Time Flies

Hello, earthling blog readers!

Sorry for the huge dearth of posts. Life happens. Blogging doesn't always! Here are some month by month updates and such since I last posted.

March
School started again (post-flooding) at the very end of March. Things were hugely hectic as we had a lot of class time to make up for due to the missed lessons during flooding. I taught double my normal teaching load every day for the end of March and first half of April. I taught after school or during free lessons as well as teaching nearly every Saturday. It was seriously crazy for a while there!

April
See above. Exams started mid-April for the learners and cramming in final topics was hard work, but the kids and I all survived! It all paid off because they generally did quite well on their exam. The very same day that my kids wrote their exams, I grabbed my stacks of marking and hitchhiked down south to welcome the new group of Community Economic Development (Entrepreneurship/Business) PCVs. They arrived the following day and I was lucky enough to be invited to welcome them at the airport and spend their first 8 days in the country with them, helping them to adjust and be a person to answer some of the 1000 questions! It was truly a pleasure spending that time with Group 45. They're a small, dynamic, supportive group of PCVs who I think will be wildly successful in Namibia.

After 8 days balancing questions, marking, secondary project work, helping PC staff, etc. in Okahandja and Windhoek, I met up with two other PCVs to work on finalizing a club curriculum that we're developing for after school clubs around Namibia. The club material is based on the same topics as our August camp for learners, Camp GLOW. The club curriculum is called GLOW on the Go and targets gender equality, leadership, sexual health, financial literacy, etc. We had an insanely productive 2 days working on the curriculum and made good progress. Hopefully we'll be able to knock the rest out soon. After an intense two days working, I headed back north to submit my term marks and wrap things up before going on leave. Again, it was a really hectic time. I was only home for 5 days before I had to turn back around to go to Windhoek again! In that time, I turned in my term marks, helped the secretary generate school reports, packed for vacation, and co-facilitated a workshop for a region-wide initiative that I've helped to start called Serve 2 Lead (S2L). Four PCVs in Omusati region (myself included) are working hard to meet the need of developing leadership skills in the youth. We came up with the idea of a short-term after school club that will also have a weekend "camp" where youth will be introduced to leadership skills and styles. After the instruction period, the learners will have a chance to put their leadership skills to use by creating service projects within their communities to raise awareness about pressing social issues. All of the instruction is being done by Namibian community members so that the kids see examples of strong local leaders and it's truly Namibians changing their own communities. Us PCVs are doing the planning, logistics, curriculum development, etc., and are quite behind the scenes. We're so excited by the potential impact of this project. The regional director of education is incredibly supportive and hopes that it'll expand next year to include more schools and that eventually other regions will also adopt S2L!

Now it's time to put work aside and talk about vacation! At the end of April, I headed back down to Windhoek and picked up my awesome friends Alex (Saucy) and Marissa who came all the way to Namibia to visit!!! Alex is a friend from high school (and beyond) and Marissa is a friend from my I4K cycling team. We planned a rad backpacking trip through the Naukluft mountains and had a great time on the 8 day, 130km trail along with 9 other PCV friends. I could write a whole post about that trip, but I'll spare you the novel. Instead, let me leave you with some holiday highlights... This teacher life with big holiday breaks is pretty great; I travel for about 30 days during April and May! Oh, and my fantastic friend Alison (from high school and beyond) came to meet up with us all after the hiking trail! Her visit was spectacular.

Holiday highlights: 

Part 1: American friends coming to visit in Namibia!

• Hugging and hanging out with Alison, Marissa, and Alex for the first time in 2+ years.
• Climbing up and down insane chain-assisted ascents and descents on the Naukluft trail.
• Powering our way through the bush every day, up mountains, and then relaxing and chatting/eating all afternoon.
• The incredible views. Mountains on mountains! (Pics at the bottom of this post.)
• Climbing to the top of one of the world's largest sand dunes with Alison, Marissa, and Alex.
• Having my friends meet my wonderful, generous, fun, welcoming host sister Lempie in Swakopmund and having an awesome family pizza party.
• Alison learning how to drive manual (#sentit).
• Seeing a cheetah, a lion, rhinos, giraffes, elephants, zebra, etc. at the game reserve!
• Hearing said male lion roar like CRAZY so close to our vehicle while calling for his lion friends.
• The crazy bird people on our first game drive and their strange preference for birds over all other African animals. ("Hey bird people, there's a fucking giraffe over there." -Alex)
• Having our bungalow be so close to the watering hole that we had one time that Alex said "BRB hippos" and walked away to see three hippos out of the water. Of course we all followed.
• Testing our 4x4 on more than one occasion (props on the driving, Alex).
• Introducing my friends to my fantabulous host parents in Okahandja. 
• Chilling at Waterberg Plateau with Alison and the great life chats we had on the drive both ways. 

Hiking photos: 

Sand dune (Sossusvlei) photos: 

Safari Photos:

Part 2: Swaziland

• Getting lost in the Swazi bush. See instagram post for the full story: https://www.instagram.com/p/BU1HFyHFNEH/
• Having our own car to go where we wanted when we wanted! 
• Taking in the natural beauty of Swaziland.
• Enjoying Bushfire music festival and learning about lots of African artists.
• Learning about Swazi organizations that promote environmentalism at Bushfire.
• Throwing a jar of peanut butter at some random men on the side of the road in Johannesburg since we couldn't bring it on the plane.
• Eating McDonald's twice while commuting through Joburg.
• Somehow almost missing our flight with Maggie in the Joburg airport. I swear we went through some crazy wormhole...

Swaziland Photos:

And now, things are back to normal life. I'm back teaching at school and living in the village. It's nice to be back somewhere familiar. I missed my colleagues so so much! It's good to be home. It's getting to be closer and closer to the time that I'll be leaving this home for my original home; it's unbelievable that time is flying so quickly. I still don't know my official Close of Service (COS) date, but it'll likely be in early October. After COSing, I plan to travel a bit more around southern Africa with my friend Lena and then traveling a bit in Europe to visit family and friends there. After my world tour, I'll finally return stateside and may do a bit of a stateside tour to see family and friends. Fingers crossed! For now, I'm trying to stay focused on my work here, but it's easy to get caught up doing research about companies and potential future opportunities. I'm mostly really excited and also slightly scared for my next step. But if I can survive two years as a novice teacher in the Namibian bush, I think I can do anything.

That's all for now, folks. Much love to all of you. Can't wait to put my arms around you soon. xxC

 Thanks again for visiting, Alison, Marissa, and Alex!