First 12 Days in Namibia

Obviously there is way too much to write to cover my first twelve days here, so I'll give you the highlights.

NAM 25, my group, was warmly welcomed to the Omaruru Rest Camp with singing, dancing, and lots of beautiful smiles! Omaruru is northwest of Windhoek and has one of the best coffee shops in all of Namibia, a huge blessing for me! The Peace Corps staff and trainers are amazing people and I feel totally welcomed and loved here. We have had an intense schedule of meetings/workshops everyday for the first week. I began learning Afrikaans and am always excited when my vocabulary and communication skills expand. My language teacher gives us assignments that involve going to town and practicing language with the locals which has been a great way to meet some new people. One lady brought me into her office and introduced me to all of her coworkers and they all taught me some new words for my assignment that day. Overall, Omaruru has treated me well and Peace Corps has taken great care of NAM 25.

Permanent Site Visit:
I've been invited to serve at the TRC (Teacher Resource Center) in Mariental (south of Windhoek) and am currently there until Sunday (11-27-05). I will be replacing a volunteer who is leaving Monday, so she is showing me around and introducing me to people here. There is a current volunteer who has already been here for a year and two others from my group are assigned here with me, so there is a network in place already of PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers). The folks in Mariental greeted us with open arms! The TRC staff and PCVs had arranged lunch for us when we arrived and they also presented us with this huge gift basket and a little card. Last night we were invited to a principal's house for a BBQ. They were grateful that we are here and they treated us like family by inviting us to there house and feeding us wonderful food!

The next four weeks will be CBT (community based training OR homestay) and I will be living with a family in or near Omaruru and continuing language classes. The internet access in Omaruru is more limited, so posts will be sparse. Thank you for reading these and checking in on me!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!