Some basics; I’m now a Peace Corps Trainee (PCT). There are 22 people in my Peace Corps
training group. We met in Philly,
made the 36 hour trip to Windhoek Namibia, spent about 4 days training in
Windhoek, then were shipped to Omaruru where we are training now. I moved in with a host family about two
weeks ago (a couple and their 8 month old daughter). They’re very nice and have been teaching me a lot about
Namibian culture and cooking and other necessary skills such as manual clothes
washing. They also speak the
language I am being trained in which is Rukwangali. Rukwangali is the language of the Kavango region, which is
in the North of Namibia on the border of Angola and where I will be assigned
for my 2 years as a peace corps volunteer (PCV) once I complete training.
My homestay is in an area known as “the location”. The location is where all blacks were
made to live during apartheid.
It’s safe during the day, but no volunteer is allowed out past 9:00 PM
as the area can be unsafe after dark.
On my third night at my homestay, a drunk driver who had stolen a car
crashed through my neighbor’s fence.
Binge drinking and drunk driving are big issues here.
The family I’m living with has been wonderful. The mother of the house, Josephine, has
been great about teaching me how to cook Namibian dishes and practices language
with me every night. Today, she
and two of her friends sat with me outside as I washed my clothes and helped me
practice Rukwangali. They all got a
kick out of my screw-ups, but seemed impressed by my progress. I still feel clueless, but I haven't been at it for long. The father, John, also helps me
practice language. John is a town
police officer, so I feel safe here at home. There daughter, Anna, is a doll and easy to entertain. It only took me a few days to feel
completely comfortable with my new host family.
My days are busy.
My weekdays start with a 4 mile run at 5:30 AM with my PCT running partner,
Pamela. It’s cold here in the
morning, which is great for running.
However, it’s still dark at that hour and the strange noises from the
tall grass get your attention in a hurry.
Luckily, the clocks just fell back here today, so our runs will be a bit
less spooky. My training starts at
730 AM. We have a couple hours of
language followed by technical training on subjects like HIV/AIDS, Gender roles
in Namibia, Cultural dos and don’ts, Malaria, volunteer safety, Namibian
culture, and nutrition. We wrap up
training at 4:30. I get home
around 5, hang out with my host family for a bit, and then study from 6 until
7. At 7, I start on dinner with my
host mom. Food prep is a longer
process here than in the states.
There are typically a few stages and time to study in between. So, I’m pretty much in the kitchen
studying, cooking, eating, playing with Anna, or cleaning from 7PM until 9:30
PM. By 945, I’m in bed and asleep
nearly instantly.
My weekends are almost as busy as my weekdays. Yesterday we had a “cultural food day”
where people representing the various larger ethnic groups of Namibia showed us how
they prepare traditional food.
Since I’m going to be in Kavango, I helped the Kavango group with their
food prep which included the slaughter a few chickens. The process goes like this; you grab
the neck just below the head firmly and pull the chicken down on its side, you
then pin its legs to the ground with your foot, then you take a knife
(preferably sharp) and slice open the throat. The chicken flaps and shakes (even if the heads been
removed) so you have to hold it down until the convulsions stop. My chicken didn’t convulse for very
long, which one of the Namibians near me said meant that I would not live a
very long life. Apparently, how
long the first chicken you kill convulses indicates how long of a life you will
have. I pointed out that the
head was still moving. Hopefully
that counts.
After the chicken slaughter came the plucking, gutting,
butchering, and cooking. I’m told
I might be doing a lot of this sort of thing in Kavango depending on the
specific community I’m assigned to.
It wasn’t so bad, but chickens aren’t the only meat they eat around here. There’s a lot of goat and cow eaten in
this country too. I’m not in a big
hurry to participate in a goat or cow slaughter, but eventually they’ll come.
Other weekend activities so far have included wandering
around the location in an attempt to find where all the other trainees live,
soccer with local kids, Saturday morning runs, house cleaning, studying, and a
meal and some beer with other PCTs.
One PCT, Cathy, spent a few minutes of her weekend killing a zebra snake
(we’re told this is a very dangerous snake).
We get a lot of inoculation shots (rabies, typhoid, Hep A,
Hep B) and training on how to know if we’ve contracted malaria and how to deal
with it if we do. Even though I take
a malaria prophylaxis, I still have about a 7% chance of getting malaria during
my service and probably a bit more than that given my likely assignment. However, being on a malaria prophylaxis
will greatly diminish the severity of the malaria if I do get it, provided I
identify it quickly and take the necessary steps to treat it.
The training on HIV/AIDS and other Namibian health
challenges has been eye opening to put it mildly. I’ve quickly come to understand the immensity of the problem
HIV/AIDS posses here and the daunting challenges that await a Peace Corps
Volunteer. Some rough stats; Some
of the regions in Namibia have an HIV prevalence rate greater than 30% (in
contrast, California’s rate is something like 0.02%). The region I will be assigned to, Kavango, is the poorest in
Namibia. 18% of the Kavango
population is “poor”, and 23% is categorized as “Severely Poor”. The Kavango HIV/AIDS rate is about 25%. There are other highly disconcerting
facts, trends, and figures for the Kavango region that I don’t feel comfortable
sharing here.
Most of our PCT trainers are Namibian. They’ve been doing a great job of
preparing us for out assignments (as much as you can actually prepare a person
for something like this). I’m
really enjoying training, but it won’t last long and soon I’ll be on my own in
Kavango, which is when things are going to get tough. I won’t have my running partner or the other 20 PCTs to keep
me company any longer. I won’t
have my awesome Omaruru host family, or 10AM training tea break, or big weekend
“cultural food” activities with all of the PCTs and training staff or any of
that. I’ll have a community with a
boatload of issues and the powers of a mere mortal to deal with them. I’ll have to figure out how I’m going
to actually provide some value to my assigned community by figuring out
creative ways to communicate messages about HIV/AIDS (and other STDs), TB, malaria,
nutrition, domestic violence, food safety, hygiene, sexual health, and
alcoholism.
OK, that’s all I have in me for now. I could write forever about how
beautiful it is here, or about my home or neighborhood, or the other PCTs
(great group of people), or the food, or the bugs (so many and so big), or any
number of things. But, I’ll be
here for another 26 months, so there will be plenty of time for all of
that. Thanks all for reading. I hope all is well wherever you
are.
PS. Photos won't be available for a bit as uploading via my current connection would take years. I'll post some as soon as I can.
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