A re-cap from the first few months at site

Once Peace Corps volunteers swear in and take our Oath of Office we scatter across the country to our new homes. We then spend the next few months doing what Peace Corps calls "Phase 2" activities... PCV's refer to this lovely few months, as Phase 2. Teachers observe classes being taught, work in the library or computer lab if their school has one, and doing anything and everything they can to feel productive. CED Volunteers usually start working in their offices, or agencies helping with small projects as a way to get a better understanding of their organization, but the bottom line is, we are not allowed to teach or start projects or travel out of our general area, the focus of this time is getting to know the new culture better. This is a very boring time for most PCV's being that we get here and are pretty gung-ho about starting projects, and then we spend the first 6 months sitting, and listening, and sitting... and listening.

About 3 months after we get to site,  we go to what is called re-connect. This is a great time for us to all get back together, fill each other in on what is happening at site, spend some time together since we haven't been able to see eachother for a bit... this is also when we get more training and finally the thumbs up to start officially working.

It has over the years become a Peace Corps tradition to go to the coastal town Swakopmund and spend a week enjoying an early Christmas holiday in the sun and sand. Swakopmund is like a little slice of Europe in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is a very touristy town, and therefore has a lot to offer the PCV on holiday. Group 38's trip was pretty wonderful, full of delicious food including Mexican at "3 Namigos", loads of Pizza, Italian at "Neopolitanos" and endless amounts of seafood... I even ate some Sushi. We spent everyday at the beach, playing beach football, crashing in the waves and catching some sun. We hiked the dunes, some people went sand boarding, or the aquarium... we enjoyed everything that Swakopmund has to offer.

All of us enjoying a "sundowner" on the beach in Swakopmund... A sundowner is when you drink a beer and watch the sunset... didn't know that till I moved here.

 

Sunset over the Atlantic at Swakopmund

 

Derek and I at the beach... looking adorable as always.

Julia and I at the Sundowner

Alex and I enjoying our beers on the beach

 I drank so much coffee at the best coffee shop in Swakopmund, Slow Town

 

Dolphins playing by the coast... most of the coast looks like South Beach (I have never been to South Beach but that's what people kept saying...)

Otters playing on the rocks at the Mole

 

 

Weaver birds in their nests... my favorite bird in Namibia.

 

Ali, Derek and I at the coast

 

After a wonderful week in Swakopmund was over, I headed back north to Rundu for my first Christmas away from home. The best thing about being in Peace Corps is that we are not here alone, in fact there are over 100 PCVs currently in Namibia. This means that we never have to spend holidays alone, and we are all going through the same emotions of homesickness and missing our traditions, so we are able to share those with one another and home seems not so far away.

 

The holidays were pretty hard for me, and there were a few times where I wished that I could just close my eyes and wake up at home but no matter how many times I tried it didn't work. I missed the snow, and my dogs, Christmas parties with friends, and Christmas morning with my mom, eating orange rolls around the tree and drinking coffee before we open presents... mostly I just missed my mom. Thankfully we now live in and age of technology, so she was only a facetime away. I was fortunate enough to have a house full of people for the holiday, we were able to keep eachother company, and we got in some good games of risk and monopoly. I am also very lucky to have wonderful Namibian friends which made home seem less far away this holiday season.

 

The Christmas package sent from home, full of wonderful, wonderful Christmas goodies!

Playing in the rain on Christmas day, we didn't have a white Christmas we had a wet Christmas... almost the same thing, right?

PUDDLE JUMPING!!!

 

New Years was spent in Otjiwarango with friends, and then some time in Windhoek for the Diversity Committee meeting. After almost 6 weeks of traveling, eating, drinking and spending time with Americans, the holiday has officially come to a close. I am now back in Rundu, in my office working on programs and planning for the new year, my first official year as a Peace Corps Volunteer. As usual I have loads of ideas and a lot of work to do... but, if I learned anything during Phase 2, it's that Namibia has it's own agenda. People here work on their own schedule and somehow things just end up happening and working out. If I am going to be successful at this I need to learn to go with the flow, something that I have never been able to do successfully, but here goes.

 

As a very wise old man at a bar told me one day, "I am not going to change Africa, Africa is going to change me". I guess there is only one way to find out....