Looking Ahead

After months of waiting, Namibia 27 finally has its training itinerary. We’ll spend two days at staging in Washington, D.C. Then, after a 15-hour flight to Johannesburg, we’ll hop a plane for Windhoek on November 2. I’m trying to imagine what it will be like to touch down in Africa—a dream I’ve had since the eighth grade. I expect that it will be nothing less than amazing.

We’ll spend our first two weeks of training at the Andreas Kukuri Center in Okahandja, about 45 minutes north of the capital. We’ll be living on approximately $3 a day (this really puts that Starbucks habit in perspective, no?). Most of our time will be spent learning about the culture and the language. Since 60 percent of Namibians speak Afrikaans (mostly those in the south), it’s likely what many of us will learn. But around one percent of the population speaks native languages, so there’s still a chance we’ll be speaking something else entirely. In addition, we'll have technical training, too. This covers the basics of our assignment. In my case, HIV/AIDS work. We’ll talk about project plans, Namibia’s history, health interventions and the available resources.

During week three we’ll visit our permanent sites. I’ll finally be able to answer all of those questions about running water, electricity and proximity to other members of Peace Corps. We’ll spend time shadowing current volunteers, and after a week, we’ll move in with our homestay families. I’m excited to find out what day-to-day life is really like and anxious to see how well I acclimate.

For those of you who are interested, the Peace Corps also provided us with a calendar for our first few months in country:

Days 1 & 2
November 02 Trainees arrive in Windhoek and travel straight to the Training Center in Okahandja
November 03 Initial Orientation Session at the Training Center in Okahandja Individual interviews with the APCDs, AO, TM & PCMO

Week 1 & 2
November 05 -10 Orientation @ Andreas Kukuri Center-Okahandja(Training Center)
November 12 - 15 Language Intensive training / Technical training
November 16 Site Announcements
November 17 Meet your Supervisor & sessions
November 18 Travel for Permanent Site Visits

Week 3 & 4
November 19-23 Permanent Site Visits
November 24 Return from Site Visit/Travel to current PCV sites for Shadowing
November 25 – Dec 02 Shadowing

Week 5 – 8
December 03 Discussion of Permanent Site Visits
December 04 Travel to CBT sites
December 05-29 Language, cross-cultural and technical training, including Health related mini workshops (and my birthday!)
December 29 Host Families Appreciation Day
December 30 Travel back to Andreas Kukuri Center - Okahandja

Week 9
January 01 - 05 HIV/AIDS Workshop; PC Policies; Embassy Presentations, & Wrap-up

Week 10
January 06 - 08 Final Language Proficiency Interview, PST Post Mortem, Visit PC Office & Courtesy call @ Embassy, Shopping & Packing
January 9 Swearing-In Ceremony @ NIED, Okahandja
January 10 Depart to Permanent Sites

We’ve also been advised that mail in Namibia is very slow during November and December since many of the people in the delivery service go on leave. Because of this, mailing things (like birthday cards) sooner, rather than later, is a good idea.

As for food, Peace Corps says we'll eat most of our meals with host families. Food in the community will differ from the training center, but we can expect to eat Namibian dishes like maize meal, porridge, stew, etc. Meat plays a major part in the Namibian diet because fresh vegetables are often in limited supply. (That makes sense, since less than one percent of the land is suitable for growing crops.)

The big news for me? Peace Corps warns that:

Strict vegetarians may want to consider modifying their diets or adopting other copying strategies since vegetables and other vegetarian foods are not readily available in the villages.

After 13 years I'm not that excited by the thought of eating meat. But I did see this coming. Even with that news in mind, all I can think is T-minus two days and I'm ready for the adventure to begin!