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Namibia-bound!

A couple weeks ago, I received my invitation to serve in Namibia with the Peace Corps. I will be leaving on October 29 to embark on a 27 month stint in southern Africa. Here's a map showing where I'll be. Details are slow in coming, for example, I won't know exactly what part of Namibia I will be living until sometime during the first two months of training, but here's what I know thus far:
~I will be a Health Extension Volunteer in a Community Health and HIV/AIDS program, working with either a government agency (like the Ministry of Health or Ministry of Youth in a particular community), an non-profit organization or a faith-based organization.
~While English is the national language of Namibia, it is not the first language for most, so I will be learning Afrikaans and another local language (otjihereo, oshiwambo and damara-nama might all be possibilities).
~After going through a two month training in language, culture, technical skills, etc., I will officially begin my service on December 28, 2007 and be done December 28, 2009 (which means I'll be home sometime early 2010!).
~for more information, there's a Peace Corps Namibia site with a lot more detais: http://www.peacecorpswiki.com/index.php?title=Namibia

A quick trip to the downtown library provided me with a big stack of reading material, so I'm happily learning more about the history, culture and travel information for Namibia. I'll share more later.

What my business card should read...

I recently finished reading _The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down_ by Anne Fadiman. It tells the story of one Hmong family's struggle with Western medicine as they try to treat their daughter's epilepsy, operating from an entirely different worldview, one in which the line between the spiritual realm and this world is nonexistent. Epilepsy is their culture is known as what happens when "the spirit catches you and you fall down" and is a sign that the person is more in touch with the spiritual realm. This book had been recomended to me on numerous occassions, and I finally picked it up and found myself engrossed in another culture, learning about the "Silent War" in Laos and an ethnic group that has been forced to flee.

The Hmong have a phrase, hai cuaj txub kaum txub, which means " to speak of all kinds of things." The author describes that, "it is often used at the beginning of an oral narrative as a way of reminding the listeners that the world is full of things that may not seem to be connected but actually are; that no even occurs in isolation; that you can miss a lot by sticking to the point; and that the storyteller is likely to be rather long-winded" (13).

I've always needed a phrase to explain why I sometimes feel the need to take many winding paths in explaining myself or telling a story. At Camp Poem, Jack Ridle talked about different types of story-telling personas one might have (making everyone feel most at ease by giving names to how they relate a story). Mine most accurately would be "to speak of all kinds of things."