The coastal tour!

Wednesday was the start of our Summer/Christmas holiday. Teachers are off until January 7, which is the start of the school year in Namibia. My PC group is not allowed to have visitors or take vacations until March because they want us to spend these first months integrating into our community and to prepare for teaching. Some exceptions are made if we travel with host country nationals (HCN) or we are collaborating with nearby PCVs, and we can visit nearby PCVs between Christmas and New Year. The idea is we should spend this time learning about our community and its people or enhancing the work we will do here.

Long story, short. I was ‘rush’ approved to go to Swakopmund on Friday after a work colleague (HCN) asked if I could travel with her to help with her 2 young children and because she does not like to drive alone. I could travel back with my school’s principal and his wife (HCN) on Monday. I had to find my own accommodations which were easily arranged with fellow PCVs. It turned out to be a coastal tour with some collaboration along the way.

I spent the weekend with PCVs from my group 48, Megan (site Henties Bay), Nicole (Walvis Bay), and Maggie (Swakopmund). Derek (Swakopmund), from group 47 and in the Community Economic Development sector, hung out with us all weekend. It was a fun-filled weekend with lots of laughter and activities. Derek and Maggie discovered their common passion for movies and music and would often break into song. Derek and Megan would challenge each other with ab workouts or sprints and just routine teasing. The running jokes were about Nicole’s ‘posh’ PC lifestyle and Megan’s supposed lack of movie/TV/music culture.

The reality is that all of us have ‘posh’ PC lifestyles compared to our PCVs in rural areas. We have electricity, indoor plumbing (although Derek must walk outside for his), and easy access to shopping. Still we are needed in our schools and community, we face challenges with integration and language, we are striving to be effective teachers and we take these responsibilities seriously. So, we also spent time before, during, and after activities to talk about these things, to collaborate and share ideas. We visited Nicole’s school, where she will have her own classroom (posh) and helped her figure out seating logistics. We shared ideas about classroom management and time management.

Besides the fun and comradery, the highlights of the weekend were seeing the flamingos and walking around the lagoon in Walvis Bay, hiking up Dune 7 and seeing the ocean from the top, cooling my feet in the water and watching the sunset over the Atlantic Ocean.

All for now, with all my love