Peace Corps Trainee → Peace Corps Volunteer

One month is all I have until I can officially refer to myself as a Peace Corps Volunteer and my oh my this title couldn’t come soon enough. I did recently find out my placement for the next two years, or should I say my new home, my new family, my new community, and my new life. Mariental State Hospital, here I come!  I’ll be living on the health centre compound, in either a shared dormitory with shared bathrooms and kitchen or if I’m lucky I’ll have my own flat (fingers crossed)! I’m not sure of the specificities of what is needed of me as a health volunteer at Mariental, but I am not worried. The first three months at sight will be dedicated to integration and gaining an understanding for what the community’s needs are.

We learned of our site placements in such an awesome way. Trainers and other PST staff created a massive map of Namibia and labeled each of the cities that each volunteer is placed. Then one by one our names were called up  (very reminiscent of dodge ball pickings) and we were escorted to our “destination” on said map. Of course this loser was last up, and goodness I couldn’t believe it was where I guessed I’d go earlier that day.

(The Afrikaans Crew. Most of us are within 3-4 hours away from one another. Oh, and the momma bear who is sitting down is our glorious Afrikaans teacher, Aunty Martha!)

From what I have heard Mariental is the administrative capital of the Hardap region so I’ll hopefully be in contact with officials of the Ministry of Health in Hardap region (lucked out) and the regional office is right next to Mariental State Hospital.  Travelers on their way to Windhoek often frequent Mariental. Although I will be living in town, I will be able to do outreach to villages outside of town. I know the volunteer whose place I will be taking in Mariental and she has got me covered for real! I have two extremely dedicated counterparts that she found herself during her Peace Corps service and they have agreed to take me under their wing. I have already met one and I can tell I’m in good hands, oh, and best of all they are both Social Workers!

(Mariental)

I do know that my supervisor will be expecting that I come up with income generating projects for clients during my service, which I worry about, but I’m sure I will be successful in my projects, even if there will be quite a few that don’t end up working. I’m confident that all will be well.

That’s all for site placement…. Only because I really know nothing else =) I’ll update as  I get more information!

This weekend was A-m-a-zing! Friday started out with language, which was more open conversations than structured class and thereafter we traveled to the Dam! We expected a dirty swamp only because none of our trainers were going to swim and what we got instead was a gloriously clean and massive dam that was difficult to part with in the end.  We swam and had a braai (BBQ) and all was well with the world! The only reason the trainers did not swim was because they did not know how to, and most had the same story of almost drowning when they tried at a young age. These stories were perfect for a newb like me who had only been swimming for two years and I’ll be happy to tell you folks, I did NOT drown or even come close to =) The braai and dam day reiterates just how thankful I am to be surrounded by a kick ass group of fellow trainees (soon to be volunteers) as well as trainers and other staff at PST. Though it will be hella difficult to part ways with these fine people I find comfort in knowing we will all meet again! All of them are in my hearts always and only a phone call/sms away when I need a set of ears! 

(Most of Group 39 and PST staff! Mad love for these guys)

The Learners of Tomorrow are Winning Today!

Today was exactly what I needed after countless hours in a classroom and everything worked out perfectly. This week has been a bit of a test drive for group 39 as we split up into groups of 3-4 trainees and were instructed to be co-facilitators on different topics that were important to the youth. The topics that were chosen dealt with HIV and other STDs and how quickly they can be transmitted to key elements of sexuality ranging from intimacy and body image to puberty and respect for culture. I was part of the group that presented today and our topic of discussion was quite broad and we did not have much time to plan how our activity would go today. I would have been worried, but I had two incredibly supportive co-facilitators with me. We planned our activity during the 10 minute drive over to KAYEC learning center and boy were we excited to get on with it!

To our luck we were the second group to teach the learners at KAYEC because two other groups had gone yesterday and discussed HIV and picture-grams and we felt a bit more comfortable with the same group of learners. We began our activity with a solid icebreaker titled THE PENIS GAME. The title itself deserves all caps because the first person in the activity whispers the word penis and each person thereafter says penis a bit louder until the last person is screaming as loud as possible. Next we lectured for about twenty minutes on defining youth and asking why we work with youth as well as the key elements of sexuality (Sexuality, Relationships, Intimacy, Body Image, Respect for Culture, Puberty, Reproductive Health). I would say that this part was a drag if I had to present all of this information, but let me tell you I barely said anything because these learners HAD IT ALL. To have been present during such a lecture was an honour because I was able to witness first hand what these learners are capable of and I hope I’m alive to see it! They will be the masters of the universe for sure! This moment gave me such a jilt of energy as well as hope and helped me to realize that I’ve got a hell of a lot to compete with ;). I was blown away to say the least! The eagerness to learn and understand what topics are being discussed and also contribute to open discussion was a sight to see and I was blessed to be one of them!  After our discussion/lecture we played the “Pat on the Back game” This game is an awesome game to boost self-esteem and is quite simple to play. We cut out sheets of paper and stuck them on the back of each learner. The learners were instructed to write a positive comment on each paper.  Thanks to another trainee’s brilliant idea we had each learner take the paper of their friend and read out what compliments their friend got as well as introduce the person. The learners seriously enjoyed this game and some placed their positive comments card on their chest. Lastly, our main activity was to have the large group of learners break up into three groups and draw a picture of a boy/girl and his/her changing body. We also drew a picture in class earlier during our session and it was a sad excuse for a stick figure. Whereas each of the pictures that were drawn by the learners looked quite close to the human body… I mean WOW these learners not only had extensive knowledge on the elements of sexuality that were discussed earlier but they also had the artistic eye of a painter… I should have grown up in Namibia for real…  Lastly, they worked as a phenomenal team when they were in groups drawing the changing body and listened to one another to agree on a decision of what to add together. I had to pinch myself a few times to make sure today was real!

Also, my new name is Sandy according to most of the learners I spoke with at Kayec, which is totally fine by me. Now the serious challenge for me is to learn everyone’s names… They’ve got one foreigner’s name to learn and I have at least 25 learners to remember in one day… To prove that I will fail I don’t remember what I had for breakfast this morning. Dag nabbit! 

I'll post pictures if I get some tomorrow... If not I will hate myself FOREVER.