Ok so there are a few things I have got to update ya’ll
on! First of all my Health Centre was
finally “officially” opened. About a
year after the centre was built the minister came and we had an official
opening. This basically was just for
ceremonial purposes because, as the community knows, we have been up and
running for some time now. It was a
great turn out from the community and we had many important people with us to
celebrate the official opening.
I’ve also been in Okahandja, my first Namibian home, going
to a workshop called GTOT (General Training of Trainers) and to redo the
Damara/Nama Language Manual. I’m going
to be a resource volunteer for the new group and I couldn’t be more excited
about it! It’s kinda cool, and a little
scary, that I will be coming to PST not as a trainee but as a Volunteer to
share my experiences with the new group!
We all have our weeks picked out and the new group of recruits arrives
next week!
This is also bringing to light the fact that Group 37 has
been here for ONE YEAR!!! Wowza! It’s
gone by so fast and I remember being in the new groups shoes not knowing what
was next and hearing our resource volunteers talk about how crazy it was that
they were a year in. I have loved my
time in Namibia and I can’t wait to see what the next year has in store for me! I’m hoping that time doesn’t move too fast
because I don’t even want to think about saying goodbye to my African home yet…
While I was in Okahandja I got to visit my family. I really miss them while I’m away so every time
I come to town I try to stay with them. And
every time I come back it feels like home.
It’s good to have two places in Namibia that I can call home and people
who I can call family. I miss spending
time with my brother and sister and we played some futbol in the yard and
played some jump rope (but not the regular kind!). The kids also had a jumping competition over
the string of yarn. You'll see in the photo my sister standing with the rope around her and our neighbor has to jump between the yarn strings in a series of steps without messing up.
Let’s talk language manual…My brain is sooooooo full of
Damara/Nama that I literally feel like I forgot to speak English. On the plus it really has made me motivated to
learn more of the language. I realized
that I knew a lot more Damara than I thought and I am ready to start really
getting into it. I’m glad that My
Trainers and I were able to work on the project together so that way the next
group of Damara/Nama speakers will have this resource ready for them.
This time behind a computer (with some major down time the
last few days of the language workshop) has allowed me to plan a trip to the
epic Sossusvlei!! SO excited! I decided
to treat myself for an early birthday trip by going on an adventure to climb
the largest sand dunes in the world!
A good new adventure for me!
