"The Person I Admire the Most"

On one of my first days at site, I asked to read some of the learners' journals to get an idea of their level of English and what's going on in their heads. A particularly touching entry came from a girl whose assignment was to write about the person she admires the most:

"Of all the people in the world, I admire my grandmother and to me she is my role model. She laughs with peoples and enjoy story. She is wise because she knows how to read and write. She is proud everytime and is polite in words. I admire my granny because she is so smart. When it come cleanness she is number one. I admire my granny very much and she is the only one who support me. I respect my granny because she is respected and too old. She old, but she is a hard worker especially when it is time for ploughing. She is so nice to me and she is patient. I admire my grandmother more than anyone else in the world. She is so special to me. She is kind, smart, and happy all the time. My grandmother is supportive because she support me and my brothers and sister when it comes to school fund and buy for us uniform, even food. She have got no problem when it comes to talk to other people. I love her so much." 

First Day at Site

The first thing I saw after waking up and looking out of my window was one of the most beautiful birds I have ever seen in my life, a lilac-breasted roller.

Birds were chirping, cows were mooing, and chickens were crowing. I took a bucket bath,

and set up housekeeping. Then I went for a walk and saw my school for the first time.

I met around 15 learners, who surprised me with how well they already spoke English. Since it's the weekend, there are no teachers around, but I already feel lucky to call this beautiful place home for the next two years.

Pre-Service Training

After getting settled into our training site in Okahandja, we began two months of extensive diversity, medical, safety, technical and language training. Language training was far and away my favorite part.

A standout from training was Cultural Day, when we all made food typical of our respective language groups. The Silozi group made fish, chicken, makwangala (cooked water lily bulbs), and pap (maize porridge). We also slaughtered a goat (a first for many of us), chickens, and make vetkoeks. At the end, we had a fashion show, featuring various forms of dress from Namibia. Here is a video I took from the cooking session:

Some trainings were more fun than others. Some were more informative than others. Some (the sexual harassment training) were downright uncomfortable and not fun. One of the more fun ones was a simulation of Namibia public transport. Trainers and volunteers were assigned roles and attempted to demonstrate what it is like to ride in a combi (usually a minivan with about 14-15 passengers crammed inside. I took a video:

Key insights into the culture during PST were the importance of greeting everyone (in Namibia, it's very rude to ignore someone in close proximity to you), the importance of being polite to elders (I consider myself a polite person, but Namibians are extremely polite and treat elders with a reverence long-gone in the United States), and the importance to helping each other. During one of our sessions, all of the Americans listed things they didn't understand about Namibian culture, and our trainers listed things they didn't understand about our culture. One of the things that came up from the Namibians was, "Why don't Americans accept help?"

A trainer stood up and said, "I don't understand why Americans don't accept help. Like, when you all arrived here, you have so many heavy bags, and people offer to help you, and you can barely walk, and you're like, 'No, it's OK. I got it.'"

In Namibia, and Africa in general, it is rude to turn down offers of help. I think Americans are so quick to decline help is because we value self-sufficiency, but also because - let's face it - it's usually an empty gesture in the US, and maybe we usually assume that whoever is offering help is just doing it to be polite. When you refuse help in Namibia, it is like saying that you don't want to interact with that person so much that you will not even accept help from them.