quick update

Just a quick update because I am in the PC lounge and others are waiting for the cpu. We are now in windhoek, my first time being here since before we were sworn in, kinda weird. The reconnect workshop was great, it was held at a place called Greiters Conference center and the location was beautiful, in the mountains. The workshops and sessions were really great, some of the best I have had yet in PC, which also made the whole week great. I am looking forward to some more exploring of the country and overall just relaxing a bit before 2nd term begins...should be nice, and much needed. Must get going but hope everybody is well in the states........

keith

ps I am locked out of my sim card on my phone until I get back ( I tried the wrong pin code numberous times and it finally just locked me out), so if you need to get a hold of me and I dont answer....thats why....

Small animals, small people, and small victories.

These guys took stuff from our campsite, they were cool to watch though. Wonder if they are saying the same thing on their blog about me?





This is my garden....the maize is no longer there.





They call me Jesus round here....thats alotta wine








Can I just be this guy?


Its 4:23 and I am just eating lunch. That can mean one of two things, either I had a really good day where I just forgot to eat, or I had such a bad day I didn’t have time to eat. Well, luckily, today was a good day. It started off by an email from the goodwoman. She’s acquired a kitten, who would have guessed that would have happened? She returns from CBT on Saturday and is very excited. Her language is leaps and bounds ahead of mine, she tells stories of thinking in Spanish and getting stumped when it comes to English. Quite a good start to the day. Then I began the quite daunting task of trying to get my end of term test printed. I had it typed, it was just a matter of printing and copying, which isn’t such a small deal when I have 160 “plus minus” (namlish) learners taking my math exam. After some exchanging of printers and many times where I didn’t think it would actually happen, I walked out of the village counselors office with a copy of my exam. Our school has yet to see value in purchasing a printer and/or copy machine. They are both hefty purchases, though ones that I feel could actually happen soon. Anyway. Copying was the next task. The primary school that feeds to ours has a copy machine that we use. I am just finding this out….yes I have been here for a full 1/3 of the school year. It was great to see this different school. And let me say, the goodwoman says she has some cute Dominican kids….well I don’t think she has anything that compares to how cute the little Namibians are. Standing outside of the principals office, there was a game going on between the kids about who could walk closest to me, or who could look me in the eyes for the longest before they looked away, laughed, and ran. It was also very exhilarating for them to practice their newly acquired English skills. “Hello, how are you?!?!?!?”….”IM FINE”. It was awesome. Got my prints done there, 160 copies, 2 pages each. That’s a large amount of printing by Namibian standards. It made me realize just how much we take for granted our resources in the states, where we have rooms built just to hold the bricks of paper we can’t live without. The principal of the school told me this paper was from 2004, when their brother school (a UK school that donates and flies teachers to the UK to visit and vice versa) brought them a bunch of stuff, probably where this copy machine comes from. I don’t know if I am doing this justice, but it is a minor miracle that tomorrow my learners will “write”(namlish) my exam on two stapled, typed, printed sheets of paper that they will then hand in, that I will then use to write them encouraging messages, their “symbols” (namlish for grades), and any missing work. Crazy. Then, after school, I had scheduled a meeting/workshop for some members of the school and community. Well the highlight is that, even though it started 30 minutes late (Africa-time), people came! We had 11, enough for two good sized groups. An aside about workshops in Africa. From what I have seen, they are not quite workshops, they are more like meetings held by one person. So when I asked the group to write stories about times when the school community was working well and things were being accomplished, they were a little put off. They did it though, and both groups wrote about a bizarre that happened here last September. As soon as they were done sharing about the bizarre, I explained that even if nothing more happened with this meeting, it was beneficial for me, cause this bizarre sounds awesome. They had members of the community donate items to the school and then sell them. They had music, traditional food and drink, a braii, and local businesses were involved. I mean….sounds definitely like something I am gonna try to make huge. Then we spoke about the external and internal factors that contributed to the success. Well, I didn’t even have to guide them to think all about the internal factors; they listed way more internal factors than external. Almost like my job is done, huh. I sometimes think that, but then most of the time don’t….so yeah. Had each group write their dream statement for the school community and then we were done. All in all, people came, they talked and wrote, and I did see a smile and hear at least one laugh…so it was a total success in my eyes. I write when I am happy, if you have not noticed, and I am very happy right now, hence the length of this update. It does present a very skewed version of the country however I think it does provide an accurate depiction of my overall experience. On the emotional roller coaster that is Peace Corps Namibia, I am at the top of a hill…I am gonna ride it, cause I know that it will come down soon. Hope everyone is well. I am gonna go read a book, watch my garden (the goats ate my maize over the weekend), listen to the kids yell and scream in some language that I don’t understand, and think about being in Africa.

Killed a Goat....

Picture 1:The whole crew. Some of work with, though it turned into quite the get together, so some of which I hardly knew. They liked the whole timed flash thing.
Picture 2: It was a beautiful day, like many here (see my new perspective of nice weather below). I am, however, beginning to feel winter coming on. It is still by no means cool during the day, but I do notice some cooler temps rolling in, especially at night.
Picture 3: Kachele, Philip, and me. Philip is half of the reason for the party, he is leaving for the big city life in Oshikati for another job.
Picture 4: Salvado Shiminengenni and his wife. He was the first one to take me to Ruacana Falls, pretty much the first person I knew in Oshifo. He was the other half of the reason we were having the party, he is accepting a promotion in another circuit....bummer, cause is he is really good teacher. They both had mixed feeling about leaving Ombuumbuu.
Picture 5: Colleagues...they are awesome.
Picture 6: Namutanya, she is so cute, comes up to me, greets me, and then just points to things and says "....and this one?" and waits for me to say the english word for it, then she repeats it. The kids here are pretty much the definition of cute.

That’s right, I killed a goat yesterday. It was wild but definitely not as hard as I was expecting. The two killings I had seen before this were done with a fairly dull knife so when I was handed a machete (pangar) to slit the throat I was kind of relieved a bit, since the rest of the work, after I was done, was completed with a pretty dull knife no bigger than a regular table knife….crazy. I had some help from my principal and a fellow teacher; they were holding the goat as I slit the throat…and you don’t just slit the throat, its more akin to cutting off the whole head….wild. I am definitely not regretting doing it at all, but at the time I was a little weirded out. However, I think I earned much respect from my colleagues, so that alone for me makes it worth it. After I killed the goat, we hung it up in a tree and began the cleaning process. Again, it is amazing to see how skilled Namibians are when it comes to butchering. My job was just to hold hooves from time to time to make carving easy. I also helped with cutting most of the meat into bite size pieces. The goat was great tasting of course, and a good time was had by all.

So yeah, I guess I never explained why exactly I was slaughtering a goat. We had a party for two teachers that are leaving for jobs at other schools. We went to the river side, down stream from the falls. It was great, even took a dip in the possibly crocodile and schistosomysis infested river. I was assured by the Namibians that the crocodiles aren’t around at this time of year (I dunno) and the water was moving to quickly for me to get schisto I think/hope. I swam out to a little island/sand bar type thing, and everybody was going crazy that I was going out to far. If they only knew my river swimming experience. It was a really great day. I have a great staff at my school, and I really feel like I am starting to fit in there. It’s tough to see two of our teachers go, both of which are talented and devoted teachers.

Here are some cultural items that I feel I have gotten so accustomed to that I have failed to mention….

-men usually always drive if its an option, in fact walking around town we saw the bread delivery truck and my buddy commented that the only reason a woman was driving was because the truck was carrying food. Otherwise, it’s usually men driving.

-I have had many questions inquiring about my religious beliefs. I have yet to be to church here in Oshifo and I feel like it is a huge problem with the community. I am going to try to go to Easter service next weekend but may be out of town for the holiday.

-I bring a 1.5L bottle of water to school everyday and a few weeks ago I was asked by a colleague if I have a lot of those bottles at home…do I just store them up. I said ‘no, I just fill it up every night, why do you ask’. ‘Oh I didn’t know if you would drink the same water as us’………..and this is one of my fellow teachers, so just imagine what the community must think of me. And that is just one example of how a) everything I do is documented by the community talk and b) every one of my actions can (and often is) be misperceived.

-Culturally it is relatively accepted for men to have more than one woman. I was told I need to get an African girlfriend by one of my teachers, I responded with I am a one woman man, which was then laughed at.

-‘In Africa we share’. I have heard this many times referring to many different items; money, food, resources (teaching), woman (see previous). In fact if you have a high paying job, you are pretty much expected to support your family, which in most cases are at least 6. This causes a huge problem where nobody is really saving much money. I have had a constant battle with how to deal with this. Even my colleague talks about how it’s hard to do the tough love thing for your family, but that if one is always relying on others for food/money they become dependant. Don’t even let me get in to the constant battles I have had with myself debating about if really all these NGO’s in Africa are the best for the continent.

-Wealth is measured in cattle and goats. The Himba people are apparently pretty wealthy because of their livestock.

-‘Nice weather’ is when it’s overcast and cool and maybe or maybe not raining. When I first got here, I was constantly commenting on how nice the weather was (when it was sunny and slightly breezy). I now love when it’s not sunny…

-Oshifima porridge is eaten by most people in Namibia at least 4 or 5 times a week. It is pretty much like baking flour cooked in boiled water till it turns in to a kind of paste. This is usually dipped in some sort of sauce that may or may not be made with meat. I have been asked numerous times what the American ‘staple’ food is. I usually answer some sort of pasta product.

…and I could keep going. There isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t learn something about me/Oshifo/Namibia/Africa/language/culture/teaching. I journal everyday and it still doesn’t even come close to documented all the crazy little things that happen here. It’s that constant reminder of where I am and what I am doing that I love. This is Africa and I am loving it. Hope all is well on the other side of the pond.

Keith

p.s. We had daylight savings today, so we are now 5 hours ahead of the east coast…for all those calling me, hahah.