My New Home

Hello All,

I'm at the end of my permanent site visit today. It's in Tsumeb! I'm the only volunteer having CBT and permanent site in the same location. I got here last weekend. It is truly beautiful. It's very green, colorful trees and quite a bit of rain. I'm living with a host family and will continue to do so for my full 2 years. They are really wonderful. They are tate Lebbius, meme Rosina, 17-yr old son Jesse, and 1-yr old daughter Tangasia Cssdy Ulla Palla. Yes, that's her first name. I do have pictures, but forgot my camera connection. Sorry, I'll send some later. The family has been incredibly warm to me, and I've enjoyed some great cooking. Last night we had my new favorite meal. They call it Braai & Pap (BBQ & Porridge). The meat was Mutton ribs and broerwors (sausage). Man it was excellent! Meme Rosina will be living in Windhoek next year for advanced Nursing school/work study. I will really miss her cooking. So it will be a bachelor pad... me, Jesse and Tate Lebbius. The father is a regional councilor here in Tsumeb. He is a very popular guy. Everywhere we go he gets caught up talking with the people. My job will be working closely with him and the local Constituency Aids Committee (CACOC) trying to get the new Meameno HIV/AIDS Support Center going. It just opened in May and we are struggling to get the community to use it. I look forward to working on that. There are several young Red Cross and TCE (Total Control of the Epidemic) volunteers here that I will be working in tandem with. It seems like quite a challenge at this point, but I'm sure it will be fun. I've met so many people in Tsumeb already. I'm just trying to remember faces for now.

I live in a very nice modern home. They even have satellite TV! In the backyard we have mango, guava, lemon, narches (like tangerines I think) trees. I can't wait to pick fruit off of them. Next week I will be shadowing a current PCV (peace corps volunteer... I'll be using a lot of acronyms, hope they don't confuse you) next week in Omuthiya. Then I will train all of December back here in Tsumeb.

I'm starting to go through the emotional highs and lows. Thanksgiving day was tough. I certainly missed friends and family, but the very next day was great! Never know how I'm going to feel. PLEASE KEEP SENDING THE GREAT COMMENTS. YOU ARE REALLY MAKING ME SMILE.

Settling in

Yesterday we visited a public hospital and clinic in Okahandja. While the facilities aren't great, they are better than I expected. You have to understand 'public' here means poor. People with very modest income would likely only go to private hospitals and doctors. It costs about $4N to visit the clinic and $8N to go to the hospital. That covers all care provided, including a trip to the main hospital in Windhoek if necessary. The staff we met were very informative and happy to speak with us. Unfortunately there just aren't enough of them. Doctors and nurses are in high demand here as you might imagine.

Earlier this week we got to go into the community with our language teachers and speak Afrikaans with locals. they were very receptive and patient with us. It was a lot of fun. Ek praat net 'n biejtie Afrikaans = I only speak a little bit of Afrikaans. It's not a very difficult language thankfully, although pronunciation is pretty wierd.

Tomorrow is a big day. It's site announcement. I will finally know where I will be spending the next 2 years. We are all pretty excited. My internet access will be very limited the next couple weeks. I'll do my best to check back in. This pic is from Saturday. We got to try many interesting cultural foods, like sheep brains. They are quite tasty.

Bye!!!

Thank You

Thank you all so much for the wonderful posts. Sorry I can't really respond individually right now but I did publish them now. I am really excited, but it makes it all the better having friends and family rooting for me.

Til next time...

I'm Here!

I have lots to say and not much time to say it, so this is going to be a laundry list... sorry. We arrived in Windhoek, Namibia on Friday and were transported North to our training site. It's basically like a school with dorm rooms. We sleep 6-8 to a room. I have great roommates. Here's a picture of Nick under his mosquito net. I'm at the only internet cafe in town. It's $20N (about $3 U.S.) per half hour. That is our daily allowance of money so I can't really go over. When we arrived the entire training staff, about 30 people, lined the driveway singing and dancing for us. All of our trainers are either native Namibians or close by. They are wonderful. We've been cooked and cleaned for, fed like 5 times a day. We are spoiled rotten. I'm not sure how this prepares us for upcoming service. Training goes into the first week of January and then we go to permanent sites... don't know where yet, but I have learned the language I'll be speaking is Afrikaans. This language is used in much of Namibia and all over South Africa. I feel fortunate to be studying it. Each day we start out in language class, then have cross-cultural sessions, medical & safety sessions, along with VRC sessions (This is the volunteer support group consisting of current Namibia volunteers). We have gotten to spoke to several of the current volunteers. They all have very different experiences to share. We are all a little tired of our training site and really want to see more of the country. We have a permanent site visit in 2 weeks and then we spend a month in new training sites. I'll be in Tsumeb for most of December, up north near the red line (look that stuff up if you want to know more). I'll try to post again early next week, but it is hard to find time. Other pic info... Me at the Vietnam War Memorial, All of us at the airport in D.C., The Namibians greeting us on the first night.