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.

Welcome to Oshakati

Sorry for the delay, but this is where I live.

A Learning Experience

I’ve lasted 3 months in this country now! Oh yea. I’ve started noticing some unique mannerisms that happen in this country, or at least in my town. I thought now is a good time to come up with a list some of the oddities that I face on a regular basis. Also, I want to make sure that you know that these are my observations and do not reflect the thoughts of anyone else. It’s pretty diverse in this country and I’m sure others living here are seeing different things. With that said, these are some of the tidbits that I’ve learned about my site and the way people act here. Here it goes:

1)    Don’t trust African Time- What I mean is that if someone says that activity Y will take X number of minutes, ignore it, because it will certainly take longer. African time works in mysterious way. The other day, I was asked if I wanted to quickly see a nearby village and it wouldn’t take long. I thought “Sure. Why not?” It took 6 hours! What I thought would be a quick visit to a village took 6 hours! But there were reasons why it took so long, which included finding a place to buy rocks, feeding goats and puppies and filling five 200L barrels with water through a dodgy little tap. So now I know. It’s not even worth asking how long something will take because I don’t think anyone really knows.

2)    If you plan ahead, people will think you’re crazy- Sometimes, I’d try to make a plan for tomorrow and I’d get strange looks because people here tend to just go with the flow. I like that… to an extent. It gets tricky at times because I do need to plan things in advance and sometimes, its part of my job. Regardless, if I try to plan something weeks in advance, some people look at me like I should be strapped down with a straitjacket and thrown into a psychiatric ward.

3)    I work too fast- People are constantly amazed about how quickly I can get things done around here. To be honest, I don’t work quickly at all. I really don’t. I just happen to do tasks when asked and when it gets finished, they are stunned. Other times, I have to go somewhere to buy something or get something fixed and when I return, they are flabbergasted at how quickly I do it. I think time just works differently here.

4)    Simba Chips Index- Some of you may know about the Big Mac Index and for those of you who don’t, it’s an informal method to measure the purchasing power parity between two currencies according to the price of a Big Mac in two different countries. My Simba Chips Index is in a similar vein but instead of comparing the purchasing power parity between two countries, I use it as a quick way to compare the overall prices between two different supermarkets. For example, if Simba Chips (fyi, Simba Chips are the bees knees and are sorta my vice here) are N$7.95 in one shop, then I can figure out that that shop will have generally cheaper products than a shop that sell Simba Chips for N$10.95. This is still just a stupid theory of mine, which isn’t groundbreaking to any degree and you can basically do this with any product, but since all I buy are Simba Chips, its works for me.

5)    People will always assume I have lots of money- I don’t. In fact, because of some situations which have arisen recently, I can see myself struggling financially in the near future. Since I don’t have much, I’ve found ways to spend wisely. I now know that I don’t need to spend more than N$5 on lunch and if I do, I think I’m spending way too much. However, people will constantly think I have more money than I do, whether it’s a kid on the street or someone who knows my situation. It gets a little bothersome at times but I think some people are realizing that I really don’t have much money on me.

6)    Lots of Gold Diggers here- I’m not talking about a person who only dates wealthy people, or someone who literally digs for gold. I’m talking about the brain-scratching, nostril-diving Gold Diggers. People often pick their nose in public here and it’s seems completely acceptable.

7)    People will think I know American Celebrities- You wouldn’t believe how many people have asked whether I know Jay Z. Well, only three people, but that’s more than anyone has asked me before coming here. For some reason, Jay Z seems to be a popular figure that people will ask me about. People have also asked if I know Barack Obama, Kanye West or Kim Kardashian. By the way, I have not met them. All I can tell them is that I’ve seen Obama’s dog, but that never seems to impress them.

8)    Conversations don’t have to make sense- Basic conversation can be amusing and/or a struggle here. The words chosen to respond to basic greetings in English can be strange at times. For instance, I may say “Good night” to someone and they would say, “Thanks, I’m good night”. Or I’d say, “How are you?” and they’d say, “Is it? Ee ee”. Obviously, English isn’t their first language here, but I just enjoy the nonsensical exchanges I have with some people at times. It’s a good way to remind myself of where I am.

9)    People will not acknowledge you- I’m sure this observation may not be true for other volunteers because I know people who live in a village are constantly greeted by their community. But I live in a town. A rather large and spread out town and people don’t really have the time to always greet you. For example, when I’m sitting in my home or my office and someone who I don’t know walks in, I usually think I’ll be greeted or someone will introduce me to them. Instead, I don’t even get looked at. I thought coming from another country would always make me some sort of mythical creature and that people would always ask me who I am, where I am from and why am I here. Nope. People will go ahead and have a conversation without even acknowledging my existence.

10) People do stare- I know this is basically contradicting the previous point, but whether someone will notice me depends on the situation. People will stare at me while I ride my bike. People will stare at me when I walk by a shebeen on the way to my local shop. People will stare at me while I’m reading outside my house. People will stare at me while I sit outside my house and enjoy the sunset. It seems like if they know they won’t have to have a conversation with me, they will likely stare at me instead. Or it’s because I’m just so god damn beautiful ;)

Me staring at a man staring at me while I was staring at the sunset

Well, that’s that. I hope this doesn’t offend anyone because it’s definitely not supposed to and I don’t want anyone thinking that I’m generalizing people here in Namibia, because I’m really not. I enjoy all the quirks that come with country. Namibia is also a very diverse country and I’m sure every town/village has its own unique traits. These are just things that I tend to notice on a daily basis and are situations that are in stark contrast to my life in a Western society. That is all.

1 month down. 23 to go.

First off, just want to say sorry about not posting in a while. The reason being is that I feel like there hasn’t been all that much happening as of late. Work has been slow and static for me. For my coworkers, it has been frantic because they’ve been working on the quarterly reports and I haven’t able to help them with that because I’ve really only been here for a few weeks. If they needed help with a quarterly-quarterly report, then I may have been able to help out. But they didn’t. So I haven’t really done anything on the work front yet, but I’ve been told that I’ll be getting down to business this week.

I’m still living with a host family at the moment, even though I was told I’d only be here for a few weeks. Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with my host family. They’re great and I really mean that. But after being told that you’d be moving out in 2-3 weeks, and a month later you haven’t, it makes it a little challenging to truly settle down and adjust. However, I have finally found a flat to move into, and if everything goes accordingly, then I should be in my new place this Saturday (but remember, in Namibia, plans fail to materializer). 

For this blog post, I thought I might as well write about my current living situation before I move on to my new abode. At the moment, I live with my host-mom, her sister, sometimes her husband, sometimes a couple of boys and sometimes a couple of girls. It honestly changes by the day and I never know who’ll be sleeping in the house on any given night, which I don’t mind at all. I enjoy meeting all sorts of people. Oh yea, three puppies also lived here for a few days, but now they have been banished to the village life. I got to name one of them. I named here Lola, after the telenovela show ‘My Heart Beats for Lola’. Gotta love them soapies that they constantly have playing here. The other two puppies were named Danger (a girl) and Fluffy (a boy).

Now as for my family, my host-mom Luanda and her sister Nunu (quick note- I’ve got no idea how to spell anyone’s name here, so everything is just a shot in the dark) are both great people. They always enjoy a good laugh and do their best to encourage me to speak their language, which I’m failing at miserably because I just don’t use it enough on a daily basis.

Morning  and Kambushe

This is Morning and Kambushe (remember, I’ve got no idea how to spell these). These two girls are adorable and are constantly giggling. They are both very intelligent and speak great English. They enjoy watching movies with me. I had an awkward moment with them the other night while we were watching Finding Nemo because in the opening scene *SPOILER ALERT* Nemo’s mom gets attacked by a barracuda. The next scene is in the future and Nemo’s mom isn’t there. Kambushe asks me “where is the mother’. Then we have an awkward pause and I reluctantly tell her that she got eaten… Yikes. Kambushe looked devastated and I actually thought she was going to cry. At least they enjoyed the rest of the movie. Luckily, the girls weren’t as distraught last week when we watched Mufasa die in the Lion King, but they saw that one coming. Besides watching movies and being ridiculous, the girls are constantly cleaning up the house and doing chores. It’s non-stop. I feel bad at times but they seem very used to it and I think it’s just a part of the culture here in Namibia.

Kowko with Lola and Junior with Fluffy

Changin' lives, for better or worse

Kowko being Kowko

These two kids are Junior and Kowko. These fellas are even more ridiculous than the girls. Kowko can be very quite at times and usually while I’m reading in the living room, he would sit in the chair opposite me and just stare at me. I’d laugh and ask him what he’s looking at, and he’d keep staring without cracking a smile. It amuses me. Other times, Kowko is showing me his cartwheel skills or doing dances that resemble a drunken monkey. Strange kid haha. Junior is a little older and also speaks good English. The first time I met him, he seemed very sweet because he greeted me with a hug even though I had no idea who he was. Now, every time he sees me, he says “Give me your phone”. No please. No thank you. Just “Give me”. By the way, that seems like a very common thing here in Namibia, regardless of age, and I think that’s because they don’t have a word for “please” in their language. I don’t see the constant demanding as rude anymore because I realize that its just part of the culture. Anyways, besides Junior’s obsession with the games on my phone, he’s a really nice kid and is constantly intrigued by what I do, whether it’s reading my kindle, working on my laptop or playing my guitar. Whenever he sees my guitar, he says “I’m going to practice now” and then he begins to thwack my guitar. At least he seemed generally interested by the guitar because from what I’ve gathered, no one plays a musical instrument in this country!

A part from my family, the other kids in my neighborhood are really nice. Ever since they saw me ride my bike home from work, they are always riding around my area with their bikes too. Also, the neighborhood kids are just as demanding as Junior. Some would say “let me ride your bike now” or “give me your bread” while I’m eating bread in front of them. I’ve gotten used to it and I just give in now. 

So, that’s basically been whats up lately and I’ll try to keep y’all updated once I move into my new pad next week… hopefully.

 

All the kiddies, and yes... the boys are wearing vampire teeth...

On the road again...

There I was, being dropped off at  my new boss's home by my host mom to watch an Arsenal game because I've been desperate to get my fix of football since I've been in this country. Upon my arrival, my boss asked my host mom immediately if I could take care of her puppy because she would be heading to Windhoek for a few days. This was all news to me at the time. My host mom said it wouldn't be a great idea since she would be going to Ruacana for a few days to conduct a 3 day financial management training session. It was at that moment that they both decided that I should go on this 3 day trip too, which was a camping trip as well. Although I didn't have much input on the decision, I was excited to go and it really did make sense to go see one of the conservancy that NDT supports, rather than staying in Oshakati for my "official" first day because my boss wouldn't be there to give me a proper orientation.

So, right after finding some comfort in my new home in Ongwediva, which had traces of my western lifestyle from the US, I was once again taken away from my comforts and thrown into the African wild. Literally. After I finished watching my football match (3-1 to the Arsenal :)), I had to quickly pack in 10 minutes for a 3 day camping trip. In hindsight, there are definitely things I wish I had packed (like hand sanitizer) and things that I didn't need to bring (like a towel or shoes). Anyways, my host mom, another NDT employee named Theo and I embarked on a 2+ hour trip to a Mopane Conservancy in Ruacana.

When we arrived at Ruacana, we got to a site that I didn't expect. I was told we were going camping, so I expected an outdoor campsite. Instead, what I had arrived to was one large room (with no electricity, so it was dark) filled with tents. Theo and I did opt to camp outside, which is what I was hoping for. As long as elephants don't trample on me, I've got no problem with staying outside. Also, in case anyone has been wondering, I have not seen any elephants yet. However, on the trip, I did see a lot of cows, goats and donkeys. And I mean A LOT of donkeys.

Me and my donkey friend. He was an ass.

As mentioned earlier, the purpose for this trip was to teach the people working for the Ruancana Conservancy about Financial Management . Before I left Ongwediva, I thought it would be great to see how people conduct these types of sessions. Little did I know, it would all be done in Oshindonga! When will I learn that only a few people on this side of Namibia speak English. However, I managed to introduce myself in Oshindonga to the 25 attendees and they loved it. I think this did create a misconception that I knew the language, because people would constantly speak to me in Oshindonga, which I definitely do not understand. However, during these sessions, I was able to learn some useful business and financial words in Oshindonga, which I hope will prove to be useful in the long run.

The training sessions spanned over 3 days. They were supposed to go from 8am-5pm. In reality, they went from 9:30am-7pm. As you could imagine, I had a lot of time to think about everything happening in my life and what I've gotten myself into. At times, I would think "what am I doing here?", and I mean that in more ways than one. Then again, I thought about how lucky I am to be where I am today and it is exactly where I went to be and I wouldn't have it any other way.

My host mom running the show

The attendees

Unfortunately, I had been held incommunicado during my time in Ruacana because I assumed that I'd be heading to a place without electricity (which was correct to assume) so I decided to turn my phone off. When I turned it back on, my sim card decided to lock itself and the PIN I needed to unlock it was back in Ongwediva. Great. 3 nights in the middle of nowhere and I couldn't even keep in touch with my friends.

So, after 3 looooong days of training sessions (I probably spent about 25 hours sitting in a room without understanding anything), we then hit the road again to get back to Oshakati/Ongwediva. However, the car we were driving decided to fail on us multiple times. Apparently, there was something wrong with the generator and in order for it to start, it would need to be pushed to get the gears going. Then, the car would stop again and would need to cool down. Basically, it took us 3 hours to travel the first 60 km on our way home. Fortunately, another NDT came to us from Oshakati to give us a hand. Lots of funny and extremely frustrating events occurred during this voyage, but I think it's best that I keep them to myself for now ;)

We needed a push to get the car started

All in all, I believe that I had learned a lot during the trip. Here are some of the things:

• I think I've got some great colleagues and I look forward to building a strong relationship with them.
• More oshindonga!
• My host mom is quite amazing and I really admire the work she does. I thought she was a great leader, even though I didn't understand about 95% of the things she was saying.
• I got a better idea of what NDT is all about, but I'm still not too sure what they have in store for me. Hopefully,  I wont be leading financial management training sessions in Oshindonga anytime soon.
• I really value the friendships that I have made over the past few months. I do miss my friends.
• Hygiene is not a priority for me like it used to be, but it probably should be.
• People will laugh at me here, and I won't know why, but I'm OK with that.
• The drought that the Namibia is currently going through is a very serious and prevalent issue and it is taking a toll on the environment, the economy and the standard of living of many Namibians. Let's hope we get some rain this season! 
• PC didn't lie when they said I'm going to have to be flexible and patient.

Most importantly, I learned that taking a hot shower after not being able to wash myself for 4 days feels amazing :)

I've got a feeling we're not in Okahandja anymore...

So, I arrived at my new home in Ongwediva for the first time last night. My first impression… I could get used to this. The house that I’ll be living in for the next few weeks is very nice and spacious. I met my new host mom and she’s very welcoming and easy to talk to. I think she is genuinely happy to have a volunteer stay with her. I’m still not sure about how many people live in this house, but I think it’s about four others. I’ll try to get more info on that soon. She is also very intelligent and has a lot of experience working with conservancies. She does not work for NDT (the organization which I will be working with) anymore but she does some consulting for them, so she will be able to help me if I’m completely lost in regards to what I will be doing.

I had a great sleep last night, even though I could hear music blasting from the nearby shebeen, and Ongwediva seems like a very nice town. However, I couldn’t see a lot of the town last night because we arrived when it was dark. I did manage to see the new mall that recently opened. Looks good to me.

Anyways, this is just a brief update about what’s happening and my boss should be picking me up in 5 minutes to take me to the Annual General Meeting for one of the conservancies that NDT works with. I’m excited and nervous about meeting my boss for the first time, but I’m ready to get down to business!

_________________________________________________________________________________
UPDATE:

I just got back home from the Annual General Meeting for the Iipumbu Ya Tshilongo Conservancy and my oh my did this day feel long. First of all, the conservancy is in a village called Onkani, which is about 100km from my home. Second of all, my transport to the conservancy was in the back of a closed bakkie (pickup truck/ute). Being in the back of a bakkie made the trip very bumpy, but I enjoyed being able to blast music on my iPod and all the leg room.

Me and my personal space on the road

However, at one point, we picked up a lady and her baby on our way to the conservancy and she sat beside me in the bakkie. Then, as I was minding my own business, the baby grabbed my hand and I looked over at the baby and there it was, being breastfed right next to me. I did not see that coming. Also, sometimes the driver would ask the lady for directions and she would turn towards the driver and her breast would be mere inches from my face. Interesting start to my first day at site haha. 

We finally arrived at the conservancy around 9:30 am. The meeting was supposed to start at 9 am. We didn't start till 10:15 am. I'm definitely going to have to get used to Namibian time. Before the meeting got started, I was given the agenda and it looked like they would be covering a lot of interesting topics such as the Conservancy progress report, the Financial report, their 5 year development plan, their Benefit distribution plan, their Game utilization and Management plan and their budget. Unfortunately, the meeting was almost entirely in Oshindonga, so hardly understood anything. And to think, I actually brought a pen and notebook to take notes during the meeting. I stuck out like a sore thumb because I was the only (semi) white guy in the room and I was sitting on the stage in front of about 100 Namibians (6 of the women in the audience were breastfeeding there babies throughout the meeting. I think public breastfeeding will be a common theme during my time in Africa haha). 

Big turnout to the meeting

One thing I did enjoy about the meeting was the occasional Cultural performances that took place, which were 12 girls doing a traditional dance and these girls had moves!

Dancin' Girls

On the way home, we decided to take 14 others to their village on our way back to Ongwediva. So below is a picture from where I was, stuck in the corner of bakkie with a bunch of other people laughing at me because they knew I didn't know a single word that they were saying. All I could do was just laugh with them. All in all, it has been an interesting first day and I think it was a good introduction to the type of things that I'll be experiencing throughout the next two years of my life.

Packed in the back of a bakkie

Swearing In

The last couple of weeks have been very, very busy. On Tuesday, we met our counterparts. My counterpart is a very friendly lady and I know we are going to get along really well. She told me more about my job and it sounds extremely exciting. I will be working closely with about five different conservancies, and three of them are surrounding the well-known Etosha National Park. Hopefully, I’ll get to see a lot of African Wildlife! I will be working on some income generating activities as well as conducting some business training sessions. It seems like I will be doing A LOT of traveling around the Ovambo region, so I will have lots of time to get to know my counterpart. I can’t wait to get started!

 

Also, I found out that I’ll only be living with a host family for about 6 weeks in Ongwediva, starting today. I’m a bit nervous about meeting my new family today, but it should be great! However, after 6 weeks with the family, I will then apparently be moving into a different house where I will be living by myself for almost two years. If this is true, I’m definitely happy about that because it will be nice to have some personal space, although I have enjoyed living with a host family so far.

Yesterday, I officially became a Peace Corps Volunteer! After 9 long weeks of Peace Corps Training, we swore in to make the start of our Peace Corps service official. I also had to give a speech in Oshindonga in front of all the volunteers, trainers, staff, families and our counterparts and supervisors. I think I did all right and my counterpart, language trainers and host mom said they were really proud of me and that I sounded like a true Ovambo man :)

After the swearing in ceremony, we all decided to hang out one last time and got a drink together. It was a good sending off and I’m definitely going to miss all the volunteers in my group. They’ve nothing but the best!

Now, I am waiting for my counterpart to pick me up so we can embark on our 7 hour journey northbound! I'll be traveling with another volunteer, Kaitlyn, to O-land and I think we may be the last volunteers to leave Okahandja. I've got no idea what these next few days have in store for me but I'm stoked to begin this next part of my journey!

Oshindonga. Represent!