Village Chillage

While my original holiday plans fell through, I managed to have a pretty great tome the past week and a half! 

My friend Sachi, who is a volunteer down in southern Namibia was able to come up and hang out in Kavango for the week. It was really great to introduce her to the culture, language and villages of the north! We spent some time here in Rundu, my shopping town and then headed out to my village, along with fellow Kavango volunteer, Andre. 

It's amazing how life in the village (especially during holiday) can seem so slow, but at the same time the days just fly by! We shared meals with my host family, sat around the fire and played an impromptu game of sand pictionary with my siblings. Loads of fun! 

We happened to be in my village just in time for my youngest brother's first birthday. So, of course we baked cookies and brought him a teddy bear stuffed animal. There is, however no word for "bear" in Rukwangali (not surprisingly) so he's learning to love his new stuffed "mbwa" (dog!). Not long after the birthday festivities, we were all able to witness his first steps! Not to brag, but they were towards one very proud big sister :D

We also managed to watch a lot of Friends, make friendship bracelets, and cook delicious lentil tacos. Overall, successful village chillage time. 

Now I'm wrapping up holiday by making use of the internet, getting lessons together and planned for term 3, and getting ready for my trip to Senegal. I also will have the pleasure of hosting 2 trainees in my village next weeks. They've been in Namibia for a little over a month, and will be shadowing me to learn more about a volunteers role at school! 

That's all for now! Enjoy these photos, compliments of Sachi! :)

Here's my dog, Tjida with his Uncle Dre! 

Showing off my neck muscles... 

My little brother, Junior with his mom
(just moments before he took his first steps!)

"Adversity, we get around it"

Perhaps one of the most important lessons I’m learning as a PCV is how to deal with failure. This has been especially true over the past few days, as both of the projects I had planned to do this school holiday unraveled. And while I’m disappointed that things didn’t go according to plan, I can only hope that through these failures I’ll learn some things that will make it more successful next time, and rejoice that I still have the time in my service to make multiple attempts.

Until then, I’m planning to use my spare time to get super organized for term 3, and allow myself some time to organize my new hut. Also, my PCV friend Sachi is up coming to visit, so I’m excited to share my village with her!

Also, the big news I hinted at a few posts ago has come true, so I’m free to share it! I’ve been selected to attend a conference in Senegal hosted by an organization called Stomp Out Malaria! It’s an intense nine day training event focused on malaria, prevention techniques, and behavior change methods to help my community eradicate the disease. Obviously, I’m incredibly excited about the opportunity to not only gain so much useful knowledge but also see another piece of Africa!

This also means I’ll be missing a lot of school, so the other thing I’ll be working on this holiday is planning lessons and assignments to leave behind for my learners. I’m working with my school to find someone willing to take over my classes while I’m gone so they don’t fall behind. I’m happy to report that my term 2 exam scores were reasonably high, and by the final exam I hope we’ll make even more progress.

So… I’m off to practice some useful French phrases! :) Hope you’re having a great day!

To the days that make it worth it.

Note: I wrote this a few weeks back and never got around to posting it. But, it's still very true! :)

One of my favorite things about living abroad is the way that good things, no matter how small, always seem to be amplified. Good days, classes, or moments are really good. By the same token… when things are bad, they’re pretty bad…

I spent all day in bed yesterday, really sick. Running stomach, fever, headache, and sore throat. And it was awful. To make matters worse, the electricity was out. As a girl with a dead laptop whose primary coping mechanism when sick is to watch too much TV (in college, when I was confined to my dorm room with swine flu for a week I once watched 10 NCIS episodes in one day…) this was hard to take. Also, it meant I couldn’t heat up water in my kettle, and therefore couldn’t enjoy hot tea (coping mechanism #2). So… I slept. A lot. I read a little. I lay there feeling miserable.

And today, I’m feeling better. By tomorrow, I’m sure I’ll be back to normal. My host family has been awesome. Maxima made me gargle salt water, and Omama made me soft porridge (a lot like cream of wheat – essentially Kavango baby food!). They chastised me for not wearing a sweatshirt and shoes once the sun went down, and fussed at me for looking thinner.

For all the crazy ups and downs, I’m so glad the good outweighs the bad. When I get to the end of every day, week, and month, I can look back and say: there was a lot of good, and a lot of bad… but when I add it all together, it comes out positive. Always. Little things, like Chicken City’s ice cream machine working when I go to Rundu, or my learners asking me “what’s up?” outside of class. When my dog cuddles with me at night, or when my little host brothers smile at me. When I learn a new word in Rukwangali, or teach a new word in English. When I look up at the stars, or watch the sunrise. Good always comes out on top, if you look for it.

So, to sum that all up, I’ll say this. Some days, you will poop your pants on your way to the latrine. But most days you won’t. And those days make it worth it. :)