Holidays?

First and foremost.

Happy Holidays everybody! Although not being in freezing negative degree temps is making it hard to believe it's here.

I wanted to thank everyone for the support I receive both in spirit and in mail!  It’s always great to know that my friends and family are behind me and it helps me continue doing my work here.  The packages have often magically come at times when I need a friendly reminder of the love I feel at home!

Moving on to other topics…

What am I up to lately?

Well this week my friend and fellow PCV Nicole is in my village and we are working on the Clinic’s garden!  There is one man who is really dedicated to making the garden flourish and is at the clinic a lot to water it.  So I’m using that Permagarden training!  That should make Peace Corps happy!  Yesterday we did a single dig, this evening we will double dig it to get even deeper into the rock…I mean soil…. And then the next day we will plant!  Nicole brought us some carrot, tomato, and onion seeds!

 

 

I’ve also been super involved in the clinic day to day business, partly because school is closed and there is literally no one in my village for the holidays because most people go to the farms or other towns. Although despite people being gone the clinic is still undeniably busy.  With transfers and leave the clinic has only had one nurse with one relief nurse who is moonlighting in our clinic.  It really makes for a busy week every week.  And although the patients get frustrated with how long things take these nurses really do put up with so much work and never really do get a weekend…or even an evening sometimes.  One nurse will be on call for the whole week and the weekend. 

Things I miss:

Dishwashers

Laundry machines

cold weather

Really fast internet

Family

Children not crying when they see me

My best friend Nicole scaring me every time i wasnt expecting it...even when i was.

That is all for now.  I was going to post more photos but my connection is real S...L..O...W.

See you after the Holidays!

Is this thing still on??

I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated ya’ll on my life here in Namibia, but you’ll see why in a moment!  I’ve been doing more traveling outside of my site for meetings and reconnect part 2.  But now as I’m sitting alone in the clinic it seems like the perfect time to write this update.

First I got to go into Windhoek! I got to spend a mostly relaxing week exploring the capital city of my country.  Windhoek is so beautiful and reminds me a lot of home.  A couple of my friends and I were in town for a Camp GLOW meeting and got to stay in this awesome apartment with this really nice fuzzy carpet (which we thought about taking cause it was soooo nice).  We spent some nights out at the Warehouse (a cool local bar) for Trivia and to watch a new friend sing.  I also ate KFC for the very first time, which the boys couldn’t handle.  “How is this the first time you’ve eaten KFC?!?!?”  Here are some photos from that week:

 
 
 

I mentioned Camp GLOW above.  Camp GLOW (guys and girls leading our world) is a week-long PC program (run in many PC countries) for learners all over Namibia.  This week exposes the learners to themes such as leadership, health, and teamwork.  The learners get to see the city and get to explore UNAM and see what it takes to get into University.  I’m excited to be in charge of the Health Day along with my friend who is a GLOW facilitator.  For more info you can go to the not really updated but informative: Camp GLOW Namibia

The second trip was to Omaruru for group 37s reconnect part 2.  In this workshop we were trained in permagardening by Peter Jensen (a RPCV from Haiti).  Permagardening uses local materials (like wood ash and manure) to enrich the soil to not only make a better garden bed now but enriched soil that will last for centuries.  This was a really cool training and I have some cool pictures of all of us at work below.

 
 

Other than traveling I thought that maybe I would tell you all what I do at site or what I think about while I’m bored.

What do you do in your downtime Kaitlynn?

11.     watch media.  I have be rewatching the TV show Lie To Me. Which is a show about a group who look for micro expressions and solve problems by doing so.  It’s very relevant to my life here because I’m not fluent in Damara so I rely a lot on body language and facial expressions.  I’ve been taking notes…

22.     I have been working out a little more recently.  This morning I did 6-minute hip hop abs, which was 6 minutes more than I did yesterday.  I want to tone everything up so I’ve vowed to workout more!

----Milestone---- I have been on a weightloss journey here and I’m proud to say that I’ve lost 50lbs and am looking fierce!

What do you miss from home? (in random order)

11. Obviously family and friends!

22.     Margaritas from the Rio

33.     Washing machines and dryers for clothes

44.     Kara, my amazing hair stylist

55.     Putting on Make-up everyday

66.     The gym

77.     Lunch dates with the family

88.     Chipotle burritos

99.     Which Wich

110.  Garbanzos

111.   A full closet

112.  Blue Burger from KKatie's.  So Nick if you ever decide to read this tell sweet Irish Lou that I miss him, Guinness, and the Blue Burger

There are many more things that I miss and I haven’t eaten breakfast yet so maybe that’s why a bunch of those things are food….

One of my favorite things to do here is dance and listen to music.  I’m attaching some links to my favorite songs but some of them aren’t on youtube.  The Namibian station on youtube is: Namtunes

Sally- Boss Madam

PDK- Bam Bam

PDK- Dirty Kandeshi (one of my favorites)

Damara Punch /Namsaro

Mushe- Onkalamwenyo

Gazza- Kwateni Omnona

One of my friends asked me if family and friends weren’t a concern which place would I rather live.  It would be a difficult decision at times because I really do like Namibia.  But we all know that home is where the heart is and my heart is always with my family!

Until next time!

Time for a little Reconnect!

Peace Corps Namibia Group 37 made it through the first 3 months at site intact!  Sometimes it is hard to believe that I have already been at site for 3 months and in country for 5… I just had reconnect where group 37 all got to be reunited (and it feels so goooood, sorry couldn’t resist a Peaches & Herb moment).  We talked about the good, bad, and the ugly of our sites and got to bounce ideas off of each other.  It's a gentle reminder that while we are all away from home and away from out families we still have each other to pick us up when we are down and to rejoice in each others triumphs...(as corny as that sounds).

While it was good to see everyone after a week I was ready to be back at site.  I missed my friends and the village life.  However now we are on a school holiday so just about everyone has left my village for the farms and other homes around the place.  The kids at the combined school were so happy to be going on break.  You can always tell when holidays/out-weekends (weekends where the hostel kids get to go home) are coming by the size and enthusiasm of the KCS Choir.

Now I'm just looking at getting into some new projects (a lot of which are outreach to other villages/towns nearby).  I am also preparing to say goodbye to my current site mate and prepare on getting at least 1 new site mate!  It's bittersweet but I'm excited for both my old site mate to reconnect with the American world and my new site mate (maybe site mates) to start their lives in Namibia.  I just hope that they fall in love with our village the way that I have.  Cause no matter what pros and cons a place has at the end of the day this village is my Namibian home.

As usual below I'm going to post photos and such of what I've been up to the past few weeks.  My mother always asks me on the phone if I'm happy.  And the answer is yes.  Being here feels right, and I've been having a lot of fun (as well as stresses) living and working in this wonderful country.  I encourage ya'll to come visit this place.  I promise you won't be disappointed.

On another note: I have decided that I will use this time to get into shape.  (I have already lost 15kg/33lbs so I might as well capitalize on this yes?)  So the plan is to eat healthy and do mini no-gym workouts.  I have been scouring the Internet for mini workouts to fit in here and there.  I have P90X and now have an arsenal of movie workouts (i.e. do 10 jumping jacks whenever a spell is cast in Harry Potter).  My all-too-in-shape site mate is leaving me his pull-up bar thingy that goes in the doorframe when he leaves.  My goal is to actually be able to do a pull up….

 My Bulletin Board in my Office!

 The sign I made for my door!

 The boys falling asleep while watching a movie

KCS Kids playing with my phone taking photos.

  

 This kid took my glasses and put them on his face!

Laundry Day

 The donkey I adopted.  Although I don't know where he went after leaving the compound

A picture is worth a thousand words.

So it has been a while since I have been on here to update ya'll about my time.  I figure that I can show you what i've been doing all this time a lot better then I can tell you so this is going to be a media heavy blog post full of photos and videos.

Some cool news:  I was helping a group at the Combined School with a Teen Pregnancy Prevention presentation that they were giving in a nearby town for a competition and they got second place and are now going to the regional capital to compete for prizes!  woot woot!

I have been spending the majority of my time with the Union Voices Choir (UVC)

-As a fundraising event the boys of UVC did an all male in female wear beauty pageant:

I call this one "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun"

 

I also spend time at the Combined School.  

This is a song called Jerusalem and I have seen it performed different ways but this is by far the best version of it performed by the Combined School Choir for African Childs Day:

I went to Okahandja to celebrate my host momma's birthday with my other PC sister:

       

 

Otherwise I have been hanging around with my friends: