Smilin' More Than A Donkey!

I am in LOOOOOVE with Namibia!

I leave in two days for my village where I'll be living and teaching for the next year. In the meantime, we've been training like crazy. We drove through Etosha National Park and had some incredible animal sightings, including a male lion, which is a very rare sight.

We spent last week in the north doing our teaching practicum...basically we got to practice on some village kids willing to spend a few hours of their summer vacation in the classroom. That's definitely when it really hit me that this feels right and I am so happy here. I co-taught a class with learners ranging in age from 4 - 11 and some had never heard/spoken/written English in their little lives. It was incredibly hard but fun and useful and humbling and I'm really proud of how we managed. One girl told me I smile "more than a donkey." ! I started laughing really hard, but she was very serious. I asked if donkeys smile a lot. "YES." (I'm taking it as a compliment) The time we spent in the village was so incredible...learners bringing their baby siblings to school with them, creating jump ropes out of tied-together palm leaves, scrambling after us volunteers in a battle to hold our hands...or touch our arms...or even just touch another child who is touching us and get a little touch by association... :) How could I not fall in love here?

The other volunteers I am here with are just amazing, amazing people. They make me happy just to be around them. They are so sincerely kind and caring souls, I am sad to be parting ways with them when we all go off to our sites.

Some other funny tidbits for you:
- When you shake hands in Namibia, you shake with your right and place your left hand on your right arm to show you are not holding a weapon (sorry Mom)
- I have had several adults respond to finding out I'm from the U.S. with "Obama!"
- The school grounds are happily shared with cattle, donkeys, dogs, and of course bugs
- Oshindonga is a very difficult language to learn...yikes
- I don't care about "dry heat," it is HOT! The temperature is actually not bad at all, it's the sun that is INTENSE. When you're out of the sun, it's wonderful!

Here are some pictures for you...the ones from Etosha I credit to another volunteer with a super camera...thanks Aleks


This is our "classroom" at the hostel where we do training and orientation. It's so beautiful!

Dinner at the traditional Herero restaurant

The goat's head! (People really ate this...including the eyeball)

ETOSHA NATIONAL PARK:

You have no idea how happy this giraffe makes me, I love it

BEETLE!

I am so thrilled to hold this sleeping baby

Cattle at the school! Those are our classrooms in the background

The dirt soccer field

The villagers live in grouped together huts,
surrounded by wooden posts to keep the livestock out

Our group of volunteers at the Herero restaurant