I can’t believe it but this is my third week at site, so crazy to think that I’ve already been here for almost three weeks. At times it feels like I’ve already been here for three months and at other times, I feel like I’m still moving in.
It is very challenging knowing that when I get to work every morning, my “work” consists of Facebooking, checking my email and seeing what the latest news is back home in the US. Right now, I spend my hours of many days trying to understand what I’m supposed to do here. As a health volunteer, I have heard time and time again that your service and your job assignment is what you make of it. That being said, it can be very frustrating not having a clear cut assignment handed to me on a silver platter. I’m not saying that I want it handed to me on a silver platter, a china platter would do just fine :)
On second thought though, I’m also able to see the upside of this. There are not many times in your life in which you are able to actually create your own job. And I, ladies and gentlemen, have been handed just that. It is definitely an opportunity in disguise. If I want to start a garden for HIV patients at the hospital, I can do it. If I want to see how social work is done here in Namibia, I can also do that. My possibilities are endless.
And usually, these possibilities and opportunities do not happen when I am sitting at the computer in an office. At least, that’s not how they happen for me. They happen in the community…when I’m going grocery shopping or when I’m trying to find where to buy a rug or when I just want a cold drink on a hot day.
So over the past few weeks, that’s what I’ve been doing. Just getting out and exploring at every chance I get. One afternoon, my supervisor, Sr. Evard, brought Elizabeth and I to a few organizations in town so that we could introduce ourselves and see which organizations we might be interested to work with. We went to various organizations, including:
· Namibian Red Cross
· Regional AIDS Coordinating Committee (RACOC)
· Ministry of Information Technology
· Ombetja ye Hinga (http://ombetja.org/)
· Kunene Regional Council
After meeting some of the staff at Ombetja ye Hinga and hearing what they do, I got really excited. Ombetja ye Hinga Organization (OYO) uses creative and performing arts to teach young people about HIV/AIDS. It sounds like an awesome organization and I can’t wait to go back there to work with them! No matter what age you are, it’s hard to absorb any kind of information with someone just lecturing to you. But the way that OYO is set up, is a great way for people to learn about healthy sexuality education, HIV prevention and care. It’s great!
Also, just recently, I met up with John, another PCV in Opuwo, and he was able to connect me Ben & Anna from the Bicycle Empowerment Network (BEN). Check them out at: http://www.benbikes.org.za/namibia/ Ben & Anna are both from Germany but are in Namibia to work with BEN and begin a women’s empowerment project through bike riding. BEN itself seems like a really cool organization to work with. The organization takes used bike parts from overseas (such as Canada, the US, and the UK), rebuilds them, and then sells them at an affordable rate to locals...and of course, to Peace Corps Volunteers :) Ben & Anna were hoping to start this women’s empowerment project, but will be going back to Germany and aren’t able to continue the project. Sooo in walks Alison, a PCV who is just dying to start a project...or something to at least get her into the community.
Through Ben & Anna I also met Mrs. Mutambo, a woman who works with the Namibian Red Cross. She also seems like a dynamic woman and a great person to work with. I briefly met her today but hope to have a longer conversation with her later on to see what ideas she has floating in her head and what ones she wants put into action.
In some regards, I’m really trying hard not to start a lot of projects now, because if I start projects now I will burn out waaay before my two year service is over. But it’s also nice to just get a feel for what projects are out there and what I could be getting my hands into in a few months down the road. It’s a tough thing to balance. There are many more organizations in Opuwo and I’m sure in due time I’ll be able to visit more of them, but for now, it’s a good start.
And then last Friday, Elizabeth and I did some more exploring on our own. We decided that it would be good to get out of the office and actually walk around the town during the weekday. Plus living and working on the hospital grounds don’t exactly warrant much time in the community. My commute is literally two minutes away. So much for practicing my Otjiherero greetings with the locals! After telling our supervisors that we’d be gone for the day, we set out into town.
After realizing that it was the end of the month and everyone was waiting to withdraw their recent pay, we stood in the 20 person line and waited to get our recent pay as well. Knowing that 20 people were in line at the ATM is definitely a good thing here. It means there’s actually money in the ATM! After stopping at the ATM, we wandered around town window shopping at the millions of china shops in Opuwo….okay, maybe not millions, but there’s still a whole heck of a lot! And for a quick explanation, china shops are stores that are filled with products usually made in China. Think of it as those cheap products (like the fake Gucci purses) from New York City or Chicago. For a poor Peace Corps Volunteer, it’s a great place to get cheap dishes or cups, but it’s not a good shop to always go into. For one, since the products are coming from China and the stores are usually owned by Chinese people, the money isn’t going back into the local community. Instead it’s going back into the pockets of the Chinese.
For lunch, we were going to have lunch at a cafe next to OK Grocer (the main grocery store in town), but it was a little overpriced and all patrons were white, and honestly, we just didn’t feel like feeding into racism. So instead we picked up lunch at a street vendor for N$5 per piece of meat. It was so good! I was a little weary of buying meat off the street, especially with my stomach issues and all, but it was really good. Well seasoned, and cooked really well. I would really like to do this once a week or something because I have a feeling I’m not going to be buying and cooking meat on my own because of the high price of meat here. But knowing that I can get a good size piece of meat for N$5 is awesome. After eating the meat, we went to the wholesale market in town and looked around. Looked like a Namibian version of Costco which was pretty cool! We bought some Oshikandela and enjoyed the yummy yogurt drink. I really like the guava version, it’s just enough sweetness and fruity taste for me. And now I know where I can get things in bulk, (e.g. shampoo, soap, chicken necks….you know, the usual :) ) And sometimes OK grocer doesn’t have Oshikandela and when I really just want a cold, yogurt drink, now I know where I can get it.
After doing some food shopping, we headed home for the day. After such a long day of walking around town in the hot sun, I was exhausted and decided to take a nice long nap before a dinner & movie night with a few other volunteers. It felt really good to just be with other people. With all the stress of housing issues, job assignment issues and just adjustment to life in Namibia, it was good to just not have to deal with any of that, that night.
No comments:
Post a Comment