From the field...

I heard from James today, the volunteer I'm replacing in Divundu. He answered all of my questions and more!

1. Internet Options:
a. Bring a laptop, get a USB modem to run (at dial-up speed) over the cell-phone network.
b. One shop in Divundu has internet access.
c. Lots of internet cafes in Rundu (2 hour drive)
d. Wait for the school to get internet access for their ONE computer.

My best friend Nicole has talked me into trying to bring an inexpensive laptop. I'm poking around on Craigslist now hoping to find one!

2. Cell Phone Access:
"Cell phone reception is great (as long as you use MTC as your carrier here). It is very cheap and easy for you family/friends to call your Namibian cell phone via Skype for example."

3. Receiving Mail:
About 5 weeks.

4. Hot Water:
Nope.

5. Visitor Accomodations:
"If they are on a budget they could sleep in your room (I have a spare single mattress that is not uncomfortable). Otherwise there are a number of very nice lodges along the river between 5 and 20km from the school that vary in price and character."

6. Accomodations in General:
"I live in a 3 bedroom house on the school grounds. On paper, two other (very nice) Namibian teachers live in the other two rooms. In practice, the 'wife' (officially getting married is not yet very popular in this part of Namibia) of one is often there, and his daughter stays in the school hostel but is often in the house, same with his wife's sister. The other teacher has her 6 month old baby (who is adorable and very very good) and her baby-sitter in the house too. Many of the teachers hang out in the house during break time or after classes finish. So it is a very busy house with not much privacy.

The advantage of that is that it is never boring, and there are always people to talk to. Furthermore, living with locals makes it easier to get oriented and to meet other local people."

7. The Classroom:
"The syllabi are very ambitious for the learners in the villages of Namibia. To give you an idea of the level of the learners here, most can´t calculate 3*4 in their heads and will estimate the length of the classroom as 250 metres long. There is just a general lack of intuition for numbers that makes things hard. Also, most of the grade 8s, in particular, don´t really speak English (even though all their classes and their exams are in English). So it would be a good idea to think about how to try to reduce the dependency on language skills in teaching physical science."

James also gave me links to blogs from other volunteers in Namibia and I've been glued to my computer ALL DAY!

So how am I feeling with all this new information? Excited, scared, anxious......
Not to mention wondering how I'm possibly going to get everything done that I need to get done before tackling a 40 hour travel-time trip.

AHHHH! (in a good way)
:-)

Divundu

So I've been doing more research on my future home, Divundu. According to the Lonely Planet, Divundu is only a town because there's a road junction there, and it's often mismarked on maps and even road signs as Bagani, which is an actual town 2km away. And, what my field director said about Rundu being the closest major town, accessible by a ride with a community member or a 75 cent taxi? It's actually about 120 miles away.

Right near there is the Bwabwata National Park, the Mahango Game Reserve and the Former West Caprivi Game Reserve. There seems to be a lot of camping in the area, so if any of you feel like roughing it Africa style, now's your chance!

Different topic: A week or two ago I started digitizing my music collection, i.e. ripping all of my CDs to my harddrive, with the plan of getting rid of them all. Then I had the idea that I could take a couple of stacks with me to give away as rewards in the classroom or gifts here and there. But after taking a look at the pictures from Divundu and asking my field director, I don't think that's going to work. Some people have cars with CD players in them, and the wealthier families might have a stereo at home, but for the most part it sounds like they aren't common. So this brings me to the question: what should I take for gifts/incentives? And, what the heck should I do with all these CDs? :-)

In travel news: This weekend I plopped down on the floor in a Borders and read more about Zambia, Zimbabwe, Madagascar and Mozambique. Ooohhh, my mouth was watering let me tell ya! The M's are my the big countries on my list...unfortunately the most direct route from Namibia is through Zimbabwe, which all official-sounding organizations are warning not to enter. We shall see about that. I figure I'll be able to sniff out the situation on the ground once I'm there. A backup is to just go back to S. Africa and over. This will all be after I'm done with my teaching of course.

Ok, back to Namibia and WorldTeach...I emailed the volunteer I'll be replacing on Friday with a ton of questions, the most pressing being on Internet access. I have yet to hear from him, so I'm taking that as a less good sign that I'll be very connected. Will update the blog when I hear something back.

My Placement!

I'm placed! I have purpose!

I asked for rural and boy did I get rural.....I'll be in Divundu, in the Kavango Region, which is in the North East part of Namibia. Not up on your Namibian geography yet? Me either...here's a map:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&rlz=1I7GGLD_en&q=divundu%2C%20namibia&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl

From my field director:
"Kavango is a beautiful region, thanks in part to the Kavango River that runs along the northern border, home to hippos, crocodiles and other wildlife. The school is not on the river, but is within reasonable driving distance. The closest major town is Rundu to the west which can be reached by “hike” (ride) with a community member, colleague or taxi for about N$60. In the town there is a small grocery store, petrol station, other small shops and a clinic. It’s a rural site but because the school is on the main road, there is easy access to other parts of Namibia.

You will live in a teacher house on school grounds with two other teachers. The house has a sitting room, kitchen, shower, toilet and three bedrooms.
Divundu CS is interested in having a volunteer teach math and science for Grades 8-10. It’s a very poor school whose learners struggle academically. I know you will have the opportunity to make a great contribution."

A quick google image search on Divundu:
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&rlz=1I7GGLD_en&q=divundu,+namibia&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=li

Thankfully I've been put in contact with the volunteer teacher who I am replacing, so I'll be able to ask him specific questions about what's available there (internet? hot water?...I'm thinking no but it'll be nice to know for sure.). I'm super jazzed about teaching math and science to the older kids...time to brush up on my algebra!

Ooohh head is swirling....

Excitement builds!

Woke up to an email from the Namibian Field Director today! Jocie went to Namibia in December of 2006 as a volunteer and ended up staying through August of 2008 when she took the Field Director position - wow!

She sent me and the 3 other Semester volunteers an email introducing herself, welcoming us and giving us some added insights into life there and the program. She also promised details on our placements "soon".

Last, she gave us a link to her personal pictures - awesome! I obviously can't post it but am including just one for kicks. HELLO!!!! There are bunches more of giraffes, an elephant and a kudu (Corey if you ever read this, I TOTally thought of you.) It was also great to see pictures of the kids at school, other volunteers, the "town", etc. Oooohh I'm so excited!

Will of course post details of my placement the minute I hear.

In brief other news, my 25 hours of TEFL volunteering starts tomorrow morning bright and early. Woo hoo!

ps - my boyfriend is singing "Africa" by Toto in the shower right now. I guess he's OK with the Africa thing now :-)

$293 lighter but infinitely more resistant

Today I went back to the travel clinic to have my TB test read (negative), but in the process we took a look at my vaccination records and the CDCs recommendations for Namibia and Southern Africa.
Here I thought I had every shot there was to have after all my previous travels, but nooooo.
So today I got:
- Polio, adult booster (who knew there was one?)
- Hep A #2 (could've sworn I had this before but it wasn't in my records)
- Typhoid (an oral vaccine, good for 5 years ...better than the injection which is only 2)

And prescription-wise:
- 8 months of anti-malarial Doxycycline (7 in Africa plus 1 followup after returning)
- 3 courses of Cipro

My mother will be very pleased, but 300 bucks? Ouch.

Namibian Visa

To get a Namibian Visa, in addition to the application, you have to submit:

- Medical Certificate (Doctor certifying that I'm healthy)
- Radiological Report (Verifying I don't have TB)
- 2 Photocopies of my Passport
- 4 Passport Photos
- Photocopy of my Birth Certificate
- Photocopy of my College Degree Diploma
- Resume
- Police Clearance Report (Local police department certifying I don't have a record)

Yowza. Who knew!?

Who Wants a Postcard?

I got a request for a postcard yesterday, and it made me remember: POSTCARDS!! Want one? Want one? You know you do....A piece of paper sent from the other side of the world, possibly tattered and worn, that's travelled approximately 9,836 miles as the crow flies from me to you?

Email me with your mailing address (even if you think I have it) so I can get you on my official postcard list.

:-)

Imagining

I was walking up my block to drop some more fundraising letters in the mailbox a few days ago and in my mind's eye, almost like a movie special effect, the sidewalk turned to a dirt path, the apartment buildings dropped away, and the landscape opened way up. For a very brief moment I was in my imagined Namibia.

I wonder what it'll entail to mail letters there, and how long it'll take to receive anything from the US. All is still so unknown because I don't know where I'm going to be in the country. I've requested rural though, so here's to hoping.

In other news, donations are slowly starting to roll in and it's awesome, thanks!! Even people who don't know me are willing to chip in. I think there are a lot of folks out there who've wanted to donate to various causes in Africa in the past but have worried about if the money goes where it's intended. So this is a chance to donate and KNOW it's going 100% towards me making a difference.

I also started cleaning out my apartment this weekend. My 3 bins of "Goodwill", "Recycle" and "Trash" are filling up quickly. I feel so much lighter already :-)