Almost done with training

HELLO AGAIN!!

FIRST let me tell you about our addresses.

For letters, send all mail to:

Tim and Lindsey Habenicht

P.O. BOX 114 Rundu

Namibia, Africa

For any packages (which of course you would send if you are awesome right?), send to:

US Peace Corps Namibia

19 Nachtigal St

Ausspannplatz, Windhoek

Namibia

Today is September 12th, so we are swearing in as volunteers (right now we are still considered trainees) in just 8 days on the 20th, and then we are leaving Okahandja for good to go to our permanent site in Mayara. It is crazy to think how fast training has gone by! Once we get to site in Mayara, I am anticipating only having internet access once every two weeks, when we travel to Rundu - the nearest city about two hours away - to buy food and check email and whatnot. So if you send an email to Lindsey or I and get no response for a long time, or if you are wondering why you haven’t heard from us through the blog, rest assured that we are probably still alive and just don’t have internet access.

What have we been doing the last few weeks?

Well, we have had a LOT of Rukwangali classes. We have another language proficiency  test next Tuesday, and we have to reach a “Intermediate Low” level, which shouldn’t be too terribly hard to do, considering we both got to “Novice Advanced” after just 9 days of actual language classes. It is definitely hard for us to stay motivated to learn Rukwangali though because once we are done with training, we will probably never speak it again. Then we will get to start all over and learn Thimbukushu - party time.

Students lining up for the morning assembly

Two weeks ago, the Peace Corps set up a model school for all of the volunteers that will be teaching. The students, here in Okahandja, had a two week break from school, and the Peace Corps essentially “bribed” them to come to school for a week, with the promise of receiving a new notebook, and a free lunch everyday at 11:30 AM. There were probably about 150 students that showed up everyday, and they were split up into normal classrooms, which we then taught. The whole idea was to give us actual teaching experience in a Namibian classroom in a “no pressure” environment (it was a “fake” school day anyway right?). That was certainly the first time I have ever tried to teach a group of students anything, so it was certainly a useful experience. We have been told multiple times by all of the other volunteers that Lindsey and I are both “super enthusiastic” about everything, so hopefully that will rub off on the students.

Things in training are switching to the wrapping up mode, and we are spending the majority of the day practicing Rukwangali and listening to Peace Corps required presentations. Next Wednesday, we are all taking a trip to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, to shop for whatever we might need at our site. So luckily for Lindsey and I, we essentially get double the money of what everyone else gets (Ok, so we don’t actually get double - we both get paid the same as everyone else, but since there are two of us then it is short of like double, because it doesn’t cost THAT much more to feed just one additional person. That is my theory at least.....) , and that goes for our monthly salary as well - so we are hoping to be able to live of one of our salaries, and save 100% of the other to use for travel. Will it work? Only time will tell. We still have no idea how much it costs to survive in a rural village. Either way, it is literally impossible to spend money on anything in our village (because there is nothing to spend money on) so the only money we will be spending will be in Rundu on groceries and other necessities.

Last Sunday we all went to a nearby resort for a day at the pool and good food, and we will be going again this Sunday. It probably will be the last time we will see any short of “luxury” for a very long time. Next Saturday, we are having a cultural day for the Namibians (they did the same thing for us - that is when I killed all the chickens) where we will cook American food for them and show them some of our traditions. Apparently Lindsey and I will be showing off our very limited Aggie Wrangler moves - but hey, everyone here has seen us dance and thinks we are rockstar two-steppers from Texas - so I’ll take it!

All of us volunteers hanging out at a nearby resort

Oh, and our brand new mud hut is still yet to be complete, although we are supposed to move in, in just 9 days..... Another PC volunteer nearby went and checked on it, and she said all they have done is knock down one of the walls........ hopefully they will be fast workers so we actually have a place to move into when we arrive. T.I.A right? ALSO, man I almost forgot this, a dumb dog bit me on Saturday and I had to be rushed to a hospital to get a rabies shot. We have already had three rabies shots - but I guess there are actually 5 shots  total that you need, and you don’t get shots 4 and 5 until after you have been bitten. I was the first one of the volunteers to be bitten by anything, and luckily the day before we had just has a session on rabies and what to do if you are bitten by an animal. I know you are probably thinking, “OMG! Tim, you were attacked by a dog! Are you OK?” Yes yes, I am fine. It was more like this - I was standing there and a dog laid down right behind me and I stepped on him, which of course he yelped and nipped at my heal (I had sandals on), causing a minor scratch - this story of course grew among the volunteers and soon everyone thought I had been mauled by a rabid dog.... but no, just a scratch. Also, the dog probably doesn’t actually have rabies, but it did have a gapping wound in the side of it’s head, so better to be safe than sorry.

I would imagine this will be the last blog post for quite a while, unless I think of something important to let you all know about before we leave to site. Please continue to keep us in your prayers, as we will yet again go through another huge adjustment phase when we move to site.

Peace to the Core,

Tim