Mariental Floods

The day after I posted about polka dot umbrellas and pink galoshes we had a tremendous flood! The Hardap Dam was too full and the sluice gates had to be opened quite far to let out the water. It was way more water than the Fish River could handle at once, so it took over the town. This has happened before in Mariental, but not like this!

Our Peace Corps Medical Officer was ready to send a helicopter to evacuate us, but it was not necessary. Our flat is on the side of town opposite all of the flooding. The hospital and one of the grocery stores is also on that side of that, so we were totally fine. However, for the first time since I've been in Mariental I did see air traffic. Small planes and helicopters were flying around checking the flood status and maybe some media as well.

The week after the flood was chaos! Megan, my roommate, and I spent the week helping friends clean out their homes and businesses. We also had three Namibian friends who's homes were flooded staying in our sitkamer (living room). Most people in Mariental who were not flooded were then hosting/helping out people who were flooded. I had never experienced anything like this before! One friend's parents took a boat to their house on Sunday and their photos look like they are on a cruise on the river, but it is really the main highway that goes through Mariental! Another family spent Saturday night on the roof of their house because the water level started to cover their beds! One photo shows the water line left on a wall in town.

Visit to Rehoboth

Last week I was helped facilitate a training for Window of Hope teachers in Rehoboth. Window of Hope is the HIV/AIDS education initiative for primary schools in Namibian. It's a phenomenal program that is impacting kids all over Namibia! The workshop was a facilitators' training for teachers interested in running the program at their schools. What an amazing, caring group of teacher! It was a privilege to work with such deeply caring and motivated people.

While in Rehoboth for the week I had the opportunity to experience my first Namibian "sundowner". It's essentially just going somewhere to watch the sunset with friends. The TRC manager in Rehoboth and an advisory teacher from Mariental took us, two other PCVs and myself, to the Oanob Dam for this sundowner! MAGICAL! The photo doesn't even do it justice, but it was incredibly beautiful!!!!!

How to survive an encounter with a computer...

One of the projects that I have worked on this term has been improvements to the computer lab/teaching basic computer skills. My supervisor was thrilled about the computer mural on the wall of the lab. It also serve as a great teaching aid! These are my first two classes, one was at the TRC and consisted of two women from the community. There other was held at a local school and the whole class was teachers...two of them had never even touched a computer before. It was fun to see all of the participants grow in their confidence and ability to use a computer. All did survive "Computers 101: How to survive an encounter with a computer"! There was so much interest in the course that I am offering another for teachers and just finished one at the TRC for community members.

Polka dot umbrella & pink galoshes

This was a going away card that a friend made for me and it's actually quite accurate! Today I surely did use the polka dot umbrella! It has been raining all day! Unfortunately, I left the pink galoshes at home. If I had them, I would be wearing them right now. They would be quite handy walking through town since most of the streets turn into shallow rivers when it rains. Ah, but Namibia needs the rain.

My perspective on rainy days has completely changed. At home in the U.S. a rainy day usually means that you feel a little gloomy, you just want to stay in your bed and read or whatever. Here I find myself saying things like, "Wow, I it's going to be a good day because it looks like it's going to rain!" That's not just me, but many people that I've come in contact with today were in particularly good moods because it is raining!!

If only I had the pink galoshes...

World Map Project

One of the first community proejects that I helped with when I first arrived at site was painting world maps at local schools. We painted two maps in the first two weeks and learners from each school helped. The learners also decided on how Namibia should be painted and then they got to paint it how they wanted. Here are some photos of one of the map projects in Mariental. As a result of this, we've been requested to paint at another primary school in Mariental and a library in Aranos.

Am I really in the Peace Corps?

It's Sunday night and I feel like I have just returned from holiday,
but I've not even left Mariental or spent any money! This weekend I
went swimming in two different swimming pools, watched three movies,
gave myself a pedicure, and slept in an air-conditioned room! While
floating around on a tube in a pool, our friend's child brought us
delicious peppermint tart! WHAT?!?! Dani (fellow PCV) and I looked
at each other and said, "Are we really in the Peace Corps?"

No, I did not book myself into the bungalows at the Hardap Dam or the
River Chalets here in town. Instead I spent most of the weekend with
an awesome Namibian family, the Labuschagnes! This is the family
that took us to the Lily Pan and also to the Hardap Dam. They are
the ones who had us over for pizza on my birthday. They've
introduced us to many of their friends and made us feel included here
in Mariental. They are wonderful, welcoming, caring people and have
truly become my Namibian family! I know that I could call them any
time day or night if I ever really needed to. They've been an
amazing blessing to me here in Mariental and I am truly grateful for
them!

Praise God for a LEKKER weekend of rest and relaxation with wonderful
people!

NAM 25 blogs

A previous post includes some other NAM 25 blogs to check out. Here
is a link to a blog that has a more complete list. You will probably
be able to find all sorts of interesting stories and photos of NAM
25's experiences so far in Namibia if you read through some of these.

http://wideopenspacesamy2.blogspot.com/2005/11/amys-teammates-blogs-
from-namibia.html

This link was sent to me by a fellow volunteer's parents who are
keeping their own blog of info and stories as they follow the
adventures of NAM 25.

http://wideopenspacesamy2.blogspot.com/