18 million years

It’s been a busy three(+) weeks since my Rundu site visit.  Besides training, I had to prep for my final language exam and mentally prepare to be separated from the gang of other trainees that I’ve formed some pretty strong bonds with over the past 8 weeks.  As I begin to write this, I am sharing the backseat of a Neon sized vehicle with two other newly sworn in U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers, Geri and Nathan.  We’re headed on a 9-hour journey to our permanent sites to start our 750 days as PCVs in the Kavango region.   

My training in Omaruru ended about one week ago.  I spent this past week in a mountain lodge with the rest of the trainees.  It was nice to have the whole gang back in one spot for a few nights.  I passed my Rukwangali language proficiency exam and was sworn in as a US Peace Corps Volunteer on Friday.  I arrived in my permanent site Saturday.  As usual, way too much has occurred over the past three weeks to cover it all, so I’ll hit some of the high points, low points, and other oddities. 

The deepest low was finding out that our most loved team member, Cathey, would be going home.  Cathey was the undisputed heart of our group.  She was a champ everyday.  If she ever had a bad day, she never showed it.  She always did whatever she could to keep everybody’s spirits up.  She cared about all of us and never had anything but words of encouragement.  We’ll all feel her absence.  

Cathey and the guys

The high of my past three weeks occurred during a morning run with my friend Pam.  My morning run, many times, is the highpoint of my day.  That’s not to say there aren’t many other good moments, but the beauty of this place in the morning, particularly Omaruru and Windhoek, is hard to top.  The rest of the day sort of has the deck stacked against it.  Add the mountains of Windhoek into the mix and forget about it.  So, anyway, the story goes like this;

I met Pam at about 6AM for our first Windhoek mountain run.  We’d spotted a trail the night before from the back deck of the lodge and decided to give it a shot (Pam later reminded me).  We first ran to a circular building on the top of the first peak (photo below) that appeared to be an old lookout.  We reached it in time for the sunrise and then proceeded to the next peak, which provided a beautiful view of Windhoek far below.   

The beginning of our run (see the little outlook on top?)

We had just started our run back to the camp when I heard some strange grunting sounds.  I’d heard a deep grunting sound during our run out but figured it was some sort of cattle in the valley.  I looked off to the west and saw three dark figures perched on a rocky outcropping atop an adjacent peak.  At first, I thought that they were hikers, but I then wondered why they were all wearing the same dark outfits.  I then noticed movement much closer on the hillside that slopped away from me and spotted a dark face looking back at me.  And then another. 

When I took in the whole valley in I couldn’t believe I’d just run through this scene and had not noticed the 30 or so baboons that were wandering between the two peaks.  I was surprised at their size.  They're much bigger than I thought they were.  There were two large baboons that were watching Pam and I closely.  The rest spread out through the shallow valley behind them and up to the next peak.  Pam pointed out some babies running up toward the rock outcropping I’d spotted the first ones perched one.  It turned out that the first ones I saw were the furthest away.  The closer guards watching us were a little more than 150’ away.  The big group appeared to be passing through.  I saw one that was walking on a piece of road that we’d just run twice and the direction of the group suggested that they’d just crossed our route.  I wondered if we’d split the group as we ran out.  I wondered how long ago we shared a common ancestor.  I wondered if we should be worried.    My friend and I were on a mountain top just after sunrise, in Africa, and alone with a large pack of baboons.  It was beautiful.  We stood for a short while in the cool quiet morning and took the scene in and then continued on our run. 

Some other events of the last three weeks included an American Food Day, during which the PCTs got to make American dishes for their host families.  I made German potato salad.  I know, it’s German, not American.  But it’s also a pretty common item at picnics in Pennsylvania and I figured it'd be a crowd pleaser.  We also had a sheep slaughtering party.  After the whole chicken thing, this wasn’t too hard to handle.  The actual slaughter was a bit hard to watch at moments, but that didn’t stop me from getting about 100 pictures.  PCV rock-star Rob did the hard part.  The party started with the sheep tied to a tree and ended with it in our bellies.  It was impressive to see how quickly a few Namibians could slaughter, gut, butcher, and prepare a sheep for dinner. 

Leaving Windhoek and the NAM 35 gang was harder than I thought it would be.  When I met them all in Philly, I figured we’d only be together for 8 weeks and wondered how close we could actually get in that time period.  Turns out you can get pretty attached in 8 weeks.  They’re a great group of people and I’m looking forward to seeing them all in three months.  

Sorry for the brief post.  I’m now sitting in my office at the Rundu Youth Center (yes, I know I started in the backseat of a car on my way to Rundu, but even these little posts take time).  I’ll be more connected now that I’m at my permanent site, so expect my normal posts every two weeks.  But, right now, I have a ton of work to do to get my head wrapped around what needs to get done here and how to approach it.  Thanks for reading.  I'll leave you with a few photos from the past weeks.  I hope you are all well.  

The gang at swearing in

The men of NAM 35

I took a walk in one of the unofficial locations one morning.  This was my favorite shot of the day.

Photo from a bar in Omaruru.

Some of the gang taking in the sunset at the Windhoek mountain lodge