You done with CBT, ya you know me!

Written on 1-Oct-2015

Community Based Training (CBT) is officially complete and we are finally in the home stretch of all our training so that we can be officially sworn in as the Peace Corp SUPED group 42 of Namibia!!!

First off I'd like to start by saying CBT went by way too fast! I absolutely LOVED the community myself and 7 other trainees were in for CBT, I loved my host family and all the extended family, and full on fell in love with the river and skies. It was simply gorgeous! I truly look forward to being able to come back to visit my host family. 

So what is CBT?

CBT is a 4 week immersion part of our Pre-Service Training (PST) required in order to officially Swear -In as Peace Corps Volunteers. The 4 weeks is envisioned to give us exposure to how education is provided, hands on experience teaching, language immersion (many languages are only spoken is specific areas of Namibia), and have cross cultural exchange/exposure to the region of which you have been assigned to. Myself, along with the 7 other volunteers I had CBT with we assigned to learn the language of Rukwangali and serve our 2 years in the Kavango Region. We were the lucky ones who got to serve in the great village of Bunya about 50k (approx 30mi) west of Rundu. 

Bunya Combined School was nice enough to allow us to perform our training at their school hosting grades 0-12. The school served learners (students) from Bunya and neighboring communities making it a very large school. It was not uncommon to have classroom sizes well into the numbers of plus 40 learners. Both my grade 6 classes had over 50 learners in the class. We did observations for the first week along with co-teaching and then took on our own classes including everything from the lesson planning, to teaching the lesson, to debriefing and analyzing it  after the fact. I got to work with grade 6 and grade 8 learners. Schools in Bunya are definitely different than they are America so it was a great to get our feet wet. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to get feedback from my co-volunteers and support teachers. At first I was nervous about working with older learners because teenagers are so cool, and well, I’m really silly and dorky. However, the games I used with my younger ESL (English as a Second Language) students in the states worked just as well with the older learners. Guess you’re never too old for learning to be fun. Though I have done volunteer work in other countries prior to Peace Corps and worked actively in classrooms in the States I had not been a teacher by profession prior to this. I was an American Sign Language Interpreter and though I did enjoy that profession a lot a piece of me longed to be a Peace Corps Volunteer teaching abroad. It really felt good to get feedback one day telling me I am “one of those people who are just meant to be a teacher and work in classrooms. It comes naturally to you.” That comment really made me feel like I’m on the right track! J

The village of Bunya was extremely welcoming and everyone was rather kind. Each person we crossed wanted to have a conversation. The typical school day started at 6:45am and ended at 1:00pm. We then had debriefing and language training till 3:00pm. After that we typically went down to the river banks to enjoy the amazingness and soak up some sun. Locals and ourselves would have a great time playing and exploring. It was a great opportunity for learning conversational language and bonding with family members, extended family, and each other’s families. There were more times than I can count that I would just stop and think, damn, this is really happening isn’t it? This is real life, my life!!! Sometimes it all seems so surreal.

Kavango West Cultural Competition Bunya Circuit/ Photo Fun

Pictures from Team Bunya

Another beautiful sunset with some amazing co-volunteers. 

This is a life I could get use to!!

Strangest bee I've ever seen!!

These sunsets take my breath away every day!!

**PLEASE NOTE** Please read the disclaimer located in the right hand column  

The first post!

Well I've been lucky to survive my first month of training. As much as I wanted to have a blog from the get go I  a) suck at technology (no really it took me half a month to fight the blog to even go up) and b) didnt really have time to be posting. Internet service is about the speed it was back in the dial up days and my attention span is way to short. Oooo look something shiny!!  But now I finally have some down time (and data service) so here's a recap of all the fun stuff:

The journey started with a short 1 day training in Philidelphia where I got to meet the other 53 trainee volunteers and we all got to get a dose of each other, and our history. After that we boarded a bus to NYC, followed by a 15 hrs plane ride to South Africa, and then a 2 hour flight to Windhoek, Namibia where we were greeted by some of the Peace Corps staff along with the country director and a giant Peace Corps Namibia banner. Cheesey as it may be, I couldn't have been more thrilled. After a fun photo shoot and greeting with some Namibian fat cakes (I couldn't eat any since I'm celiac but I hear they're amazing) it was just a 2 hour drive to Okahandja. I departed New Mexico bright and early August 6th and finally after encountering 4 states, a total of 29 hours in the air on 4 different planes, 7 hrs on two buses and touching 3 countries it goes needless to say I was happy as can be to  know no means of transportation was in my immediate future. However we did see wild girafees on the bus ride from Windhoek to Okahandja which was a amazing!!!

Upon arriving to our hostel at Kukuri we were greeted with drums, a choir and some of our Pre Service Training (PST) staff singing and dancing as we entered in local languages. That was probably one of the warmest greetings I have ever experienced in my life. (A video will be posted eventually). We then got settled into out rooms where we stayed for just over a week. Staying at the hostel with all the volunteers was a lot of fun filled with late night games in the dinning hall, a few rounds of sardines, kick ball and some bonding. Room 19 was a pretty fun room to be a part of! 

After spending just over a week together in the hostel we all moved in with our host families some of which spoke our assigned languages, some who did not. I stayed with my first host family about a week and a half, was then moved to a new host family (still in Okahandja). The host family that I finally got in Okahandja are itty bitty like me! :) I'm only 5'0" and I'm taller than my host mom and pretty much as tall as my host dad. One of the first things they said to me is "you're tiny like us, you fit in perfectly with the family". They also have one teenage son (16) and one young daughter (5) who all live in a sweet little house, and have some of the biggest hearts I have ever encountered! I consider myself lucky to finally have been able to settle in with them. Sadly I was only with them for a week before departed to Community Based Training (CBT), but I will be back with them after CBT for two weeks when we return to Okahandja for the remainder of PST and Swearing In at the beginning of October.  

For anyone curious PST has been really interesting. A lot of it has been technical training over Peace Corps rules and policies, safety and security tips brought to us by the unforgettable Joey, health tips from the medical office (beware your headphones!); they also liked to bring us what they call "candies" (which really were vaccination shots), some language training by Joseph (the dream team leader) and Heindrick, and cross cultural exchange lessons (to name a few things).  

I have been fortunate to be assigned to the Kavango region in the northern part of Namibia. Kavango is pretty much as north as you can get in the river lands with the river that boarders Namibia and Angola. I was also told it is the poorest region in Namibia. With being assigned to Kavango region I get to learn Rukgwangali which has been fun, but tough. Some days I feel like I'm doing great, other days I think my brain maxed out at the three other language I already speak. Rome wasn't built in a day though so there's still hope! ;) 

In the one week I've spent in Bunya (in the Kavango region) I've grown to really enjoy the area. The first day we were here we saw a hippo while we were walking along the river! The homes are sections of homesteads; fenced areas typically consisting of a handful of traditional huts which typically are the rooms, maybe one or two buildings made of cement which are kitchens or sitting areas sometimes rooms, a bathing area, and a latrine (sometimes in the fenced area, sometimes not). I live pretty deep in the sand so I'm hoping this means my calves are getting a good work out walking through [beach like] sand constantly through out the day. The group of volunteers I'm with are also great. We will be serving CBT for 3 more weeks. After returning to Okahandja we get to find out where our permanent sites are! 

A few highlights:

The fun wildlife I've had the chance to see so far have been giraffes, baboons, zebras, a hippo, gazelle, some awesome looking lizards, and spiders the size of my hand!!! (I hate spiders for those who don't know!!!!!) 

I've had to kill and pluck chickens. Ive only killed one so far but have plucked a few. I'm happy that I've been able to avoid cleaning out the guts so far but I know it's coming one day! They tasted pretty yummy too!! :) 

New food that I've ate have been cooked and dried grubs (I like dried much better, cooked ones are really chewy), donkey (hey it was actually pretty good), goat, lamb, beef liver (I didn't like that at all) and smiley (goat head, yes that includes the brain... Not my fav either). Fish isn't new to me, but the fish I've ate here in Bunya has got to be the best fish of my life! I just have to throw that out there.

We got to learn about the liberation of Namibia and go to Heros Acre. I'm hoping to post a blog about that in the future. 

We had a "cultural day" which consisted of all the different language groups making food from their regions, that was pretty great!

My region LOVES to dance so we shimmy often.... I love it equally as much. Any excuse to dance puts a huge smile on my face! I will require my class has to shimmy if they want to pass. I have no idea what shimming has to do with the English language, but I'll come up with something.  Jk.....or am I? ;)

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we start with singing and dancing.... If you missed the previous paragraph, I love to dance. Plus as a wee wee little Jamie in my youth days I was convinced I'd be in a music group like the Backstreet Boys... Peace Corps is equally as awesome though.

I've swam a pretty cool river swim. 

And I've made some friendships that I for see lasting past my PCV days. 

I do extremely miss my family (especially my shishter, nieces, and parents), my friends, my gym fam, and my old classroom. I can never put into words how grateful I am for them. They shaped me, but the great part is I still get to keep in touch with them and have something to look forward upon returning in the states.

I will be honest, I did encounter a..... Not so ideal situation, but the Peace Corps staff was supportive and very helpful. (Don't worry it wasn't anything life threatening in any way)

If anyone feels like a sending a letter or care package I would love love love it!!! Especially gluten free/dairy free anything (*cough cough* my favorite are Lara bars, gluten free/dairy free cookies, gluten free/dairy free pasta and Zanthum Gum so I can bake some bread) and chile lime flavored chips lol! I hear flat rate boxes are cheapest, but really, any letters would be great  and can be sent to:

Jamie Torres PCV42

C/O Peace Corps Namibia 

P.O. Box 114

Rundu Namibia
                       9000

Hope to get more blogs up soon! 

PS don't be too critical, I typed this completely on my phone and auto correct does some silly things sometimes. 

**PLEASE NOTE** Please read the disclaimer located in the right hand column