This all leading up to a few notable days. My site announcement will be next Wednesday, August 27. Wild that it's only 8 full days away. PST is all about balancing our training and newfound skills with the anticipation of a 2-year assignment. Think of site announcement day as getting your college acceptance, but having no idea where you applied. Some volunteers have a vague idea due to their language. But with Afrikaans, it could be anywhere below the red line (the southern 80% of the country). Expect to hear from me then next. It'd be hard for me to imagine not posting given the excitement surrounding the day.
My PST Day-to-Day
Uncle Joe picks us and up and drives us to the Okahandja Community Hall where we have all of our classes. It's a quick ride, and an opportunity for all the volunteers to talk about entertaining/interesting host family happenings.
6:00 AM:
My travel alarm clock blares in my ear. I'm mad at it for yelling at me, but am glad I bought it. I roll out of bed and head to the kitchen. I throw my eggs into a pan, and start boiling some water for a cup of Five Roses Tea. I'm trying to stay quiet out of courtesy, but I know the whole house will be up in a few minutes.
My travel alarm clock blares in my ear. I'm mad at it for yelling at me, but am glad I bought it. I roll out of bed and head to the kitchen. I throw my eggs into a pan, and start boiling some water for a cup of Five Roses Tea. I'm trying to stay quiet out of courtesy, but I know the whole house will be up in a few minutes.
6:30 AM:
I'm sitting in front of the TV watching Good Morning, Namibia, chowing down on my pre-birds and toast. I swallow my last bit of tea with a delicious malaria pill. I bring my dishes to the sink and head to my room.
6:30:30 AM:
I grab a collared shirt and pair of khakis (PST dress code) and head to the bathroom for a quick wake-up shower.
7:00 AM:
Tidied up and ready for the day, I sit in the living room and practice my Afrikaans with Ouma for 10 minutes before class. She's really patient and lets me know when there is a better way to say things. It's a nice prep for the day.
7:10 AM:
I live across the street from another volunteer (Sarah). We meet outside her house and walk to the pick-up point in Smarties.
7:15 AM:
Uncle Joe picks us and up and drives us to the Okahandja Community Hall where we have all of our classes. It's a quick ride, and an opportunity for all the volunteers to talk about entertaining/interesting host family happenings.
7:30 AM:
Morning assembly. We sing the Namibian, African Union, and American anthems along with a few other traditional Namibian songs. Namibians start singing young, and it forever remains a big part of their lives. It shows when all the trainers belt out beautiful harmonies while the trainees sound like a heard of tone-deaf hippos.
8:00 AM:
We get our morning announcements and break into our language classes. There are 7 different languages studied by Group 40, and a few groups within the languages. My Afrikaans class is me and five other business volunteers. Our teacher is Mike. He's a 6'1" Herero man who has a deep voice until he starts teaching us. He's a great teacher. Very kind, patient, and assures us of our progress even when we're butchering our "baby-dutch".
10:00 AM:
Tea time! It's a daily savior. Mornings are actually pretty cold here. It's definitely winter (yes, even in Africa). Layers are crucial. So some snacks and hot beverages save the day. I get my Mocha Café Latte on a good day (which is fancy way of saying that I blend powdered coffee, chocolate powder, and powdered milk with some hot water). We also get some peanut butter, bread, and apricot jam. I have eaten more PB&J in the past 3 weeks than I did in my entire elementary school packed lunch career.
10:30 AM:
Next slot of classes. This is usually a tech session (which for means Economic Development classes) where we touch upon some important volunteer skills / resources. So far we've gone over the broad overview of Peace Corps' view on development (which was a really exciting session for me), bookkeeping, marketing, and a few other business functions.
At the end of our first session we were given an analogy of our jobs as volunteers. It helped me put into context the importance of my position. I'll summarize:
Individually, my works is important only in that it contributes to the overall mission of the project. My work is just small raindrops, but it allows the river to flow harder. Alone, we evaporate. Collectively, our raindrops can help change the landscape.
Our APCD's Linda and Gisella are awesome. Two very experienced people who are always willing to clarify, reclarify, and provide the appropriate responses to our inquiries. I'm excited to be working with them and think that I can learn a lot from them.
12:30 PM:
Ek es honger. Lunch time. If I didn't pack a PB&J (I'm telling you, I am single handedly keeping the Namibian Jam companies in business) or leftovers from the previous nights meal, I head over to one of the local supermarkets to buy some eats. I usually pick one of two options: Spar or Spes Bona (careful pronouncing that one). Spar is a big super market chain based out of South Africa - think Stop & Shop. I either grab a sandwich or a meat pie from there. It's next to impossible to leave without getting some chocolate too. Spes Bona is the option down the street. They have, what I'll loosely call a grill, in the back. They make the worlds most delicious chicken there. It's rotisseried and then deep-fried. The oil for that deep-fry is changed once a month (I'm told). I'm imagining this is out of a desire to preserve flavor and not out of laziness. Regardless, it's amazing.
I usually use my lunch break doing some errands in town and chatting with other trainees. After lunch there are two more sessions before the end of the day.
1:30 PM
Post lunch blues are the same everywhere. Sluggishly, we make our way back to our seats. Thankfully, PC does a great job of breaking up monotony with practical applications of the curriculum. Lately, CED Volunteer's afternoon sessions have been focused on a small business partner. All 17 of us were each paired with a local SME (small-to-medium sized enterprise) who is looking for a little extra clarification on good business practices. It's a fair trade off as they can educate us on the business climate within their industry, Okahandja, and Namibia.
I was paired with Ismael - an entrepreneur who manufactures and sells his own, homemade soap. It's crafted in a way that allows it to claim the distinction of "Boer Seep". He does very little marketing, so I doubt you'll find Okahandja Soap Manufacturing anywhere on the web. It's a very promising business. Mostly word-of-mouth exposure with a heavy emphasis on bringing the product to the customer (every sale is done door-to-door). We'll be working together over the month of August while we gear up to sell his product at Peace Corps' Market Day (a day when all of the CED volunteer's SME's promote/sell their products to the community in a expo style outing).
4:30 PM
Sessions usually end around late afternoon / early evening. We have shuttles that bring us back to our neighborhoods, but, after sitting all day, most of the Smarties folk elect to walk home. Some days we have events planned - Ultimate Frisbee game, Lion King screening, social night. Honestly, except for the Disney Movies, think of it as your work's happy hour. Regardless of the evening, curfew is 8 PM, though I'm usually home well before that.
7:00 PM
Maggy gets home later in the evening, and Ouma has made food. There have been the days where I make a little something for the family (tacos one night, and Mac and Cheese with mince and garlic another), but typically it's Ouma's cooking. Every meal has been delicious so far. I'll likely post an entire blogpost about food soon, so I won't get you too hungry now. But we eat our meals together in the sitkammer. The TV is usually on, though the entertainment is always Waldo. The kid is a performer. Put on a song, watch him dance. Give him a ball, he'll take off running. Give him your cards, he'll lose the 3 of diamonds and the king of clubs (I'm still searching). So dinner is always fun.
The rest of the night is spent either studying, reviewing notes, watching a movie, doing dishes with Johnson, sharing music with Johnson, freestyling with Johnson, and sneaking some chocolate from the fridge with Johnson. He's super inquisitive and always looking to learn a little bit more about me. I appreciate his company.
9:30 PM
9:30 PM
Yeah, you read it. Bed time. I tidy up and head to bed for my Peace Corps' bed time. I think I haven't fully adjusted to the time difference if I'm going to bed at this hour. Either that or the day has me wiped. I set the dreaded savior of an alarm and roll into bed.
6:00 AM
Repeat.
I am exhausted just reading this blog! Keep up the good work. xox Momma T
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