Tag: namibia

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Integrated

One week ago, I was preparing to fly home to Namibia. Home, home is now Namibia. I referred to Namibia as ‘home’ countless times during my visit to the USA. Every time, it caught me by surprise because as much as I consider the USA home and as much as I enjoyed time with my family, I knew I was away. I was not home.

Peace Corps talks a lot about integrating into our community. They teach us that the more we integrate into our community, then our service will be that much more effective and enjoyable. My time away from my community in Otjiwarongo made me realize that I have fully integrated into my community. I missed matrone, I missed ‘my’ babies, I missed my teacher friends and my learners. I missed my daily walk, often with one of my housemates. I missed relaxing in my hammock and talking to folks as they walked by.

I was humbled by my housemate and hostel girls greeting me before I even got out of the car. They did not know when I would arrive, so they were keenly watching for me. They all gave me big hugs, carried my luggage to my room, saying, “Ms. Bishop, we missed you”. “We worried you would not come back”. “Miss, I am so happy you are here”. “Miss, don’t go any more”.

When my service is complete, I will return to my family and friends in the USA. I will renew my home there, but until then and forever after, Otjiwarongo, Namibia will also have a place in my heart called home.

July 1 Second Everday

Some notes about the video…Many of these are just photos not video and not necessarily in order. I didn’t take video or photos when I was with my sister, Vickie. I was able to attend Sal’s rehearsal and wedding on July 4 and 5, then I was with Vickie until she died on July 21 (the day I was supposed to return to Namibia), attended the funeral on July 26, took a road trip with my niece to see other family in Georgia, and finally back to Philadelphia to fly ‘home’ to Namibia on August 4. Oh yeah, I was treated for asthmatic bronchitis while in the USA, thus the photo of me with a nebulizer.

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Weekend Fun

I spent the weekend with my Namibia family, the family I stayed with during my training in Okahandja. It was a big weekend with K’s matric farewell event, an event like our prom, except it is their way of saying farewell to their primary and secondary education. For many, this is considered the first step into adulthood. The other big family event was 16-year-old, D’s confirmation. This is the church’s sacrament for stepping into adulthood. There was lots of extended family around all weekend, lots of photos, lots of food, and a general weekend of celebration.

Friday night was the ‘prom’ night but first were the requisite photos with grandparents and family. Before the main event at the country club (sounds like the US) there was a non-alcoholic cocktail event at the school that each graduate can invite 2 family members. K invited her Dad and his mother – this grandmother made her formal gown. All the family, friends, and basically the entire high school comes to watch this event. We stood outside the school grounds and waited for couples/graduates to show up in their finery. They laid down a red carpet for their walk from the car to the grounds for the cocktail party. It is crazy, they are celebrities for the day, reminiscent of the Academy Awards.

Saturday was low key with only an evening service for the confirmands, but this was not the actual confirmation. Earlier in the day was food prep for Sunday and general hanging out with family and friends stopping by.

Sunday was a baptism, confirmation for eight young people, and a special ceremony to induct 2 special elders. I’m not sure exactly of the elder ceremony, they were already elders of the church so this was something extra. I miss a lot in translation. I am slowly getting better at understanding Afrikaans, but it is hard for this ‘mature’ brain. After the 3-hour ceremony with lots of singing, there was a big lunch in their back area. It is not a back yard because it is totally dry dirt. They have a huge awning where they usually park the car, but it makes a nice, covered area for a party. They move the car but keep it close and play music from it with all the doors open. They periodically crank it to keep the battery going. It works very well!

It was a fun weekend with my Namibia family.

 

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GranEllen – week 2 in Namibia

 

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My new room

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my Afrikaans language group

Week 2 was all about preparing for our training homestay. This is when we move in with a host family for the remainder of our training time. Our host family is determined by our assigned language so they can practice our new language with us in a home setting. On Wednesday afternoon my language was revealed as Afrikaans and that evening I met my host mother and daughter (18yr). My host father works out of town and the son (15yrs) is visiting other family since this is a school break right now. Peace Corps makes this a fun and exciting day by making a game out of the “language reveal” and later “finding” our host family.  PC Staff gives each Peace Corps Trainee (PCT) a piece of a puzzle for their language group. We then find similar pieces from other PCTs and complete our puzzle to know who all is in our language group. The language instructor finds their group and then we know our language because we have been working all week with the language instructors learning basic greetings for their specific language. It was a fun activity. That evening, after all the host families arrived, we did a similar activity except this time each PCT and each host family was given a puzzle piece and we had to match the 2 pieces to complete the simple puzzle. This is how we ‘found’ our host family.

I moved in with my host family Friday evening and I lucked out. They have been hosting volunteers for 10 years so they know what they are doing. I have my own room and the accommodations are very comfortable. I will be picked up by a PC van every weekday morning at my ‘bus stop’ around 7am for a day of training and then returned around 5:30pm. Weekends will mostly be spent with my host family unless PC has a field trip or other activity planned for us.

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training center, our dorm rooms are on the right corridors and the meeting room is on the left

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mural on the meeting room wall

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GranEllen’s 1st week in Namibia

Everything is different yet everything is the same. I really enjoyed my first week as a Peace Corps Trainee (PCT) even though the travel was much longer than expected, there was a major sadness that turned our group into Namily (Namibia family) quicker than expected, and there is sand and dust everywhere.

Despite the major and minor challenges, Group 48 is strong. We laugh a lot, we play a lot (spike ball, Uno, volleyball, ucher, hearts, spoons, etc), we help each other with lessons, but mostly we support each other.
All for now with all my love.