Typical Day So Far....

Well training continues and I received which language I’m going to try to learn over the next two years – Otjiherero! It is spoken pretty widely in Namibia – mostly in the central region from coast to coast and in the northwest corner. For language lessons, they split us up into very small groups which are very helpful – my group only has 3 in it. My teacher is Joko and he has been a teacher for the past 20 years in Namibia. We meet for about 3 ½ to 4 hours per day outside for our lessons. It’s proving to be difficult already but it’s only day 2 of language instruction so there is a long road to go. For instance, the letters and sounds of C, X, L, Q, and F simply do not exist in Otjiherero and the S and Z are spoken as if you would say the word “the” with a lisp. Best way to describe it. Other people here are learning Afrikaans, Oshingdongo, Silozi and a few others.
I thought you might be wondering what we are actually doing during the day for our training. We cover many different subjects to ensure we are ready to live with a host family and eventually live at our permanent site on our own. So for the next 8 weeks we will be in a very intense PST (Pre-Service Training) six days a week.

Here’s what a typical day is like for me:
7:00am – Wake Up
7:00-8:00am - Breakfast
8:00-8:15am – Assembly of the entire training group and training staff for announcements and songs (we sing the Namibian and American national anthems every morning and are learning some native songs as well)
8:30-10:00am – Otjiherero Language lessons
10:00-10:30am – Morning tea break
10:30-12:30pm – Otjiherero Language lessons
1:00-2:00pm – Lunch (after lunch I’ll usually walk to town with others for internet, grocery store, etc.)
2:00-3:00pm – Medical/Safety & Security/Cross Cultural training
3:00-3:15pm – Afternoon tea break
3:15-5:00pm – Medical/Safety & Security/Cross Cultural training
6:00-7:00pm – Dinner
8:00pm – Shower
8:30pm – Journal, write postcards, hang out with others, watch movies, etc.
9:30pm – Go to sleep

As you can see, we are training constantly. And while it’s a pretty draining process we should be fairly prepared for site alone. We’ve been given more “guides” and “manuals” than I can count but all seem to help in one way or another. We’ve received a PC Cookbook that is specifically for our region on Africa using items we can buy in the Namibian grocery stores. We also have several language books and an Otjiherero dictionary. In addition to these, we have a lovely medical handbook that explains in detail every disease or medical issue we could possibly run across while we’re here and how to treat, self-diagnose and when to know to call the PC Medical Officer (PCMO). We also received a fancy PC Medical Kit with everything under the sun. Good thing I packed most of it from the states.
Thanks to everyone for the encouraging emails and blog comments! I promise I will return personal emails once I get some time on my hands – which I’m told we’ll have plenty after training. Right now 33 volunteers are trying to use the same internet café that has only five computers so it’s a bit rushed. Hoping to get a cell phone next week!