Old Post

Written roughly 10 days ago...

Reconnect

Hello all, sorry it’s been such a long time since I last updated. Things have been moving pretty quickly and I haven’t really had access to internet so allow me to fill you in on the events of the last week and a half. Reconnect was held at a place called Greiters, located about ten minutes outside of the capital. I cannot begin to describe how great the location was. The conference center was literally built at the top of a mountain (hill) and overlooked the city. We had a great view of the sunset every night and after that show was over, we could watch the city lights shimmer. It was great. It was also forced bonding and budgeting, with the city being fairly difficult to get into. It was exactly what we all needed…and it didn’t hurt that the place had two pools. It was a bit cool though for the pool. Which brings me to the weather; I can honestly say that it is legitimately cold at night. I was skeptical at first, but after sleeping outside a few nights I can say it does get cold. The staff at Greiters is great, they can accommodate at least 100, maybe more. They fed us great food, dessert with every meal. It was nice. Sessions began on Monday. We spent most of the first two days talking about teaching, and what has worked and what has not. There were a good amount of 25er’s there so they led some sessions on how to be a bit more effective as a teacher. It was also nice to hear their perspective on what we have to look forward too in the second term. They say that the first term is the most difficult and goes the slowest, and if this is true, I am in for a quite an experience. I felt as though the first term flew, I felt good bout what was happeneing at the school, so if it gets better, that is great. The only thing I was a bit worried about this past term was secondary projects, and the last three days were pretty much devoted to implementation and processes. Learned about a 25er’s project in which he A)founded a NGO, B)raised enough funds to send 4 Namibian students to a summer camp in the states, and C)has everything in place for it to be sustainable after he leaves. Amazing, especially since that’s all I hear from some of my students….’how can I get to america’. And I never know how to answer this question. This PCV took it on himself to just make it happen. Great. There were other really great projects, and with the initial setteling in time coming to a close, we are all very excited to get back and get some projects up and running. My most probable projects to get going are A)a running club with the goal of sending members to the marathon in Swakop, B)a school newspaper displayed on the computer lab, C)make the school bizarre that happened last year bit and more lucrative. They are smaller scale projects, but I feel they are things I could get motivated about, which I feel is a huge factor to the success of the project. Thursday afternoon we traveled to a place call The Habitat, a development facility devoted to re-useable energy. It was really interesting. The whole structure is made of trash or recycled products: some walls made of sands, Styrofoam, bottles, some roofs of old oil drums, solar panels all over the place, traditionally thatched roofs. It was really great. Their major product is selling solar ovens; they are place in the sun in roughly 5 hours, you have cook just about everything. We had chicken(very good), rice, and veggies. I think it’s a great idea, however I worry that Namibians would have a hard time adjusting to something different. The director echoed this concern, explaining that the biggest problem has been marketing of their product. He encouraged us all to purchase one ($N800) but for me it’s a bit out of my budget, and those that I work with/for. And I think on of the best part, they brought An Inconvenient Truth to the conference center Friday night and we all viewed that. Most hadn’t seen it so it was a really nice way to spend the night. Again, great movie if you have yet to see it.

Some really productive sessions, some of the most productive I have been to yet as a PCV, and some really great bonding time with some that I haven’t seen in a few months made reconnect great. Traveling now begins. Just from our group we have members going to the states, Paris, Turkey, among other places in southern Africa. Needless to say, its exciting to be around so many people that love traveling as much as I do. For all of you that are thinking about coming, there are currently two friends of volunteers that are here and its great to meet them….so…..visit. Just know that ill be poor.

Hope everybody is well, I may be offline for a while until I reach site. Have a good may. When May 6th comes around, ill have been in Africa for 6 months….wild

cheers