Hi everyone!
I have returned from my permanent site visit, and I'm back in Oshakati for one day. Tomorrow we leave for our community based training.
My permanent site is looking good! I will be living with a family on a traditional homestead starting December 17th. A homestead is a collection of buildings surrounded by a fence. Mine has solar powered electricty so there's enough to run lights at night, but nothing more. We have a water tap in the middle of the homestead, but no shower, so I learned how to take a bucket bath. It's kind of fun! In terms of buildings, my homestead has:
2 smallish concrete buildings with tin roofs. The head of the homestead, Meme Kaino ("Mother" Kaino) and I will live in one, and Meme Kaino's mother, Kuku Gwanake and her sister, Keempa live in the other one.
an outdoor kitchen area that has 4 huts:one for pounding mahangu, or millet, which is the base for a lot of the foods and drinks here, one for cooking over open fires, one for storing the mahangu, and one for storing other stuff.
5 or 6 small brick buildings with straw roofs. The other people in the homestead live in these buildings. There is also a bathing area and a pit latrine.
Outside of the fence are the fields where mahangu is grown (as well as a few other plants) and goats roam around, apparently free to go where they want to. They also have chickens, a few dogs, and a pig (although it couldn't be found when I was there).
Meme Kaino has a 7 year old daughter that only comes home on the weekends, because she goes to a boarding school, so that she can learn english young. Her name is Namene and her english is quite good. There are also 6 teenage girls who are daughters of Kaino's brother and sisters who live on the homestead during the school year and attend the school in which I will be teaching. There are also 4 guys who supposedly live on the homestead, but I only met two of them. I don't quite get how they are connected to the family yet.
Meme Kaino has graciously agreed to let me use her PO Box so here's my new
address:
Siggi
(cut out)
Ondangwa - Oshikoto Region
Namibia
The homestead is 3 km from the combined school (gr 1-10) that I will be teaching at. The town also has a senior secondary school (gr. 8-12). The combined school is really run down, and poorly funded, so I think that's why I was assigned there. However, the senior secondary looks a lot nicer at least from the outside and Meme Kaino (she's a teacher too) said that they can use the resources (like photocopier) at the secondary school too. It's about 1 km from our school. I met a lot of the teachers and they were all really nice.
The principal of my school is very young - only 28 years old. His name is Ananias Nangolo and he was in charge of showing me around this weekend. He's a lot of fun and very interested in the US. He speaks english very well (as does Meme Kaino).
The thing to do in free time in my town is hang out at the "cucu shops" which are sparsely supplied bars. The men drink beer or wine mixed with coke, but the women only drink soft drinks...I don't think it is socially acceptable for women to drink alcohol. So I had a lot of coke and fanta this weekend! It was a lot of fun hanging out at the cucu shop and meeting everyone in the town. Some people thought I was "Christie-Joe" who was a PC volunteer in the town a couple of years ago. Some people assumed I must speak Afrikaans because I was white, so that was interesting as well.
Nangolo mentioned at the last minute that he may be able to hook me up with a government house at the senior secondary school. government houses tend to have more amenities than homesteads (showers, electricity, etc), so that would be cool, but I think I would miss out on a lot of fun stuff at the homestead, so if I do get the option, I'm not sure what I'll choose. I may try to finagle a "both" situation, where i live in the govt. house during the week and live on the homestead on the weekend. we'll see.
tomorrow I'll be heading to Oshitayi with 4 other volunteers. we will live in different homesteads, but meet during the day for language class and more technical training. I met one of my host family members for this three week stint yesterday, and he seemed nice enough. This family has all males, except for the mother, in contrast to Meme Kaino's family. well, that's a the update on my life here.
I hope everything is well back in the good ole US of A.
love, siggi