Sorry for the lack of blogging my lovely readers! I was in the United States for a few weeks visiting with my family and friends before coming back to Namibia for a second year. Before I left my village I dropped my things at my new school and met all of my new colleagues. I then said goodbye to my beloved Onambutu and was on my way home. It was a sad day leaving my school and my life in Onambutu but I believe that I will be just as happy with my new school in Okatope. I know i've mentioned this before but there's RUNNING WATER. Whoa, let that sink in for a minute there.
Okay so let's backtrack a little bit to my wonderful vacation in the U.S. I arrived in New York City after travelling for a day to my father and an iced coffee. How could you go wrong there? We travelled home to NH together after having lunch with one of my cousins in the city. When we got to the house my mother came to the door crying and hugging me. Behind her were the very excited puppies of the house. What a great welcome.
Soon after I was home my brother and sister came home as well. It was a strange feeling because i hadn't seen my family in a year. I had a wonderful time catching up on their lives and filling them in on some of my life from the past year.
Being home around Christmas time was a blessing when I was home and a curse when I went out anywhere. You forget how much hustle and bustle happens around the holidays especially with driving. The first time I went into a mall I did a few spins around and promptly left and chalked it up to culture shock on steroids. Baby steps my friend.
I got to eat all of the food I had been missing while I was away and gained around 5-10 pounds. For once in my life I didn't care about the gain because I would be returning to Africa and will probably lose it in a few months.
I went out for drinks with friends, went to the movies, drove my car and spent some quality time with many of my loved ones. Overall, this was a very nice break for me. Now let's get back to where I am now. I travelled with another returning volunteer from Boston to Johannasberg where we realized the travel agent had booked different flights to Namibia. Way to go on that one. I had to run through the airport in South Africa for the third time in two years. Yes, that would mean that every time I've been in that airport I've had to run for my flight.
Once we got to Windhoek we relaxed for a day in a backpackers and the next day parted ways to travel to our sites. Casey is just outside of Rundu which is about 4 hours away from me. I got to the hike point to go up north at about 12:30 in the afternoon. The combi didn't fill up until about 2:00 and then we were on the road. With all of the stopping and picking up random people when others got off, I got to Ondangwa at about 12:30 in the morning. Normally this trip up north should take about 7 hours. I got another combi to take me to oshikango to spend the night. I had to wake up the reception at a hotel to let me in because I had nowhere to go. Unfortunately in all of this craziness I left my nice new pillow and all my DVDs I had brought from the US on the combi. Won't be seeing those things again.
I had to spend a few days in Oshikango because the Ministry of Education hadn't delivered my be or anything else for my room. I was told ther was a "miscommunication in the procurement of the furniture". Yeah, very Namibian. It gets here when it gets here. I finally got the furniture yesterday (Monday) after having been back up north since Wednesday night.
My housemates all seem very nice and my school seems great so far. I will be teaching computers to grade 8-10, English to grade 8, and running the computer lab and the library. There are 13 computer classes and 1 english class. Yeah, lots more to do than last year.
I'll keep you updated!
Peace and Love,
Chelsea
