I Have Arrived! (From 2/24/09)

 I write this in the dark from underneath my mosquito net. My body hasn't adjusted to the 7 hour time change, so after 2 hours of restless tossing, I decided to be productive. There's so much to think about it's difficult to quiet my mind.

Before I go into that, I'll explain what's been going on these last couple of days. Our group of 22 community health volunteers arrived at the Windhoek airport Sunday morning to find mangled luggage or nothing at all. Many people were missing batteries, headlamps, leatherman tools, ect. My bags never arrived, along with 8 other PCTs. I feared the worst, but remained hopeful knowing these things usually get worked out (in the states...). Luckily, I'm with a group of compassionate individuals who have offered me anything and everything until my bags arrive. A shipment of luggage was transferred to our training site yesterday and I was happy to see my guitar case, but my suitcase is still somewhere between NY and Namibia (hopefully not literally, or it's in the Atlantic). If it never arrives, I guess I'll get the real PC "roughin' it" experience -but I am still hopeful.

Out training site is located about 40 min outside of Windhoek in a town called Okahanja. We are staying in what seems to be a church camp facility with dormitory style housing, a dining hall, and friendly staff. 

Our Pre Service Training or PST (Peace Corps loves three letter abbreviations or TLA's) began on Monday. There is a large training staff, all Namibians, aside from the Program Director. They will spend the next 9 months teaching us everything from safety to how to purchase a cell phone (yes, pretty standard here).

What I've seen of the country so far is beautiful. It reminds me of Australia's Northern Territory with its large tracts of uninhabited land and small, sparsely populated villages. It's green now because it's the rainy season. That means, every afternoon, the clouds roll in on a perfectly beautiful day and start dumping rain like a shower with good water pressure! We're usually outside when this happens and just move under the overhang to continue our discussion. 

Currently, my internet access is very limited because I can only get it at the town's one internet cafe when I'm able to sneak off at lunchtime. Remember, in the PC, no news is good news. Peace Corps has their eyes on us at all times and if anything were to happen, they'd contact home within hours. But no need to worry, I feel very safe here.