New Year, New You

Current location: my bed at the Carolus Guesthouse

Gosh, life is so UNREAL right now! In the most wonderful, unexpected, perfect way.

We celebrated the beginning of our new year in Namibia with a braai (a traditional Namibian barbecue). best.meat.ever. We ate boervoers (sausage-like meat made from the neck meat of cows), beef, and lamb, along with bourchons (Namibian rolls). After a rousing game of Apples 2 Apples with the whole crew and a late-night dance party, as well as samplings of delicious South African wine, we rang in the New Year in the courtyard of Carolus. Most unique New Years celebration to date!

Happy New Year from WorldTeach:Namibia 2011!

Our orientation sessions these last few days have been intense but fascinating. It’s so stimulating to talk about education, culture, psychology, people, and life with this group of highly motivated volunteers, as well as dive into training for the year ahead together. I’ve loved getting to know my colleagues and consider myself incredibly blessed to be surrounded by such a stellar community…it makes the year ahead a lot less scary to know that we will be there to support each other and already hold most of the same expectations, goals, and fears. Training is not all heavy topics, though; we’ve also had a fair dose of fun, such as learning a little bit of Namlish! For example, if I tell you I’ll meet you at the school now, I may come eventually or not at all. If you want me to come immediately, you have to ask me to come “now now now.” All young, unmarried twenty-something men are called “small boys.” Instead of crossing our fingers for good luck, we hold our thumbs. If a man “proposes” a woman, he didn’t ask her to marry her – he hit on her. “Can I go with it?” means “Can I borrow it?,” except you probably own’t get it back. Many people speak English here in Windhoek, but it’s like a New Yorker in the Bayou for the first time – the dialect is totally different.

Today is our last day (for now) in Windhoek. We’re departing early Monday morning to drive five hours to Tsumeb where we will do a teaching practicum in the mornings and continue training and bonding. I can’t wait to drive through this country and see more of Namibia, as well as finally begin interacting with the children here. As much as I’ve loved the comfort and security of orientation, it still doesn’t really feel like I’m totally here yet.  And for all you ASBers out there, we’re doing life maps in Tsumeb. I can’t WAIT!

Rejoicing in excitement!