On the way to site we made a detour to Botswana. Huh?
My host family in Kabbe
This is what Kabbe looks like pretty much. Just imagine more huts and lots of sand.
Group 30 Silozi group plus Kaitlin
Group 30 at swearing in!
Well, it’s been 2 weeks since swearing in and this should be my second week at site, but I had to come down to Windhoek this week to get a medical issue looked at. It turns out to most likely be nothing more serious than a strange reaction to my malaria pills, so I should be good to go in no time! In the mean time I’m hanging out in Windhoek, enjoying some yummy food, going to Super Spar (aka mecca) daily, and just wandering around the city. Hopefully I’ll be back at site soon, but Clara, the Peace Corps Medical Officer, likes to keep volunteers who come down here for medical stuff for a while, just to make sure there won’t be any problems when we get to site. I really didn’t want to have to come down here in the first place, because I’m still getting used to my site and I’m missing seeing all the Caprivi volunteers in Katima this weekend for Halloween, but I do have to admit that it’s nice having a toilet and shower.
Which brings me to my first week and a half at site. It’s been interesting. Let’s start with swearing in. It was happy and sad to become an official PCV. It was great to finally be done with training and be able to get to our sites to start doing what we came here to do, but it was so hard to say goodbye to everyone! I made some really great friends during training and now I won’t see them until January, when we all get together for reconnect. At least we still have smsing and the random phone call to get us through the months. Other than that swearing in went well. Sarah and I read the farewell speech for Silozi, and we were both really nervous but I think we did well! After the ceremony people started leaving with their supervisors for their sites immediately. Those of us whose sites are too far to get to in an afternoon hung around the center, saying goodbye to everyone, then went out for one last ice cream at spar.
The next morning I had all my stuff packed up and ready to go at 5:30 in the morning when the Peace Corps combi came to pick us up to drop us off at the center, where we would load our stuff into a ministry bakkie (pickup truck), then we would get into a sedan and Steven, Andrew’s principal, would drive us and a teacher from my school who came down to get us, up to Katima. So that morning I said goodbye to my host family in Okahandja with the promise that we would meet up in Katima in December when they come for holiday, and set off. However, when we got to the center Steven announced that the ministry bakkie wasn’t coming that day, and could only get our stuff the next day, so we had to leave almost everything except for a few essential items and valuables in OKahandja. Ugh, that was not okay. I was super nervous about leaving my stuff, figuring I would never see it again, but luckily it arrived the next Monday. So all worked out in the end.
We spent the night in Katima and the next day Steven drove us to our sites, with a detour to Ngoma, the border town to Botswana, about 15 K from Kabbe (yup! I’m that close to Botswana). Actually, we even made a little jaunt into Botswana, just by crossing the bridge separating Botswana and Namibia! So I have now officially been to 4 Southern African countries. Hopefully next time I’ll get a little farther in though…
Then Steven dropped Andrew in Lusese and me in Kabbe. The first thing I noticed as we pulled up in front of my host families hut was the remarkably absence of a pit latrine. I was promised multiple times during site visit and the last 4 weeks of training by my principal and the Peace Corps that my pit latrine would definitely definitely definitely be done by the time I got there for site. But, this is Caprivi. As of yet it still isn’t done, which has made life rather awkward and uncomfortable for the last 2 weeks, as you can probably imagine.
So I spent the first day catching up with my host family, walking around the outer edges of Kabbe in my shitenge greeting people with my host mom. The next day, Monday, I went to school expecting to observe classes and just become reacquainted with my surroundings. However, when I showed up I was informed that the 8th and 9th grade math teacher was in Windhoek grading exams, and that I should take over his classes for the week. Ummm, last I checked I’m an English teacher, and I barely remember how to do 8th grade math. And his class happened to be 1st period. So it was pretty awkward since I clearly was flustered and had no idea what I was doing, but afterwards I spoke to my principal about how I’m not a math teacher and I don’t appreciate being thrust into classes without warning. So after that I spent the week working with the English teacher for grades 5 to 7, which suited my abilities much better. By the end of the week I felt comfortable teaching a few classes, and I’m starting to really love my learners. They are absolutely adorable. I’ll be sure to post pictures of my school when I get back to site.
My only big surprise that week came the first day of school when I got back to my room and opened my door only to find that someone’s rooster had gotten inside my hut. My door, which was also supposed to be replaced before I got there, has huge gaps in it, and a rooster had just waltzed its way into the place. Because of my slightly irrational fear of birds and hatred of chickens I freaked out a little, and ran screaming into my host mom’s house to ask for help. She managed to get it out for me, but not before it had a chance to poop everywhere, including some of the only clothes I had managed to bring from Okahandja. Since that incident I’ve become very suspicious of the chickens that hang around my host family’s lapa, and don’t feel as guilty about eating them anymore.
After that the week was less exciting. I thought village life would be boring and I would have nothing to do most of the time but I’ve found that I’ve managed to fill up my days pretty completely, between school, after school lesson planning and activities, spending time with my host family and teaching all the kids in the village how to play uno (they love it, even though they pretty much made up their own rules and now I don’t really know how to play their version).
So, even though village life is definitely going to take getting used to it’s not that bad. The only things I really miss are being able to cook for myself (and eat cheese! Oh I miss cheese) and showers and indoor toilets, and having any privacy. In the village everyone knows what I’m doing every minute of the day. When I have my own house with a courtyard I think I’ll have a little more privacy.
Well, that’s pretty much it so far. I miss home and 2 years is starting to seem like a really long time, but hopefully by January I’ll be adjusted to my site and it will feel a little more like home away from home. And for those who want to experience life in a real African village visitors are always welcome!
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