Not all those who wander are lost

I realized that I've been so busy lately and I had forgotten all about blogging. I have found that in the second year i've been less preoccupied with thoughts of connecting back home because i'm more comfortable in my abilities to move around and be here. No offense meant, it's just a reality i'm facing this year. Speaking of moving around and the reason for this blog entry is that I've been doing a fair amount of that in the past few weeks.

First trip was to another village to visit the new WorldTeach volunteers for this year. They were all very nice and very enthusiastic. I found it so fun to hear their stories and I could totally relate to where they are from my experiences last year at the beginning. One thing was pretty clear to me, we are in totally different places in our volunteer experiences. That's not a bad thing because i've moved past a lot of the assumptions I had from the beginning that they might be having now about Namibia. I did my best to be helpful when answering any questions they might have had regarding my experience and why I extended. I had a really great time hanging out with them and meeting them I just know that i'm not a part of the 2013 WorldTeach group i'm an extender. This means that their bonding will be with each other and not necessarily with someone who has been here.

This trip made me miss my group from last year very much. Whenever I was having a bad day they were always there to tell me a funny story about their site like how they drove a donkey cart around or had a goat walk into their classroom for the millionth time. The comfort of having other Americans around is something people who are surrounded by Americans and familiarity might not understand. It's a taste of home that reminds you of who you are and where you come from. You forget that you are talking slow and changing your words so that the Namibian people understand you. Being able to get together with a New Englander and say "it was wicked hot" is probably one of the best things after not being able to. You forget you have New England quirks and let me just say that realizing this is devastating.

So this brings me to my second and most recent adventure from this past weekend. I made the trip to Bunya to go visit another extender from last year. She and I were friends last year but very far from each other and it's difficult to travel that far for one weekend. I spent most of the week debating on going since I've been sick for 2 weeks now. Finally on Friday morning I decided that I needed a dose of American friendship and comfort in my life and packed a bag. I left around noon time after I finished teaching all of my classes for the day. First I took a taxi to Eenhana and then another to Okongo. In Okongo I took a truck...yes I said truck to Bunya. When hiking that side you take almost anything you can get because the hikes are so unpredictable. Another girl who was Namibian was also hiking with me when I got to Okongo so don't worry I wasn't alone. The trip took a total of about 5 hours. When I got to her site I was so excited to see her I visited her once last year but that was on our way to Zambia during our April and May break.

The first night we went to her local shebeen and played pool (Namibians call it snookah) and drank a few ciders. There was also a free braai going on for all customers so while I was playing snookah I was also eating meat with my hands. Yeah they put it on a plate and you just grab and go. I also wanted a tooth pick so Casey ran to the bar lady to ask for one. She came back with a match and said to use the stick end of it. Needless to say a match is not the same as a tooth pick and that's just how it is! On our way home from the bar we ran into some kids from her village. They chased us down the road trying to talk to us. It was honestly very creepy that these kids were out so late at night.

The next day we went to Rundu which is the town that is nearest to her in her region. She is in the Kavongo region and i'm in the Ohangwena region. We call my region "O Land" or "Ovambo Land" where there are mostly "O" names to be found. Oshakati, Ongwediva, Onambutu, Okatope, Ongha, Oshikango, Ondangwa...you get the idea. So in Rundu we did a little shopping in the open market and bought some ingredients for home made pizza for that night. When we arrived back at her site it was about 6:00 in the evening and I quickly got ready to hike to another site where we were meeting with a Peace Corps volunteer. There were three of us hiking (Casey, myself and another PC Vol). We got to the road and we waited for transport going "that side". We got a bakkie going about 5 minutes away and took that to a shebeen to hike from there. When nothing else came we chose to walk to the next shebeen which was about 1 km away. Still nothing. So we walked to the next one which was another km away. Long story short, we got stuck hiking in the dark and a government car for electrical workers picked us up because they felt bad and dropped us at the PC Vol's house.

The volunteer we were meeting with is a health volunteer at a health clinic. She is at the end of her two year service and will be leaving in 2 weeks from the PC. She plans on travelling for 2 months before returning back to the U.S. We had a nice time there and chatted about being in Namibia for a second year and watched Pitch Perfect. We made home made pizza and cake and chowed down American style. It was an awesome time and I really enjoyed my American dosage to last me for a while.

When hiking back to Okatope it took me 5 different rides to get home. I was so exhausted but my travelling was not over. When I arrived home I had to pack another bag to go to a BIS (Basic Information Science) workshop in Ongwediva for three days. After the workshop I arrived back home yesterday and was greeted by one of my grade 8 learners who ran up to me and said "welcome from the workshop miss, we missed you!" I couldn't think of a better way to be welcomed back.

Thus ends my exhausting few weeks. I can't wait to relax a bit this weekend and zone out.

Peace and Love,
Chels