What's Coming Up

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It’s T minus 17 days until Southern Girls Conference! I have been looking forward to this for over a year. I’ve maintained unwavering faith that, against the odds, SGC would happen this year. I was shocked to find out that we wouldn’t get all the money we needed from our usual donor, but I knew we’d get it somewhere. Fortunately just in the nick of time (about a month ago), some noble women from the Loomis church I grew up in, offered to take up the cause and help me raise the money. It definitely would not be happening if it were not for them. Their initiative to raise the money stateside has taken a huge burden off of me. Aside from the financial support they are providing, they have renewed my confidence in the project at a time when I was feeling very alone in organizing the whole thing. I had been feeling like many people were telling me that it was a great initiative, and they were willing to provide ideas for what I ought to do, but they weren’t willing to contribute money, time or effort. It’s a lot of work to bring 50 selected girls from 8 different villages to one place, feed them, look after them for four days and send them back. Organizing this has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but I know I’m going to be grinning ear to ear when it’s actually happening.

After the conference, I’ve got some much needed vacation time to look forward to! I’ll be heading North to a village in Owamboland to attend a former colleague’s wedding. It’s a two-day extravaganza and the bride’s mother has even sewn traditional dresses for Debbie (the other PCV who will be attending) and I to wear at the event. “Know one will even be able to tell we’re not Oshiwambo!” I joked to the bride. I can’t wait to see a traditional wedding and try the food and try to keep up with the dancing!

A few weeks after that, my father will be coming for a visit. I cannot even begin to say how excited I am for that. Not only do I just adore my dad and spending time with him, I can’t wait to show him Namibia and be able to show him all of the things I am trying (and feel like I am failing) to explain to my friends and family at home. Namibia is a complex, fascinating, and beautiful country that I can’t wait to share with my Dad. We’re going to rent a car and I’ll finally get to go up to some of the places in Namibia, Zambia and Botswana I’ve never been able to access before.

This year is going to finish out much better than it started. I have so much to look forward to and it great to wake up every morning and think, “the best is yet to come!”

African Time

It's seems like forever ago that I was reading that Edward Abbey book about the desert and sitting with my host family during site visit (about 17 months ago) and it seems like forever until I'll go home again. Everything has slowed down, and I'm alright with that. I'm on African time now, baby!

Reflections on my visit home:

Going home was...brief. It was great, but also overwhelming. Reverse culture shock was the least of my worries (honesty, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It did not at all feel unnatural to be ordering a caramel latte from Peet's. You can take the girl out of Peet's, but...). I saw A LOT of people, more than I thought I would get to be able to see, but still not enough. Before I could even adjust to be getting a full night sleep (not that my schedule would've allowed it anyway), I was back on the plane and back to Namibia. *It was such a strange trip in reverse! I got dropped off at the airport in a nice new BMW in the middle of summer and I was returned to my town in the back of a pick-up truck, crammed in their with two men, a pregnant lady, a woman and a child (plus my 3 bags, 6 pumpkins -resting on top of me, and 4 bags of grain) on a freezing winter (seriously, about 30 degrees) morning!*

Was it worth it? Absolutely! If you know me, you know I'm all about face-time when it comes to my relationships and I would do it all again for a 1 day peak into the lives of my American-based loved-ones.

For your entertainment, here is a list of my top-10, reverse culture-shock moments:

10. Taxes. That candy bar is NOT really $0.99, and I just wasted my time counting out my change.
9. The children are so clean! They are wearing nice clean clothes and they can demand (quite rudely) anything from their parents and not expect so much as a slap on the butt.
8. American English is too fast and invading my thought bubble! I am used to walking around in public and tuning out everyone's conversations because I can't understand them. In the US, I can't turn the page of my book because I'm busy eves-dropping on some chick's telephone converstation about planning her wedding and wasting my thoughts thinking about a stranger's life!
7. Wasting food. I never noticed it until now, but in our house, Beata and I don't waste a single crumb of food. If it doesn't go to us, it goes to the street kids, if it has gone bad, it goes to the dogs and if it's not edible, it goes to the compost pile (and into the mouthes of our pet earthworms).
6. Food variety, I mean it's like we've got the whole world in our city! I have the option to buy or make just about anything my heart desires.
5. Money. It's just more abundant here and underappreciated.
4. The Galleria Mall. It's huge now.
3. Driving. I miss the freedom and independence of having my own vehicle. Wow, it is such a blessing not to have to wait for another person to pick you up and drop you off.
2. Short shorts and dresses. When did those come back in style? It is so inappropriate to show your leg above the knee in Namibia that I forgot how it looked. I haven't seen anyone wearing short shorts like that since I got here and I could help but feel shocked that it was acceptable to go out in public like that. (In Nam, it's opposite of the USA, show all the breast that you want, but legs? Now that's just skanky!)
1. My GOD American are friendly! It seemed like everyone was smiling at me (in Namibia if you smile at a stranger it kind of means you're romantically interested -learned that. hard. way). Customer service was incredible and people were doing a very believable job of at least pretending to being happy all the time. No wonder Namibians believe that American have no problems -from the exterior it certainly looks that way.

Oh, and since this is my first post of the year, Happy New Year! Resolution #1: Blog more :)