Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Site Placements Have Arrived!!


Yesterday we had a practice LPI (Language Proficiency Interview) and got our permanent site locations.  The best way to describe my LPI was that it was on the south end of a northbound cow.  However despite what I thought today they told me that I scored a Novice High (the requirement) and was very surprised that I am at the requirement only half way through PST.  Hopefully this means that I will be able to get better as time goes (maybe even be fluent..ya right… ha ha)  P.S. I’ll be interchangeably calling KKG Damara because it’s a more specific name to the language.  KKG is the label that the whites put to group together the shared (yet different) language of the Nama and Damara peoples. 

So after what I thought was a LPI catastrophe I was in big need of a pick me up…and a pick me up is what I got!  So my placement will be in the village of Kamanjab (phonetically pronounced ka-man-yob or ka-man-job based on accent) in the Kunene region (phonetically coo-nay-nay).  I’m at a health clinic working with HIV and Maternal Health!  SOOO happy that I will be in a health clinic.  I totally stressed in my interview that I wanted to work in the Medical field.

I’ll be living in a flat on the clinic compound with my coworkers.  Can I get an Amen for running water and electricity? AMEN.  There are two other PCVs in my village who are education volunteers.  My BFF Crystal is only about an hour or so away from me, which is going to be totally awesome.  She is placed in Outjo (phonetically ocho). That is the larger town in Kunene.  Jay, who is also learning Damara, will be about an hour and a half away as well.  Unfortunately CJ is closer to Rundu with no water, no electricity, and a half finished pit latrine…

The coolest part is that my family is from Outjo and are so excited that they finally have one of their volunteer children moving to their region.  My family honestly has been the best support for me and have connections everywhere! Ha ha.  The second best part is that Italy told me that there are elephants and giraffes that just wonder around the village!  How cool is that??

I go for a site visit on Friday so I will post more when I return!  Stay tuned everyone!

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