Legends from the Kavango: Things to be aware of when crossing the river in a canoe

For many residents of the Kavango regions (East and West) life is lived along the Okavango River. The miles upon miles of river bring plenty of (the most delicious) fish you could hope to catch, memes doing their laundry, kids spashing and flipping into the river, people around every curve enjoying a nice, and several watos (canoes in English) coasting through the waters.
The watos are not only useful for travel, fishing, and having fun; their beautiful hand carvings decorate the river quite nicely. However, according the legend, there can be danger riding in a wato depending on what you were up to the night before.

Also enjoying the gifts of the river are many hippos. What you may not know about the hippos are they have extra senses that can recognize if you were sleeping with someone other than your spouce the night befor. If you've been behaving the hippos will let you ride along the river in the canoe in peace. Unfortunately, if you have been a bit scandalous the hippos will provide you with your karma. Somehow the hippos are aware of what your life is like between the sheets and if you're unfaithful, and try crossing the river in a canoe a hippo will come out of no where and attack you!! If you are willing to admit the adultery to the people your with though, you can break off a piece of bamboo to place in the front of the wato. That piece of bamboo will then keep you safe from the vengeful hippos as you travel in the waters.

So next time you plan on getting in a wato to enjoy a ride, make sure you're practicing honesty... or it just may be the last thing you do before the hippos make you pay!

Sunday Funday 24-April Kids say the darnest things

So with term one coming to an end, countless amounts of paper have been marked (graded). Sometimes the marking seems never ending, and sometimes it's super funny, or just sweet. Check out some of the fun stuff I came across this semester:

 Question: give the antonym of the word "happy".

Answer: hungry 

 Well, I mean she has a point....

Sex: a human 

What is the nationality of Mrs. Calment?

A human 

Ha ha ha this kid is kinda onto something. 

We watched The  Lion King  as a listening activity with fill in the blank from the scene with adult Simba and Rafiki befor Simba returns to pride rock. 

Rafiki said to Simba "Yes, the past can *hurt*, but the way I see it you can either run from it, or *die* from it. Ahhh see! You learned!"

Hmmmm.... Talk about the past haunting you! 

He he he being a teacher is like being President. I guess this could mean Ms.Tena for President? ;) 

For the start of class everyday we have a warm up. On this day the prompt was "Tell me something that makes you feel good"

The thing that makes me feel good is when ms Tena she teaches like I am eating chicken.

 .... I'm gonna take that as a compliment. Chicken is good. Lol

In a counsling group I was once apart if we did "visual journaling" and it's activity that really stuck to me. It's really relaxing to just throw on some music, clip away and break out the glue. I must admit this is something I really enjoy doing! Sunday morning collaging :) This was what I did this weekend 

These were the other two I made since being here

Just taking a moment to brag about Girl's Club

Being a Peace Corps Volunteer requests not only that we work on our primary project (mine being education/teaching) but also taking on secondary projects. Secondary projects vary from volunteer to volunteer. Some volunteers choose to plant a community garden, some like to run workshops for health, teen pregnancy, fitness, languages, etc. Some join Peace Corps clubs such as Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) or YEAH! (Youth Exlopring and Achieving in Health), and the list can go on and on.

One of my secondary projects is in relation of being a member of YEAH! (a lot more infor about YEAH! To come *wink wink*).  One part of being a YEAH! member is also establishing clubs in your host community/school. I have started a Girl’s Club at my school and am hoping to get a Boy’s Club up and running soon.

            A typical Girl’s Club meeting is held every Wednesday from about 2:30pm till 4:00pm. We start club by “Sharing sweets” meaning we each say something nice about ourself, and something nice about the member sitting to our right. I typically also try to bring some sort of sweet treat to spoil ourselves. After that each club has a theme such as safe sex practices, mental health moral boosters, heathy diet choices, exercise ideas, decision making, and all that fun stuff. We also try to have different conversations about how we can respond to common situations we face in day to day life. E.g. should I have sex or shoud I wait? If I do have sex should I use a condom/make my partner use a condom? What if my partner says no to condom use? Teen pregnancies and HIV/AIDS rates are very high, especially in the Kavango region so it’s a topic in need of discussion.

             A couple weeks ago (in big thanks to my good friend Josie sending art supplies) we made intension bracelets. With each color of bead we setting an intention/promise we were making to ourselves. The bracelets serve as a visual reminder of things we are promising to ourselves. For example, red represents that I’ll use a condom everytime I have sex, yellow means I’m not going to be friends with people who make me feel bad about myself, and so forth. Each color means somethng different to each person. My hopes are that if the learners make these promises to themselves, that hopefully it will be something they keep. The bracelet serving as a reminder. We had a blast making them. And it made me thrilled to see [almost all]  the girls wearing the braceletts everyday since. Not to mention boys asking when I’ll start Boy’s Club because they want some too.

            Sometimes being a Peace Corps Volunteer can be frustrating as can be, but at times like this, it makes every difficult day worth it! These moments, are what happiness means. 

 The day we made the bracelets :)

Two week later we began exams, you can see the first two girls still wearing their bracelets

If you would like to sponsor/make a donation for Girl's Club (via sweets, school supplies or art supplies) feel free to send them to me at:

Jamie Torres

Peace Corps Volunteer 42

PO Box 114

Rundu Namibia 9000

Sunday Fun-day Pictures 17-April-2016

So if you read my last post, I had a bit of a rough couple weeks. This past Thursday I woke up a bit on the wrong side of the bed so I instantly popped in my headphones for the walk to school. The moment I arrived to school I'm greeted with a crowed of grade 0 (kindergarten) learners adorable as can be just wanting to say hi and give high 5's. That's all it took to turn my frown upside down and bring my day to a brighter start. I mean look at them. How can you not smile back at these cuties?

FLASHBACK!!!!!!

Some of you may have seen in my post a few months ago that my host family surprised me with a puppy. At the time of the post I thought Hafa was a girl. Turns out Hafa is a boy. He's healthy, happy, and has an unending amount of puppy energy. I would compare his to one of those spastic cartoon squirrels. We're working on breaking his jumping and food stealing habit. He's a very faithful walking buddy. He drives me nuts, but I do love him never the less

With exams = marking alllllllllllllllll day. Sometimes learners say some funny things though

Question: Write down a word that has the opposite meaning of the word threaten?

Answer: Rhinoceroses 

Question: Find a word in the text that has more or less the same meaning as "a set of laws about something"

Answer: Fewer people on earth

How to survive the rough weeks of Peace Corps

So as much as Id love to say serving, as a PCV is rainbows and sunshine every day, sometimes this gig is rough! Let’s face it; every day can’t be on fleek. (ß who says PCV’s can’t be hip with the cool words States side) These past couple weeks have been one of a few weeks that had me borderline 3-year-old tantrum, tossing myself on the floor kicking and screaming in need of someone to just hold me, say its okay, and give me a sticker and ice-cream. However, not all hopes are lost, I’ve come to find there’s a few ways to survive riding the rocky waves.

Happiness in a box – I’m pretty sure I can speak for all volunteers when I say getting mail makes your day. Come on when was the last time you wrote some snail mail? Its fun! I love reading what friends and family have to say, and I have fun drawing pictures on the letters responding.  Even if your not a PCV tell me you don’t enjoy a letter from a friend. Care packages!!! Its like Christmas morning to get to your box and see a little slip to pick up your package at the office. I pretty much skip the whole way to the post office. Seriously, I can not say thank you enough to the people who have sent me goodies, especially the ones who have sent supplies for my little monsters, wait I mean….. ummm….. classes of angels. 

Welcome to the twenty first century – Isn't technology great? There’s been a few times I had a day from h-e double hockey sticks! Then I get a notification from a friend or family saying either something encouraging or some quoting funny conversations or recapturing funny memories.  Sometimes I swear people sense it even from the other side of the globe.

Hide! – Its taboo for the culture of my host village to spend time alone, but some times its needed. Yes, integration and being active in your community is good, but sometimes its just, needed to lock yourself in your room with head phones staring at the roof. Sometimes sanity is granted by tucking away behind a back tree with a book. Just go for a walk. This job can be tough at times, sometimes the best de-stressor is a nice walk and breath of air.

I cant believe I’m about to suggest binge eating – I love chocolate and hot Cheetos. I ATTEMPT to save my hot Cheetos for rainy days, but then, well theyre hot Cheetos, especially lime, mmmmmmmmmm *starts dreaming of its loveliness*. Peace Corps has taught me the meaning of love; love is the feeling you get when you put hot lime Cheetos in your mouth. Since my hot Cheetos don’t typically last long I try to always have a chocolate bar or some other treat tucked away. Some times simply surviving the day is reason enough to celebrate and indulge in good as an award for not going [completely] bonkers.

Pack your teddy bear – Seriously! If you have one pack it. I have an elephant, her name is Cassie and she is the best. Also, before I left my friends back home gave me the best going away gift ever! They threw a surprise going away party and made me a scrap book  of collages, pictures, messages, and some extreme randomness, and I LOVE IT! Just flipping threw its pages not only makes me smile every time, its helps ease home sickness spells.

If you need to talk to someone, then talk. - We're not super heros, we're humans and with that comes emotions. You'd be surprise who you find can be the biggest support when you need it. There was literally a time I was so frustrated I cried my eyes out and a learner saw me, shocked to find out Americans cry. I'm usually a very bubbly person so she was under the impression that Americans are just happy. I didn't feel the need to explain all the issues but rather just leave it at, I'm feeling sad right now and sometimes crying helps. The next day she showed up at school with a card for me. 

And when all else fails a nice walk in with your head phones blasted is really nice way to relieve some stress and bring you back to the fact that you are living through an experience. Whether you're in America, Africa, South America, on and island, good days and bad days happen. Sometimes one of the trickiest parts of being a volunteer is learning how do dance through the rain rather than screaming at the next person to cross your path. 

I love Ellie Goulding and this song (Scream it Out) has played on repeat a few times to help me feel better, maybe it can help you too :)

https://youtu.be/RV9EKQG2ixI

Where has the time gone?! Sunday funday pics

Seriously the biggest grasshopper ever!!

Guess who got a care package ;) in case it hasn't been known yet I love anything hot!

I'm pretty sure this rooster is who runs our homestead 

These views could NEVER get old 

Thank you Bea and Josie for the goodie for my Learners and art supplies. We are about to have soooooo much fun!!!

The hot Cheetos are mine!!

I have a problem