As the title states, the month of August was a total whirlwind. Here's the run-down:
August 5th-- Hosted a going away party for my dear, dear friend Linnea. Her two years are complete and, of course, we had to send her off properly. We enjoyed homemade mac n' cheese, honey sriracha chicken, broccoli, etc. A true feast for a PCV! It was bittersweet to say goodbye to Linnea. She was a phenomenal volunteer in her community, so it was great to have a chance to honor that and put her in the spotlight. At the same time, Linnea is one of my best friends (and the closest volunteer to me) and I truly can't imagine my service without her. Her absence will certainly be something to get used to!
August 6th-- Travel down to Otjiwarongo, where two PCVs are stationed, to visit with friends. It's more than halfway to Windhoek, so it makes for easier travel southwards.
August 7th-- Travel the rest of the way down to Windhoek.
August 8th-12th-- Our Midservice training! We had 2 (3?) full days of sessions and training with PC staff. After that, we had a few days for medical appointments. We all saw a dentist for the first time in 15 months (sorry if you're reading this Dr. Beaty!) and our PC doctor to check in and treat any ongoing issues. I finished early at the dentist on Thursday and thought that I'd call Dr. Bobbi, an American woman I had met up in the north at a workshop, to see if she would be free sometime during the week to give a PCV (me!) some career advice. As it turned out, she was free and the dentist's office was a 6 minute walk from her house! Serendipity. Bobbi worked for the CDC for ~30 years, specializing in behavior change and public health, and is now working for the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation in Zanzibar. She lives in Windhoek, as that is where her husband is stationed with his research for the CDC. Bobbi's biggest passion is people... sound familiar? It does to me! I realized that my passions really aligned with hers at the workshop and spoke to her there, briefly. She was generous enough to give me her number and invite me to reach out whenever I was in Windhoek. Anyway, I went over to Bobbi's house and we chatted for a few hours. She gave some good advice and direction, though I have yet to draw any conclusions, so more to come on that later. While I was at her house, she casually asked me, "what are you doing this weekend?" I responded, "killing time between midservice and Camp GLOW next week. Why?" Turns out, Bobbi and her husband Adam were in need of someone to house-sit and watch their dog!
August 12th-15th-- So, I spent the weekend in their beautiful embassy house, enjoying the Olympics, calling home over their VOIP phone, playing with their dog, and generally relaxing. As an added perk, Bobbi has a beautifully-stocked gluten free pantry, as she is celiac, so I got to enjoy GF food to boot! It was a weekend of luxury life that I big-time enjoyed. Thanks again, Bobbi and Adam!
August 15th-17th-- I took advantage of the few days between Midservice and Camp to go to Okahandja to visit my wonderful host family from PST! I had a fantastic couple of days visiting/catching up with my host parents, cooking together, etc. We were all talking about how we cannot believe that it's already one year that I've been in Namibia! Crazy, crazy. I'm sure this next year will fly by equally as fast. It was so wonderful to reconnect with my host family and feel their love and support!
August 17th-18th-- Final preparations for Camp GLOW! (Aka, running around Windhoek gathering supplies, working with other facilitators to make sure we're all on the same page, and [obvi] enjoying the plethora of food available in Windhoek! Five words: quinoa bowls & artisanal ice cream.)
August 19th-26th-- Camp GLOW!! This section will have it's own post, coming tomorrow. Otherwise, this post will be a novel.
August 27th-28th-- VSN (Volunteer Support Network) Meeting! I don't know if I blogged about it before, but I'm a member of PC Namibia's Volunteer Support Network. Basically, we are a resource for volunteers, largely in tough times. We provide support through active listening and strive to empower volunteers to make the best decisions for themselves. It has been a really rewarding part of my service. As it was, we had 3 new members to add to our committee! They were in need of training, so we decided to get together last weekend to do just that. I'm the training coordinator (and this was my first time doing a VSN training!), so I was a bit busy with that! I think it went pretty well, I'm happy with it. So, now we are back up to a good number of volunteers on VSN (now we have 6 members to support the ~150 volunteers in-country).
August 29th-- Travel back to the north with two other PCVs on VSN. We got a cheap mini-bus ride! Yahooo! We had to overnight in Ongwediva, though, because it was getting dark (aka unsafe for travel).
August 30th-- First day of school for teachers! Traveled back to site in the early morning and got to greet all of my colleagues for the first time in nearly a month. It was so nice to be back! We had a really productive staff meeting. We're going to have a meeting with all of the parents with grade 6 learners, because they're really unmotivated. The grade's overall pass rate for term 2 was 18%. Yikes. Double yikes. That was honestly a bit depressing to come back to. But, my spirits raised significantly when I went to the post office and found two packages from my Aunt Cristy! I now have lots of new clothes and GF goodies! Thank you again, AC!
August 31st-- First day of school for learners. Well, here I am, at the end of the first day! It went decently well. With the grade 7s, we played a game where we threw around an empty bottle (I didn't have a tennis ball or anything) and the person who got the bottle answered the question of that round. I asked the first two questions: 1) What was your favourite part of your holiday? 2) What was your least favourite part of your holiday? After those, the learners thought of their own questions! It was a lot of fun. I tried the same with grade 6, but they were being so squirrely that I cancelled the game and we started going over their exams. Fingers crossed that they do better in term 3!
That's all about the last month! It was a busy one, for sure. I'm not going anywhere far for the month of September, so I look forward to being around the village. I know that October will be very busy with training the new group of volunteers, so I'm gonna enjoy being at home while I can!
Wishing you humility and charisma, of course sent with a big hug! Love you!
August 5th-- Hosted a going away party for my dear, dear friend Linnea. Her two years are complete and, of course, we had to send her off properly. We enjoyed homemade mac n' cheese, honey sriracha chicken, broccoli, etc. A true feast for a PCV! It was bittersweet to say goodbye to Linnea. She was a phenomenal volunteer in her community, so it was great to have a chance to honor that and put her in the spotlight. At the same time, Linnea is one of my best friends (and the closest volunteer to me) and I truly can't imagine my service without her. Her absence will certainly be something to get used to!
August 6th-- Travel down to Otjiwarongo, where two PCVs are stationed, to visit with friends. It's more than halfway to Windhoek, so it makes for easier travel southwards.
August 7th-- Travel the rest of the way down to Windhoek.
August 8th-12th-- Our Midservice training! We had 2 (3?) full days of sessions and training with PC staff. After that, we had a few days for medical appointments. We all saw a dentist for the first time in 15 months (sorry if you're reading this Dr. Beaty!) and our PC doctor to check in and treat any ongoing issues. I finished early at the dentist on Thursday and thought that I'd call Dr. Bobbi, an American woman I had met up in the north at a workshop, to see if she would be free sometime during the week to give a PCV (me!) some career advice. As it turned out, she was free and the dentist's office was a 6 minute walk from her house! Serendipity. Bobbi worked for the CDC for ~30 years, specializing in behavior change and public health, and is now working for the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation in Zanzibar. She lives in Windhoek, as that is where her husband is stationed with his research for the CDC. Bobbi's biggest passion is people... sound familiar? It does to me! I realized that my passions really aligned with hers at the workshop and spoke to her there, briefly. She was generous enough to give me her number and invite me to reach out whenever I was in Windhoek. Anyway, I went over to Bobbi's house and we chatted for a few hours. She gave some good advice and direction, though I have yet to draw any conclusions, so more to come on that later. While I was at her house, she casually asked me, "what are you doing this weekend?" I responded, "killing time between midservice and Camp GLOW next week. Why?" Turns out, Bobbi and her husband Adam were in need of someone to house-sit and watch their dog!
August 12th-15th-- So, I spent the weekend in their beautiful embassy house, enjoying the Olympics, calling home over their VOIP phone, playing with their dog, and generally relaxing. As an added perk, Bobbi has a beautifully-stocked gluten free pantry, as she is celiac, so I got to enjoy GF food to boot! It was a weekend of luxury life that I big-time enjoyed. Thanks again, Bobbi and Adam!
August 15th-17th-- I took advantage of the few days between Midservice and Camp to go to Okahandja to visit my wonderful host family from PST! I had a fantastic couple of days visiting/catching up with my host parents, cooking together, etc. We were all talking about how we cannot believe that it's already one year that I've been in Namibia! Crazy, crazy. I'm sure this next year will fly by equally as fast. It was so wonderful to reconnect with my host family and feel their love and support!
August 17th-18th-- Final preparations for Camp GLOW! (Aka, running around Windhoek gathering supplies, working with other facilitators to make sure we're all on the same page, and [obvi] enjoying the plethora of food available in Windhoek! Five words: quinoa bowls & artisanal ice cream.)
August 19th-26th-- Camp GLOW!! This section will have it's own post, coming tomorrow. Otherwise, this post will be a novel.
August 27th-28th-- VSN (Volunteer Support Network) Meeting! I don't know if I blogged about it before, but I'm a member of PC Namibia's Volunteer Support Network. Basically, we are a resource for volunteers, largely in tough times. We provide support through active listening and strive to empower volunteers to make the best decisions for themselves. It has been a really rewarding part of my service. As it was, we had 3 new members to add to our committee! They were in need of training, so we decided to get together last weekend to do just that. I'm the training coordinator (and this was my first time doing a VSN training!), so I was a bit busy with that! I think it went pretty well, I'm happy with it. So, now we are back up to a good number of volunteers on VSN (now we have 6 members to support the ~150 volunteers in-country).
August 29th-- Travel back to the north with two other PCVs on VSN. We got a cheap mini-bus ride! Yahooo! We had to overnight in Ongwediva, though, because it was getting dark (aka unsafe for travel).
August 30th-- First day of school for teachers! Traveled back to site in the early morning and got to greet all of my colleagues for the first time in nearly a month. It was so nice to be back! We had a really productive staff meeting. We're going to have a meeting with all of the parents with grade 6 learners, because they're really unmotivated. The grade's overall pass rate for term 2 was 18%. Yikes. Double yikes. That was honestly a bit depressing to come back to. But, my spirits raised significantly when I went to the post office and found two packages from my Aunt Cristy! I now have lots of new clothes and GF goodies! Thank you again, AC!
August 31st-- First day of school for learners. Well, here I am, at the end of the first day! It went decently well. With the grade 7s, we played a game where we threw around an empty bottle (I didn't have a tennis ball or anything) and the person who got the bottle answered the question of that round. I asked the first two questions: 1) What was your favourite part of your holiday? 2) What was your least favourite part of your holiday? After those, the learners thought of their own questions! It was a lot of fun. I tried the same with grade 6, but they were being so squirrely that I cancelled the game and we started going over their exams. Fingers crossed that they do better in term 3!
That's all about the last month! It was a busy one, for sure. I'm not going anywhere far for the month of September, so I look forward to being around the village. I know that October will be very busy with training the new group of volunteers, so I'm gonna enjoy being at home while I can!
Wishing you humility and charisma, of course sent with a big hug! Love you!
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