Total travel time = 40 hours. Ouch. Good thing I took 3 Benadryl on a first flight.
This week has been more of an introduction week
than anything. The training staff said they didn’t want to give us too much
information yet because we wouldn’t retain anything due to the jet lag. So NEXT
week is the week where we have intensive, 8-10 hours a day, of language and
cultural learning. We will also move in with our host family this Tuesday
(right now we are living at a hostel), which we are both pretty excited about.
The training staff has been having interviews with all of the other volunteers
this week to try to determine where they would be the best fit in the country
for the next 2 years after training. Apparently, since we are a married couple,
they picked the exact location of were we are going to before we even accepted
the invitation to join - pretty cool. While they are not telling Lindsey and I exactly
where will will be (to be fair because no one else knows yet), we were told
that it is in the northern part of the country by a river with lots of
crocodiles and hippos - relax parents, I will only play hungry, hungry hippos
if the hippos ask me to :)
Erens, the man that told us where we are staying
also said “In my opinion, it is the most beautiful part of all Namibia.” We
were excited to hear that! Since it is in the north, we will most likely not be
in a desert, but we will give you guys more information about that when we know
because right now everything is more of an assumption.
The town Okahandja, where we are staying and where our training will be for the next 2 months, is pretty interesting. There is a large tower in the middle of the city that was used in the Apartheid era (segregation of races) that was used as a watch/sniper tower. Apparently, there used to be a curfew in effect for all blacks and they had to be out of the city by 8 PM every night, unless they had very good reason for staying. All the whites lived inside the city which was referred to as “The Town”, and all of the blacks lived outside the city in what was referred to as “The Location”. The majority of the blacks still live in The Location and walk into the city each day for work, except now they don’t have to be afraid of the sniper in the tower in the centre of the city.
We went on a hike this morning (Sunday) to the top of a mountain called Pride Rock. It is obvious that Disney’s limits know no bounds! It was definitely a hike in “the bush”, and I realized I definitely need to know what poop goes with what animal. “Tim, why do you need to know that?” you might find yourself asking..... Well, when you are walking along a trail in Africa and see several different types of poop, it is good to know if it is a predator, or just a donkey or something, especially when you see a carcass. Our two guides Antony and Franze, who were 14 years old, assured us that they hadn’t seen a lion in “a while”. We saw several baboons off in the distance (too far to photograph) but their poop was EVERYwhere. Fun stuff right?
BUT ACTUALLY, I wrote this a few days ago but I haven't been able to upload it because the internet here is ridiculously slow, which right now, means no pictures because they never upload. Hopefully we will be able to figure this out, so sorry for no pictures yet because we have some good ones. SO, there are more updates, but to keep you on the edge of you seat..... you will have to wait :)
-Tim
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