Christy in Namibia - Peace Corps

Hello all! Sorry it's been so long since my last post-- things have been a bit busy here! I just arrived back at site last week after nearly to weeks in Windhoek for a conference/workshop. We had an All Volunteer conference, which got many generations of volunteers together in one room and there were lots of great ideas and resources that were exchanged. The conference was also combined with the celebration of the 25th anniversary of Peace Corps in Namibia. The American ambassador and the Namibian prime minister both were in attendance and made speeches! It was a really cool event to be a part of. The "Reconnect" workshop was only for my training group (group 42) and it was mostly technical teacher training, which was very helpful. Unfortunately I was sick during most of it, so I don't think I took in as much as I could have otherwise! (Fun(?) fact: I got sick for a second time on the day we were going back to the north and had a 12 hour bus ride ahead of me... The ru

So, I got a special request for a blog post, by my mother! I told her a few stories related to animals, meat, and butchering, and she thought it merited a blog post, so here it is! As most families live on farms and raise their own animals here in the village, I’ve gotten much closer to the slaughtering and butchering process than ever before. And strangely, I’m getting very used to it! I’ll also discuss other (live) animal interactions I’ve experienced. Meat is a huge part of Namibian culture and is typically eaten with both lunch and dinner here. Examples of things that don’t faze me too much anymore:         Being woken up by a rooster.         Running to close the door before the hungry herd of goats that just entered your yard decide to enter your house.         Seeing that a rooster is charging at you, while you’re mid-squat/peeing at nighttime on the homestead (at night, we forego the long walk to the pit latrine and just drop trow) and having to quickly pu

Hi friends and family! In case you didn’t see on my facebook page, I have a new mailing address! Here it is: Christy Nichols P.O. Box 14267 Outapi Ombalantu Namibia Receiving letters is incredibly exciting. I just got two yesterday (thank you Emily and Jag!) and I think I had a smile etched onto my face for the next few hours! It’s great to see someone’s handwriting, hear their stories, and get to spend some time writing back to them and feel like we’re really keeping in touch and taking time to maintain our friendship. As a side note, even things that may seem like “silly” everyday events to you are really fun for me to read! My everyday in the village here is likely pretty different from yours, so it’s fun to share those everyday moments with each other via old school pen and paper! So, if you feel inspired to do so, please write me a letter! There are global forever stamps now in the USA, so you can go there and buy a bunch one time so that you don’t have to mak

Here are a bunch of photos of my teacher's flat! Hopefully they help give you a better picture of my life here in Onhokolo.  Here is a view of one of the teachers' flats from out front. I live in one of these buildings... One half is mine, one belongs to another teacher.  The view from the front door. The main room has my bed, table and chairs, and closet. The closet is the door with the postcards on it. The bathroom is to the left of the closet and the kitchen is to the right, where you can see the bright light coming in.  Standing at the kitchen doorway looking back to the right towards my bed. It's a shame you can't see the world's ugliest curtains due to the light coming in behind them; sometimes you can live with ugly to save a few $$! From the same point at the kitchen doorway, looking back at the front entry.  A detailed view of my photo wall! I'm so lucky to have so many fantastic friends and family members.  My bathroom-- yes, that's a flushing toil

Hello again, my lovely friends and family! Sorry it’s been a while since my last post. I think I’ll post twice this week to make up for it :) I realized that I never posted about our Swearing-In Ceremony where we became official Peace Corps Volunteers, so I’ll do a quick paragraph on that day. We swore in on October 15 th in the dining hall at the retreat center where we stayed for our first two weeks in Namibia—the location made it all come full circle! The hall was decorated beautifully and transformed into a formal venue. We were fortunate enough to have many special guests, including a high ranking official from the Ministry of Education, the Peace Corps Namibia Country Director, and the United States Ambassador to Namibia. It was an emotional day where we all took our formal oath of service and collectively made all of our dreams of becoming Peace Corps Volunteers a reality. Many of the language groups dressed up in traditional attire from their tribal region; I dressed

Hi again, blog readers! First of all, let me point out a new feature on my blog! See that little box to the right that says something about entering your email address? Enter yours there if you would like to receive an email notification every time that I post a new blog! So, I’m now officially in my new home in the North! In case you forgot (which you probably did) I’m at Oshikulufitu Combined School in Onhokolo village, outside of Outapi town in the Omusati region in Namibia. Phew! It’s a lot of words that start with “O,” isn’t it? Welcome to my struggle with learning Oshiwambo! It’s hard to keep the words straight when most of them start with o! Anyway, I’m getting settled into my new home here. I have a foster family (which is like a host family, except I only stay with them on school breaks and some weekends) and my own teacher’s flat. I stayed with the foster family this past weekend when I first arrived in Onhokolo. They are so, so nice and I even have a host sister