Alive and Well in Namibia!!

new friends Caitie, Julie and Sarah in Okahandja

had to learn how to put up a mosqioto net

first Namibian sunset

training center

training center

my room at the training center

landing in Namibia

airport in Namibia

airport in Namibia

Where to begin?!? So I’ll try to bring you up briefly since my last post however I’m certain I’ll leave out something. We arrived in Namibia on Friday, August 21st after what was essentially 3 days of travel from DC. We deplaned to the most beautiful weather I’ve seen in a long time (no humidity, 80 degrees, sunny, with a light breeze) – welcome to Namibia’s spring weather! We were met by the PC Country Director, other PC staff and 2 current PCVs. We claimed our luggage and loaded onto a bus that took us to our training site where I am now. Our luggage all arrived – some had been rifled through in the Jo’Burg airport but the only thing taken from mine were some pens and sharpies – I can get more of those. Our training site is about 45 minutes outside of Windhoek, the capital city. We will be at the training facility until Friday and then we move in with our first home-stay family. The facility is great – hot water, western toilets, twin beds and a communal shower/bathroom facility and dining area. I’m going to liken it to going to camp at Transy? I definitely feel like I’m walking down the Chi-O hall on my way to the shower carrying my shower caddy and rooming with three other girls. We got to unpack and get settled for a few days so we’re making it feel like home as much as possible. In order to keep the mosquitoes away while we sleep we were all given mosquito nets to hang up ourselves. This proved to be a hilarious and frustrating task but somehow they are up. Mine is currently rigged with an extra scarf I brought and random string. But no bites yet so I guess its working!
Our days have been scheduled from 8am to dinner for the most part filled with training. There is a group of about 12 Namibians who work for Peace Corps as our trainers in technical skills (teaching methods), language, health, cross-cultural and safety/security issues. We will have these sessions every day until October when training is over and we become real PCVs!
As far as my shots and meds go, before we left DC we all received a yellow fever vaccination and upon arrival in Namibia we got our first rabies shot along with our first dose of Larium (malaria medicine that is supposed to make you have very crazy lucid dreams – haven’t had any yet). More shots to come are typhoid, meningitis and two more rabies shots. Hopefully that will be it!
On our first day we were taken on a tour of the city where we are training and living for the next 8 weeks. Probably similar in size to Harrodsburg – about 8,000-10,000 people is what I’ve been told. Our trainers took us around so we could get our bearings - the post office, internet café, grocery stores, etc. Essentially there’s basically everything we need or could want – for the most part. The food has been good – but just what I expected. Lots of fatty meat, rice, pasta and potatoes with veggies. It’s good though and I haven’t gotten sick yet so that’s a good sign! Oh! And the best part is you can drink the water straight from the tap in Namibia unlike many other African countries. I have been drinking it since we’ve been here and feel fine. Sickness is bound to set in soon but for now I’m feeling great, just always a little tired.

Tomorrow we have our interviews with the English teaching group (there are other groups that came with us to teach math, science and computer science). These interviews are where we will learn about the potential sites for our permanent sites which we will move to in October. This will determine what language we will begin learning over the next few weeks. We’ll see if I luck out and get chosen to learn a “click” language :)

Well that’s about it for now. There’s just so much and I’m not at a point where I feel like I can properly put everything into words. Hopefully in the future my posts won’t be so random. Everyone here is so welcoming and so nice and that has really made this transition a bit easier. It’s still not easy – but it is getting a little easier every day. I’m making some good friends here and that’s made all the difference because everyone is going through the same thing.
People have been asking what they can send me in care packages (thank you to those who have offered!)…….I don’t really need any toiletries and probably won’t for awhile but maybe in the future. For now, just something that reminds me of home – magazines, newspapers (especially the Sunday NY Times), maybe some crossword puzzle books, something sweet that won’t melt, and anything else you would want to get if you were in Africa thousands of miles away from family and friends.

Hope to be back on here soon, but not sure when exactly.
Thanks for reading!

PS. Enjoy the pictures! Only have a few to share so far and it takes awhile to upload them here. They are bit out of order but they are from our arrival and first few days here in Namibia.