.  Oh goodness.  Thankfully the owners were very friendly and told us to keep walking about 200m down the road.  We walked a little ways more and decided to try another property.  The lady at this property told us to keep walking another 200m to the right house.  We had lost sight of our car long ago, the sun was setting, we had no clue where we were going, the landscape was similar to a jungle/plain (if that makes sense), we were LOST.  We stopped at another property and discovered our destination was next door.  We arrived as the sun set and were lucky enough to see the beautiful sky as the sun set reflect off of the Kavango River, it was absolutely beautiful!  Afterwards we decided to have a few beers with the owner at his bar, a few turned into a handful and around midnight our taxi driver friend told us he must get home.  The owner was nice enough to have someone drive us to our car since it was so far away.  What an adventure, right?

It's not even the end of our night/adventure.  We started driving to find our car and we are in the bush so there is no light other then the car headlights and what little light the moon was providing us.  We drove down a road the taxi driver thought was the right way.  Wrong.  We drove around for a good 20 minutes when the driver suggested we all just stay the night at the rest camp and he will help us find our car the next morning.  All of us volunteers were a little tipsy and super giggly... well, I was super giggly, whats new?  :)  It was around then that our taxi driver, who is now sitting outside the window spots the reflection of our license plates!!! It was like finding a needle in a hay stack, but we found it.  We found our way to the main road eventually and headed back to Gio's house.  It was a night for the books for sure. 

The next morning we headed back toward Ondangwa with Ryan and Gio to come see our neck of the woods.  It took us a while to get a hike out of Rundu but we were all persistent and got our free hike.  All four of us crammed into a tiny space in the back of a truck... I would guess that it was approximately 4x4 ft.  We all fit and road in the most awkward positions at time but were good sports about it.  It was nice traveling with these guys because no one complained once as we travelled.  Except for Gio... He almost had an accident in the back and we had to flag down the drivers as fast as we could to pull over... we had a GREAT laugh at Gio's expense.  We arrived home safely that afternoon.  Hiking with three guys is challenging, I like to wait and work my charm for a free hike, the boys just wanted to get home... meaning we paid.  It was a fun trip and I have truly enjoyed my month off for the Holidays.  Tomorrow I start work and am not that excited about it but know I have to start eventually.  I must admit I am a little nervous but all will be fine, I just need to find my feet.  :)

Love you all!  Happy New Year!

I'm still alive

So, I'm still alive and kicking. I've been super busy with work stuff and fun stuff, so I apologize for being such an anti-social blogger. :)  I am doing well here in Namibia. School is officially over for the month so I have been on "holiday" for the past three weeks. The first week of December was spent at a conference for Peace Corps called reconnect, it's basically a week of more training in Windhoek to check in with us all to see how the first two months at site have been.  From Windhoek I traveled to Swakupmond, a beach town where people from all over the world come to spend the holiday, Angelina Jolie had one of her kids in Swakupmond. :)  It was a good holiday at the beach but was too cold to go in the water and I was in a house with 6 twin beds and 21 other people... a little too crowded for my liking.  But fun times were had. 

Hiking from Windhoek to Swakupmond.  I have discovered that dancing while waving down cars is extremely effective.  Also, It doesn't hurt to have boobs.  :)

The sunset over the African Atlantic Ocean. B-e-a-utiful.

  The first hike of the day heading back up north toward home.

My first solo free hike.  It was in the back of a bakki and this was my view for almost the whole day.  Amazing.   Fyi- hitch-hiking is not that bad here.  It's actually safer then most paid transportation.

This past Sunday I traveled back up north to Ondangwa to spend the holiday with a few friends and near my home. It doesn't really feel like Christmas at all and is so wierd to see everyone posting on facebook about shopping and preparing for the festivities. It makes me a little homesick but I am trying my best to keep busy and enjoy life and my time here in Namibia.

I know this sounds super ridiculous but it's so wierd to me that life is actually moving along back home. Today I woke up to find out my best friend is engaged!!! It is really hard for me missing all of this. I'm very happy for them both but very homesick.

I have made some amazing friends here who are taking extra good care of me and even some local Afrikaaners (white Africans/Namibians) who are treating me like a queen (maybe not exactly like a queen but they are taking care of me).

One of my Afrikaaner friends took  me to this awesome tree that has a tiny church inside of it.  God's work at its best.  Amazing!

I also got mail today. I got an envelope filled with birthday letters from my sister Heidi's first grade class... they were AMAZING!!!

I also got my package from my family with the CUTEST pillow case in it... hahahaha... it is covered in old fashioned pin up style guys decked out in christmas underwear... hahaha... it is the greatest!

I am still doing really well here and am excited for the new year. I will actually start working and am a little nervous to start but know that I will find my feet and will work hard to succeed.

This Christmas is gonna be an emotional one but I am happy to be here and know I will be ok. I hate being so emotional at times but I wouldn't be me if I weren't.  :)

I love you all and wish you all the best Christmas holiday and the happiest New Year. 

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.

Keepin it real, Namibian style.

Disclaimer: some of the details mentioned below might gross you out.  Don't judge me, I'm living in a third world country in the Peace Corps.
With that said, here are some of the things that I find very different here in Namibia.

Potty Training:  Lets just say I have been peed on multiple times in the past month.  I had a host cousin that had a baby, he was the cutest 4 month old, but his diapers was a towel.  Whenever I would hold him, the pee magically didn't soak into the cloth but soaked my shorts.  Children(toddlers) here who are not potty trained just pee whenever. For example: I am standing in church singing when my feet are splattered with a liquid. I look over and my 3 year old niece just peed in my sisters arms, they acted as if it were nothing.

BUGS!!! Bugs here have 9 lives just like cats. I have killed many different bugs, mostly cockroaches, with my shoes and I get them good. But, they tend to come back to life, injured and all they try to crawl around. I hit them again and again. It grosses me out and I squeal just about every time!!!

Mosquito's- I HATE you!!!! I am not one to use the word hate often, its a very strong word and I more often strongly dislike something rather then hate. But these blood thirsty annoyances are on my extremely short HATE list. I can hear them flying around me but can't see them so it makes me paranoid. I have five bites at the moment and they itch so bad!!!!
Wall Spiders- We have these giant spiders that lay flat against the wall and move faster then I ever could. They are found everywhere here and are not really killed often because they eat the enemy, Mosquito's!!! I currently have one chilling on my curtain near my bed, I haven't decided if I will let it stay that close to where I sleep. 

Food- I have had traditional fish and regular fish here and they both aren't bad. I kind of like it. Except for the fish heads (eyes and all) and all the bones. Too much work. But seriously, as a new fish eater, I have braved that storm and ventured into new waters. Minus the canned sardines or anchovies. YUCK!!! Too fishy!

Another food no no, is Tripe. I think I dislike it just as much as canned fish. It smells bad and the texture is just to weird for me. I finally had to break down and tell my host fam, I don't like it. It didn't help that we had it every other day, if not every day.
One persons Trash is another kids treasure!!!! I give my trash to my 7 year old cousin and my 3 year old niece to throw away and they carry the bag away and come back to my room with articles of my trash like they are toys.

Did you know that a styrofoam take away container can double as not only a storage devise for more trash but also as a car? A broken mouse is totally a car! Pill packaging is the best to lick! Yup, iron supplement residue must be the new sugar!  My trash is pure gold in their eyes. Last week my host cousin had my razor in his mouth, I wanted to vomit. (It was the handle end in his mouth and the cover was over the blade still, thank God!)

Sweat!
Good lord, I feel like Richard Simmons in a work out video at Krispy Kreme. I am constantly sweating. The only nice thing about sweating so much is that when you move the sweaty area is cool in the breeze. :)   I have never sweat this much in my entire life!  Sorry if that grosses you out, but I'm just keeping it real. It is VERY hot and can get pretty humid. I am excited for the rain but also dreading it. It will flood and will continue to be HOT! That means that it will be miserably humid, good thing I have curly hair! :)

That is all for my randomness... for now.  I'll post some more later.

As for me, site is great.  I live with a family that has 7 kids, one uncle, one cousin, one niece, and a meme and tate (mom and dad).  They are great people and are very close reminding me of my family back home.  School is still boring but that is just because the learners are currently preparing for their end of year exams.  My OVC is great.  I think I am really going to love it here.  :)

I swear...

Well peeps, it's official!  I am no longer a trainee but a Namibia Peace Corps Volunteer.  We had our swearing in ceremony last Thursday and it was definitely bittersweet.  I am so excited to be done with PST but am so sad to have to say goodbye some really great friends (for a few weeks, that is). 

I said goodbye to my Okahandja host family and will miss them dearly.  I have grown really attached to my host sisters and the neighbor girls.  I spent my last week painting their toenails and playing cards with them.  I love them!

 This is KJudy... my married couple friends KJ and Rudi. They are amazing and I am so sad they do not live closer to me.  The wonderful woman in the Damara dress is Kyla, she is amazing as well and will be greatly missed until reconnect in December.

On our trip up to Owamboland our caravan was lucky enough to drive through part of Etosha National Game Park.  Etosha is one of the best safari parks in Africa.  These are actual giraffe and zebra at a water hole, I saw them and instantly started singing the circle of life from the lion king. So cool. We saw tons of giraffe, zebra, deer looking creatures (big and small, sorry I don't remember the names), and we also saw two hyenas!  AWESOME!

I had more pictures to post but my internet was being crappy so I am now in our local PC office finishing this blog. 

Site is amazing.  My new host family is awesome.  They definitely make me feel at home!  :) 

School is pretty boring so far but will hopefully pick up.  All the learners are preparing for their end of year exams so there isn't really too much to do. 

Namibia is amazing and I really love it here.  The bugs, not so much.  They are huge and don't just die when you smash the crap out of them, they come back to life about three more times before calling it quits.  I however am a champ when it comes to flicking them off of me or not freaking out when they are on me.  Though the crunch they make when they collide with the bottom of my shoe still grosses me out pretty bad, I squeal and run away after I smash them, then come back for clean up duty.  Rainy season is on it way.  We have a had a few showers but mostly its just clouds and HEAT!!! I am constantly sweating here.  Oh well, I live in Namibia. :) 

I love you all and will update again soon!  Peace out, girls scout!

Is it?

This is usually how people respond to things here.  I reply with "it is!" and it throws them off, I find it fun.  :) 

So, life is about to change again... crazy fast!  I'm pretty nervous and excited, mostly excited.

Training ends pretty much tomorrow.  We swear in as official Peace Corps Volunteers on Thursday, woot woot!

As for this last week of training:
We had my final presentation for our small business partners last week and it went really well.  I had such a great time working with the most loving women who happened to be my counterparts at my SME (Small/Medium Enterprise).
Yesterday was my last LPI (language proficiency exam) and today I received my results!  I passed!!!!  You must score an Intermediate Low to pass and not have to retake the LPI in a few months. I received.... drum roll please.... Intermediate Mid!!!! I feel like I have learned quite a bit in just 6 short weeks.  I love the feeling of being able to piece together a sentence in Oshindonga, it feels great!  My only downfall is my OshiSpangLish.  Yup, its totally a language!  It's Onshindonga mixed with Spanish and English.  It's quite funny when you are making a sentence and you throw in a tango or a por favor.  Hahahaha.  My language trainer just looks at me funny and then I explain to her what I said in Spanish.
Today (Tuesday the 18th) we will tie up all our lose ends of PST before our swearing in ceremony tomorrow (Thursday)! I can't believe how fast the past two months have flown by. I can't believe I have lived here that long and that short as well.  It feels like we have lived in Namibia for 6 months or really forever, I have definitely adapted to PST life.  (PST-Pre Service Training.)
I move to site on Friday.  :)  I am a bag of mixed emotions.  I am sad to leave my current host family but am excited to meed my next.  I will be living with my next host family for the next two years of my service.  I have never met these people and hope I make a great connection with them.  I am hoping for either parental figures or people that I will feel at home living with.  Pray all goes well.
Here are few of the highlights from my PST

10- My host sisters and I frantically swatting at the monstrous insects flying around my room... HILARIOUS!

9- Kukuri Center where we all stayed for our first week in Namibia.  It feels like we were there for so long and that is was light years away, but in reality it was only a week or so and it was only 7 weeks ago.

8- Dr Shit (please excuse my language, but he was awesome) He ran the Habitat Resource Center in Windhoek and was hilarious and innovative.  He recycles everything and has the most beautiful facility.

7- My awesome SEED group. I don't think any PST group has laughed as much as we have.  There are only seven of us, but we are an awesome group of seven!  We have the best APCD and Tech Trainer, I am sooooo lucky!

6- AMAZING friends.  I cannot believe we have only known each other for 8 weeks!  It seriously feels like we have known each other forever.  We have endured some crazy hilarious moments as well as some crazy weird ones together, the great news is that we have made it!

5- Host family.  It is really a great way to learn about a new culture quickly.  I have only lived with my host family for about 6 weeks and I have grown to love them. 

4- Skype dates with the people I love back home. So blessed to have an awesome family and awesome technology to not only talk to them for free but also to see their faces.

3- A good head on my shoulders. I am so happy to say that I am pretty strong and confident in who I am. That is a great feeling. :)  Of course I am still a work in progress but I think I am moving in a pretty great direction.

2- My site visit.  I get to work with two amazing supervisors at site and am going to be blessed with all the people and children I get to work with for the next two years. I am so excited.

1- Realizing that this is exactly where I am meant to be at this point in my life! Incredible feeling! I have made it! 

I am so close to finishing my training, I can see the finish line.  I can happily say, I have survived 8 weeks of emotionally draining and intense training. I have made so many memories and learned so much. 
Next step, living as an actual Peace Corps Volunteer!

Cheers to Group 34! 
We truly are the exception, not the rule.
Is it?  It is.