New Year...New Adventures

Hello everyone,

So last night was New Year's Eve (earlier for us in Africa...we saw the new year 7 hours before!) and I had a fantastic ringing in of 2012. All of the volunteers and myself sat out under the roof for part of the night and watched the two adorable little girls from the hostel play and dance. Did I dance? Oh of course I did! The girls taught me some new moves...I hear there's a video of it so maybe I can get my hands on it to share. I also broke out some of my bubbles that I brought and watched as the girls were fascinated with popping them. As I tried to put them down one of them said, "You bring them back out" so of course I had to! That ended when she accidentally spilled them on the porch :( Then we moved onto playing a quick round of uno before our braai. The meat was amazing. For a braai they leave the grill to fire up for a few hours and slowly cook it.

After the braai we hung out at the picnic tables by the pool and talked until midnight where we counted down and toasted with some yummy champagne. Perfect way to ring in the New Year and celebrate new beginnings with some very nice people. I think 2012 will be a very rewarding and challenging year. Nothing that I'm not up for!

This morning we started our orientation sessions again bright and early. We learned a bit about our placements and about the Namibian culture. We also put on some skits in the new Namibian slang that we learned. I won't bore you with all of the details but it was a long and rewarding day. We finished the day off with some pizza and a quiet time where we all read books as the sun went down. I got to skype with my mom and dad (always wonderful to talk to them) right after dinner. Speaking of skype if you don't have my skype name yet it's chelsea_ewing please feel free to add me and video chat!

That's all I have the energy for right now (still recovering from jet lag..the 14 hour flight and layover and then another 2 hour flight just about knocked me out)

Peace and Love,
Chelsea