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Good morning ladies and gentlemen.
Last January I took a trip back to
Okahandja to visit my host family. It was my host brother’s birthday and they
were having a braai. It felt weird being back in Okahandja, the town that many
of us trained in, without the rest of my group. Still, though the town felt so
familiar. Elements of home. I’m sure many of us have felt it going back. At the
Spar in town, as me and my family headed to the till, I felt a hand on my shoulder.
I turned to see Doc, who owns a security company, smiling at me. I had met Doc
during PST at our Small Business Workshop. After a warm and familiar greeting,
he asked when the next Peace Corps small business workshop would be. He’d
attended a few and was looking forward to the next. He asked me about my site
and what work I was doing. He asked me if I missed Okahandja. He spoke to me
with such familiarity and comfort – with an understanding of my service, my
job, and my experience/purpose in Namibia. Moments like this, these
small exchanges, remind me of the impact of our service. In moments like this,
you really feel like a Peace Corps volunteer. When a car picks you up and the
driver shares the story of his grade 9 math teacher back in 2004, followed by
a, “do you know them?” and, “Tell them hello”. You know in these moments that
you’re part of something special.
Today, as we look to celebrate Peace
Corps’ 25th year in Namibia, we – the Peace
Corps volunteers – ask ourselves: how are we meant to celebrate? How do we
celebrate a 25 year history that we have only participated in a fraction
of? Across so many different sites, projects, personalities and
perspectives, what experiences can we collectively commemorate? Today I want to
highlight one of Peace Corp’s most defining traits, and what I believe we would
all say allows our work to be effective and impactful: the unique relationships
and experiences we share with the people of Namibia.
As a PCV, It would be a mistake to
attribute your experiences in Namibia as strictly a product of your 2 year
service. Not that you don’t deserve credit. You absolutely do. But, we do not
serve in a vacuum of our own experiences. While new relationships and
individual experiences are largely products of our own efforts, we do not serve
alone. We serve with the support and legacy of 25 years of Peace Corps
Volunteers who’ve made PC Namibia what it is today – a trusted organization
that is valued for its people and projects. We carry this with us everywhere we
go. Every time we introduce ourselves as PCVs, or wear our PC Polo, or every
time we present our ID cards, we benefit from the strong, and well-deserved
reputation of this program. The reputation established by the PCVs who came
before us. Today we celebrate them. We celebrate their successes – not defined
just by the effectiveness of their projects, but also by the quality of their
relationships. The skills imparted, yes, but also the true and honest
connection they developed with the recipient of that skill.
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| Left to Right: Carl Swartz (Country Director, PC Namibia), Patrict McElroy (DPT, PC Namibia), Me, Saara Kuugongongwela Amadhila (Prime Minister, The Republic of Namibia), Ambassador Daughton (US Ambassador to Namibia), Dick Day (Regional Director of the Africa Region, Peace Corps) |
It is hard sometimes to see ourselves
as a part of that – so it goes with history. With each passing minute, each
certificate printed, each learner graduated, and each person assisted we add to
that history. Milestones such as these let us see ourselves within that 25 year
context.
25 years of PC Namibia. 25 years of
PCVs. 25 years of touring, traveling, and seemingly endless combie rides. 25
years of looking out the window of a car and being struck by the beauty of the
Zambezi or Okavango Rivers, the dunes of the Namib or Kalahari Desert, or the
Atlantic as you’ve never seen it before. 25 years of volunteer confusion from
trying to figure out what the man giving directions is talking about when he
says his shop is “just that side of the robot” or that “he’d be here just now”
– only to find yourself a few short months later using the same exact phrases.
25 years of weddings, birthdays, and holidays. 25 years of host families and
relatives who support and teach us so much – though I still will probably never
effectively hand-wash my shirts. 25 years of a washer, dryer, and hot showers
at the Peace Corps Office. 25 years of Peace Corps office staff who have made
it their full time (and often overtime) jobs to assure that volunteers can be
happy, comfortable, and successful at site. 25 years of incredible supervisors,
counterparts, colleagues, and learners who deserve more praise than they could
ever receive. 25 years of that look on a learners face when they finally figure
“it” out, when a trainee approaches you and expresses their gratitude, when the
meme who you’ve been working on budgeting with can now regularly pay for her
electricity. 25 years of meaningful work. 25 years of friendship.
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| Me & Patrick (DPT, PC Namibia) |
How fortunate are we to be given the
opportunity to really experience this country. To truly get to know the people
of this country? We are spoiled, yes, by the aesthetic beauty of this country.
These are the things anyone with eyes notice, readily apparent to the average
tourist. But as volunteers, we have the unique opportunity to truly see
Namibia. We have the privilege to interact with the very fabric of this
country. We have the opportunity to see this country not as a 14 day road trip,
or 3 months of study abroad, but with 2 years of life.
It’s why when you talk to a volunteer
in Zambezi, they almost always mention life in, around, or on the river –
eating fish and pap, surrounded by friends, family, and a mosaic of shitenges.
It’s why a Zambezi volunteer, though at first a bit uncomfortable, eventually
finds kneeling and clapping to be as familiar as a handshake. It’s why a
Kavango volunteer has countless, hilarious stories of drivers backing their
cars a bit too close to the water as they get stuck at Rundu beach. A Kavango
volunteer best escapes the heat of the day in the shade of a large tree with a
massive monkey orange in hand. It’s why volunteers in Wamboland come to
appreciate the sand in their oshifima because it is a constant and crunchy
reminder of the strength of their early-rising sister. PCVs in Wamboland also come
to prefer Marathon Chicken, and cast judgement on those who do not completely
clean the bones of its meat. It’s why an Erongo volunteer knows that they have
to wait to hear the language being spoken before they attempt greeting. The
diversity of the country is represented in its population, and we come to
expect each sentence to feature 2-4 different languages. It’s why everyone in
Omaheke and Otjazondjupa mention the pride of the Herero culture and the
emphasis put on family. It’s why a volunteer in Kunene notices the diversity of
their region manifested in the landscape and the people. Volunteers in Kunene define
fast food as a heaping plate of donkey meat with a side of flavoured ice. It’s
why a volunteer in the south can always find a braai full of strangers, who
quickly become Namily. PCV’s in the deep-south will always be boastful about
their frost and snow covered towns, as the rest of the country to the north
sweats it out. And it’s why all volunteers know one of the common themes of
this country, one thing that unites every person who identifies as Namibian, is
the undying, unquenchable love of meat. I mean, I thought I liked meat
before I got here, but eish! You never leave a braai unsatisfied. Never. It’s
about the experience though. Anyone can eat Namibian braai meat. But not
everyone gets to experience the braai. As the fire is built,
and the ashes crumble and crack, we talk. We share stories, talk about cultural
curiosities. In doing that we experience Namibia in a way that is both honest
and extremely personal. We get to experience its true spirit – interacting with
its history, languages, cultures and traditions thorough its people. And it
becomes more and more apparent, as the days go by, that we will leave here
having learned far more than we’ve taught. It’s an oft-repeated sentiment, but
how incredibly clear it becomes.
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| Post-Ceremony Group Photos Top Row: Me, Eric Feldpausch (PCV), Alex Crisel (PCV), Patrick (DPT, PC Nam), Dan Appel (PCV) Bottom Row: Linnea Carver (PCV), Sarah Jonson (PCV), Ally Conner (PCV), Kaitlin Schluter (PCV) |
Our work is always focused on the
future. Whether that future is a fully-functional and sustainable project that
no longer requires volunteer assistance, or perhaps a strong foundation to pass
on to the next volunteer, we serve with the future in mind. We serve for future
generations of volunteers, staff, counterparts, and supervisors. We serve for the
future, and so will the volunteers that follow us. We serve the future as did
the volunteers, staff, counterparts, and supervisors that came before us. They
served for your learners, your clients, your patients, your family, and your
friends. So no, you may not know Group 1. But, in some way, they knew you. And
today we all celebrate each other. As my Peace Corps supervisor, Linda Shiimbi,
put it during training: “Though you are but just one raindrop, you land in a
rushing river of change. And though alone one raindrop does little, a river can
change landscapes”. Today we celebrate all the raindrops – Namibian and
American alike – that have joined together to make this river flow.
As volunteers, we work for the benefit
and development of Namibia at large, but our work is effective because we focus
our efforts on a small section of the population. Whether we are teaching at a
small school in Owamboland, working at a clinic in Kavango, or assisting youth
entrepreneurs in Karas, our work and the work of our counterparts and
supervisors depends on an intimate understanding of the people and places in
which we serve. Events like this 25thanniversary
celebration allow us come together and put our individual, concentrated efforts
into larger perspective. Collectively, we can look around this room and
celebrate each other’s achievements as our own. But as we look around this
room, make sure to visualize everyone who contributes towards our
successful service. See the colleagues that greet us every day and the
supervisor that loves exchanging ideas. See the entire Peace Corps staff
and their passion for Namibian-American partnership and friendship. See
the government officials meeting in offices to strategically plan for the
expansion of the education program and the entire Mission community discussing
how to better use Peace Corps volunteers to make the national HIV/AIDS
eradication agenda more effective. See the fruit vendor that gives you an
extra orange to thank you for your business, the kapana meme that knows how
fatty you like your meat, and the security guards at Spar that always look out
for you. It’s a truly magical thing when you realize that what we gain and
leave Namibia with is not American colleagues and Namibian colleagues, American
friends and Namibian friends, and American family and Namibian family, but just
colleagues, friends, and family – connected through shared experience,
friendship, and love. And how lucky are we for such a privilege. Thank you.
