New Apartment

Reconnect is a part of Peace Corps training where after six weeks at site a group (in my case group 32) meets at a designated location and discusses aspects of their first six weeks on the job. The discussion includes Namibian culture, social norms, education practices, language training, HIV forum, and general Peace Corps policy guidelines. The lectures themselves were not particularly interesting but it was good to see everyone from my group again and trade stories from our various sites. In my group there are three people located in the south, about seven or eight in central and roughly 30 people in the northern part of the country. I happen to be one of the three in the south so I don’t often see people from my group. The reason for so many volunteers being in the north is because during apartheid that’s where the Ovambo people were forced to live. There are other tribes in the north but the “red line” was specifically to keep the Ovambo in the north and the “coloureds” and “Afrikaners” in the south.

For Peace Corps reasons I cannot tell you the town we met in or the hotel we met at, but I will try to describe it. Just outside of the city we turned down a dusty dirt road. The three kilometer ride was uncomfortable and slow. The faster the driver hit rocks and pot holes, the harder we would be thrown around inside the combie (van). After a steep climb we arrived at a hotel on the top of a mountain. The view was breath taking. Looking north from the lobby a mountain range sprang forth for 15 or so kilometers. From the top of our mountain, near our bedrooms, to the west were a few mountains followed by a 30-40 kilometer valley and then another mountain range. The sunset from outside my bedroom was spectacular. To the east lay a road slicing through the mountain range we were on, and several more mountains. The south was first sprawling city slums that turns into suburbia, then transforming into a metropolitan downtown. The mountains have turned green with plant life due to the recent rains and underground tributaries reminding me of Central America. On a few occasions we were privileged enough to watch a few lightning storms rage in the mountains to the north.

I am now back in Rehoboth and moved into my new two bedroom flat (apartment). I have been busy this week preparing to live in it for the next two years. I posted a video of the place on facebook for people to view. Ironically it is much nicer than the dorms I have been staying in for the last five years. December 18th I will start my holiday travels. It seems almost the entire country shuts down for the month of December. We have all been given two weeks of free vacation for domestic travel and I have decided to take advantage of it by going to Swakopmund, Heinte’s Bay, the Skeleton Coast, and maybe Luderuitz. These are all coastal areas and I miss the beach. Due to the accommodations I will not be taking my computer with me because I will be living in a tent, either with other volunteers or with my host family, but still in a tent. For security reasons I am leaving most of my valuables with other people or in my place.

Reconnect

This week was pretty slow. The school year ended this past Thursday for the learners but the teachers are still working on marking final exams and preparing the schedule for next year. I was delivered a package that is actually for another Peace Corps volunteer, I’m told this is fairly common in you’re in an urban area like I am. On Saturday I hiked up a hill with Ricky and Barbara. My dog followed us, I’m not sure why dogs here love me so much but they definitely follow me everywhere. The town looks completely different now that it’s been raining a bit. The trees are green and there are actual grasses instead of just sand. I forgot to mention that last weekend our group met a Polish man who biking from Cape Town back to Europe. He had already gone through Asia, made his way to Australia, biked Australia, and sailed from Australia to Cape Town. He had some great pictures of his journey.

On Thanksgiving I talked with my parents via skype. It was really good to hear their voices though I didn’t get to see them. Sunday I leave for Reconnect which is more Peace Corps training. I will meet up with all of the people from my group and discuss different aspects of teaching and Namibian culture, as well as share our experiences for the first six weeks. I am not bringing my laptop and will be out of contact for those two weeks.

Thanksgiving

I called my dad this week for his birthday and had a nice talk with my parents for about ten minutes. It also rained nearly every day past week. I miss the rain a bit but it also gets annoying when you don’t have a car and have to either bike or walk everywhere you go. Also the power goes out for a few hours when it rains. I managed go to a barber and get a haircut similar to how it was in the states instead of just shaving my head like I have been. This is a big deal because we had one guy in Okahandja get a haircut that turned into a disaster and he had to shave his head. It turned out well and I even got a free shave out of it.

I invigilated (proctored) a test this week and taught some sixth grade math. I noticed the learners I was teaching could multiply and add pretty well but had serious problems with division and subtraction. I will test these skills my first week next year to see about remediation. The learners were hesitant with me at first but quickly warmed up to me. It was nice. I also marked (graded) exams for the science classes this week. It was slow but I used to grade for a professor so it’s nothing new.

This past Friday Caitlin and I got a combie (van) ride down to Keetmansoop for “Thanksgiving.” They aren’t many volunteers in the south, and those who are there are very spread out, so we don’t get together very often. It was nice to meet people I had been texting with since coming to Namibia. It was a nice enough ride down but there is a whole lot of nothing in the south. We could see several kilometers of nothing but brown plants and sand on both sides of the van. But we made it down to Keetmansoop and ate lots of food, it was amazing.

PS if you were wondering, Movember is when you go the month of November without shaving your mustache.

Movember

This proved to be an interesting week with most of the teachers in Windhoek grading tests the teachers mostly reviewed material with the learners or the learners started exams. Once exams started there was less for me to do than usual so I played the piano every day for several hours and helped out writing memos (answer keys) and marking (grading) exams. Luckily Mr. Bock came back on Wednesday so I had my buddy back to talk about music. He is impressed with how much better I have gotten at piano. On Thursday I bought a bike and biked over to Mr. Bock’s house for “band practice.” He has a dream of getting paid to play shows, coffee houses and hotels mostly, whereas I mostly just like having someone around to jam with. It would be awesome to play shows eventually though.
On Monday a group of young adults from Cape Town came to our school to dance to Christian music and perform dramatic skits for grades 7-9. These were people from Europe and Africa, though the group was out of Cape Town. I had an interesting discussion with some colleagues about whether or not it is wise to have the learners distracted right before exams when they should be studying. Most agreed that the dance group was a bad idea but no one knew whose idea it was for them to come.
I realized how incredibly out of shape I am when I rode my bike to the Oanob dam and nearly died of exhaustion on the way up the first hill. I biked about 16km round trip in an hour and a half going up and down hills on an uneven gravel road. I will get back in shape eventually.
It rained this week for the second time since I’ve been in Africa. I miss the rain. I enjoy reading and listening to the rain, it’s very calming. This week I didn’t have any credit on my 3G (internet works similar to a go phone) so I couldn’t post this over the weekend. Next weekend I will be in Keetmansoop for “Thanksgiving”. We can’t all get together on Thanksgiving Day so most of the volunteers in the south are getting together the weekend before to hangout. It should be fun.

November 7th

This week four of the teachers were in Windhoek for marking (grading) tests from all over Namibia. In tenth grade the learners take a standardized test (similar to FCAT) and if they pass they continue to high school. If they fail they stay in tenth grade or some drop out. Consequently the standardized test is tied into funding, thus making a problem similar to Florida where the schools that do well get more money and attract better teachers whereas the schools that do poorly get less money and continue to do poorly. Schools are allowed to regulate who is in tenth grade. This means that out of the four classes of 9th graders I will get only one tenth grade class of thirty learners. The oldest learner in 9th grade is 20 and the youngest is 14. Anyhow the teachers mark tests from all over the country in Windhoek. With so many teachers gone, the ones who have remained are not teaching so much as they are monitoring six hours of study hall. This gives me very little to do during the day. The learners start taking end of the year exams this week too, which will give me plenty of time for reading and piano.

I’ve decided on Monday I’m going to go to the library and see if I can get someone to tutor me in Afrikaans. I understand Afrikaans pretty well but I have difficulty speaking it. Most of the teachers at my school are more interested in teaching me KKG than Afrikaans and no one at my house is interested in helping me out.

I went to Rehoboth spa with Ricky, Sara from Kalkran, and Sara’s afterschool project Kayec. It wasn’t a spa as much as a pool but it is where everyone around my age hangs out on Saturdays apparently. So I may be hanging out there more often.

Happy Halloween

Ricky, one of the other volunteers in Rehoboth, taught Pieter Geingob (one of the teachers at my school) a little bit of Spanish. Pieter now always greets me in Spanish and I have taught him a little bit more. One day while I was in his class he greeted me in Spanish and I replied in Spanish. One of the learners overhead this exchange and asked me “How do you say ‘tree’ in your mother tongue?” I was really confused by this question. She had to ask it two more times before it was clear that she wanted to know how to say tree in Spanish. Here English is only spoken at school or official functions and everyone speaks at least one other language. At my school their mother tongue is KKG and they all speak Afrikaans and English as second languages. It was really interesting because the learner believes that English is only spoken in schools and is not people’s mother tongue.

Starting November 12th the schools begin exams, and if there was little productive work for me to do these past two weeks, there will be nothing for me to do until November 29th when I go to reconnect. I spend most of my time playing piano and studying Afrikaans. It is a surprisingly difficult language when you’re starting to be conversational in the language. Also this week I started exercising more to try and keep from losing muscle mass. Caitlin and Barbara came into town this week. We hung out at Ricky’s apartment and just watched movies and traded funny stories from site.

Some people have asked about food so here is general diet. At 4am I get up to use the internet, around 6am I have a cup of tea with milk and sugar. At 830am I have a sandwich, usually butter and meat paste, I have a second sandwich around 10am. I eat lunch at 1pm and it’s usually some type of meat and carb, rice or more sandwiches with butter on the bread. I eat dinner around 7pm and it’s usually rice or pasta, meat, bread with butter, cool drink (soda or juice) and maybe a small dessert made of carrot slices mayonnaise and sugar. I eat all the food given and often get additional food but that is the typical diet for most people in Rehoboth.

First week

This week I started working at Vooruitsig (pronounced: for-ate-seg) Junior Secondary School. At the school they teach grades from preschool up to tenth grade. I’ve been working with the grade 9 math and science teachers mostly. Over the past week the students have become accustomed to my presence in their class and around the school. The importance of the learners becoming use to me cannot be understated; both as an American and a white person the learners have many misconceptions about both. It is easy to see how the Apartheid has affected many of the people in the school. I haven’t been teaching classes and most of the learners are either writing exams (taking exams) or preparing to write exams over the next few weeks. School ends the first week of December so there is very little for me to do. I spent a significant amount of time talking with my vice principal Mr. Bock (Phillip) about music. He too is a guitarist. I showed him my guitar books and let him borrow two of them. He also used to play rugby professionally and if Namibia had been an independent country he could have played for the national team. We have decided that we will get together and jam out sometime. He also showed the upright piano no one uses, that is locked away in a storage closet and mostly forgotten. I started playing around on it a little and everyone seemed pretty impressed. I now bring in my guitar books and play simple chords with my left hand and the melody with my right. I’m not very good but I haven’t played in at least 10 years and I’m definitely getting better. I also spend a lot of time with Mr. Tsumaseb, (don’t pronounce the “T”) a younger teacher who use to be very active in fundraising and community involvement until several disagreements with his supervisors discouraged him. After speaking with him I have a few ideas for secondary projects that we can work on together, like bake sales, vending machines, and other community involvement ideas. By working closely with a Namibian my projects will hopefully continue even after I leave.

This week myself, Caitlin, and Ricky walked the seven kilometers to the entrance of Lake Oanob to look at the animals. We saw a lot of zebras, springboks, ostriches, and one thing that looked like an odd cross between a donkey and a zebra. I’m not sure if a zebra and a donkey or horse can have a child, but it definitely looked liked a hybrid of the two. There will be pictures to come at some point.

Officially a Volunteer

This past Tuesday was our language proficiency test. I scored intermediate high which is a pretty good score. I’ve become a lot better at understanding Afrikaans but when I try to speak it my accent is terrible. I’m going to get a language tutor and keep working on it so I can become fluent. Friday was swearing in day and it was a lot like graduation. There were education ministers, Peace Corps directors, but the ambassador to Namibia was not able to make it though they had a representative from the ambassador’s office. There were speeches and it was a relatively uneventful ceremony. The best part was the Okahandja Children’s Choir singing. They were phenomenal. After the ceremony I said a few quick “see you laters” and left with my supervisor, who is now my new host father.

On Saturday in Rehoboth (my new city) I met up with Debbie (group 29 health volunteer) Maureen and Ricky (group 31 health volunteers) who are all stationed in Rehoboth. I also met Emily who is in the Cavongo region, another group 31 volunteer. We talked and ate most of the evening before Ricky and I walked back to block D and departed ways. In six weeks I will be leaving my second homestay in block D and moving into a two bedroom flat at the teacher resource center (TRC).

Busy Week

This week we were split into groups and sent to co-plan, and co-teach, in schools around Okahandja. I was sent with Sarah and Lauren to Aurora Primary School to assist with sixth and seventh grade natural science. On Monday I had to observe Mr. Mbanga (pronounced Bonga). He’s a pretty good teacher and has excellent classroom management without beating the learners (students) or yelling a lot. We co-planned a lesson on electricity for me to teach on Wednesday, because Tuesday was international teachers’ day and there were no classes. Wednesday Mr. Mbanga was absent so I was pawned off onto another teacher for the day. Mr. Ronnie is another good teacher and he showed me the school free lunch program and where they make the maize meal. Thursday Mr. Mbanga was dealing with administrative paperwork and asked me to teach his first and second period. I had planned for sixth graders and these were seventh grade classes. I walked in front of the classroom and started talking about electricity hoping they would know a little already and I can just supplement anything else I wanted to. It worked pretty well, though the topics were a little random and scattered. Mr. Mbanga came in for third period and we co-taught the rest of the day. He would introduce the lesson and talk to the learners, then I would have the class’s attention for how to build a circuit, then he would summarize and close. It was very effective. Friday the seventh graders were cleaning up a foot path and Mr. Mbanga went with them. I was supposed to teach sixth graders at third period but half of the staff was absent (either at the clean up or at teacher training) and I was particularly unmotivated. As I walked out of my second period class I ran into Angelika, one of the Peace Corps supervisors, and she asked if she could sit in on my class. I ended up teaching the entire lesson with Angelika and Sarah observing me. It was actually really helpful and I got some good feedback from them.

The other important event of the week was rain. It rained for the first time I’ve been here last week. There was a large lightning storm, I went outside to watch it and was instantly sand blasted. I decided to just listen to the rain on the tin roof and fall peacefully asleep. It was awesome. Oh and I weigh about 72 kilos (160lbs) now. I attribute this change to a lack of good pizza and beer. Combine that with walking multiple miles every day and it is ridiculously easy to lose weight. I will probably gain some when I go to site and start cooking for myself.

This coming Tuesday we have our language proficiency test. I think I will do pretty well, Afrikaans is a pretty easy language and very similar to English. I’ll still spend most of Sunday and Monday studying though. Next Friday is the swearing in ceremony and then it’s off to Rehoboth for the next two years. I’m really excited and want this week to go by fast.

Saturday Adventure

On Saturday I was walking with some other PCTs into town from our suburb. My tiny dog that I affectionately refer to as “shit-kicker” (real name kiff) decided it would not only be a good idea to follow the group along the highway, but it would also be a good idea to chase cars and play in the middle of the highway. As a scientist I am for natural selection, the group I was walking with was not. So after two or three close misses it is determined that I will pick up the dog and place him in my backpack Paris Hilton style. We walked to town, all around town, and back, with the dog in my backpack. Yes it was very adorable and pictures will be posted at some point. The best part of the entire journey was the reaction of the Namibians to this random white person carrying a dog in his backpack. The reactions ranged from talking about it in their mother tongue to opening pointing and laughing at me. It was a good time overall.

The human body never ceases to amaze me in its ability to adapt to a change in environment. When I first arrived in Africa, the dryness of the desert caused many problems from skin irritation to nose bleeds. Now after 6 weeks here I no longer have any of those problems that I initially had. My hands are more calloused and I walk barefoot over rocks without any real problems.

This is getting interesting

Thursday Sept 23rd I leave Okahandja with my Head of Department Harry. We first travel to Windhoek to pick up his mother in law and then drive on to Rehoboth. Once in Rehoboth a Braai (BBQ) is waiting for me (complete with beer) thrown by some of my colleagues. I practice the little Afrikaans I can speak only to find out that the school I will be teaching at (Vooruitsig junior secondary school) mostly speaks Khoekhoegowab (KKG) better known as the African click language. I am suppose to stay with a fellow teacher near the school but it is determined that there is not sufficient bedding for me and I am taken back to Harry’s house. There is now debate over where I will live, more to come on that later.

Friday I leave for school with Harry and his wife. Upon arrival we go to the staff meeting where I am introduced to the people I didn’t meet the previous night. My surname is changed to “Nieberger” because Neiberger literally translates to “Fuck Mountain(eer)” in Afrikaans. I attend the Friday morning assembly where I am introduced to the students. They stare at me. I am taken to every class to personally speak to each teacher. It becomes apparent that five teachers are absent and another three (and the principal) left early for the day. A fight breaks out among the unruly children with no supervision. It is broken up by one of the teachers. School closes early due to the lack of teachers. I go back to Harry’s house and nothing of an excitement happens there.

Saturday I meet with the two other PCVs in Rehoboth, Ricky and Maureen, who are really nice and show me around town. I buy a few things for the family and head back. I meet the rest of the immediate family, Janice (15), Jaime (19) and Harry (who goes by Jodie 22). There is a Braai waiting for Jaime and Jodie because they are home from Windhoek where they both attend the University of Namibia. I meet an exceptionally drunk white Angolan who attempts to speak Portuguese to me, it fails. He speaks Afrikaans, it too fails. Finally English, it fails as well. I gave up trying to speak with him. I then shoot pool with Harry, Ricky, and some of the other people whom I hardly know. I go to bed around 10pm; I’m exhausted because I get up around 4am.

Sunday everyone sleeps late and relaxes. I talk a little with the family but mostly read and watch rugby and cricket. Coincidentally cricket is the most ungodly boring creation I have ever watched. Jodie and Jaime go back to Windhoek.

Monday I wake and go to school with Harry. At the morning staff meeting I see several new faces that I have never seen before. The staff sings a few hymns in KKG. I never knew clicks could be sung. I observe mathematics and physical science classes on my first day. The learners stare at me. They are noticeably distracted. I speak with my vice principal about the states and the difference in culture between the States and Namibia. I also tell him I’m from Miami because no one knows where Gainesville or Jacksonville is, but everyone knows Miami. I have a meeting with my Inspector over my permanent housing, a two bedroom flat. She argues that I am only one person and only need a one bedroom flat. Harry and I argue that I need two bedrooms for the other volunteers who do their shopping in Rehoboth and need a place to stay. It is later discovered she lives in the two bedroom flat and doesn’t want to leave. She is not supposed to be living there. I show my Peace Corps papers saying I get the two bedroom flat and potentially make my first enemy in Rehoboth.

Tuesday repeats similarly to Monday. I observed some classes and this time I talked to the principal. The main exception was Caitlin (PCV) and her principal Ivan came so we could hike out to Okahandja. Hike out is Namblish for getting a ride in a taxi, combi (van), or someone’s private car. Caitlin and I tried stories about our experiences and what we think of our bosses.

Wednesday we hike out and I write this blog.

Best week yet

This has been, by far, the best week in Africa. On Wednesday several of us played softball with a group of local kids. It was so much fun seeing the faces of the children, happy just to be playing against another team. It reminded so much of when I was young and played baseball for the pure fun of the game. Later that was ruined and I only played because of the friends I had playing, not for love of the game anymore. We received our results from our language evaluation and I passed. I didn’t do as well as I had hoped but I’m going to start working on language and actually studying instead of mostly goofing off and playing guitar. On Friday (Sept 17th) we found out our sites and I will be heading to Rehoboth. It’s roughly the same size as Okahandja and only about an hour away from Windhoek. The only problem with this site is I can’t wear my Indiana Jones hat for several months. Because Rehoboth is in the south there is a larger problem with racism and the apartheid mindset. Being of German descent, and wearing that style of hat, I look too much like a Boer. A Boer is a white farmer, typically, but it has a very negative connotation in the southern regions of Namibia. It would be very counterproductive of me to look like a Boer in the first few months because people would go out of their way to avoid me. After 6 months or so of integrating into my community I will once again be able to wear my awesome hat. Integration shouldn’t be too difficult because there is a health volunteer already in Rehoboth. His name is Ricky. Only one member from my group (group 32) is within 80km of me and that is Caitlin. Most of my group is located in the north, near Etosha and in the Caprivi region. I will spend a fair amount of time going to planning in the north with my other science and math teachers.
Yesterday was an amazing day. We went to a hot springs, and by hot springs I mean algae covered urine colored pool. It was actually a lot of fun and everyone was able to kick back and relax. It’s good seeing all of the trainees without the thought of language and education sessions in their minds.

Sept 13th

I had my host father shave my head this past Sunday. With the goatee I grew, I’m vaguely reminiscent of Edward Norton in American History X, where he plays a Neo-Nazi. I decided to shave my goatee. I cooked for my family today, spaghetti, and served them. It was a little strange when I went to hand my sister some food and she tried to get up so I could sit down. She’s not use to being served especially by a male. I asked her to sit and eat while I ate my food and cleaned up after everyone. They all seemed pleased with the meal but I’m never entirely sure. I fed some of my sister’s leftovers to Lion. I’m working on my relationship with the dog so I don’t get barked at in the morning. It seems to be working. I have my language proficiency test coming up, the midterm one is not very important, only the ending evaluation. I’m not worried about it though. Afrikaans is pretty easy to understand and speak.

Rob

Sept 8th

Today, a bird crapped on me. I am told it is good luck but somehow I do not feel very lucky. My host mom prepared spaghetti for dinner and kool-aid to drink. I was excited! I haven’t had kool-aid in at least 10 years. Also for the first time since coming to Africa we got to see clouds. I know it may seem like a little thing but the sun is killer on my pasty whiteness. I enjoy my host family with one minor exception. They’re very conservative and seem to believe highly in gender roles. This is not really a problem because I’m a man and get out of doing housework, but I feel I cannot connect as well with my sister and mother because they don’t eat in the same room as I do. I have been trying to make a special effort to talk to my sister, though she doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak Afrikaans, and it seems to be paying off. She now greets me in the morning and I try to help her with chores, though I’m often not allowed to. Anyhow, all is well today.

A typical day so far

I wake to the sound of Lion, the meanest dong I have ever met, at 5:30 in the morning. At 6 my host father knocks on my door signaling my start to the day. My host family, who five days ago were complete strangers, has opened their home to me, fed me, tutored my Afrikaans, and taught me basic skills such as cooking and doing laundry. I dress and prepare my backpack for language and cross cultural training sessions. I exit and lock my room (a Peace Corps requirement) to enter the family room where my host mom has prepared a meal of wheat bricks. Not the best food in the world but I will gladly eat it. I leave the house at 6:50am to meet Barbara, Caitlin, Quinn, and Julie so we can walk to the cambie (van) together. The morning is chilly but the sun rises over the mountains in the distance. We walk and talk and meet up with the 15 PCT’s (Peace Corps Trainees) who will squish into the cambie and head to NIED (National Institute for Education Development) for language training. Upon arrival we share all of our stories from the previous night with the other trainees.
Morning session starts with singing Peace Corps songs, followed by the Namibian National Anthem and the Star Spangled Banner. I’m not much of a singer but most of us aren’t. We then have announcements and culture or language training. At 10am we break for tea time, my new passion in life. We return to training at 10:30am, usually the opposite of whatever we did earlier in the day. I usually stop paying attention and lose track of time for a while. Professors Lufaso and Chalk can attest to my general inattentiveness during lectured instruction. At 1pm we break for lunch, packed by our host moms. I have sandwiches with butter, lots of butter, and some type of fruit. We all trade for whatever we want to eat that day. At 2:30pm we reconvene for more training in language, culture, or general I Peace Corps information. The day ends at 5pm and my head swims with new vocabulary to try on my host family. The cambie picks us all up at NIED and drops us back in our neighborhoods. I hurry home with the same group. I greet the family and ask if they need help with the food, they say no. I sit with my host dad and watch “The Soapies.” The soapies are soap operas from around the world. We watch one from South Africa in Afrikaans so I can try and pick up some of the language. When it is over I do my homework with my host father’s help. I’m then served a delicious meal (though not as good as my mom’s cooking) and watch some more TV. By 8pm I head to my all pink, private, bathroom to take a warm bath and relax. After washing I journal and read. I go to sleep around 10pm to wake the next day and repeat.

Now is the time

Here I am, sitting at the cusp of my destiny, in a hotel room, with someone who is barely more than a stranger. I have spent, at best, 24 hours, getting to know the 45 who are leaving in my same group. And yet, these are people who have the same mindset, the same ideals, nearly the same beliefs as I do. When the British surrendered at Charlestown they played “The world is Upside down,” but I am almost certain, that the world has never seemed more, “right side up” than it does now. Here, I know great people, who will do great things. I will never forget the great people who helped me along. But I feel now, now is the time that I live to my full potential, and do not only the things I’ve dreamed of, but do the things that all of my friends believe I am capable of.

Robert Neiberger

Leaving

I have had nearly two months to think and reflect on the adventure I will soon be embarking on. For the most part I have been excited. However sometimes when I lay down trying to sleep, my excitement is punctuated by a moment of extreme panic. What am I doing? Why am I leaving everyone in the states? This moment passes quickly and calm washes over me. The calm is the realization that everything I have done in my life has led me to this moment. The mission trips, volunteer work, education, hiking, and camping have all been in preparation for this new adventure. All I can do is thank everyone for the support and love you have shown me. I would never be able to undertake such as journey without the people who have helped me along the way.

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Rob

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