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What we look like via satellite.

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New site in Omaheke

We have moved!  And we are thankful that Peace Corps made this happen basically as quickly as possible.

Realizing many of you may be anxious for information about our new site, we can give you that. We are still lacking a bit in the photo department though, but they will come oh patient ones.

So our new site is in Namibia's Omaheke (pron. Oh-mo-heh-keh..?) region 6-8 miles outside a major town, called Gobabis. By “major,” I mean much bigger and more developed than Khorixas, but not as large as Windhoek (the capital). Gobabis is about a 2-hour drive east from Windhoek. And you say the “G” the German way, like you're clearing your throat. :-)

The drive:

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In the center of it all is the school grounds, which consists of a primary (grades 1-7) and secondary school (grades 8-12). Then you have the hostels where all of the schools' 800+ learners stay, as well as the dining hall, community-type hall, and sports fields. Finally, there is some other housing off to the side for teachers. The place exists solely for and because of these Roman Catholic schools and the education and extracuriculars that take place there. And so all this is simply plopped in the middle of the “bush” with nearly no other development for miles. No shops, and I am happy to report there are no shebeens (small, family-operated bars). (I will add that in many villages, despite how isolated they may be, there often still manages to be a shebeen or two, sadly.) Here, it's just the schools and us people who teach and learn there. It sort of has the feeling of a college campus! With lots of beautiful bush enclosing us in. A college campus inside a campsite!

We continue to stay in small, modern-style housing with (cold) running water and electricity (... and a washing machine, um, YAY!!!!) and neighbor with several colleagues from our schools. Our other colleagues live in Gobabis and commute daily.

 (We all marveled at the wonders of this contraption!

Patches was quite startled by the sight of his first washing 
machine in action and was sure to vocalize his hesitation about it!)

It's really just a quiet and pretty place. The soil is an appealing rust color, contrasting nicely with the plentiful green grass and trees (so nice to have trees and the shade they provide) that come from the frequent rainfall the region receives during the (current) wet season. A bit cooler weather in general is also a plus (*sigh of relief*), though it still gets good and hot in the summer and apparently quite cold in the winter.

 

Stay tuned! Will post more about our schools soon.

You say goodbye, and I say hello

It is goodbye to Khorixas.

Peace Corps broke the news to us that they would be placing us in a new site in Namibia, due to safety/ security precautions. (We knew this was in the cards, which helped us cope a bit.) This meant we needed to break the news to our principals and schools (who knew nothing, which PC intended for the purpose of protecting our safety). And almost immediately, we would depart Khorixas for good. Kevin and I shared our stories of "how it went" at our respective schools and the theme was the same: sad, disappointed, and broken hearts- often accompanied by tears- on the giving and receiving end of the news-bearing.

Just to give you an idea, site changes are quite uncommon in Peace Corps Namibia, especially after the volunteer has confirmed that the site is suitable medically and programically (i.e. there is work for the volunteer) and he/she gets settled in. In our group so far (of 45 to start), 2 site changes took place before the end of Pre-Service Training (PST) due to medical reasons (these volunteers were supposed to be placed at sites with hospitals in case their severe allergies were triggered), and 1 took place during Reconnect in late Nov/early Dec for programming reasons. And then most recently, there's us, after spending 5 months at site (and 7 in Namibia).

For me, the school principal and others publicly gave words of thanks and farewell. When a grade 8 female learner volunteered to also speak, she barely blurted out a sentence before bursting into tears in front of the whole school. All I could do was hug her, with tears also running down my face. I also spoke, giving the kids encouraging words to hang on, after expressed my thanks and my sadness that I needed to leave.

Just before all this, we had spent some time in Windhoek to take care of "Peace Corps business" before leaving Khorixas so when we returned, one of my classes sang impromptu songs to welcome me back. They were unaware I was not back to stay and I couldn't tell them, so I held it in and silently interpreted the song as one of good-byes. The learners would discover this soon enough.

And there we were, in Peace Corps transport (unfortunately it was not a helicopter or something cool, just a Land Cruiser :-P ) with our ever-growing number of belongings (remember we have bikes now!). Destination: Windhoek (the capital). But only for the weekend, and then we will be moved to our new site next week.

Thankfully, having each other as support (yay marriage!) helps tremendously. And we couldn't dream of forgetting Patches, who slept like the angel that he is (sometimes!) at my feet during the 4.5-hour drive from Khorixas to Windhoek as I was finishing Grogan's Marley & Me.

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This was just after he took the initiative to army-crawl his way into a tiny caveat of space under a folded-down seat in the Land Cruiser, making sure we weren't leaving him behind. (He still makes a habit of sleeping on our bags and belongings that he can see will be accompanying us when trekking somewhere. But since all those things were already packed to the brim in our transport, I guess he had no other choice!)