Last Friday was the Namibian Independence Day so everyone had a long weekend. Mine was really enjoyable because I was able to spend it with other volunteers and celebrated the day by having a braai in a nearby town called Ondangwa.
It’s been a long time since my last blog post. It’s been so
long that the topic of my last post was about my holidays and now I’m beginning
to make plans for my upcoming holidays in April (Victoria Falls!!). When I
first moved to Namibia, I felt like I had a lot to write about because
everything was so new and there were so many things that I wasn’t accustomed to
yet. Now, everything, even the strangest things, has become the norm but I’ll do my best to keep on
writing about my experience here.
Even though it’s been more than a couple of months since my
last blog post, that does not mean I haven’t been doing much. It’s been quite
the opposite. Things with my primary organization have been slow at times
because there have been fewer projects for me than originally
intended. So, I’ve started to help out another organization in addition to my
host organization.
For about a month, I have been working with an NGO called
Elephant Energy. They are a US based organization that provides rural
households in Namibia with access to solar energy products and try to meet
their basic energy needs. They have a unique market-based approach to selling
their products which involves establishing shops in market centers and
developing a network of sales agents in surrounding rural areas. At the moment,
I’ve developed and assisted the Regional Managers with administering surveys to
end users of the product so that we can get an idea about the impact the
products are having on customers’ financial savings and livelihoods. It’s been
very interesting and has kept me busy. You can learn more about Elephant Energy in the
following link: http://www.elephantenergy.org/
Elephant Energy is also in the process of launching a new
product and I hope to help out as much as I can by making the implementation a success. I’ll keep
you posted on that once things are underway. Here is a link to a Huffington
Post article which briefly discusses the project that I’ll be working on. Seems
like the future is bright with this one… get it.
There has also been good news with one of the grants that I
submitted back in November. The grant is for a chili farming
project at Uukolonkadhi Conservancy which would help generate income for
community members as well as help mitigate the human wildlife conflict
situation with Elephants in that region. It’s still being looked at but a final
update should be made soon so again, I’ll keep you posted with that if things
work out for the best.
One last thing. 8 months ago I arrived in Namibia and it’s
been a bit over 6 months since I’ve been at site. That’s pretty crazy to me.
The first two months of training took forever. The first two months at site
before reconnect felt like a really long time and now, time is just flying by.
I find it hard to believe that it’s quickly approaching April. I think things
are moving so fast now because I’ve become a lot busier lately and my calendar
is just filling up with activities.
Hopefully, my next blog post won't take another 2 months to get published because I'm hoping good things will start happening real soon.
