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.
