Wanted: Passionate People

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go out and do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

-Howard Thurman

For me, art therapy has always intrigued me. In college, I desperately wanted to learn more about expressing your emotions through creative arts. But I quickly found out that it’s almost impossible to have a full-time job as an art therapist. So instead I found myself expressing myself through scrapbooking, journaling or just doodling during meetings and classes. This is what makes me come alive. It’s a passion I have and I think it’s a great way for people to express themselves if they don’t feel comfortable through other ways. It's also a great and creative way to present material. After a traumatic event or even just after a long day at work, there's nothing better than just sitting down and coloring. No matter if you're 5 or 95. And after walking around Opuwo my first couple of weeks, I stumbled upon Ombetja Yehinga (OYO), an organization that uses art to teach people about various social issues. I might have already talked about this organization a little bit, but I just can’t help but feel excited about it. They educate youth on social issues through creative arts, such as dance, drama and other visual arts.

Art/drama + HIV/AIDS awareness? Yes please! And it just so happens that what makes me come alive and what I’m passionate about is also what the world needs right now. The world, especially Namibia, needs passionate people. And I am so excited to be a part of this initiative. If you present the material to learners (students) by just talking at them, they’re not going to learn much. But if you find a creative way to do it, then there’s a better chance that they might actually absorb what you’re talking about.

Have you ever been in a class or heard a speaker just talk on and on like Charlie Brown’s teacher? Meh, meh meh meh meh meh meh…..The speaker’s not having fun and clearly not interested in what they’re doing and the people in the audience can’t help but check their watch every five minutes. Who wants to do that?! And how will you ever learn that way?? But if you make the material fun and you get excited about it even if you are the speaker, then it’s a success.

On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to go with Lucia, who works at OYO, to an upper primary school in town to give presentations on HIV/AIDS and also to distribute the latest OYO magazine. (You can check out the past issues of the OYO magazine here: http://ombetja.org/OYO%20Magazine.html ) When we first walked into the school, the kids saw that we were carrying copies of the OYO magazine and scrambled to us and begged us for copies. This was incredible to see! I have never seen children want educational magazines this badly! It was awesome!! After finding out where the life skills classes were and what class was free, we made our way to one of the 5^th grade classrooms to distribute the magazine and to give a brief presentation. When Lucia started to talk about HIV/AIDS and about the magazine though, she didn’t just talk at them, she made it fun and interactive. And it was like this throughout the entire presentation. Needless to say, I left the school feeling excited for what the future could bring and so happy at what we had accomplished. I can’t wait to accompany OYO staff on more presentations and work out in the community. When I saw the passion in the eyes of the OYO staff and learners (students), it made me excited too. And that’s just what this world needs.

A Nam Birthday

So I know that I haven’t written in a while, but it seems like some days there’s just nothing to say. In these last few weeks though seems like I haven’t even been able to catch my breath! And from all of that, what I can say is that my birthday weekend was definitely a success. It started off with a phone call from Brian, another PCV in Opuwo, telling me that I had mail and he’d swing by after school to drop it off. Wahoo! I knew that I had a few packages coming my way, but honestly the way things were going I wasn’t expecting much. But much to my surprise a birthday card and one of the packages from my Mom & Dad came! I was sooo happy to pick that up at the post office. After finishing my day at work (and staying past five after a meeting ran long, of course), I rushed home and wanted to open that package so bad that I didn’t even do my normal workout. In it I found lots of goodies.....tons of different flavors of Crystal Light, a package of dried apricots, a two pound bag of pistachios, some new workout clothes, a couple of days worth of the newspaper from back home, and the May 2011 Oprah Magazine! Who'd ever thought that seeing a copy of the newspaper from back home or a bag of pistachios would give me joy?!

The care package along with the very thoughtful birthday card brought tears to my eyes.  Surprisingly, I’m not often homesick but when things like this happen, it reminds me of how much I really do love and miss my family and friends back home. They’re my world! And I know for a fact that I wouldn’t be sitting in my own flat here in Namibia doing Peace Corps without their love and support.

On Friday, after going grocery shopping and picking out a menu for my birthday dinner Saturday night (American chop suey, wahoo!) I went home and just chilled until 2 o’clock came around. At that time, I went over to the Bicycle Empowerment Network (BEN) to pick up my bike. And after shelling out N$650 (a little over $100 US) for my shiny sky blue bike, it was mine :) Then my focus the rest of the afternoon was the OVC (orphans & vulnerable children) class at the Red Cross. Mrs. Mutambo (the regional director for the Red Cross in Opuwo) must have read my mind because we ended up leaving the Red Cross for the afternoon and instead driving the few kilometers out of Opuwo to the garden that they have. It was just what I needed to refresh myself.

At the garden we spent the afternoon plucking maize (corn) from the cornstalks and then shucking the husks off. After the corn has been harvested, it's put out in the sun to dry. Then the dry corn can be cooked and eaten or the kernels can be plucked from the cobs and ground up to make corn meal. Quite a process! It was great to actually work with everyone in the field too. It gave me a great opportunity to get to know the kids and to learn the staff members’ names. The technical person/driver is Gerald and there are a few older kids that seem to help out. And if memory serves me right, there were about 30 kids there today! At the end of the day, we ended up with a gigantic pile of maize...and I ended up with some dry hands full of little nicks and cuts and feet full of prickly things from those bushes. Needless to say, I won’t be wearing business clothes and work shoes the next time we head to the garden. Jeans, a tshirt and sneakers for me! 

Some of the children harvesting the maize/corn

Me trying to get all the maize from the bakkie (pick up truck)

I don't know how they do it!

A sunny winter's day in Opuwo

I didn’t realize how much I missed being out in the fresh air on a sunny fall/winter afternoon...and am so glad that I was able to do that for myself. Just the beginning of a great birthday :) 

Then on Saturday I spent the day off right by doing 5 miles with my workout DVD and then took a nice hot water bucket bath. Although it was a bucket bath, it sure beat taking a freezing cold shower! I knew that I wasn’t going to want to do a thing on Sunday so I figured I might as well get my exercising and other chores out of the way on Saturday.

And somewhere between Friday and Saturday my toilet started to leak. It wasn’t the actual water overflowing from the toilet basin but was somehow leaking from the base of it or something. And of course with my luck, the handyman at the hospital wasn’t going to be able to fix it for another week because of it being the weekend and then this next week was National Immunization Days and I’d be gone all week. Luckily though, I was able to mop up all the excess water on the bathroom floor so it was dry enough for the night when my friends were there. Buuut of course for the following week the bathroom floor was covered with water :( Sigh, just another day in Namibia.

After cleaning my apartment and making the American chop suey, I was ready for my birthday night. Celebrating my birthday halfway around the world from home and from family and friends is hard, don’t get me wrong. But I am really thankful that I have a good group of friends here in Opuwo and other amazing friends all around Namibia. When I moved to Opuwo and found out that there would be six other volunteers also living in Opuwo, I was shocked...but also so so happy. People to share the ups and downs of the life of a volunteer with. Later that night all my friends arrived and we spent the night just filling our bellies with food and wine and having a very enjoyable night. Life is good.