6 Months Down!

Hello!!

I am writing this in long pants, long sleeves and a fleece! It is freezing here! We are in Swakop, and I feel like I should be wearing a parka 24/7 because it is so cold here. Swakop is always colder than the rest of the country because it is by the sea, but it is quickly becoming winter here.

Swakop has been great! It is such a cute little German town. It’s just weird to think that we are still in Namibia! I am staying with 9 girls from our group but there are probably 10 other people from Nam 27 here and some people from Nam 26 as well. I feel like I am in America. Since I have been here, I have eaten ice cream, went to a movie at the theatre, gone to a sit down restaurant, went to almost American bars, and, my personal favorite, bought a pair of Drew Fit black dress pants from The Limited!! I have been searching for dress pants for school (I was stupid and brought one pair of pants with me to Nam) and we went to some little store that felt like a T. J. Max and they had Limited pants! Granted, the sizes were all off and the pants are not the greatest fit, but they were extremely cheap and American made, so I bought them!

Being here makes you almost feel like you are in America. And, to be honest, has made me a little homesick. We were sitting in the movie theatre watching a cheesy chick flick (Sydney White—not much selection!) and I almost felt like I was home. Every once in a while I just get a little reality check that makes me realize that this is my new life and Nam is my new home for the next 2 years. I love it here and I am so happy to be here, but sometimes 2 years feels like a long time.

At any rate, the feeling of being homesick lasted for about an hour and then I was back to normal. It has just been so fun to have a girl’s weekend here. I think we all needed a break from our sites, kids and teaching. It has been fun to swap our horror stories and laugh at how awkward our lives and our learners are. I think all of us also feel a little better about our anxiety about being good volunteers. We all feel the same way—we love our kids, schools and teaching (most of us at least), but have no idea if we are really teaching the right way or if they are really retaining anything. It’s just nice to know that we are all in the same boat.

Before we came to Swakop, I traveled with my friend to visit another friend in the North. The north is anything above the “red line”. I can’t remember the exact statistics, but I think it’s something like the North geographically covers only 20% of Namibia, but has 90% of Nam’s population. This is because when apartheid they pushed all of the people off of their land in the south, but didn’t really touch the people living in the north. So, the north has a ton of people and is a completely different feel than the south (where I live). It’s weird because when you cross the “red line” you cross border patrol—it almost feels like you are going to another country. As soon as you cross the line, it feels different. There are animals who are just standing on the side and in the middle of the road (they don’t have any regulations about keeping animals behind fences like we do in the south), and you see many more people. The number of shebeens quadruples as well-they are everywhere!

We stayed in the north for a little less than a week. While we were there, we watched the entire second season of The Office (I am officially addicted…I have never seen a funnier show), slept in, went to see Ruacana Falls and the border to Angola, and went to a Gazza concert. The Ruacana Falls were beautiful! I took about a hundred pictures so I will try to have my sister post them. We just stayed for a couple of hours—long enough to come away wet and sore from climbing down and up a thousand stairs. But it was a lot of fun and I am glad I got to see them!

We also went to see a Gazza concert. Gazza is one of two Namibia rappers who this country is OBSESSED with! It’s Gazza and The Dogg. Everyone in this country supports one of them and will fight with people who support the other. It really is crazy to see grown adults fight over who is better. While it’s crazy, it’s also hilarious. But I have a rule where no one is allowed to say either of their names in my classroom because every time they do, chaos breaks out. I actually really like Gazza’s music. I am not really sure if it’s because I live here and hear it all the time and if I would really like it if I was in the States, but I love listening to it here. I have his whole CD on my ipod! Haha! So I was pretty excited to see him perform!

The Gazza concert was crazy. There were 8 other groups performing and of course they put Gazza last. In true Nam fashion, the show started almost 2 hours late and they let each group perform for way too long. They other performers were hysterical to watch—I don’t even think words can describe how bizarre the whole thing is. They had backup dancers who were dancing in a style that seems to encompass the jumping of Riverdance and ghettoness of break dancing thrown in with a little turrets. I love watching their dancing, but it truly is unique and a little bizarre. They also don’t really sing live when they perform. They have the music from their CD playing in the background and then kind of sing with it. It’s just kind of weird.

Well, after we endured a few hours of other Nam stars performances, we got to watch Gazza. He was great! His dancers were by far the best and all of us thought he was pretty hot! Gazza definitely made eye contact with each of us and even spoke to us during the concert! He was speaking Owambo (the language spoken by everyone in the region we were in) the whole concert, but took the time to say he noticed some people did not speak the language (as the only 5 white girls in the crowd I guess we stood out) and translated for us. That basically made our day! Haha! I think you all and can probably find some of Gazza’s music on google. The music videos are pretty funny and ghetto—my favorite song is Kick It, so I would suggest downloading that one!

We leave Swakop early tomorrow morning and head to Windhoek for Reconnect. We will be staying in a lodge outside the capital for a few days of training. It should be over on Saturday and then I will travel back to my site in the Bing! While it has been great to have a little holiday away from everything, I will be really ready to go back.

Well, I really have no idea the next time I will have internet and e-mail. I have a couple of 3 day weekends coming up in this next term, so maybe I will have it then! I miss and love everyone! I hope everything is great at home. I love hearing from you all!!