Christy in Namibia - Peace Corps

A little tidbit from my day: While teaching grade 7B during period 7 (there are 8 periods per day), a group of about 15 learners from 6A, my next lesson, ran up and were standing outside the door.  6A learner: "Miss! At your house, there's a snake! At the tap!" Me: "In the sink behind my house?" All of the learners: "Yes, Miss!" Me: "Ok... Did anyone try to kill it?" Them: "No, Miss!" Me, sheepishly: "...does anyone want to go kill it?" Them, all in unison: "Yes, Miss!"   And the whole pack of 15 kids ran off in the direction of my house. Grade 7B and I got back to our discussion of the word "balance," as a noun and a verb, one of our new vocabulary words for the week.  Just as we had moved on to the word "transplant," the gaggle of grade 6's returned to the classroom door.  6A learner: "Miss, the snake isn't die." Me: "Why not?" Another learner, looking like she wa...

Sorry, friends and family! The this one isn't for you. To the PC/N G roup 43 incoming volunteers and future groups… here’s my attempt at packing advice for Peace Corps/Namibia. I’m sorry this is such a long post! Please feel free to comment if you have any questions. Things I brought: Luggage : 1 big rolling suitcase 1 hiking backpack (60L) 1 regular backpack (carry-on) 1 pillow (with a neck pillow stuffed inside the case) as a second carry-on [advice: buy yourself a neck pillow for the ~36 hours of traveling.] Clothes : 2 pairs of black work pants 1 pair of khakis 2 pairs of jeans 1 pair of Bermuda shorts 2 pairs of running shorts 1 pair of basketball shorts 2 pairs of leggings (long) 1 pair of leggings (knee length—actually acquired these here) 1 pair of sweatpants 1 pair of flannel pants 4 skirts (midi-length) 2 sweatshirts 4 cardigans, lightweight 1 cardigan, heavy/warm 3 sweaters, warm 3 nice long-sleeved t-shirts (could wear...

Hi all! Wow, I can't believe it's already January 30th.  The month of January has simultaneously flown by but also many days have felt never-ending! The school year started up mid-January, though the beginning of the school year moves a bit slower than what I’m used to from an American perspective. For example, the first day of school for the learners, it still wasn’t clear what grades I would be teaching. So, I just sat in the staff room (enjoying the air con) and read a book! By the end of the day, it was decided that I would be teaching grades 6 & 7 English. I taught for the remaining two days of week one and was just trying to get my bearings. There may or may not have been two occasions where I walked into the wrong classroom and greeted the class “Good morning 7A!” (or 6B) and they responded by corrected me with “7B. Good morning, miss!” and I then had to make a quick and sly exit to find the right classroom. Oops! The timing was unfortunate, but during the ...

Hello all! As the holiday break comes to a close here, I find myself slightly baffled by how 5 weeks off have passed so quickly! As the saying goes, time flies when you're having fun.  At the beginning of break, I moved to my foster family's house (in the same village where I live). I brought over a few bags of my things and unpacked into my new room on their homestead. I then proceeded to spend about 2.5 weeks here in the village with my foster family and had a fantastic time. There was a family wedding (a cousin) one weekend, so there was a lot going on for that. Many of my host siblings that I hadn't met before who live in different parts of Namibia came home for the wedding. It was fun meeting new family members and taking part in the wedding celebration with them!  My host sister Martha (Mbute) and I at the wedding! I was in traditional Wambo attire.  The wedding wasn't all fun and games, though; in Namibia, weddings aren't catered. Rather, di...

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 t...