Quick Update

I have to start off with a big thank you to everyone that has sent me emails.  As always they are lovely to receive.  I really appreciate the updates from home and enjoy hearing what you are up to.  This will be a quick update just to tell you a few things about my site and what I’ve been up to.  I have a couple of posts from training and the first weeks here drafted that I need to finish up.  I will share them over the course of the next few weeks with hopefully shorter more frequent posts.  I’ll do my best.

Please note the changes to my side bar... I've added what I think are some interesting links and updated my address.  At the moment I don't have any special requests for packages (other than for cheez-its :) ), but will be thinking about it over the next few days.  I will add a wishlist to my side bar when I think of some more things that are not available here.

I’m currently in what PC calls ‘Phase II,’ which is the first three months at site.  They say this is a difficult part of our service because things can go very slow while you’re getting to know your community, what your job will be, and transitioning to speaking a new language.  I’m impressed with how well PC knows these things, but they have been doing this for a while.  It has been a bit rough moving away from the friends I got to know in training and essentially starting all over again, but things are going well and I’m learning a lot about my village, the culture, and myself.

Aroab is located on the outskirts of the Kalahari desert and was originally home to the Nama and San people.  It’s located on a dirt road 170 Km from the nearest town in Namibia, Keetmanshoop, and 40 Km from the South African border.  There is a river that runs through the village that is dry most of the year and that is where part of the name Aroab comes from.  The Nama people call a dry river bed an ‘ab’ and the thorn bushes from the area ‘aro.’  Nama is a click language so the technical writing for the name is !!Aro!ab with the symbols representing clicks.

The village council’s main role is to provide the basic services to the community.  These services include water, power, sewage, waste removal or refuse, and to ensure that the village’s rates and vats (taxes) are paid.  The council has several IGAs (Income Generating Activities) set up to generate income for the council to cover the costs of these services when community members are not able to pay their individual bills.  Aroab is the only village in the Karas region that has not lost power or water due to lack of payment.  The councilors are appointed by the community.  They are in charge of listening to the ideas and wants of the community then deciding which ones to go forward with.  It is the responsibility of the councilors to decide what will be done and the village council office to make it happen.

I believe my primary role will be to work with the council to help improve their IGAs that they currently have in place.  These include the swimming pool, SME park, brick making project, campsite, and self-catering accommodations.  My secondary role will be to work with community members to help with SME development, financial literacy training, and/or youth entrepreneurship development.  The secondary project will be based off of community interest and I hope to get started on it soon.  At the moment the council doesn’t have a specific plan for me so I have been doing a lot of reading and studying of Afrikaans.  I’ve read a number of PC books and materials as well as village development plans.  It’s pretty interesting to see this side of village management.

My Afrikaans is slowly but surely coming along.  The official language is Afrikaans with some Nama speaking people, but I’m pretty sure everyone at least knows Afrikaans.  One of my goals is to become fluent by the end of my first year.  I think it will be very important for communication with the people.  Everyone in my office can speak English, but a lot of the older people in the community don’t.

Another goal I have is to run the Swakop marathon next September.  We have a lot of runners in our group and they are all planning on doing it… so I figured why not.  It’s something to look forward to, work towards, keep me healthy, and I know I would never have done it in the states.  I’ll be shooting for the full, but will be happy with a half seeing as how I’ve never run before.  We’ll see how it goes!

I’ll end this post with a bit of news.  I’m very excited to announce that I am now the proud owner of a very cute little kitten.  Her name is Lottie and I got her last Thursday (Oct 18).  I’m not sure how old she is, but she is still very small.  She was living outside for a bit and I’m amazed at how smart she is.  She has gotten used to my house very quickly and - BIG PLUS - knew how to use a litter box right away!  I have made two toys for her from those collected items I shared in my house tour but need more ideas.  If you have any good homemade cat toy ideas send them my way.  I can see that scratching might become a problem in the future so I’ll be making a scratching post of some sort very soon.  Materials I have are paper, floss (I’m amazed at the many things you can use this for), cardboard and cardboard boxes, toilet paper rolls, 1 Liter milk cartons, cans (my can opener doesn’t leave the sharp edge), bottle caps, and I can find wood on the outskirts of the village.  Any tips and tricks for training are welcome too :)

Here are some pictures of Lottie for you :)

 (Picking her up from Mrs. Losbar’s place at the hostel)

 (Starting to explore)

(What seems to be her sleeping spot of choice :) )