Re: blog update

Happy New Year's! I love waking up on New Year's morning with the
knowledge that it is a new beginning, a fresh start of another year.
It seems pregnant with possibility, replenishing my optimism. After
much hullabaloo, I have figured out how to hook up my phone to use the
internet, so I now have access to email and as one can deduce from new
blog updates, a way to update you all on my life here in Namibia. I've
put the two group emails up on this site to catch up on training thus
far.

I just finished a month-long home-stay that was part of our community
based training. I was with a wonderful family, who lived in the town
part of Grootfontein and had two kids (with more relatives coming over
the holidays). They were encouraging of my language skills and wanted
to teach me how to do everything, from handwashing my clothes to
cooking buhobe, hard porridge. Even still, I find it stressful being a
guest in someone's house. By far it was the best homestay experience I
have had, far smoother than France or Senegal. I think this was
partially due to the fact that my family all spoke English fluently
(or Namlish, as we say here), so there was less of a communication
barrier.

Grootfontein is an urban city, but we found it necessary to readjust
our expectations of what a city is here in Namibia. There was not a
lot going on in Grootfontein, even though it had a military base,
prison, a few grocery stores, tons of shabeens (bars) and three
locations. There is a big divide leftover from apartheid between town
and the locations. When I refer to the "location" it is the equivalent
as talking about townships in South Africa, or the communities where
black Africans were forced to live during the apartheid regime. The
economic inequality is still pretty much divided along racial lines,
leaving the living arrangements still intacted. We were surprised at
how this affected our training. Those of us in town felt very isolated
from the rest of the trainees who lived in the black and coloured
locations. And when we put on a community health workshop as part of
our technical training, it was difficult for us to reach out to those
that did not live in the location, since families living in town or
even the coloured location would not be willing to go to the location.
Racism and tribalism are very ingrained here, even amongst the
numerous black ethnic groups. My host family only hung out with fellow
Caprivians and tried to distance themselves as much as possible from
those living in the location. I have yet to know what language to
greet people in because I do not want to offend anyone by greeting in
the wrong language, so usually I stick to English unless I know for
sure that they speak my target language. (on a side note, there is
less baggage with speaking Afrikaans to Namibians, despite the fact
that it was the language of oppression under apartheid. This is a big
difference from South Africa. I had been weary of learning Afrikaans
and was surprised to find this difference. Most Namibians that I've
talked to about this hold very little ill-feeling towards Afrikaners
and seem to have moved forward since Independance).

We continued with technical training sessions during CBT, in addition
to four hours of language instruction each day. Some days we traveled
to Tsumeb (about 45 minutes from Grootfontein) to have joint sessions
with the other group of health trainees. These sessions mainly focused
on statistics and did not provide a lot of strategies for behavior
change or actual stuff that would be useful to our jobs, so it was
frustrating at a time to sit through hour after hour of how AIDS is a
problem in Namibia without a lot of emphasis on ways to reduce
transmission and spread in our work in our communities. Even still, we
were able to practice facilitating workshops, which proved to be the
most useful part of training. I led sessions on healthy
decision-making, risk-taking and nutrition/hygiene. Despite having
very little time to prepare and resources to put together our
sessions, they went quite well. I was afraid that the information I
had was too basic and was afraid of coming across as condescending
when talking about the food groups and hand-washing, but the
participants really ate it up and offered a lot of positive feedback.
We did a lot of interactive activities, role-playing and games to make
it as engaging as possible. Namibians love attending workshops since
it provides something to do, free food, and most importantly
certificates.

A big difference between Senegal and Namibia that I have noticed is
how much more of a problem alcoholism is here in Namibia compared to
in Senegal, a predominantly Muslim country. Yes, in Dakar, the
capital, there were lots of clubs, bars, and people drank, but it was
not near the extent and amount consumed here. The shabeens (bars) are
full by 7 am and stay full all day/night. Even our host siblings (as
young as 2!) drank beer by the glass-full and would cry until they got
more. The concept that alcoholism is a disease is not recognized here,
and the government is just beginning to initiate programs to raise
awareness, recognizing that alcohol is one of the main drivers of
fueling the AIDS epidemic here.

blog update

Mu tozi cwani!

I can now say that I have seen a bit more of Namibia than just the
training center in Okahandja. For the past two weeks, I have been up
north, visiting my permanent site in the Caprivi Strip and shadowing a
current health volunteer in the Kavango region. The Caprivi Strip can
be found in the far northeastern section of the country; this narrow
finger pokes its way in between Zambia and Botswana, touching Zimbabwe
and Angola as well. The region is pretty distinct from the rest of
Namibia, namely as a result of two rivers that sandwich the region,
making it a lush, fertile area. Well, other reasons set it apart too.
Nutshell history lesson: Namibia was colonized by the Germans, who at
the Berlin Conference (where much of the continent was carved up like
pieces of cake for the taking) were vying for a route inland to try to
connect what is now Namibia to another of their territories, Tanganika
(they weren't successful), which explains why this funny stretch is
actually a part of Namibia and not one of the neighboring countries.
So, the borders were rather falsely drawn and much conflict has
simmered over the years (the area was active in the freedom fight;
Angolan civil war and has had a separatist movement). As a result,
Peace Corps volunteers have not been in the region since 1999, so I am
part of the first group to back into the region and the first health
volunteer in the region (before there were only teachers). It's quite
safe there now, so no one should worry.

My village is called Mubiza (the b is pronounced like a Spanish b,
cross between a "b" and an "v"), which is located 25 km outside of
Katima Mulilo. The best way I can think to describe it is to say that
it's the stereotypical African village. Yes, that means I am living in
a mud hut, pulling water from a bore-hole, bucket bathing, cooking
over a propane burner/fire and using a pit latrine! It's quite
beautiful – behind my house is a field of mopani trees and cows come
to my window and stick their head in when I cook dinner! Lots of stray
dogs camp outside my stoop and the main gathering point in the cluster
of huts surrounding me is under a big tree where everyone cooks, eats
and rests during the heat of the day. There is another volunteer in
the same village, Griffin, who will be teaching at the school. It's
been nice to have someone who speaks English to process with, but
everyone thinks that we are a couple and is quite surprised to see him
do his share of cooking and other tasks that only women do here.

My assignment is to work with the Junior Farmers Field and Life Skills
Program (JFFLS). It is a trial program through FAO (Farming and
Agriculture Organization, part of the United Nations) and has four
sites in the region, each with a Peace Corps volunteer. Basically, the
idea is to teach gardening, as a way to transfer knowledge about
farming, life skills, HIV/AIDS and have a way to generate income. Our
program has 30 OVCS (orphans and vulnerable children), which is only a
small fraction of the orphans at the school – the school is made up of
over 85% orphans – it's rather mind-boggling. Hopefully, the program
will be expanded, so as not to further stigmatize the kids in the
program. Anyways, I will be training the facilitators, developing
curriculum, teaching book-keeping skills, computers and teaching
life-skills to 5-7 graders, in addition to gardening. Many projects
are in the works, including a fish pond to raise fish, bee hives,
poultry barn, orchard (to grow bananas, guava, papaya and mangos!) and
butcher business. They plan to see the garden produce in the
community, as well as to the grocery store in Katima and local lodges.
The garden has yet to be harvested, even though it was started in
2005, so all of these projects need quite a bit of coordination before
anything will actually come to fruition. There is no clinic or
health facilities in the village of about 2,000 people, so they have
to hitch hike into Katima for any medical care. The region has the
highest rate of HIV/AIDS and TB in the country (over 42% We came
across satellite villages that have an 80% infection rate).

I've already been asked to open a clinic and treat people, which is
probably a natural misunderstanding when they hear that they are
getting a health volunteer! There are a lot of misconceptions in the
area as to how HIV is spread. One of the prevalent beliefs is that it
can be contracted if someone comes to you in a dream while you are
asleep and has sex with you. The traditional healers advocate this as
a way the disease is "witched" on people, and there are even court
cases at the traditional court where people are convicted of infecting
others with HIV in dreams. Craziness. The women I spoke to in my
village, seemed very unsure of whether this was possible or not – and
they were the facilitators teaching the kids about AIDS!

People have been extremely welcoming; adults have been sending kids to
my hut to make sure that I'm never lonely! The white, mukuwa, is a
source of endless fascination for many who make excuses to check in on
me at all times of the day. My hut was built by the community when
they heard that they were getting a volunteer. My visit was mainly for
me to meet and greet as many people in the village – headmen, village
court, JFFLS management committee, religious leaders, traditional
healers and the kids. I am looking forward to going back in January
and settling in to my new home.

We went to Botswana (a mere 30 minute drive from the village!) and
even got to see an elephant – a perk of being surrounded by game
parks. While shadowing current volunteers, they took us to a game park
where we saw lions, hippos, buffalos, giraffes, 2,000 year old trees,
huge lizards, crocodiles, and many more animals. It's pretty
awe-inspiring to see these animals in their natural habitat, meters
away from you. On my hike up the nearby mountains before dinner this
evening I saw a pack of baboons! I have yet to see any snakes, despite
numerous stories of snakes being killed in the village, and that's the
way I hope it remains!

I feel like I have learned more in the past two weeks while having
navigate all sorts of new forms of transport – hitch hiking with
truckers, riding in crammed combies, in the back of pick up trucks
with chickens and with my own two legs – just by having to do it.
Transportation is a huge problem here since the country is expansive,
yet sparsely populated in many parts, making it difficult to get
around with no formal transportation system. I am much less worried
about having to hitch hike than I initially was and won't have to do
it alone, so it's worked out fine so far. The key is to be assertive
and speak up if you get in an uncomfortable situation.

I'm sorry this is so long. I haven't had access to the internet in
three weeks and wanted to share with you the news about my placement.
Any news from the states is greatly appreciated, despite my lack of
responding up until this point (I have every intention of replying as
soon as I have access).

My body is still on village time – going to bed when it gets dark and
waking up with the roosters at 4:45 am! I have never seen so many
sunrises in my life! I'm a little red from being outside all morning
for World AIDS Day events, and a little sore from hauling manure and
planting in the garden, but I will get used to the manual labor and am
happier than I've ever been. This is my life.

For the next month, I am be living in Grootfontein with a host family
for more language training and technical training. I am one month away
from officially being sworn in a PCV!

Thanks to all who have emailed, i am responding but having trouble
accessing the internet. you can send me messages though on facebook
and \i can check using my cell phone. technology!

love to all,
thea

blog update

Greetings from Namibia – Land of the Brave!

After a week of traveling and orientation, I arrived in Namibia last
Friday afternoon. We were greeted at the airport with big signs and a
huge group of current volunteers to help with our two years worth of
luggage. We were taken to Okahandja, an hour northeast of Windhoek,
where we will be based for part of our training. All of our Peace
Corps training staff greeted the buses by singing and dancing in 10
different languages, representing the languages spoken in Namibia. It
was incredibly moving. They just kept singing even after we had all
gathered in our meeting room. I wasn't expecting a concert upon
arrival to a new country!

For those of you who haven't heard, I am starting my pre-service Peace
Corps training in Namibia, where I'll be serving as a Community Health
and HIV/AIDS volunteer. In two weeks I'll know my permanent site,
where I'll be for the next two years.

From the plane, the terrain looked quite barren. I tried counting
houses, but never made it past one. Twice the size of California,
Namibia is the second least populated country in the world after Nepal
(the Twin Cities are more populated than the entire country, as a
comparison). So far, it reminds me a little of the Badlands, although
those from Arizona claim that there is a remarkable similarity. Lots
of shrubbery, dry river beds, and mountains pop up all over the
desert-like terrain.

Namibia's HIV/AIDS prevalence is ranked as the third highest in
sub-Saharan Africa, in the fifth most affected country in the world,
with a prevalence rate of 19.7 percent. Of course, it can vary
dramatically depending on the region. For example, the highest is in
the Caprivi strip at 42 percent, while in Opuwo is 9 percent (I had to
stop myself from typing "only" 9 percent). This is a huge issue in
Namibia and is growing at an alarming rate (in just two years the rate
along one coastal city went from 16 percent to 28 percent). 30 % of
30-34 years olds are HIV-positive. As a result, there is a huge
population of what are called OVCs (orphans and vulnerable children)
and the average life expectancy has fallen to 41 years of age. Namibia
is one of the 15 focus countries targeted by PEPFAR (in a nutshell: in
2003, President Bush initiated what is known as the President's
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which is the largest bilateral program
that addresses care, treatment and prevention in a number of
countries). The Peace Corps is a PEPFAR partner, but also works to
build capacity of the Namibian government at all levels and to build
the capacity of non-profits (faith-based organizations,
community-based organizations and international aid organizations).
I'll write more about my role as a health volunteer as it unfolds.

Many of you have asked if I will be keeping a blog while in Namibia.
The answer is yes, but I need to have it approved by our Country
Director before I can start posting anything. I might need to make it
password protected, hence changing my site, so I'll just send another
email once I figure everything out and proceed.

In the meantime, please write! I won't have very much time or access
in the next several weeks of training, but I would love to hear from
you either via email or post.
My address through January 9 will be:
Thea Neal, PCT
Peace Corps Office
P.O. Box 6862
20 Nachtigal St.
Ausspannplatz
Windhoek, Namibia
AFRICA

Depending on where I'm placed, my access to email might improve once I
get to my site and my schedule adjusts.

Until then, I'm just trying to process a multitude of new acronyms and
am anxiously waiting to find out which language I'll be learning
starting this week. There are still a lot of unknowns, but it's great
to finally be here and with 70 other volunteers who are equally
excited to be starting this next adventure.

--
Thea Neal
Hope College 2007
Peace Corps Namibia 2007-2010