“Living the dream”
It has always been my dream to move to Africa and work with
people; I guess I can officially say that I am living my dream. This hit me
today as we were driving through Windhoek, it was the first time that I have
actually been able to turn my brain off and just be, in Africa, surrounded by
incredible people.
Getting here was half the battle. The 15-hour flight from
JFK to Johannesburg was quite the challenge and my ankles were swollen for two
days after we landed, it was quite miserable. We landed and boarded a bus to
Okahandja, a town about .5 hours north of Windhoek, where we would spend the
next 2 months in training. During our drive we saw some great wildlife;
warthogs, monkeys, amazing birds and some giraffes… by we I mean everyone else,
as I was passed out from not sleeping on our long flight. When we arrived at
the Kukuri hostel in Okahandja our trainers greeted us with song, it was a
moment I will never forget. Following a long, much needed shower, I went
straight to bed; the morning would bring my first day of work.
Staying at Kukuri was a great way for our group to bond and
get to know each other, and I tell you what, I am here with an INCREDBILE group
of people. Everyone is so diverse and amazing, and we all bring such great
skills and knowledge with us; it’s amazing that we are all here together. We
spent our night’s together, playing cards, listening to music, dancing and
sharing our stories of how we got here.
Friday we had “job interviews”. My program director is named
Linda, she is so amazing, I already know that I am going to love working with
her! We spoke about what I wanted to do and what my ideal assignment would be
based off of a list of options that she had put together for the CED (Community
Economic Development) Group. Financial literacy is a huge problem in Namibia,
so I told her that I would love to work with youth financial literacy and I
would also like to work with HIV projects. It will be another 6 weeks until I
find out where I will be working, but I am keeping my fingers crossed.
Our first week was short, being that we arrived on
Wednesday, but Monday would bring a whole new set of excitement; Language assignments.
I will be learning Rukwangali, which is spoken in the Kavango Region of
Namibia. This means a few different things. First I will live in Kavango, which
is lush and green and full of wildlife, like crocodiles, hippos, elephants, and
it is also close to the Etosha Game Reserve so I can visit there multiple
times…. However, this also means
that I will live in a malaria hot zone, so malaria meds are a must.
A standard greeting in Rukwangali:
A:
Morokeni – hello/morning
B;
Morokeni None- hello, how are you?
A:
Ngapi Nawa – good, you?
B:
Ihn Nawa, One? – I’m good
A:
Nawa - Good
A few things to know about Namibian languages: there are no
Rosetta Stone programs for them, and even if you are dying in a ditch, when
someone asks you how you are, you say “fine”.
Monday night we also met our host families. My family is
wonderful! They are very gracious to open their home to volunteers, and they
hosted about 6 volunteers before me. My Tate (father) is a teacher and my Nane
(mother) works as a supervisor for a financial institution, my uncle also lives
here and he works for a large bank in Namibia, he might be my favorite. They
have two children, a boy who is 5 and a girl who is almost two. The live in
Okahandja, about 10 minutes from the training center, so I get to walk
everyday, which is nice.
The first week and a half here has been filled with so much
training and information, my brain is going a million miles an hour. With
language training, safety training, cultural training, shots every other day
and tea breaks filled with fat cakes and information processing, I get back to
my host family’s home at 5:30pm and I am ready for bed.
All in all things are pretty great here in Namibia, I am
sure that there is much more to come but, one day at a time seems to be the Namibian
way…. When in Namibia…
