and i believe in the promised land

hello friends. writing from luderitz. posh corps aka brad's house. we just went to the nest hotel and had the swankiest buffet for N$95.00. (woah, worth it) we ate. a lot. and it was glorious. i think i ate 237 olives.
brad is now cleaning some sort of funk from the sink so it doesn't back up anymore. it's very...brown.
brad used to want to live in a hut. now he has a washing machine, carpet, futon, a couch, dining room table, t.v., spare bedroom and a backyard with his own personal mountain. what? i've officially decided to come to luderitz every chance i get. i'm still high from the buffet. please excuse me.
my phone charger has mysteriously gone missing. which is fine with me. we have highspeed wireless from the hotel.my brain is near-explosion. none of this should be happening!!
i ran into two of my learners yesterday while i was enjoying a hot cup o' joe at diaz coffee shop. they were being so cute! "yes, miss" "yes, miss". ad infinitum. i asked them what they had been doing over the holiday."just playing, miss". my heart melts. oh, and manfred was wearing mc hammer pants. casual.
we had a braai yesterday for kevin's host family, who stopped by on their way to cape town from okahandja. then weall went over to second lagoon and played in the sand/dipped our toes in/tried to avoid the jellyfish. i have somepretty ridiculous pictures. maybe i'll try and post some of them. i'll definitely be posting more in the next few days.
i hope everyone is well. the calendar tells me it is just about christmas. my brain is telling me otherwise. but i hope you are all safe and warm and happy. i certainly am.

it's going to be a strange night in keetmans

i officially have TWO visitors coming this summer, and this makes me endlessly happy.

my little sister (meghan, duh, most of you know her) will be studying abroad in cape town for the month of may, so
i'm going down there to hang out with her as much as possible for a week with some other volunteers (you know, just
some of the coolest out of the dirty 30), and THEN, when she's done at the beginning of june, i'm going to meet her
in keetmanshoop and take her with me bethanie, where we will chill namibian style and probably even make it up to
soussesvlei. *i just realized this is one long sentence. i'm not impressed with my writing. my leaners would be
disappointed. i'm ALWAYS scolding them for this.

THEN, hema is coming during august/sept break (between second and third term). i'm going to pick her up at the
airport, we're going to chill in bethanie for a bit, then go to soussesvlei and cape town. i mean, am i lucky girl,
or what?

things are good here in namibia. i've officially moved into my new apartment. yes my friends, i'm living on my own.
i made pasta and garlic green beans the other night. it made me feel like a real person again. no more eating
spoonfuls of peanut butter instead of dinner for me!

i've done quite a bit of cleaning and organizing and am really starting to feel like this place is my home.
however, the walls are slightly bare, so if you are even in the mood to send me some pictures, it would be greatly
appreciated. i have absolutely no pictures of my friends. any of you. and i'm pretty sure i have some. sometimes i
forget, and the namibians definitely think i have no friends. i'm okay with that.

i'm almost packed for my month long holiday away from bethanie. going to the farm tomorrow with my principal. it
should be fun, especially since he has two of the coolest dogs i've ever met. it's no bailey replacement, but it'll
do for now. i'm also 100% going to see some animal slaughtering, which is kind of exciting. as long as i don't have
to do it, i think i can observe and treat it like an educational experience. ooh, this is another reason i'm super
excited about living on my own: i have control over my meat intake. which means i'm going to crank it down to as
close to ZERO as possible. i think there will still be an occasional braai i'll be invited to or dinner at a
friend's house (assuming i actually make some friends), which means meat will happen, but i can handle an "every
now and then" situation. god, i'm going to BATHE in tofu if i ever make it back to the states. KIDDING. (about the
possibility of me not making it back, not the tofu thing. that is definitely happening. who's with me?)

one beautiful thing about taking over a flat with a long list of owners who were previous volunteers is the
bookshelf i have in my sitting room that is FULL of books. you know those granola-eating, tree huggers just love to
read and act all intellectual. nerds. there are around 50 books that i really want to read, not to mention around
20/30 more that i could read if sufficiently bored. i mean, i don't know. do i really want to become a twilight
freak? psh who am i kidding, i'm totally reading those books. and i'm excited about it. if i have a life-sized
cardboard cutout of edward in my flat by the time i leave, don't say i didn't warn you.

well, i'm going to bring this to a close. i've got a whole lot of nothing to attend to, and a ton of sitting around
and listening to music that needs my full attention. hey, it's a rough life.

UPDATE: i'm posting this blog a few days later while in keetmans. i was dropped off at central lodge and my ride drove off into the sunset. only after he was gone was i informed that central lodge (and EVERY other hotel in keetmans) was booked. minor panic attack. called my host mother's family in keetmans. they came and got me, thankfully. awkward night ahead.

greetings earthlings

wanted to sort of let you know about these pictures. the cute ones of jumping children are mostly grade 5, 6 and 7 boys hanging out by the school. so cute. the 4 super cute kids are my host sisters and host brothers. there are some pictures of the farm near bethanie and then maybe some pictures of the mr/miss bps pageant? not sure what i put on there. anyways, i hope you enjoy.

it's 7:30 on sunday morning in keetmanshoop. we're about to head out so we can try and catch a ride back to bethanie. we have to get out there early to increase our chances of finding a lift. it's been a great weekend. good food, good times. time to get back to my tiny little town and get ready for the last week of school (believe it!)

i'll be going on some adventures for the holidays, and i'm pretty excited about that. then, it's 2010 what up.

write me and tell me about your holiday times. i think it won't make me too sad because i don't feel like thanksgiving/christmas are real AT ALL. but i do miss you all. <3

THIS IS IT

i heart namibia

more

kids kids kids

bethanie,braais, beanut butter, bed, bfrustrations?

well hello all. first of all, let me say that i am sorry i do not update this beautiful blog often enough. i will try to do better by you all.

****PLEASE DO NOT SEND ME ANYTHING UNTIL AFTER JANUARY 1ST. THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE IT WILL NOT GET TO ME BECAUSE OF THE UNRELIABILITY OF THE POST OFFICE DURING THE ENTIRE MONTH OF DECEMBER.***

i know i've spoken to many of you about this, but i just want to reiterate it. it's pretty sad when i don't get packages/letters. you will sad, i will be sad. this combo is no good.

moving on.

i have now been at site almost a month. it's pretty great in fact. the learners are spectacular. i think my learners are the smartest of all of the learners of peace corps volunteers in namibia. i'm just saying. sometimes they tell me things i would have never ever thought of, or their stories are so amazing it makes me want to cry with joy. needless to say, i think i will enjoy teaching english to them much more than i had initially thought. there is a lot less confusion over grammar and a lot more fun with creative writing. this is all good stuff.

i just found out that i will be on the volunteer support network (vsn) committee with the peace corps. esentially i'll be one of the people other volunteers will turn to with their issues or concerns or emotional problems. so i'll be providing "support" and also helping out with the training for the incoming pc namibia groups. the most exciting thing (at this point) is that my bf julie is ALSO vsn, which means we get to see each other in windhoek in about 3 weeks. brilliant.

i've been doing a lot of teaching. mostly co-teaching with the girl i'm replacing. her name is grace and she's from kentucky and she's super awesome. she's a great teacher so the fact that i get to be here observing her and how she does things is a great benefit. i'll also get to have her lesson plans and resources when she leaves to use for the next two years. i've also been doing a lot of t.v. watching (sadly) and not enough reading, and waaay too much sleeping. or shockingly little sleeping, depending on the day. i've had only a couple semi-depressed days, mostly because of a series of very scary/sad dreams and the general boredom that sometimes accompanies life in the namib desert aka the middle of nowhere.

last night grace put together a super amazing braai for the grade seven learners down by the "riverbed" (all rivers are dry) with our principal and his wife. it was SO NICE. before we left i played ball with some of the boys, which was awesome and made me realize how much happier i will be when i can just be around the learners, and we danced and ate great good and played soccer in the dry riverbed. it was a great night in general.

okay, now i'm going to do something weird: i just remembered i had saved a blog i meant to update with last week, so i'll just post it and let you have it. needless to say, this is a little outdated and may therefore be slightly confusing.

________________________________________________________________

well hello long-distance friends and family,
sorry for the lack of updating. i'm just waaaaaaaaay too busy. okay, i'm kidding. i think it has more to do with laziness. but that'll be between you and me. (*see, i was even sorry then !)
i'm not really sure what to say on this thing. i've been at site now for 3 weeks. it's going well i'd say. the ultimate purpose of this first 2-3 months is for us to have a chance to "observe" classes and become integrated intoour communities. we're living with a host family again (i now have two pseudo families in namibia) so that we canbetter adjust and have an "in". my host family is pretty great, although it will be nice to move into my own placein january. i mean, i like living on my own!
anyways, school is pretty good. i've been doing some co-teaching with the current volunteer, grace, who will be leaving in december and heading back home to kentucky. things go brilliantly when she's here because the kids are used to her and she's got the whole discipline thing down. however, she had to go to windhoek this week so i was on myown and....yikes. the grade seven kids were great, but the grade six kids? i definitey had to hide in the libraryand cry after wednesday's classes. i even yell at them and try to be mean and then they laugh at me. boy oh boy. i know this is all part of the adjustment period and they are just testing me and things will get better, but for nowi'm all "when is grace getting back again?" it's crazy though because she's back for this next week and then whenthis coming week is over it's time for exams! blows my mind.
after exams are over and school gets out i'll hang around here for maybe 2 weeks tops and follow my family around, but then i'll be going to luderitz around the 20th of december for christmas. bethanie is going to be a ghost townbecause all of the learners will be gone and so will the teachers and i'm almost positive everyone else will be attheir farms. so i definitely don't want to be hanging out alone in a ghost town during the holidays. i might go crazy. so, luderitz is a pretty fancy place (there are two volunteers there, kevin and brad) and a bunch of the othervolunteers from the south of namibia will be heading there as well. it's a coastal town and i'm thinking there willbe a good amount of fun to be had.
so, right after the new year i will head up north for peace corps reconnect, a two week seminar type situation wherewe meet back together to talk about what we learned the first two months and talk about good teaching methods and how to handle classroom management issues. it will be so nice to see everyone, especially since most of my friendsare up north and i won't have a chance to see them before then. then reconnect is over and it's back to bethaniewhere i will immediately start teaching! exciting stuff, this is.
i'm trying to think if there are any great things i want to tell you. i forget all the good stuff when it comes timeto send messages back to the states. sorry. my learners stories are so great and i'm toying with the idea of turningmy blog into a forum for posting and discussing some of the great things they write about in class, but i'm thinking this might violate some sort of learner/teacher agreement. do they have those??
i guess i will also write down some things on here that i would like to receive should you ever feel generous enough to send me a small package. i'll say it again, those padded envelopes seem to work the best and will costyou less money. see what you can get in there.
hey, write to me and tell me what's going on back home. i live for the details: it's the little things i feel likei'm really missing out on. you know, the stuff you might not feel is important enough to tell me. tell me the bigstuff too though.
miss you.

______________________________

okay, this is way too long! i'll quickly explain the title. i'm weird, so that mostly explains it. but i've been eating a lot of peanut butter, spending a fair amount of time in bed, and life in the pc comes with its fair share of frustrations. love you!

a day in the life...

hello all. thought you might be interested in seeing what a typical weekday looks like for me. i know i may have written about some of this stuff before, but you can just get over it. okay, i like you all.

6:30 – my ouma (grandma) or my little sister Troosie knocks on my bedroom door to wake me up (even though my alarm is always set just in case…..for about 30 minutes later of course). The wake up usually goes something like “SHANNON!! YOU MUST WAKE UP!” Namibians use the word “must” quite often. So it’s quite a way to wake up in the morning.
6:45 after getting dressed half-asleep, I stumble into the kitchen where I greet my family (just ouma and Troosie unless Bruno has to go to work or Petra hasn’t left yet for Windhoek) and start to make my coffee. Then my wonderful ouma hands me a plate of scrambled eggs (sometimes with tomato) and buttered (of course) toast.
7:00 I head back to my room to kill some time before I have to be outside to meet the combi (van) to take us to the Kukuri center. So I brush my teeth, sometimes clean up my room or write e-mails.
7:15 go outside to meet the combi. Hang out with/talk to a couple of the other volunteers who live in the Ved (our neighborhood) while we wait for Magnus and James (who are invariably late). Finally, around 7:35 we leave for the center.
7:45 arrive and hang out with other volunteers. We talk and watch some music video channel that usually is very entertaining (plays kanye west, gaga, beyonce, etc.)
8:00 the trainers come in so we can start SINGING. We sing and dance our hearts out for approx. 15 minutes. We also sing the Namibian and the U.S. national anthems. We’re pretty good, I can’t lie. One thing that is funny is that there is one song called “Namibia !gai re” or something in Khoekhoegowab (one of the click languages) and you just insert whatever you want before !gai re so we just call people out and then they have to dance for like a minute in front of everyone. Well SOMEHOW it became everyone’s favorite thing to call me out EVERY TIME WE SING IT. Seriously. It’s getting pretty awkward. I’ve run out of dance moves (aka I had none in the first place).
8:15 announcements (us trying our best to come up with stuff to talk about so we run over into our language classes)
8:30-10:00 first part of language for the day.
10:00-10:30 TEA BREAK (aka, all of us eat our ENTIRE lunches and sit around and talk. It’s awesome).
10:30-1:00 some of the longest hours of my life….language #2. I mean, I guess I shouldn’t really complain because it’s not THAT BAD, but for the last hour sometimes I want to hurt someone. It’s just so hard to pay attention after doing it for so long. But don’t worry, we’ve spoken to the peace corps about it and they might try and make some changes in scheduling for the next training group.
1:00-2:30 glorious lunch time. Except for those of us (all of us) who have already eaten our lunches, it’s just time for us to either copy stuff from each other’s hard drives, roll around in the grass, walk to SPAR(our amazing supermarket) and buy a ton more food, go to the post office/internet café, or just generally bum around. It’s kind of awesome. Especially since we all like each other.
*I guess I should talk about what I eat for lunch. My ouma packs me 1 ½ (don’t know why) sandwiches that are normally bologna with butter, cheese with butter or peanut butter with butter), a piece of fruit (orange, apple, banana) and usually a thing of yogurt and a drink. Not bad at all. I am kind of in love with her. But THEN when we go to SPAR we go kind of crazy. Lately it’s been Oshikandela (a yogurt drink, guava flavor is the best) and this killer salad with lettuce, olives, tomato, avocado or just a bag of chips. Either way we spend a ton of money there and I’m pretty much always eating.
2:30-usually 5:00 sometimes earlier if we’re lucky: afternoon sessions. These can involve anything from HIV/AIDS awareness information to talking about relationships in Namibia or Namibian holidays to talking about medical issues, etc. sometimes they are great and sometimes we are just so tired it’s hard to pay attention.
5:30 arrive home after riding in the combis. Greet my huge family and ask everyone about their how their day went.
5:45-6:00 eat dinner. We eat almost immediately after I get home, which is nice because some people eat really late. Dinner is always meat (usually goat/sheep but sometimes chicken) with either pasta or rice with soup (like gravy) on top and then with some sort of veggies (either beet salad, carrot salad, tomato salad, etc.) keep in mind salad = with mayonnaise. OHsometimes we have baked squash and they put butter and sugar on it….oh my word.
6:30 depending on the night I might help with dishes, although I definitely don’t do this as much as I should. But there are so many people in my house it doesn’t always work out. Honestly sometimes when I feel like offering to help I just realize I would more of a nuisance because there are so many people in the kitchen. So normally I just get ready to take my bath. We have to heat up water because there is no hot water so we do that and I go get my stuff. Then I relax in the bath for 20 minutes or so and then I’m pretty much done for the evening. It’s nice.
7:00-8:00 LORENZO’S WIFE everyone watches this ridiculous Spanish language (dubbed over) soap opera that is sort of the more horrific (yet wonderful) thing I’ve ever seen. I mean seriously, if the kids try and talk over it they get straight up YELLED AT. It’s awesome.
8:00-10:00 my time, yo. I’m usually in my room on the computer or doing homework or just listening to music and relaxing. Sometimes I fall asleep by 9 but it just depends on how tired I am or what I have to do.
AND THAT’S IT!

picture

my house in okahandja. essentially a palace.

so, this is going to take a lot longer than i had anticipated. more later.

p.s. i rocked my lpi

Hello people from my former life…
Shannon here. I’m writing this update on the 22nd of September, though I cannot currently comment on when this will actually appear online…
Today was sad because our group of 33 is now just 32. One of the volunteers decided to go home. It was the best decision for her, but we will miss her terribly! (if you are out there, here’s my shout out). I guess group 30 won’t be the first group to have 100% of our group survive through the end. Oh well.
I’m in my room at my homestay and being treated to beautiful music in the background. My ouma (grandma) is hosting the church choir practice in the other room. Why is everyone in Namibia the most amazing singer ever? It doesn’t make sense. I need to tell ouma she can host practice whenever she so desires. I love it. It’s like my own private show. This house is so happening. Everytime I turn around there is something else going down. Sometimes it’s just the kids having to go to the hospital because they fell off the motorbike, but whatever.
We’re essentially spending this whole week debriefing from our permanent site visits. The more I think about it, the most anxious and worried I become about various things in Bethanie. There are just a lot of immediately evident remnants of apartheid, and I was only there for a week, so I imagine things go a lot deeper than I am currently aware. It’s going to be challenging, but I think I’m up for it. The people of bethanie are GREAT, especially the learners. So obviously this excites me. Also, did I tell you they have a public library in bethanie?! I was very very happy to find out this fact.
One of my favorite things about Namibians is this: they always say “I’m coming right now” or “I come now” instead of “I’m coming right back.” It’s so funny. Now that I write it though, it doesn’t seem so funny. But take my word for it.
We are having what they call “mid-LPI” interviews on Friday, which is the peace corps’ way of determining how we are doing with our language training. I am really nervous, because even though I feel like I have a pretty good grasp of Afrikaans right now, in talking with my language trainer, hamata, about the pseudo-exam, I will be very lost. We’ll see how it goes. I want to impress them!
I’m now going to post some pictures. These will mostly be of bethanie/my classroom . Please notice that we have an overhead projector in my classroom, and don’t get jealous. Get so excited!!!!!!!!!!! Because I am.

update: i'm going to post the pictures later. it will cost me a lot less money. love you all. stay tuned.

p.s. from this point on, you should probably start sending mail to bethanie, because I’ll be moving there in less than 4 weeks. Ahh!!! I can’t wait

love you all

hello from keetmanshoop

greetings. this blog update is brought to you from keetmanshoop, a town about 140 kms from my permanent site in bethanie. i will be representing the dirty south of namibia for the next 2 years, and i'm pretty excited about it. i guess i'm kind of used to representing the south. in the most bad ass way possible.

we are taking an overnight train tonight from keetmans to windhoek (12 hours) and they just informed us there is no sleeper car available. should be interesting. it's also apparently freezing. we'll see how that goes.

i just finished up at my site for one week. i was observing classes and meeting people and just trying to get used to my surroundings. i really think i'm going to like bethanie. it's quiet and small and a little weird, but i think it'll be fun. i hope i don't turn into a crazy person because i will never be interacting with americans. yikes.

when i get back to okahandja i will make it a priority to post some pictures. i have some exciting ones of my future flat and classroom, so it should entertain you all.

also, today is the one month anniversary of me being in the peace corps. haha. it feels like it has been forever and no time at all. i guess that is life.

i am having a blast though so don't you worry about me. i can't wait to start teaching. the kids at the school are GREAT and when i left a girl came up to me and gave me a letter she wrote. it said "you are my best friend". wow.

i love you alllllllllll write to me plus send me your real addresses if i don't have them. i'm serious.

ek is shannon

hello all. writing to you from okahandja. this will be short. everything is still great. we've moved in with our host families. my family is pretty awesome. they like to drink beer, which is funny. also, they have two little 4 year old twin boys who are funny and help me A LOT with afrikaans. they are also very dirty because they pretty much only roll around in the dirt outside the house. maybe i'll never have kids. um, the house i'm living in has a pool. yeah. is this the peace corps? i'm not sure.

i'm pretty good at afrikaans (mostly because it's easy) and i've even made friends. i was afraid no one would like me. i'm kind of weird and annoying sometimes.

okay, this has not been informative.

one more thing: all they do is eat meat and eggs and stuff with butter. for example: peanut butter sandwiches plus butter is their attempt at making american food. i think i'll die of a heart attack.

I LOVE YOU ALL PLUS I LOVE NAMIBIA BYE

well....

herero couple at the commemoration for those namibian lives lost during the genocide of 1904 okahandja!!!!

where we eat. nice, right?

herero men putting coins on a man's grave who used to do something funny with coins. don't really know.

herero people at the celebration

me and benna (our cross cultural coordinator or something)

arrival

so, i had this nice blog post all set up and ready to go but it's not reading the file correctly, so i guess i'll have to improvise. i'm here in okahandja and everything is fantastic. i just found out i'll be learning afrikaans, which probably means i will be in a bigger town. this is a LITTLE disappointing, mainly because afrikaans is basically a european language and the language of the colonial oppressor. BUT it is spoken all over the country and i will even be able to communicate with some people in south africa. anyways, i'm just excited to get started so we can get this thing rolling.

seriously though this place is amazing and i couldn't be happier. i probably won't come home next winter because i'm just pretty obsessed with it here. what this means for you guys is you will a. either have to come visit me or b. let me know you cannot make it and i will find a sufficient african replacement for each and every one of you. some of you have actually already been replaced. sorry!

but i do love you all. i'm going to post some pictures to make this blog exciting. so um, here goes.

I LOVE YOU THIS COMPUTER IS SLOW

washington dulles int'l airport

there are currently 33 namibian peace corps volunteers in a strange huddle squatting in this airport waiting for the arrival of a south african airways representative to check us in and send us on our way. i just looked around and realized how funny we must look with a million (rough estimate) bags and band-aids in identical spots on the back of our left arms from our lovely yellow fever vaccines. it's too bad i'm a moron and misplaced my yellow WHO card with proof that i received the vaccine two years ago because i had to get the shot AGAIN. oh well, better safe. and of course i find it right when i get back to my bag. wanna know where it was?? secret pocket in the moleskine journal! damn you kimmie and ben.

this is all very exciting. i guess it's really happening now. as i said before, there are 33 of us traveling to namibia in group 30, which is a really good number in my opinion. they dropped us off at the airport at 11:30 and said see ya later. only then did we find out we would be sitting around until 2 waiting on a chance to check in. i'll be on this damn plane for 17 1/2 hours!! let's hope i avoid deep vein thrombosis!!! scary.

i just had a killer last american meal (roasted red pepper/tomato/crab soup and a spinach salad with feta and walnuts). i'm excited about getting on the plane and settling in so that it all finally comes together. we're meeting a guy named waldo (where?) at jo'burg and he's going to show us to our hotel.

well, we got a good group here. i'm holding on to the hope that all 33 of us will make it to the end of this crazy journey, but all signs point to the fact that that won't happen. not that we're going to die!! just get frustrated and drop out!

i love you all and i'll miss you, but i can't wait to get on with this part of my life.

i'll be in okahandja for the first couple of months, and as soon as i get a chance i'll post some pictures and update you on what's going on in my life.

SEE YOU SOON
shannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnon

countdown: 3 days!

I realized you all might (?) want to know some more things about what exactly is going to be happening for me over in Namibia. I found out some additional information a few weeks back that I'll share with you so I'll feel a little better about being semi-out of touch.

Here is a summarized schedule of events during training. Exciting stuff, huh?

August 21 Trainees arrive in Windhoek and travel straight to the
training center in Okahandja

Week 1 & 2

August 21 - 29 Orientation at Andreas Kukuri Center, Okahandja
August 28 Move in with host families
August 31 – Sept 5 Intensive training (all components)

Week 3

September 7 – 12 Intensive training (all components)
September 12 Meet your Supervisor & sessions

Week 4 & 5

September 13 Travel to permanent sites
September 14 – 19 On-the-job training
September 20 – 25 On-the-job training
September 26 Return travel from permanent sites

Week 6

September 27 – Oct 3 Classroom observations at local schools

Week 7

October 4 – 10 Intensive training (all components)

Week 8

October 11 - 16 Final Language Proficiency Interview
Final Evaluation of PCTs
October 16 Swearing-in ceremony at NIED, Okahandja

End of PST
Depart to permanent sites

It's all happening!

P.S. I HAVE SO MUCH TO DO

A new blogger

Hello all (no one so far).

This is my blog. I have no idea what I'm doing, as evident by my empty blog page and ugly layout. I'm going to try to figure this all out as we go along.

I am leaving in 12 days for Namibia. Right now my mood is best described as : excited + stressed (about packing/being prepared). It seems as though everyone else is all ready to go. We'll see.

I like you all.