Language Assignment, host family, & other updates

Hi all! It’s been a busy week here in Okahandja! I wrote this in pieces over the past week, so my apologies if it’s a bit disjointed!

Language Assignment

My language assignment is Oshindonga! I’m really excited about this assignment. Oshindonga is “a Bantu language spoken in Namibia and parts of Angola. It is a standardized dialect of the Owambo language, and is mutually intelligible with Kwanyama, the other Owambo dialect with a standard written form. With 281,500 speakers, the language has the largest number of speakers in Namibia. ” (Thank you, Wikipedia!)

I’ll be up in Owamboland, the region of the country where Oshiwambo languages are spoken. It’s also referred to as O-land for short! It’s in the north, closer to the border with Angola. I’ll most likely be placed in a rural area in O-land.

Check out this map which shows where in the country O-land is!

Owamboland-- my new home!

Host Family

My host family is absolutely wonderful! My host parents are about the same age as my actual parents, so their children are grown and don’t live at home anymore. So, I haven’t met my host siblings yet! But my host parents are incredibly sweet and caring. They have repeatedly told me that I should feel at home here and act as if I were in my own house. They speak Oshindonga and my host mom and I have been exchanging Oshindonga and English words as we cook together. We are slowly teaching each other! My host dad speaks a good amount of English and my host mom speaks enough to communicate. My host mom’s cousin is often around to help cook and clean as well, and she speaks no English, so we have a lot of fun miming together and teaching each other words that we have successfully mimed! My host cousin also lives on the family’s property, in a neighboring flat, though I haven’t seen much of him since the first night because he caught the measles my second day here! He speaks impeccable English, so I’ve learned some more Oshindonga since he hasn’t been around!

I went to church with my host family this morning (8/23) too. They are members of the Old Apostolic Church of Africa. The service today was four (!) hours long. There was a lot of singing, a skit, and a service. The singing was beautiful, but I wish I’d known how long it was going to be or I’d have packed a snack! It was a great bonding experience with my host family, though. They really appreciated it that I went and we spent the afternoon chatting, sharing family photos, and cooking. It was a really nice day with my host family! Photo with them to come, once I can figure out how to get it off my host dad's phone!

Classes this week

Class this week was very nice! We covered a lot of interesting topics. We talked about the political, economic, gender, and other societal differences between the USA and Namibia, via a panel of my fellow American volunteers and our Namibian trainers. It turned into a very interesting debate and shed light on a lot of the issues we will face. For example, gender roles in Namibia are much more rigid than in the US. Women are meant to be in the kitchen and men are meant to be served. Gender-based violence is a big issue here in Namibia—from domestic violence to passion killings (murdering a significant other who no longer desires to be with you, etc.) are both common problems here. However, the majority of university graduates in Namibia are now women, so some of this is changing. But many women who work are still expected to come home and cook and clean for the family, as this is their role. Race is a big issue in Namibia, as it also is in the United States. Despite the fact that everyone is equal in the eyes of the law (since gaining independence from South Africa), there is still a huge amount of discrimination. Whites will sometimes get served first when they aren’t next in line and on a more serious note, whites have no problem getting loans from the bank, while blacks are made to jump through many hoops and get much smaller loans than whites. Our trainers wanted us to be aware of these issues so that we know what we may struggle to understand and that our students/community may endure on a daily basis. They also want us to share our views on gender and help empower our female students, which is something I’m looking forward to.

We also had a day devoted to the history of Namibia this week. It was fascinating. Namibia has had such an intense history filled with a lot of bloodshed. It has been under German, British, and South African control. Namibians didn’t win their independence until 1990, making it a very young country! If you’re interested to learn more about their history, check out the Wikipedia page. It’s great! Very interesting.

Herero red flag day festival

On Sunday 8/16, we went to a Herero festival, taking place in our training town of Okahandja. The Herero are one of the main tribes in Namibia and they were the ones that revolted against the Germans while they were in power in Namibia. When the Germans heard of a potential uprising, they sent troops over to Namibia that were directed to wipe out the entirety of the Herero tribe. Subsequently, the Germans killed almost 100,000 Hereros and nearly wiped out their entire population. It is widely recognized as the first genocide of the 20^th century.

The Red Flag Festival is an annual commemoration of those that fought in the war against the Germans and is meant to honor their sacrifices. This year, they also honored a Herero chief who died last year and installed a new chief. This is the ceremony that we attended.

The Herero wear very distinct traditional outfits; the women wear dresses with many petticoats (the many layers were to prevent unwanted sexual advances from the Germans) and a horn-shaped hat, to represent the importance of cattle in their culture. Raising cattle is the Herero’s main form of livelihood. The men, on the other hand, wear uniforms that resemble the German soldier uniforms. See the picture below for an example of their outfits!

Traditional Herero outfits

We also learned a lot about the Herero people at this event. Our Herero trainer, Joel, went with us and graciously and patiently answered every question we had about the Hereros! For example, we learned that Hereros have traditionally only been allowed to marry other Hereros (which makes sense in terms of rebuilding their population). Arranged marriage used to be a common Herero practice. However, nowadays, the younger generation is starting to stray from this norm. We learned a lot more than that, but I won’t bore you with more details! I’m sure the Wikipedia page has a lot more info if you’re curious J

As an aside, many Hereros thought that we were Germans and came up to our trainer and asked what we were doing there and asking for money (reparations). Some were apparently a bit aggressive, but there were also many people talking to us about Peace Corps and how much they appreciate our service to their country. So, it was a mixed reception!

Recap and other news

So, all in all, things are going well here. Adapting to Namibian cultural norms is slow-going, but I’m doing alright! For example, you must always greet people here, first thing when you see them. Greeting someone is a way of acknowledging that they’re human. So, I have my Oshindonga greetings down (but not much else :P )! It’s been hard for me to succumb to the gender roles, but I’m hoping to be able to slowly incite some change in that regard once I’m at my permanent site.

On September 4^th, I’ll be going with the other volunteers who are also learning Oshindonga (there are five of us, plus our two language trainers) up to O-land for four weeks. There, we’ll be living with other host families who won’t speak English, observing (1 week)/co-teaching (2 weeks)/solo teaching (1 week) in a local school, and having intensive language classes. The hope is that this Community-Based Training (CBT) helps us to gain a better grasp on the culture we’ll be living in, the lifestyle (likely no western plumbing, etc), the language, and the teaching! After CBT, I’ll return to Okahandja and my current host family for approximately 2.5 more weeks before swearing in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV)!

On October 5^th, I’ll find out what/where my permanent site is. On the 15^th, I’ll swear in. On the 16^th, I’ll move to my new home for the next two years!

If you have any questions, comments, thoughts, etc., please post them below in the comments! Thanks for reading! Sending lots of love and positivity to you all <3