My First Month at Site

As I begin to settle into day-to-day life, regular blog posts seem to be difficult to produce.  I simply don’t know what to share.  I try to remind myself that while things are becoming normal for me, there are interested parties at home who want updates.  I never felt that life was interesting enough to keep a blog before, so I’m falling back into that perspective.  The newness eventually wears away from everything and we’re left with our usual self.

I feel very welcomed into the school and my host family.  As I said before, I have returned to my training site so I’ve had a head-start on getting to know people.  

I’m constantly laughing in the staffroom; my colleagues are a hoot.  But also, they love to talk about current world issues and a never-ending variety of intriguing topics.  I am grateful to see the world through an altered lens and I think they like to hear how things compare in the United States.  We are able to speak about subjects like racism in our respective countries with an equal willingness to understand and learn.  It turns out materialism, discrimination, and a passion for bettering our world exists wherever you go.

Oh and yes, they all speak English.  All classes, with the exception of Oshindonga, are taught in English so teachers have to be able to speak it, naturally.  The staffroom is a mixture of the two languages.  People here tend to switch to the language in which they can better express themselves.  That means a sentence will switch back and forth a couple times before the statement has ended.  This can be hilarious for me overhearing a discussion on what to do if an elephant herd is crossing the street right in front of you. “…words, words, words…will it hit my car?...words, words,”  (There is a great fear of elephants here.  They trample homes, cars, and people.  Nothing like the family fun circus elephant I’m used to).

This brings me to how I am doing with learning Oshiwambo.  It is a challenge, to say the least.  My host sister, Olyvia, has been my tutor for the past 3 weeks and I can see myself starting to pick up words here and there in the surrounding conversations.  I believe I’m currently lacking in confidence to attempt to speak it with people; something I need to do if I ever want to get better.  I’m not sure how to give myself that boost of energy.  On the one hand I’m saying “You’re being too hard on yourself.  Learning a language is difficult and Rome wasn’t built in a day.”  On the other I’m saying “You aren’t pushing yourself like you should be.  You’ll never learn unless you get out there and try.”  I think both voices are right in their own way.  I just need to find that perfect in-between balance and I haven’t yet.  Namibia is on the top of the list for Peace Corps countries where volunteers fail to learn the language.  This is because most people speak some level of English.  Besides English, there is no unifying language.  Every region speaks something unique and quite difficult for me to learn.

I am staying on a homestead with a host family so I can’t fully fall into my “hide away from the world in my bedroom” routine.  Believe me, there are days where I want to do just that.  Stress and anxiety come in waves making me moody and oh, so fun to be around.  Those of you familiar with this side of me know I like to be alone to cope with that.  I still very much need my alone time but living with a family ensures that it doesn’t become my way of life.  Additionally, I live with them but actually have my own house.  I can go write or listen to music, then emerge to help cut vegetables for dinner.  Baby steps.  

Yesterday was one of my struggle evenings but I sat under the stars for a while with Jane, my 3-year-old niece, on my lap and the frustration melted away.  That little one has become my shadow, along with my puppy.  Sitting in the yard usually consists of her wiggling around on top of me trying to stay out of range of puppy teeth while I try to lean over to hold the puppy’s mouth shut so she’ll stop biting my legs for 2 seconds.  I’m starting to get a slight response from her when I say “no” but that dog wants EVERYTHING in her mouth.  I watched her struggle to reach an upper branch of a tree for 5 minutes yesterday which she so clearly was craving to chew on.  She eventually settled for the trunk.  Her chew toy I brought home has gone missing again. She prefers my leg anyways.  

My family has been trying to convince me to go to the hospital for rabies injections.  Yes, the scratches are that bad.  I did, however, get vaccinated as a part of my requirements to be here.  Also, if an animal is infected, it will die within 10 days.  It takes a month for humans to start showing symptoms so I would have plenty of time to get to the hospital if this were the case.  I was trained on this stuff and refuse to get a series of painful shots for no reason.

Living on a homestead is my favorite part of being here so far.  I love the simplicity of daily life, having time to watch the sunset and stargaze, playing with the animals, and being away from all the noise of a city.  Sitting with nature has always been my remedy to a tough day so no matter what, I have what I need to recharge.

I’ll do everything I can to get more pictures up but the internet is a serious challenge.  Loading one picture could take me all day.  I still have 2 years, though.  Odds are they’ll get up here eventually. 

Until next time.