Working in Namibia

Today is my last day at my office for the week/month/year. On Sunday, I’ll be heading to Windhoek for Peace Corps Reconnect, which is when all the volunteers get together and talk about our projects, issues and opportunities at our site. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing all the other volunteers after being away from them for over two months.

One of the tasks that Peace Corps assigned us before reconnect is prepare a presentation on the different activities that we have done at our site. For those of you who I have spoken with, I've essentially been telling you that I have not done much, and understandably so. The first couple of months are for adjusting at our new sites, whether it’s within the community or at our workplace. After preparing for this presentation and reflecting on the activities that I actually have been working on since being at site, I thought it was only appropriate to finally let you in on the things that I have actually been doing.

1)    Co-facilitating the development of a Craft Centre at the King Nehale Conservancy- This is probably going to be my primary project for the next few months. It has received funding from the Millennium Challenge Account, but now it must become operational by March and at the moment, hardly anything has been done. I’m not exactly sure how I will be helping out, but I'm sure it'll be through business trainings. The Craft Centre does seem like a very interesting project that could definitely create some income generating activities for the people in the region.

2)     Attendeding a lot of meetings/trainings - Here are some of the meetings which I have attended:

·      Annual General Meeting for Iipumbu yaTshilongo Conservancy

·      Financial Management Training at the Uukolonkadhi conservancy

·      Progress Reports of the Cultural Centre in King Nehale Conservancy at the Oshikoto Regional Council

·      MCA-N forum for Gender Equality and Land Ferom

·      Tulongeni Craft Centre Committee meeting at the King Nehale Conservancy

·      Conservancy Review and Planning Workshop in Odangwa

Unfortunately, I don’t do very much at these meetings or trainings. I often struggle to pay attention at the meetings because they're always a switching between English and Oshiwambo, which makes it hard to stay focused. I don’t think much is expected from me yet since I’m so new to this working environment and industry. However, I do think it is beneficial for me to attend these meetings because I am learning more about the issues at hand and I’m familiarizing myself key members of each conservancy. What I usually do at these meetings/training is take notes, throw in a few thoughts here and there and introduce myself in Oshindonga, which is always followed by ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from the attendees and a round of applause. I’m hoping I’ll be able to contribute more eventually. Just still gotta settle in.

3)    Applying for grants- I started a few grant applications for various projects but I always hit stumbling blocks with them because they always require information that I don’t have access to and to get the required information can take a really long time. I did apply for a grant to fund a Chilli farm at the Uukolonkadhi Conservancy, with the hopes that the chilli would be able to make economic opportunity for farmers as well as create elephant repellent to mitigate the human wildlife conflict at the conservancy. Apparently, when you mix the chilli with elephant dung, then burn it, this repels the elephants because they can’t stand the smell. Mind you, I could imagine that that smell would repel all living being on this planet.

4)    Photocopying, stapling and whole punching- This may seem like a tedious task that I shouldn’t be worth mentioning, but honestly, I do a lot of photocopying, stapling and whole punching (I’ll just shorten it by saying P.S.W). I usually do a lot of P.S.W is because I usually prepare the documents and folders which are given out at the various meetings and training that we attend. So yea… P.S.W for life!! 

There you have it! Those are the kind of things that I have been doing at my work over the past couple of months. I’m hoping that after reconnect and the rainy-season holidays, I’ll become more involved in other projects and I’ll keep y’all updated when that happens. 

Besides work, I’ve also been settling in at my new house. If you guys saw my last post, then you now know where I live. I’ve definitely been enjoying it and other PCVs come to visit most weekends so many fun times have been had and more are to come. 

And one last thing, below is a photo of Wallace III, the Wall Spider. Wallace I went M.I.A and I accidentally murdered Wallace II after it jumped onto my bare torso, did a loop around my body, fell to the floor and then while I tried to pick it up so I could release it to the wild, it’s legs started coming off and I had to put it out of it’s misery. Apologies to Wallace II and RIP. I hope Wallace III outlives his predecessors.