We have been in Windhoek for a week now and I have truly enjoyed the experience of getting to know the city, my housemates, and the staff at CGE. We have some fantastic people working at the house and they make it feel more like a home each day. We are all still adjusting to the idea of living with 23 other people and sharing 2 toilets. Each morning presents a new challenge of fighting for mirror space, sink time, and just moving about the house. Everyone has made an effort to be respectful and quite in the evenings. I have made my bottom bunk into my own personal 'fort'! I hung a sleeping bag from the top bunk and it has allowed me a semblance of privacy as I am sleeping! Needless to say, others have followed suit!
This weekend we had a student forum at the house and 20 students from the University of Namibia came to meet us. It was a great experience to meet people our own age and hopefully I will be seeing them again. A group of us spent most of our time this weekend walking around Windhoek and trying to figure this city out. We have also made several trips to the local Pick-N-Pay to pick up Coke Light and other necessities that the center does not provide.
On Monday I started my internship at the Electoral Commission of Namibia. My supervisor, Hilda, had been out of the office for 3 weeks training voter education officials around the country. Namibia is also having a very significant by election on October 31st. This election is the result of SWAPO firing its regional councillor and leaving the position open. The office is working diligently to register voters, make information available to the public, and to set up the ballots and actual voting locations. The office was insane on Monday with people coming in and out all day long and speaking in indigenous languages. I was told to sit and observe her daily routine but it was overwhelming to not understand what was being said and to occasionally hear my name mentioned. On the walk home I started getting very homesick, frusturated, and felt very isolated as an American abroad. It was the first day I had struggled being so far away. I think it finally sank in that I am half way around the world!!!
My internship is a full day on Monday and a half day on Wednesday. Today was a lot better at the office. I was able to help my supervisor prepare for an hour long radio show about the upcoming election and sit in on a division meeting were I finally began to understand what is going on. I was also put in charge of narrowing an application pool from 75 people down to 15 for my boss to review! I could not believe I was given that responsibility. Hopefully, I made quality selections but, regardless, I have a new admiration for people who hire others on a daily basis.
Tomorrow we start our urban home stay. We will be living with a family for 10 days and I am super nervous about it. Sadly, I did not have the best experience with my previous home stay but I have decided that anything will be better than my time in Soweto. Also, I will have my own room!! It will be great to have some alone time in the evenings! I have also decided to 'become vegetarian' on my home stays and for most of my time here. The meat that is served in Namibia is mostly lamb, goat, and beef. Many families also prepare certain delicacies for their students including sheep stomach and cow intestine soup!! At the house we always have tons of salad, fruit, peanut butter, cereal and veggies to keep us happy, in addition to ,chicken. So eating meat at home is not such a risk!!
We start classes tomorrow and I am anxious to get started on a more normal routine. Orientation is officially over!! Yesterday was our grand finale. We went to a guest house outside of Windhoek and spent the day doing team building activities and we finished with a brai. A brai is a BBQ with TONS of meat and a few salads. One of my reasons for deciding to not eat meat was that last night we were served Kudu, Namibian game, at our brai. Did I forget to mention that the guest house has a pet Kudu that wondered around all day nuzzling us and eating our homework?!?! So the image of eating him stuck vividly in all our minds when we discovered that our meat was, indeed, Kudu!! With that I am off to do some homework for class tomorrow. I hope you are all doing well and I look forward to hearing from you soon!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Sister my love... sounds like such an amazing experience. I can not imagine sitting in an office and not understanding a word that is being said... what an eye opening experience... really makes me think about the kiddos in my classroom that don't speak English and do their best to understand. I check everyday for a BLOG update... Thanks for the wonderful updates on life so far away! Miss you and love you!
Kristin, well it sounds like things are really taking off now. I agree w/Jenn that it must be extremely hard to sit and not understand a word but your own name, and the language is not even similar to any you might have taken in middle/high school and perhaps college. I was glad to read that you bounced back the day after your difficult first day with you mentor/advisor.
Keep the blog entries coming. We enjoy them and pray for you. Pat and Stan
In Chicano lit we talk a lot about language, how it can be such a barrier. LIfe becomes exponentially harder when you lose your ability to communicate. Good luck my dear, I'm sure you'll help them choose excellent and qualified hirees.
Post a Comment