Hello from Namibia!

Hello friends and family!

Here’s my first blog post from Namibia—sorry for the delay! Things have been going very well here in this first week. We are through orientation week and are about to begin PST (Pre-Service Training) in earnest. During PST, we are all referred to as Trainees and it isn’t until October 15^th, when we swear in, that we officially become Peace Corps Volunteers, or PCVs. There are 52 of us in my training class!

This first week was a bit slow going. We had a couple half days with training and some easier sessions. We had been told beforehand that PST would be very intense and exhausting, so that’s what we all expected and were a bit surprised when it was so relaxing! But I know that once we begin language instruction next week, we’ll be longing for the slower pace.

Here are some of the highlights from this week:

-seeing giraffes off of the side of the highway on the drive to Okahandja

-getting a tour of Okahandja and seeing all the different neighborhoods

-having our trainers demonstrate how to bucket wash clothes and how to bucket bathe (extremely useful!)

-reading about the 53 permanent site placements (they were all placed on the wall, without the town/region name, with information such as urban vs. rural, mud hut vs. modern apartment, grade level, other projects the school would like us to work on, etc.)

-having our site placement interviews! We met with the placement officers and expressed our interests and they took lots of notes. We also chose our top three sites (of the 53 posted) and gave this info to the placement officers about this during the interview. They’ll use our input to determine our permanent sites, which also determines our language.

-playing Cards Against Humanity and talking with other trainees in the evenings

-going to the Beer Garden and Rhino’s (the two bar/restaurants that we’re allowed to go to) and hanging out with other trainees (fun fact: there is some very good cider here!)

-going on a run after class with other trainees (shoutout to Katie for us matching pace perfectly!)

-lots and lots of great conversation with trainers and trainees

-making my first Namibian friend—our trainer Kaekoo’s son Blessing, who is 6!

-bucket washing my clothes (my hands hurt a lot! Harder than you think!)

-spending time with Sinthu, a current health outreach volunteer, and getting advice/stories from her!

I think the short training days this week were bumming me out a bit. I came here ready to roll and work really hard, get to know Namibians, and ready to do my best to integrate into Namibian culture. However, the first week of PST has been very slow-going, meaning that all of us trainees have been spending a lot of time together, which is much more American-centric than I expected. But, after talking with Sinthu, I realized that I need to reel in my excited-ness a bit, enjoy this time in PST, and relish spending time with my fellow trainees, as this won’t be commonplace once I’m at my permanent site for the next two years. After this conversation, I’ve refocused and am enjoying the time together greatly! Plus, we move in with host families on Wednesday, and I'll be getting much more Namibian culture then! 

The weather here varies greatly. It’s late winter/early spring, so it’ll be getting warmer while we’re here. As we are in high desert, it gets very chilly once the sun goes down (40-50 degrees at night). During the heat of the day, it gets up to about 75-90 degrees. And the Namibian sun is hot! (Don’t worry mom, I’m wearing lots of sunscreen!)

On Tuesday, we’ll find out what language we’re going to be learning for our permanent site. I’m so excited!! We’ll study this language for ~1.5 months before we move to our sites and start using it daily! Namibians speak a ton of languages. Nearly every region has a different language; our training class will be divided between 6 different languages. So, on Tuesday, they’ll announce which one we’re assigned to! And on Wednesday, we move in with host families! The hope is that our host families will speak the language that we'll be learning for our sites. But regardless, it'll be great cultural exposure! 

That’s all for now! Thanks for reading!

Love,

Christy