Hello from Zambia!
I am officially an RPCV (returned Peace Corps Vol)!! Woohooo! I like to say I have traded the "L" (in PCVL) for an "R"--a pretty fabulous trade if you ask me! It was hard to say goodbye to all of my Namibian friends and family (and the wonderful PC staff--they are all so wonderful), but I know it is time to leave and that I will come back and visit in the future.
I have started my COS (close of service) trip with the other PCVLs and our first stop was Livingstone, Zambia to see Vic Falls. It took us 3 days to get here, but all of that travel was worth it!
Zambia is a beautiful country (so green since rainy season just started) and is so friendly and laid back. We have loved our time here!
We spent a day at the Falls walking around the little park that surrounds it and relaxing at the top of the falls. The water is a little low this time of the year, so they were not quite as full as the last time I came (and I was on the Zim side that time) but they were still beautiful. Words can’t really describe how pretty Vic Falls is.
There are a lot of different activities you can do when you are here—bunji jumping, gorge swinging, white water rafting, walking with lions, riding elephants, and tons more. I am a baby and don’t think I could ever go bunji jumping or do the gorge swing (we saw people doing it when we were at the falls—terrifying!) but I was brave enough for white water rafting. Three of us decided to sign up for a full day of rafting (on some of the best/hardest rapids in the world!) and had SO much fun!
When we first got the rafting place, they started with all of these safety talks and demos and I was pretty terrified, but as soon as we met our guide and got on the Zambezi, I was fine. There were 6 of us in the boat along with our guide who was great. You start off on a class 5 rapid (one of the hardest), so that was a little scary, but we all made it through with no one in our boat falling off or capsizing . The guides tell you what to do the whole time—paddle forward, backward, move to one side, get down. Our favourite command was “get down”. Basically, it meant that we were going through a hard part of the rapid and we should all duck down while he finished steering the boat (or ducked himself). It was so funny to see the video of our trip (they have people in kayaks videotaping) because as soon as the guide yelled “get down” panic came over our faces and we jumped into the raft to hide! So funny!
There were no injuries in our group, even though we did flip the raft once (a little scary, but mostly fun) and I fell out another time. The best part of the day was towards the end when we were going through class one rapids and could just jump off the boat and swim through them. I think they should make a tour of just that! So relaxing!
Other than the rafting, we have just been relaxing, eating great food and enjoying Zambia. Tonight we take an overnight bus to a town north of Lusaka where we will take a two day train to Tanzania. We should arrive in Dar on the 23rd and will take a ferry on the 24th for Zanzibar! I can’t wait for Christmas and New Years on the beach!!
I hope you all have a great Christmas and a happy New Year! I miss you tons and can’t wait to be home in less than 2 months to see everyone!
Monday, December 20, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
Support Schools in Africa!
http://www.firstgiving.com/alymartin
Since coming to Namibia, I have really gotten into running. I am a very slow runner (and I am not just saying that!), but I don't really mind being slow and just enjoy running. When I lived in the village I would run with learners and village dogs and it became part of my routine.
Last year I ran in my first half-marathon and ran in the same race again this year. I have signed up to run the Indy Mini in May of next year and have joined a fundraising team with some friends. We will be raising money for RISE, an NGO that builds schools in Angola, Africa (my neighbor to the north!). It is a great cause and you can read more about it on my fundraising page at http://www.firstgiving.com/alymartin
If you are interested in helping out, please go there to help me raise my fundraising goal for RISE :). Thanks!
Since coming to Namibia, I have really gotten into running. I am a very slow runner (and I am not just saying that!), but I don't really mind being slow and just enjoy running. When I lived in the village I would run with learners and village dogs and it became part of my routine.
Last year I ran in my first half-marathon and ran in the same race again this year. I have signed up to run the Indy Mini in May of next year and have joined a fundraising team with some friends. We will be raising money for RISE, an NGO that builds schools in Angola, Africa (my neighbor to the north!). It is a great cause and you can read more about it on my fundraising page at http://www.firstgiving.com/alymartin
If you are interested in helping out, please go there to help me raise my fundraising goal for RISE :). Thanks!
Last Weeks in Khorixas!
Well, a week from today I will be celebrating my 4th birthday in Namibia (I came here 22 and am leaving 26...makes me feel a bit old!) and moving out of Khorixas! It is hard to believe that is time to start packing up and leaving. Parts of this year seemed to crawl by, but, for the most part, this year reall has flown by.
So how have I been spending my last weeks here?
I have been spending a lot of time at the senior secondary school here. I think I have written about teaching Life Skills to Grade 11 there, so I wrapped that up last week. Everyone told me Grade 11 was a bad grade, but I just loved them! I looked forward to all of my classes and appreciated how open and honest they were. We focused on romantic relationships, touched on gender roles and, of course, talked about reproductive health/sex (always a theme in any classes in Namibia, and rightfully so!). They are great learners though and I have LOVED spending this term with them.
When I was at the school, I would also pop into other classes who were free (maybe a teacher was sick or just didn't come to the class for that period) for "open talk", which the learners love. It is basically just "ask any question you want" time. A lot of times it is about dating/sex, but sometimes it is about friendship or how your body works (I have done a lot of pregnancy actually happens inside the female body talks). A learner usually asks a question and I throw it out to the class to answer and make sure that the discussion is going in the right direction.
The other project I wrapped up was my Girls Club. This term I only had my junior Girls Club (grades 8-9) as the the senior girls were writing national exams and were busy studying. Again, I just loved hanging out with these girls. They are really sweet and a lot of fun to work with. I think they had a lot of fun this year and hopefully learned some things too :).
Besides that, I have been hanging out with the OYO staff and helping out with school visits and magazine distributions with them. Oscar (one of my favourite colleagues) quit at the beginning of this term, which I was really bummed about. He was like a little brother and we just always had fun in the office together. But, luckily, we have a great new colleague...who is a girl!! All of the OYO (at least the OYO staff I work with and visit our office) are guys. So I was more than happy to have another girl around. Plus, she is great and we get along really well! I am sad that the timing was off in that right as she is arriving, I am leaving.
While I know I am ready to go home and be with my American family and friends, it is still hard to leave my Namibian family and friends. I am not looking forward to all of the Khorixas good byes I will have to say next week. While these good byes won't be quite as tough as the village good byes (just because I spent 2 years there and only a year here), they will still be hard. The OYO boys have really become family to me. I could not have asked for better people to work with--we have a lot of fun joking around and chatting...plus, they really couldn't be nicer to me. And Khorixas is a wonderful little town. One of my Nam friends called it a big village, and that is how it is--traditional and friendly! I will miss kids running up and giving me hugs and everyone greeting everyone with smiles. I have made some wonderful friends here (most of whom are on FB--got to love technology!) and will miss them dearly. But, I know I am ready to go home! And after a couple of months of traveling around Africa (I will save those plans for another post), home is where I will be...can't wait!
So how have I been spending my last weeks here?
I have been spending a lot of time at the senior secondary school here. I think I have written about teaching Life Skills to Grade 11 there, so I wrapped that up last week. Everyone told me Grade 11 was a bad grade, but I just loved them! I looked forward to all of my classes and appreciated how open and honest they were. We focused on romantic relationships, touched on gender roles and, of course, talked about reproductive health/sex (always a theme in any classes in Namibia, and rightfully so!). They are great learners though and I have LOVED spending this term with them.
When I was at the school, I would also pop into other classes who were free (maybe a teacher was sick or just didn't come to the class for that period) for "open talk", which the learners love. It is basically just "ask any question you want" time. A lot of times it is about dating/sex, but sometimes it is about friendship or how your body works (I have done a lot of pregnancy actually happens inside the female body talks). A learner usually asks a question and I throw it out to the class to answer and make sure that the discussion is going in the right direction.
The other project I wrapped up was my Girls Club. This term I only had my junior Girls Club (grades 8-9) as the the senior girls were writing national exams and were busy studying. Again, I just loved hanging out with these girls. They are really sweet and a lot of fun to work with. I think they had a lot of fun this year and hopefully learned some things too :).
Besides that, I have been hanging out with the OYO staff and helping out with school visits and magazine distributions with them. Oscar (one of my favourite colleagues) quit at the beginning of this term, which I was really bummed about. He was like a little brother and we just always had fun in the office together. But, luckily, we have a great new colleague...who is a girl!! All of the OYO (at least the OYO staff I work with and visit our office) are guys. So I was more than happy to have another girl around. Plus, she is great and we get along really well! I am sad that the timing was off in that right as she is arriving, I am leaving.
While I know I am ready to go home and be with my American family and friends, it is still hard to leave my Namibian family and friends. I am not looking forward to all of the Khorixas good byes I will have to say next week. While these good byes won't be quite as tough as the village good byes (just because I spent 2 years there and only a year here), they will still be hard. The OYO boys have really become family to me. I could not have asked for better people to work with--we have a lot of fun joking around and chatting...plus, they really couldn't be nicer to me. And Khorixas is a wonderful little town. One of my Nam friends called it a big village, and that is how it is--traditional and friendly! I will miss kids running up and giving me hugs and everyone greeting everyone with smiles. I have made some wonderful friends here (most of whom are on FB--got to love technology!) and will miss them dearly. But, I know I am ready to go home! And after a couple of months of traveling around Africa (I will save those plans for another post), home is where I will be...can't wait!
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Half Marathon and Last Visit to the Bing
Sooo...I started this awhile ago and never actually posted it. All time references are off by a month or so...whoops!
The weekend before last was the Lucky Star Marathon in Swakop! It is a great race that runs right along the oldest and biggest dunes in the world (just beautiful!). You have the option to run the full marathon or split the marathon with a friend (one runs the first half, the other the second). Then there is a learner race where they run a 4 person relay. I ran the first half of the marathon (21 km!) and my site mate Christine ran the second half. There were probably close to 20 PCVs down there to run/cheer/bring learners. It was soooo much fun! I was actually had a pretty bad cold for the week before the race and had a nasty cough on the day of and was a bit worried about being able to run, but it ended up being fine! I ran a bit slower than usual but made it to the end :).
It is funny, because the adult portion of the marathon starts a half hour before the learner relays start. So you would think you would not see any learners along the way...FALSE! About 45 minutes into the race, all of a sudden you see these little kids with bare feet speeding past you. It really is amazing how fast these kids can run! I can't imagine ever running that fast...let alone in bare little feet!
After the marathon was over, we all had a big dinner and then ended up going out and celebrating our training being over! It was a fun weekend :).
I ended up spending a few days helping out a vol who is teaching an after school program in Swakop. It was fun to hang out with her and learn more about her project. Her kiddos were cute and their English was AMAZING!
After helping out in Swakop I went to the Bing for my last visit! It was great to be back in the village! Everytime I go back, I never want to leave and actually think about staying a 4th year to teach at Da Palm (don't worry though...I am coming home...I promise!).
I arrived on a Thursday afternoon and went to afternoon study to see all of my learners and teachers. I basically just hung out in the classrooms distracting the kids from doing their homework (I am a fab teacher, huh?).
That evening we had a memorial service for a teacher who died two weeks before. The learners and staff lined the road leading to the hall where the memorial was going to be held. As the sunset, we all sang and then followed the car carrying his body down to the hall. It was really a beautiful evening and quite a fitting way to honor Tate.
The staff at my school is extremely close and his death was a bit of a surprise to all of us, so, needless to say, it was pretty hard. His name was Mr. Shimutukeni, but we all just called him Tate (Tah-tay, meaning father). He would always stir up some kind of trouble in the staff room, but it always ended with us laughing! He was just well loved by all of the teachers and the learners--a great teacher who always had the learners' best interests at heart. I was really glad I was able to be there for the memorial service and the funeral.
So, Friday was spent hanging out again and catching up with friends, teachers and learners. I really just spent the whole day at the school! That evening, I went over to the school to hang out with my learners and we ended up playing games and singing under the stars until 10:30pm when they were sent into the hostel for the evening. It was the best way to end a great last day in the village! It is funny, because I know that would never fly in America. These were grade 10-12 learners (boys and girls) playing "kid" games with their teacher on a Saturday night, but we all just had so much fun! I will really miss that about Namibia. These kids go through so much and have to grow up so fast in some respects, but in others, they are still just kids who love to hang out and play games. I really can't say enough how much I love my school, my teachers and my learners. I was so so so so lucky to be able to spend two years with such amazing people!
On Saturday, we woke up early and traveled into town for Tate's funeral (the funeral was in Karibib, the town about 70km away). A few of my teachers had moved away from the village this year, but everyone came back in for the funeral, so it was nice to see all of them. The funeral was sad (of course) and lasted about 5 hours. Then we had the burial, which was another hour and a half (a long day!). While it was long, the funeral was a beautiful way to remember Tate. Lots of tears, but lots of great Tate stories as well.
In Namibia, funerals are almost always on a Saturday and usually a week or two after the person has died. This is so family has time to travel in and the family can gather money to cover the funeral expenses. On Friday night, the family and close friends gather at the family's house for prayers and singing. The body is delivered to the house that evening and the family greet the body with songs and tears. The family sits with the body for the whole evening until the funeral the next day. It is interesting to observe and be apart of the funeral process here. In some ways things are similiar, but in others it is quite different. Everyone kind of grieves in their own way :).
Well, that is about it for my Swakop/Bing visit! I took lots of pictures, which, once in America, I will put in an album and post online (the internet is too slow here/I don't have enough patience). I have lots of great pictures of my fabulous learners though! Oh I am going to miss them (I know, I say that a lot...but it is true :) ).
The weekend before last was the Lucky Star Marathon in Swakop! It is a great race that runs right along the oldest and biggest dunes in the world (just beautiful!). You have the option to run the full marathon or split the marathon with a friend (one runs the first half, the other the second). Then there is a learner race where they run a 4 person relay. I ran the first half of the marathon (21 km!) and my site mate Christine ran the second half. There were probably close to 20 PCVs down there to run/cheer/bring learners. It was soooo much fun! I was actually had a pretty bad cold for the week before the race and had a nasty cough on the day of and was a bit worried about being able to run, but it ended up being fine! I ran a bit slower than usual but made it to the end :).
It is funny, because the adult portion of the marathon starts a half hour before the learner relays start. So you would think you would not see any learners along the way...FALSE! About 45 minutes into the race, all of a sudden you see these little kids with bare feet speeding past you. It really is amazing how fast these kids can run! I can't imagine ever running that fast...let alone in bare little feet!
After the marathon was over, we all had a big dinner and then ended up going out and celebrating our training being over! It was a fun weekend :).
I ended up spending a few days helping out a vol who is teaching an after school program in Swakop. It was fun to hang out with her and learn more about her project. Her kiddos were cute and their English was AMAZING!
After helping out in Swakop I went to the Bing for my last visit! It was great to be back in the village! Everytime I go back, I never want to leave and actually think about staying a 4th year to teach at Da Palm (don't worry though...I am coming home...I promise!).
I arrived on a Thursday afternoon and went to afternoon study to see all of my learners and teachers. I basically just hung out in the classrooms distracting the kids from doing their homework (I am a fab teacher, huh?).
That evening we had a memorial service for a teacher who died two weeks before. The learners and staff lined the road leading to the hall where the memorial was going to be held. As the sunset, we all sang and then followed the car carrying his body down to the hall. It was really a beautiful evening and quite a fitting way to honor Tate.
The staff at my school is extremely close and his death was a bit of a surprise to all of us, so, needless to say, it was pretty hard. His name was Mr. Shimutukeni, but we all just called him Tate (Tah-tay, meaning father). He would always stir up some kind of trouble in the staff room, but it always ended with us laughing! He was just well loved by all of the teachers and the learners--a great teacher who always had the learners' best interests at heart. I was really glad I was able to be there for the memorial service and the funeral.
So, Friday was spent hanging out again and catching up with friends, teachers and learners. I really just spent the whole day at the school! That evening, I went over to the school to hang out with my learners and we ended up playing games and singing under the stars until 10:30pm when they were sent into the hostel for the evening. It was the best way to end a great last day in the village! It is funny, because I know that would never fly in America. These were grade 10-12 learners (boys and girls) playing "kid" games with their teacher on a Saturday night, but we all just had so much fun! I will really miss that about Namibia. These kids go through so much and have to grow up so fast in some respects, but in others, they are still just kids who love to hang out and play games. I really can't say enough how much I love my school, my teachers and my learners. I was so so so so lucky to be able to spend two years with such amazing people!
On Saturday, we woke up early and traveled into town for Tate's funeral (the funeral was in Karibib, the town about 70km away). A few of my teachers had moved away from the village this year, but everyone came back in for the funeral, so it was nice to see all of them. The funeral was sad (of course) and lasted about 5 hours. Then we had the burial, which was another hour and a half (a long day!). While it was long, the funeral was a beautiful way to remember Tate. Lots of tears, but lots of great Tate stories as well.
In Namibia, funerals are almost always on a Saturday and usually a week or two after the person has died. This is so family has time to travel in and the family can gather money to cover the funeral expenses. On Friday night, the family and close friends gather at the family's house for prayers and singing. The body is delivered to the house that evening and the family greet the body with songs and tears. The family sits with the body for the whole evening until the funeral the next day. It is interesting to observe and be apart of the funeral process here. In some ways things are similiar, but in others it is quite different. Everyone kind of grieves in their own way :).
Well, that is about it for my Swakop/Bing visit! I took lots of pictures, which, once in America, I will put in an album and post online (the internet is too slow here/I don't have enough patience). I have lots of great pictures of my fabulous learners though! Oh I am going to miss them (I know, I say that a lot...but it is true :) ).
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