Hike Hikes, Home Stays, and Languages!

*** This post was written a week or so ago... Finally got a chance to post it! ***

Saturday I came to the Café, as did a lot of people from PC.  I spent the entire morning there doing email and Facebook and when the internet wouldn’t work on my netbook I downloaded a bunch of books to my kindle.  It was great.  I got a lot of good books.  I saw some Christmas ones and went ahead and downloaded them for the Xmas season… not sure if I will see much Xmas stuff around.  After the café everyone went back to get lunch.  In the afternoon we had a session on homestays and then we were back to the Kukuri Center (where we stayed for the 1^st five days).

The center was like a camp.  They had one large main room in the center with a kitchen attached, a hall on the left side with classrooms, and a hall on the right side with bed rooms (and bathrooms too) that fit on average 6 people.  The bed rooms were split in half.  You go through one door and are in one section with 3 beds and then through another door with 3 beds.  The rooms were small for 3 people with so much stuff and it was difficult to live out of our suitcases, but I really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know my roommates better (Sachi and Daphne).  

Sunday we went on a hike hike (Throughout the course of this blog you will learn the great language known as Namlish.  First word – Hike.  In English the word means “a long walk or walking tour,” in Namlish it means hitchhiking which is a very common practice here.  So now when I say hike hike I mean the English word for hike and when I say hike I will be referring to the Namlish meaning.)  We had no idea where we were going and there was a group of about 20 of us.  Laurel, Sachi, and I also went the wrong way down and had to walk through a lot of brush, so I got a couple little splinters in my feet.  Anyways, the hike hike was fun and an eye opener… I am super out of shape!  I have since started doing yoga at home and am walking more!  Back to the hike… we didn’t know where we were going and got lost right in the beginning.  Two stragglers from the group caught up with us and told us we were going the wrong way so we back tracked a bit, found 2 boys, and asked them.  They said they would show us then they came on the entire hike with us and one was barefoot!  We were hiking up Pride Rock.  It was a very nice view from the top.  We could see all of Okahandja.  That’s pretty much it for the hike.

It is 8:00PM and I am currently in my bed with a nice hot water bottle warming my feet and a kerosene lamp for light. Stomach is making a lot of noise and Marvelous is sick.  Washing hands is not that common here so I am hoping I don’t get sick!

Nothing really notable happened during the day on Monday…  Other than me being EXTREMELY sore.  We were supposed to find out what language we would be learning on Tuesday but b/c they base our homestays off of your language they surprised us and told us on Monday before we met our host families.  I was assigned Afrikaans.  It is very similar to German, but it’s not good to say that.  Some Namibians really don’t like the Germans b/c of the fighting that occurred between them.  The Germans wanted to take over the land of the Herero people, but the Herero people wouldn’t leave so the Germans were ordered to kill every Herero.  In their attempt they did very bad things to the people and I think some Namibians are still very mad about it. That evening I met Mona, my host mom, and I found out she has three children one of whome goes to school in the south.  She was sitting right behind me during the whole session.  Before we found out who our families were we went over a list of anxieties that had been previously discussed.  There were some that the host families came up with and some that we (the volunteers) came up with.  Once that was done they passed out the names to us and we had to find our families.  In the evening we had to pack our stuff up for the following day when we would go to our host family houses.  Sachi played some music while we packed and later that evening I got a bunch of music from her.  I have yet to really listen to music and I have not watched anything since I arrived.  I’m reading a little, but slowly b/c I am usually tired by 9:00 and am in bed or ready for bed by 10:00PM.  What a difference!

Tuesday we had our first language exposure which included learning the formal greetings for six different languages (5 of which are being taught).  It was very hard and I don’t really remember all of them, but am surprised at how much I do still remember.  We got another shot that day for typhoid.  That was the worst shot by far for a lot of people.  Our arms were really sore by the end of the day.

The first night at my home stay was fun.  My host mom had to come to the Kukuri Center to pick me up, but the people whose families didn’t have cars went in the combi (van).  We had to wait for the combi to come again after taking one group.  My stuff went in last so they dropped us off first.  She showed me around the house.  My room is pretty big.  I have a twin size bed, a little bedside table and a tall cabinet with five shelves and two little drawers.  I went ahead and unpacked while the mom went to the store to buy some groceries.  When I was done I joined the kids coloring.  They didn’t talk too much.  Just answered my questions when asked.  The TV was on so I asked a couple things about what was going on there.  Miro is the oldest (in the house).  She is 12 and is in grade 6.  Marvelous is 6 and in grade 1.  He didn’t really talk much at all my first night wh/ was unexpected b/c Mona said the little one would ask me lots of questions.  Mona got back around 8 and we started cooking.  She said we were making spaghetti.  It was funny b/c it was definitely not the spaghetti I was thinking of.  When you say spaghetti you are referring to the noodles and not spaghetti with tomato sauce.  She cooked spaghetti noodles, potatoes, and ground beef.  The ground beef was cooked with onion, garlic powder, and chili powder.  It was all served together with some grated cheese on top.  I was in charge of making the salad.  I went to bed relatively soon after dinner.

Wednesday I got up and met her boyfriend.  His name is Elvis and he was helping get the kids ready for school.  They get picked up in a van around 5 to 7.  Elvis walked me to the end of the road where I was to be picked up and waited with me since I would have been alone.  He works at the Pick n’ Pay (a grocery store) and is into recording.  His friend has a studio and Elvis is interested in making a gospel record with him.  I was with Elvis b/c Mona has to leave for work by 6:30.  Our training day started off with a quick show of hands for people that didn’t have locks on their door or didn’t get breakfast or didn’t know where to go to get picked up.  It was very brief, but those are the things the families are supposed to do so they wanted to know.  After that we started our language learning.  I’m in a group with all SEED people (Daphne, Steve, Adam, and Amanda).  It’s a small group, but I really like it.  The other 2 Afrikaans groups were combined in the beginning, so there were like 12 ppl in the group.  I think we’ll be able to set the pace for ourselves better.  Richard is our teacher and he’s pretty funny.  He kept saying “don’t worry by the end of 3 wks you will know it!”  None of us were worried we just had a lot of questions for him on day one.  Class was held outside.  We had two other sessions before lunch but nothing really noteworthy.  After lunch we split into our sectors and SEED discussed the economics of Namibia and household economics.  It was pretty neat.  Our group is great b/c we ask a lot of questions, but it does cause us to go over on time.

That evening with my family was great.  I got home and the mom was still at work.  I decided to try the bucket bath and had Miro show me where the bucket goes.  I think in total it took me 30 mins to do.  That included boiling the water.  They have a bath tub and sink in one room and a toilet in another.  To take a bucket bath you put cold water and add boiled water into a bucket until it is the right temperature.  Then you stand in the tub (the bucket is sitting on the corner of the tub) or in the bathroom area where ever you plan to have the bath with a washcloth and bar of soap.  I was going to wash my hair too so I had a cup with me.  You use the same bucket for everything so I thought it best to do my hair first when the water would be the cleanest.  To wash your body you get wet, lather the soap in the washcloth, wash, and rinse.  It’s pretty simple and doesn’t take too long if you are not washing your hair.  Then you dump your bucket and you’re done.  It is not a fun thing to do in the morning’s b/c it is so cold.  Even if the water is hot you are cold.

After my bath I took my language books to the living room and Miro helped me with several words.  Mona didn’t get back until 6:30 so we started cooking around then.  We had veggie sandwiches.  I had a great time that evening b/c while we prepared the food and during dinner I asked a bunch of language questions.  After dinner I watched some of the Olympics.

Yesterday we were supposed to have our language class for 2 hrs then open bank accounts but the latter was cancelled so we did 4 hrs of language.  The banking one was cancelled b/c it was the end of the month and the banks are really busy b/c it is customary for Namibians to spend all their salary when they get paid (wh/ is at the end of the month).  They are so busy too b/c they charge for EVERYTHING here.  You withdraw money, there is a charge.  You use your card to purchase something, there is a charge.  You deposit money, there is a charge!  So I guess everyone is depositing and withdrawing and making purchases so they have a lot of work and I will limit my banking transactions.  Having 4 hrs of language was tough though.  After lunch we had a session on HIV/AIDS awareness and what to do if you come in contact with AIDS.  Apparently there is a medicine (PEP) that can help prevent you from getting the disease if taken within the first 72 hrs of infection.  Honestly, it was kind of comforting to see that a very low percentage of PCVs come into contact with the disease and the ones that have reported that it was due to consensual unsafe sex and/or alcohol was involved.  After that session we had a break and then discussed harassment and sexual assault briefly (we’ll have another session on this next week I think).  Somehow I ended up getting home later than usual.  I was so tired from the day that my mom told me to sit in the living room while she cooked dinner.  It was a good dinner, but there were no veggies!  I can’t believe how much meat and potatoes/rice/noodles they eat.  I had a ton of rice on my plate (I want to say about 2 handfuls), half of a large potato, and chicken.

My mom didn’t have to work this morning so she made porridge for us…  I hate that I didn’t like it, but I’m a texture girl and this was really not a good one for me.  The tea is also super sweet.  They add so much sugar to it!  We had three sessions today.  I think most of my cultural experiences during these first 2 months will strictly be from training b/c I don’t have much time to go out on my own.  The SEED people had to do an assignment that required a visit to the open air market so we went at 10:30AM.  Some of the trainers came with us to tell the shop owners what we were there for and why we might ask them questions.  The first market (a number of sheds in a row) we went to had a lot of touristy type “hand crafted” things from sellers, but also some real handmade stuff created by the shop owners.  The second was more like what you see on the streets of NYC.  People reselling cheap products made in China.  I will definitely go back to the first to get a piece of jewelry for myself.  I saw a lot that I liked, but will only get one thing here so that I can support my upcoming community getting something from there.  I went to Spar to get something for lunch and there I saw my host brother and mom.  I got home at 7:30PM and the kids had not eaten and didn’t know when/if their mom was going to come back tonight.  They didn’t know what to make for dinner, so I figured we could make sandwiches again b/c I didn’t know if the veggies were planned for another meal.  I hung out until 10:00PM then came to my room.  Mona got back around 9:00PM.  I tried to read some of the book that we are supposed to finish this weekend, but I was not able to concentrate with the TV on.  So I came to my room in an attempt to get the first chapter done.  That wasn’t happening so I stopped to finish writing this post.  I’m going to have a long and boring Sunday of reading…