Special Delivery

Life here can be stressful (especially when the government issues an order for all of its cars to be serviced the week they're supposed to be transporting learners to Camp GLOW). But that just means the little things--things that I may have overlooked in a previous life--end up meaning a whole lot more now.

Like today, when 14 kids from the orphanage came knocking on my door. They formed a perfect little line--all smiles--and Fredrick picked his hand from his pocket, palm up, with a folded piece of paper inside.

It was a note from my friend Jossy, their big sister. I'd sent her a text message earlier in the day but she was out of phone credit, so she sent the kids with her response.

The tiny note made me smile.

My own Western Union. My personal pony express.

Only this one was a whole lot more fun.

August Rush

August has just begun, but already it's been a busy month!

My friend Natasha had a baby.


Mama and Baby


Just One Day Old!

Lorain and I conducted a dental workshop for patients in the TB Ward


All the Patients with New Toothbrushes

Three of my kids (Tommie, Nevinia and Katrina) finished their Hero Books


The Kids Hard at Work

There was a pool party for Ivy's birthday at the orphanage (where they don't have running water--so you can imagine what a feat that was!)


Pool Party


Dance Party


Ivy Blowing Out Her Birthday Candles

I went to a Christening for my friend Rosemary's grandkids. (There were 40 other children and the service lasted five hours.)


Desere with Her Daddy


Lorain with Promise


Promise After the Baptism


The Family After Church


Rosemary and her Grandkids

My friends Aly and Colleen came to visit, too. While they were here, we visited the orphanage, where we made masks with the kids.


Colleen and Aly with the Kids


Putting on the Finishing Touches










Colleen and Aly with the Kids After a Morning of Mask Making

And I wore mascara for the first time in two years--an event which I thought warranted a picture.

Keeping Kids Warm in Winter

Winter may be nearly over, but I doubt the kids at Sunrise Center much cared. When I delivered hats and scarves made by me and my knitting group (thanks to yarn donations from friends and family back home), they were so excited.

They bounced around cheering, and fingered the brightly colored yarns. They swapped pink scarves with blue and eagerly bundled up for this photo:



The desert sun heats things up by late day, but I'm happy to report these little ones will be keeping warm on windy winter mornings now, too.

Easter at the Orphanage

I may have spent Easter in Luderitz, but that didn't mean the kids at Sunrise Center went without a holiday-themed project. My mom, who used to be a kindergarten teacher, sent all the art supplies (as well as jellybeans, Peeps and cupcake mix) to create Easter chicks. Katrina helped with giving instructions and as usual, the kids went wild.

In fact, they enjoyed it so much, I'm not sure they noticed I was a week late.


David Hard at Work


Hamming it Up


Happiness Showing Off His Work


Kokoonah


The Finished Product

Goodbye Mu#tan

Working as a health volunteer in Namibia has put me face to face with people who are suffering from TB, living with HIV, coping with poor nutrition or dealing with abuse.

This week, my job put me face to face with death, too.

Peace Corps warned us that as health volunteers we would likely lose a friend, a colleague or a community member during our course of service. I always imagined that for me, this person would be a little known coworker, a stranger I used to pass in town, or a teacher who often dropped by the clinic. I assumed it would be an elderly man or an older woman. Someone who had lived a long life. Someone who left a loving family behind.

I never imagined that it would be a 3-year-old girl named Mu#tan. A girl I’d played with every Saturday at the Sunrise Center. A girl who was quiet and shy around the other kids, but yelled my name and grabbed the fence whenever I passed by her house. A girl whose mother abandoned her, and whose 5-year-old brother—now all alone—can’t understand why she’s gone.

The reality is—I can’t either.

Knitting: A Public Service Announcement

I've never been much for crafting. But then an old friend sent me some knitting supplies and I realized now might be the perfect time to learn. So I found some women from Zimbabwe to teach me the basics. We spend Sunday afternoons chatting about our cultures and our countries. They show me stitches and techniques. I provide the yarn.

I enjoy the social aspect of it. The chance to talk. The opportunity for trial and error under someone else's guidance. But even when I'm alone, I find the clicking of needles almost meditative. And I appreciate the fact that, so long as I keep doing what I'm doing, I can mark my progress in rows and stitches.

But as you might suspect, yarn stores in this desert country are few and far between. (Perhaps even nonexistent.) So, if you send me some yarn that you like, I'll return the favor by sending you a handmade scarf. It's nothing fancy, but it is warm and fuzzy just the same.

Or, if you'd prefer, I can use your yarn to knit a scarf for one the children at the Sunrise Center. Because while stateside summer is just around the corner, Nam winter will be here before we know it.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I may not have a Valentine, but today was fantastic just the same...


My Valentines


The Kids at Sunrise Center Coloring and Creating


Martelena


Friedrick Coloring


Ivy Showing Off Her Hard Work


Me with the Kids from Sunrise Center After a Morning Making Valentines

Merry Khorixas-mas!

You may have noticed that I’ve taken a bit of a hiatus from writing here on my blog. That’s because, for the past month, I’ve been on holiday with other PCVs, traveling though Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania. We were busy sorting out transport, flagging down buses and searching for accommodations. (Plus, Internet was pretty hard to come by.)

So for the next week, you can expect to find pictures, stories and retrospectives on my adventures—starting of course, with my final days in Khorixas and Christmas with the kids at Sunrise Center.

My friend Nicole was nice enough to send all the materials for making homemade ornaments—from spools of ribbon and string, to stacks of old Christmas cards, scissors, glitter and colorful pens. It arrived (along with a Pillsbury cake mix from my mom) just in time for the holidays. Both made our Christmas party at the orphanage more memorable.

The kids were excited to decorate and personalize their tiny tree. (And they loved the glitter!) Plus, it reminded me a lot of holidays growing up—which is kind of nice, especially so far away from home.

The ornaments turned out great, but I don't think the kids had ever eaten cake so soft. The little ones looked shocked when the pieces they grabbed crumbled in their tiny hands. Happy, one of the smallest, solved this problem by using his chocolate-frosted hands to shovel stray crumbs from the cement floor directly into his mouth. (Gross? Maybe to some. But I say it's resourceful.)

Just a Toothbrush: Sunrise Center

These days, most of my Saturday afternoons are spent at the Sunrise Center. The three-bedroom orphanage is home to 20 children who are always excited about a chance to play games, kick a ball, or complete an art project.

It turned out, they were no less eager to learn about oral care.

After coloring pictures about healthy teeth and listening to stories about visiting the dentist, the kids lined up for their own toothbrush and tube of toothpaste.




They waited patiently while I wrote their names in black Sharpie pen, smiled brightly, then rushed off to practice brushing—just like they’d learned.

Breaking Ground

It took months of planning to get our new gardening project up and running. But last week, a handful of orphans gathered to break ground and create seedbeds for carrots, potatoes and other vegetables. Our hope is that what’s grown in these plots can be used to feed these kids, who rarely have enough to eat. And that by learning how to cultivate their own land, they’ll be walking away not only with full bellies, but a marketable skill for the future.

There’s some obvious challenges—one being water (this is, after all, the desert). The other being soil (which for the record, is mostly rocks and sand). But we’ve enlisted the help of some local growers who are experts in area agriculture.

From the looks of things, I’d say we’re headed in the right direction.


Preparing the Beds


Still Preparing...


Teamwork


Taking a Break