One good thing that comes from an upper intestine virus is that you have time (when you are awake) to update your blog. Yes, I am at home on doctor ordered bed rest for three days (I have already been at home sleeping for two so five might kill me from boredom). At least I finally have time to write about my first Namibian vacation, which I enjoyed Easter weekend in Swakopmund.
**(note I’m writing this on a lot of drowsy meds and did not bother to think while writing or proof read it, so sorry)
Thursday night:
Jill and Juice arrive from their sites and we enjoyed some of Jill’s homemade cookin’ and a ton of Reece cups that I received from Nikki in a care package. When I say a bunch I literally mean a bunch. I think each of us had a minimum of 12 cups. Needless to say we were on an extreme sugar high for the entire night where we took silly pictures and made them into a slide show that we enjoyed shortly after. Not only was it just great to see friends but to have some of American goodness was just another treat. Of course it’s a “you had to be there moment” but it was such a great night. Staying up late talking/catching up, eating junk and laughing for hours.
Friday:
Jill, Juice, Ghada (the VSO from Outjo) and myself set out for Swakopmund early in the morning. Jill and Juice had made some mixed CDs that we jammed to during the 3.5-hour car ride. It was just like being on a road trip with old friends. It was nice to be traveling in Namibia for once where we could enjoy a safe and sober driver (Ghada), seat belts, not worrying about hiking to the next point and American music not Damara hymns. As we traveled from the Kunene Region to Swakop the scenery drastically began to change. It became less green and the rolling hills turned into large mountains and then finally the last hour of the drive a barren desert. Seriously it’s like you are driving into the dead zone, there are not shrubs, no trees, just sand.
From the moment we drove into Swakop we were in awe. The palm trees, the stores, the smell of the ocean, it was like we had entered an entirely different country. It’s like a little Germany or little America, nothing like the rest of Namibia, probably the reason everyone holidays there. There are tons of restaurants, shops a movie theater; I mean it’s amazing!!! After checking into our hostel Juice and I changed into our swim gear and headed straight to the beach. There is one thing two ex-polo players had been missing in the last five months, swimming. Both of us being from California going to the beach was literally like going home. I never thought I was a California beach bum but I gotta tell you when I saw the ocean I had never been happier. I couldn’t stop running until the cold Atlantic was all around me. The water was super salty and really dirty but I loved every minute in it. At one point Juice started to yell at me to bring my attention to someone walking near our stranded stuff on the beach and forgetting I was in the ocean I got wiped out by a huge wave. I hadn’t been spun like that in such a long time. At once point I didn’t know where I was or what direction was up. I had to open my eyes to see which way the bubbles were going so I could find my way to the top so I can get some air. After a short breathe I got hit again. Our stuff was fine but I was all shaken up and caught in some seriously seaweed and a strong under current. Once I finally got a handle on the situation I was able to enjoy the ocean’s waves again but I’m still in shock that I let the ocean get the best of me, I mean I’m a swimmer for goodness sakes.
The four of us set out to eat a “real” meal not consisting of goat meat. Swakop has a nice little promenade with restaurants along the ocean and so my lunch/dinner of Oreo milkshakes and pizza was made perfect with the sound of the ocean. After eating I found the rest of my Nam27 friends (yes we took over Swakop that weekend). They had all been there for at least a day and their sunburns proved that they too had been enjoying the beach life.
Later that night we all (like 25 Nam27ers) took over a pub and began to dance the night away. The place was so crowded it felt like a sauna. Jill, Juice and I left and walked around the town. It was freezing in Swakop, which was a wonderful break from the normal hot temp. It was fabulous to see everyone at the pub but after a few minutes I was just overwhelmed and hot and well I just had to get out. It’s funny that out of all the Nam27ers I see Jill the most and even on vacation we spent almost all our time together. After our evening walk the three of us headed back to the hostel to curl up under the blankets and once again stayed up all night talking, the rest of friends staying with us came home super late but luckily we were still up to hear how the rest of the night pub hoping had went.
Saturday:
7am wide awake. Downfall of being a PC volunteer, you never sleep past 7am even when you try. I was determined to walk to the dunes, which are on the outskirts of town. Ever since I found out I was coming to Namibia I have had this crazy idea of sliding down a dune. Normally I’m the one with an excellent sense of direction but after taking Jill on a two hour walk into nowhere land we decided to head back to have breakfast and get ready for our next adventure…
Five of us decided to go skydiving, even though none of us can afford it on PC salaries. First they drive us off into the middle of nowhere, seriously. We were out in the middle of the desert and like a mirage a building complex appears and the car stops. All I could think was if they wanted to kill us they could, no one could find us-or help us. After signing our lives away and getting our instructions we loaded up into another van and the drove us further into no mans land to a tent. I took a picture of the 360-degree view of nothing, well sand. It’s crazy, the tent shaded all the workers who were packing the parachutes and well all around us was the “air strip”. After loading into the world’s smallest plane we (Jill and Rach went first and Juice, Betsy and I went second) flew above 10,000 feet were the view was beautiful, the ocean and sand dunes, AMAZING. Although this was my second time skydiving this time was so much cooler, the view, the instructors, everything was fabulous and my instructor let me fly, so cool.
Once we returned to civilization we met up with all the rest of our friends and went to a movie. It was so nice to feel normal again. The movie was not good but it was nice to enjoy the bad movie with all my friends. Everyone else went out pub hoping again that night but me, Jill, Rachel, Juice, Colleen, Aly, Natalie, Ghada grabbed a bite to eat at just enjoyed walking around. Most of us came home early, one because it was SO cold and two because we had an early morning to prepare for.
Sunday:
Easter morning, Juice, Aly, Jill and myself left at 6:45 in the morning to head to Walvisbay for a kayak trip. Our instructor was driving us on a large sand bank/peninsula called Pelican point. He pointed out all the wildlife we were seeing and points of interest knowing it was our first trip to Walvis. We kayaked in the lagoon and then out into the ocean to try to see some dolphins. I was amazed at how many seals and dolphins we saw. When they told us is was a guarantee to see seals I thought they were being a little cocky but my goodness I like we saw a couple thousand and not from a distance they were all around us. It was wonderful, it was like playing with the seals. Instead of an Easter egg hunt my friends and I went on a dolphin hunt. One of us would see a dolphin and we’d all paddle as hard as we could to try to get it to swim with us and play with us. Ah, it was so beautiful, a blue ocean, sand dunes as far as the eye can see on land and seals and flamingos everywhere. Skydiving was fun but this was a total different type of high or beauty. I’m so glad I did it, seriously one of the best things I’ve ever done. I can’t wait to do it again in June with my parents and in June there is a chance we will see whales!!!
Dinner was another great western meal topped off with soft serve, but after the weekend of such adrenaline rushes I was ready to sleep and regain my energy.
Monday:
We had been too tired and busy the previous nights to try to watch the sunset from the dunes but Monday Juice, Rach, Colleen and I got up early and walked out to the dunes in the dark to try to watch the sunrise. Swakop is covered by fog most of the day and well we never saw the sun actually rise but from the dunes we saw the sky change color, ha-ha. Silly idea but it was worth waking up early because just before we headed home Rachel and I went jumping down some dunes, weekend complete.
Yeah, a lot of people have given my a hard time about my weekend, saying oh didn’t know PC was so “rough” and what not. Being away from everything you know as normal for 5 months, missing every major holiday with your family, and being stuck at your site for months without seeing your friends is hard and without a vacation one might just lose it. Although that vacation was a break from reality it was so needed. At the end not only was I recharged and but I was dying to get home to Outjo.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Under Orion's belt
Two-month anniversary, yes I have been in Outjo for two months, where has the time gone? Two months and what have I got to show for it, no real purpose defined, no job description/function, no real community integration and my language skills in Damara and English have not improved but actually decreased. Seriously, what am I doing here, I need to get my act together. Two months and I don’t really feel like I have anything to show for it, it’s like I’ve wasted the last two months.
So let me share how I spent my exciting two-month anniversary of being a Peace Corps volunteer in Outjo…it was just another typical day…
First, I actually got to sleep in. Ok, slept in until 8. This is the latest I’ve slept since coming to Namibia. It probably has something to do with the fact that I couldn’t sleep the night before and didn’t actually fall asleep until after midnight, more than three hours past my bedtime. After waking up and surfing Facebook for a while I decided to go for my morning run. Because I was in such a fabulous mood I decided to go for an extra long run. It was fabulous. The only downfall was the cloudy morning I started running in faded. The sun seemed to peak through the clouds and no matter where I was running the sun decided to shine directly on me. Even in the morning, even on a cloudy day the Namibian sun is hot.
When I returned from my run I grabbed some breakfast and headed into town. In Namibia everything closes at 1 on Saturdays so I had only a small window to run to PEP to get more phone credit, the building store to get a hammer and nails, the post office to send a package to my Caprivi friends and to the grocery store if I wanted to eat this weekend. After strolling through town I returned home in hopes to improve my current bed net situation. My ceilings are super high and my walls are cement so I couldn’t really put my net up comfortably. It’s up against my windows because I needed the window latches to hold the net up. This means that as I sleep the net hugs the bed and in turn me, and in order for me not to touch the net in the night I sleep as straight as a pin in the middle. It’s really not comfortable and well if I’m going to be here for two years I might as well attempt to put this thing up right. So anyways, after adding two nails to bring the net away from the window I was stopped in my attempts as one of the elderly who live in my Old Age Home can and yelled at me for a good ten minutes. Apparently people are sleeping at 1:04 in the afternoon. I told her I was trying to get it done before 2 because that’s when I figured people would be taking their naps. She continued to ream into me about stupid crap and disregarded my question “When would be a better time to hammer?” Silly woman, seriously, as mean as she wanted to be she can’t get rid of me, the hospital and the government own the building-not her.
After that fun event I attempted to clean my apartment while watching RENT. Gosh what I would kill for a vacuum. Instead it took two hours to sweep my carpet with a hand broom. It was seriously the most disgusting thing I’ve done thus far. There was so much dirt and dead bugs, ew, I just felt gross afterwards. Then I attempted to clean my bathroom where the ants have taken over. After dooming (bug killer) the room there was a thick layer of ants with bees, wasps, beetles and moths in the mix. Ugh, seriously the grossest (is that a word?) day yet in Africa. It was really defeating since when I woke up this morning the dead moths are back on my bedroom carpet and well the ants have returned to the bathroom with a vengeance. I’ve decided to attempt to doom the outside of my bathroom (did I mention I’m on the second floor). Ha, maybe that will make the old woman come yell at me again, oh well.
After my horrible cleaning day…seriously 4 hours and only two rooms clean, in America I could clean a whole house in that time, I decided to go exploring in the bush surrounding Outjo. It was seriously so much fun until the weather quickly changed as soon as I was an hour out of town. As I attempted to get home in the massive storm I learned that you should never go exploring in the rain without the proper shoes. After a scary fall from some rocks I thought, maybe it’s best to just get home and stop goofing around. Wow, what a cold walk home. The crazy wind and the rain were so chilling. Maybe just the coldest I’ve been in Namibia. Luckily I live in a town, because there were quite a few times I got a little lost and with the storm it was hard to see the mountains and find my location, but the street lights helped guide me home. I got home soaking wet, freezing, legs bleeding and so tired, but gosh it was a great little adventure.
After dinner the storm passed and I went for an evening run. The clouds parted and after I finished stretching I just laid out under the stars, gazing off into la-la land. I was directly under Orion’s belt. The stars were so beautiful. I started thinking about the last four months, being in the Peace Corps, the fact that I’m in Africa starring at the stars, my family and friends who are half way around the world from me and what I’m going to do with the rest of my service and the rest of my life for that matter and well I decided to let everything go and just enjoy the moment under Orion’s belt just for what it was, a beautiful peace.
I laid there for awhile, I was just caught in a perfect moment. I didn’t even mind the bugs which were eating me alive, or the snakes which could have been making their way towards me, I just was…sometimes that’s all you can do is just be in the moment. Maybe it’s this Taoism book I’m reading finally getting to the best of me but it was just great to block everything out and just focus on Orion.
Oh just to update you, the little change to my bed net-LIFE CHANGING! It’s like a whole new bed, a whole new life, it’s amazing and wow I slept so great last night. And some of you may be thinking wow Amanda you are so active now, running, hiking, yes, yes I have become somewhat of an outdoors junkie. But don’t fret no matter how many runs or walks I go on I’m not losing any weight, it’s hard to lose weight when you eat peanut butter on everything, gosh I love that stuff. Well hopefully this week I will be doing the outreach that got cancelled last week and if so maybe I will have fun stories to share, if not another week of trying to find stuff for me to do, trying to find my place and how I can help in this town, oh Namibia, oh Peace Corps, oh my life!
So let me share how I spent my exciting two-month anniversary of being a Peace Corps volunteer in Outjo…it was just another typical day…
First, I actually got to sleep in. Ok, slept in until 8. This is the latest I’ve slept since coming to Namibia. It probably has something to do with the fact that I couldn’t sleep the night before and didn’t actually fall asleep until after midnight, more than three hours past my bedtime. After waking up and surfing Facebook for a while I decided to go for my morning run. Because I was in such a fabulous mood I decided to go for an extra long run. It was fabulous. The only downfall was the cloudy morning I started running in faded. The sun seemed to peak through the clouds and no matter where I was running the sun decided to shine directly on me. Even in the morning, even on a cloudy day the Namibian sun is hot.
When I returned from my run I grabbed some breakfast and headed into town. In Namibia everything closes at 1 on Saturdays so I had only a small window to run to PEP to get more phone credit, the building store to get a hammer and nails, the post office to send a package to my Caprivi friends and to the grocery store if I wanted to eat this weekend. After strolling through town I returned home in hopes to improve my current bed net situation. My ceilings are super high and my walls are cement so I couldn’t really put my net up comfortably. It’s up against my windows because I needed the window latches to hold the net up. This means that as I sleep the net hugs the bed and in turn me, and in order for me not to touch the net in the night I sleep as straight as a pin in the middle. It’s really not comfortable and well if I’m going to be here for two years I might as well attempt to put this thing up right. So anyways, after adding two nails to bring the net away from the window I was stopped in my attempts as one of the elderly who live in my Old Age Home can and yelled at me for a good ten minutes. Apparently people are sleeping at 1:04 in the afternoon. I told her I was trying to get it done before 2 because that’s when I figured people would be taking their naps. She continued to ream into me about stupid crap and disregarded my question “When would be a better time to hammer?” Silly woman, seriously, as mean as she wanted to be she can’t get rid of me, the hospital and the government own the building-not her.
After that fun event I attempted to clean my apartment while watching RENT. Gosh what I would kill for a vacuum. Instead it took two hours to sweep my carpet with a hand broom. It was seriously the most disgusting thing I’ve done thus far. There was so much dirt and dead bugs, ew, I just felt gross afterwards. Then I attempted to clean my bathroom where the ants have taken over. After dooming (bug killer) the room there was a thick layer of ants with bees, wasps, beetles and moths in the mix. Ugh, seriously the grossest (is that a word?) day yet in Africa. It was really defeating since when I woke up this morning the dead moths are back on my bedroom carpet and well the ants have returned to the bathroom with a vengeance. I’ve decided to attempt to doom the outside of my bathroom (did I mention I’m on the second floor). Ha, maybe that will make the old woman come yell at me again, oh well.
After my horrible cleaning day…seriously 4 hours and only two rooms clean, in America I could clean a whole house in that time, I decided to go exploring in the bush surrounding Outjo. It was seriously so much fun until the weather quickly changed as soon as I was an hour out of town. As I attempted to get home in the massive storm I learned that you should never go exploring in the rain without the proper shoes. After a scary fall from some rocks I thought, maybe it’s best to just get home and stop goofing around. Wow, what a cold walk home. The crazy wind and the rain were so chilling. Maybe just the coldest I’ve been in Namibia. Luckily I live in a town, because there were quite a few times I got a little lost and with the storm it was hard to see the mountains and find my location, but the street lights helped guide me home. I got home soaking wet, freezing, legs bleeding and so tired, but gosh it was a great little adventure.
After dinner the storm passed and I went for an evening run. The clouds parted and after I finished stretching I just laid out under the stars, gazing off into la-la land. I was directly under Orion’s belt. The stars were so beautiful. I started thinking about the last four months, being in the Peace Corps, the fact that I’m in Africa starring at the stars, my family and friends who are half way around the world from me and what I’m going to do with the rest of my service and the rest of my life for that matter and well I decided to let everything go and just enjoy the moment under Orion’s belt just for what it was, a beautiful peace.
I laid there for awhile, I was just caught in a perfect moment. I didn’t even mind the bugs which were eating me alive, or the snakes which could have been making their way towards me, I just was…sometimes that’s all you can do is just be in the moment. Maybe it’s this Taoism book I’m reading finally getting to the best of me but it was just great to block everything out and just focus on Orion.
Oh just to update you, the little change to my bed net-LIFE CHANGING! It’s like a whole new bed, a whole new life, it’s amazing and wow I slept so great last night. And some of you may be thinking wow Amanda you are so active now, running, hiking, yes, yes I have become somewhat of an outdoors junkie. But don’t fret no matter how many runs or walks I go on I’m not losing any weight, it’s hard to lose weight when you eat peanut butter on everything, gosh I love that stuff. Well hopefully this week I will be doing the outreach that got cancelled last week and if so maybe I will have fun stories to share, if not another week of trying to find stuff for me to do, trying to find my place and how I can help in this town, oh Namibia, oh Peace Corps, oh my life!
Monday, March 3, 2008
gosh this a slow slow, SLOW day/week
In the four months I have been in Namibia I have learned that there are many things that I can tolerate and yet little things which really annoy me. For example I can tolerate the odd looks from the community, begging children, no having a clue what to do with eight hours of “work” a day, the power going out at random times, the million marriage proposals, transport problems always causing outreach to be cancelled, Namibian time, Himba boobies everywhere I look, the constant bugs in my flat and feeling useless 90% of the time. These are things have become the norm to me and I no longer really think twice about this stuff. But today as I walked to work, walked because I missed my ride cause well I just wanted a little bit more sleep and knew I would be doing nothing at work today anyway, so anyways, I was walking to work and I realized I hate flies. I hate flies almost as much as I hate ants. The thing about Namibia is if you are walking in the morning you get completely covered in flies. I normally only experience this on outreach days (like my week in Kamanjab) but really today as I was trying to swoosh the flies off me I remembered the hell of Kamanjab mornings and outreach trips in Outjo. I feel like a horse, and I’m surprised more horses don’t try to kill themselves. Seriously for about 10 minutes I try to move my head, wave my arms, do a little dance but the flies keep coming back. After 10 minutes I just deal with the flies crawling all over me (ew including my face and all around my mouth and eyes) and think ah, I hate flies. What is their purpose and why do they like me so much? So after four months serving as a PCV the only thing I realized I really can’t stand but tolerate because I don’t have any other choice is … flies. Is that bad? Shouldn’t I be doing a lot more personal growth, flies, that’s all I’ve discovered…wow.
Dear PCMO and staff,
I got my medications finally. You rock! Guess I won’t die from an asthma attack for the next four months as you gave me a huge supply. Thanks, I will stop calling and smsing you now.
Grateful,
Dar
Dear PCMO and staff,
I got my medications finally. You rock! Guess I won’t die from an asthma attack for the next four months as you gave me a huge supply. Thanks, I will stop calling and smsing you now.
Grateful,
Dar
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