Wato ke lwapo

Wato ke lwapo (good evening) everyone,

Ongaipi! (hello) Clearly I started my language classes today and i'm trying to use the words so that I can possibly remember them. I'm in the Ohangwena region in northern central Namibia for my placement and i'm learning to speak Oshiwambo and more specifically Oshikwanyama. Sounds pretty daunting but so far it's a fun language to start to speak.

So today we worked on lesson planning and language orientation. We went into town this morning and I got my Namibian cellphone and Netman (for internet). Walking into town is fun and wandering around the mall while mentally counting how many stares we get as white people here. It's very interesting because there are white people here but they are Africaaners who are native to Namibia. They are mostly dutch descendants. Anyways, so this man at the post office today was talking to me while we were in line and said that it is very easy to tell that we are American from our accents. I'm pretty sure it may also be the khaki shorts, plastic watch, and untanned skin. This screams, "I just got off the plane and I don't know what i'm doing!"

Oh so I would love to share last night with all of you. (Don't know how many people actually read this thing but...oh well I'll write anyway! Please feel free to comment if you do read this) Ok back to last night. There was a flood of people coming into the hostel which was weird because it's mainly just been us for the past couple of days. Come to find out that they were all Peace Corps volunteers here! It was so nice to meet other Americans who are doing the same thing we are doing. They have been here since August and are going to be here for the next two years. They sang us a Namibian song and it was so incredibly beautiful. I can't wait to meet my learners (they are called learners not students) and hear them all sing during morning assembly!

Tomorrow we will all be piling into one of the Ministry of Education vehicles and getting out of the hostel for a while to see the town. I am SO EXCITED. You know when you're in one place for days on end (maybe refer back to the power outages for 6 days that happened a couple of months ago...for all you New Englanders) and imagine the cabin fever going on. I am in Africa but I don't really feel like I am IN Africa yet. Okay now i'm rambling...so i'll say Ka la po nawa! (stay well)

Peace and Love,
Chelsea