The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.

Hey Guys!

I wasn’t sure anyone was reading this so my apologies that I haven’t written in a while. I received an email asking where a new blog was! J

Well, its winter here now and so far we’ve been lucky that it has been a mild winter. A cold front moved in yesterday so I have a feeling the rest of July will be quite chilly. (Yes, it really does get cold in Africa! Here in the South sometimes goats and sheep freeze to death out in the fields.)

So…as for what’s new…I did start the community garden project a couple of months ago. So far I’ve trained 4 different groups of women how to perm garden. Some of the women were from the craft center I work at and the others are cleaning ladies that are part of a support group at the hospital. They were so great to train! Super hard working and full of laughter and song (the one picture I’ll include is of them at the end of their training standing over their plot singing a traditional song). It’s been great to spend two days of the week in the garden. Being able to have complete strangers trust this crazy American woman to teach them how to grow vegetables has been an amazing thing. Maybe in a past life I was a farmer because I find I much enjoy being outside and doing physical work as apposed to inside behind a desk and stuck in a chair. Hmmmm……

Right now there is no training going on at the garden. I fear we might get a freeze and then the seeds won’t grow and the participants from the community will get discouraged and won’t come back. Right now I’m spending my training days cleaning up the piles of brush and trash that were left when the garden was cleaned up while I was gone at training. I’m excited to really clean it up and keep it looking nice.

The garden training is about 4 hours of intense digging so as to loosen the soil and add manure, leftover coal from fires as well as green leaves from trees. The three work together in the soil to make a natural fertilizer and bug repellent. Once the plots are done and planted, it is then up to the planters to come back and water their plots. The women that work at the hospital have the advantage of working near the garden. The women from the craft center have missed several days of watering which is discouraging. That is the one problem with the garden, it’s close to the hospital which is pretty far from the location, the settlement where the poorest people live. It’s quite a hike for them to come and water which is why I train about six people to a plot, so they can all take turns and hopefully have success.

I’ll try to include some pictures from the garden as well as some pictures of animals again. I’m really hoping I can download them for you as it was so amazing to see them up close and personal last December.

I’m planning to travel to Tanzania in November and will take lots of pictures. I hear it looks like “real Africa” as opposed to Namibia, which does look like Africa but not like what you see in TV and magazines so I’m excited to see Tanzania…and take a vacation too! I’m ready for a break. This has been such a great adventure yet at times I become aware of just how far away I am….like in May when my Mom suffered a stroke. Fortunately she is doing better so my sister shared that there wasn’t a need to come home. It is really hard to be supportive of friends and family that I’m so used to being there for from so far away. There have been many weeks of feeling helpless and hopeless when I get emails or phone calls from friends and family in a bad place and I can’t reach out more than to send an email. I’m definitely learning a lot about life and our human connections and even more about myself during this great journey. I’m sure I’ll be changed forever.

I must give a shout out to my great group 33-ers, the folks I came here with. I never imagined getting so close to a group of random strangers in such a short time. Although we started with 23 and are down to 15, we are all still very close and their support has made all the difference in being here. As well as support from friends and family back home too! Please don’t think I’m forgetting you guys! I can’t thank you enough for the emails, letters and cards and even care packages that have come my way via family, friends and even clients! You guys are all the best! Know that I do miss you and think about ALL of you more often then you can imagine.

Okay…this is getting very long. The best to all of you! Enjoy summer in America and know you are in my thoughts.

Hey guys!
Sorry it has been so long since I've written. I hit the one year mark and fell into a bit of a slump. The three volunteers that have been in Keetmanshoop with me are slowly leaving the country as their time is up and there has just been a lot of transition. Sometimes it just feels a bit overwhelming.
I'm currently up in Windhoek for the HIV/AIDS committee meeting and then I'll head to Omaruru for two weeks. The first week I'll help facilitate the training of the new health group (crazy to think the new health group is already here! it really has been a year!). The second week I'll be attending a gardening training. I'm really excited about that as I can then go back to site and spend two days a week in the big community garden that was built on the hospital grounds and I'll be helping HIV support group members and TB patients from the hospital learn to garden and hopefully harvest lots of food. There is a different social worker in charge of HIV/AIDS at  the hospital now and she has been helpful and supportive of getting this garden up and running (if you'll remember, it was built back in November...and has sat gathering weeds since that time). We had a great meeting last week about getting the garden cleaned up and ready for planting when I come back. I'll be working at the garden on Tuesdays and Fridays. I'm also excited to be away from the craft center for a few days. I find it's necessary to mix things up a bit in order to stay excited and motivated about the projects.

Okay...I'll keep this short. I tried a couple of weeks ago to upload animal pictures from Etosha again because they are so great. I didn't have any luck. Once I'm back at site I will try again as they are great pics and it is the real African animals!

Okay....I hope this finds you all doing well. I think about you often and hope you are all okay.
Becky

The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.

Hi all!

Happy New Year to all of you! I hope this New Year finds you all doing well.

I returned from my travels early in the morning yesterday. What a great, great time!

To back track…myself and a fellow volunteer started out by heading north to Tsumeb on Dec 11^th where we met up with another volunteer. The north is so much greener than it is here in the south! It was great to see the contrast. I still haven’t been all the way to the top of the country, which I hear is even more different…hopefully later this year. We hung out in Tsumeb a few days then met up with another volunteer and her friend who was visiting from the states. She had rented a car so we were able to go to Etosha, the huge game park up north (you must have a car because the animals roam free except for the campgrounds which are fenced off to the animals). We saw just about everything except Elephants and Water Buffalo. I was really hoping to see Elephants but they are in the northern part of the park this time of year. We saw a Rhino late at night at a watering hole next to our campsite…amazing! The best was the pride of lions! There were about 16 total including the cubs. They were literally a few yards from the road and were busy eating a Gemsbok that they had just killed (we probably missed the kill by about 20 minutes. I’ll include a pic of a Gemsbok too..huge animal with straight, long horns. One of the Lion’s was badly cut on her leg so there must have been quite a struggle).

We then went to Swakopmund which is on the coast. It reminded me of a coastal town in California in that it is very touristy and felt as though we were no longer in Namibia. We enjoyed our time there too…eating great food and sitting on the coast.

After Christmas a group of 8 of us headed down to Cape Town. What an amazing city! If you ever have a chance to go to S. Africa (never say never…I didn’t think I’d ever be in Africa and now its home for a while! J ), I suggest going to Cape Town. We hiked up Table Mountain which is much like Squaw Peak in hiking in that it is stepping the whole way. The views of the city and surrounding landscape from the top are incredible. I believe its 1 km to the top. The waterfront is also lovely…lots of shopping and food and very tourist friendly. We spent a lot of time on Long St., which is where the backpacker’s places are. There are tons of great places to eat and fun shopping in that area. Spent a day at Camp’s Beach enjoying the coast again. Overall a wonderful trip! New Year’s was super fun too! We all got dressed up and went out for Ethiopian food (super yummy) and then hung out down on Long St. with hundreds of other people. What a birthday to remember! Myself and another PC volunteer both have New Year’s Eve birthdays so we made the most of it!

Back to work next week. I’m hoping that by mid January I’m at the craft center about 3 days a week and doing a secondary project the other two days…maybe working with teens at a secondary school close by or some other group in town. I’m ready to mix things up a bit and get to know more of Keetmanshoop!

Okay…I’ll add some pictures of the animals at Etosha, Swakop, and of course Cape Town. Enjoy!

Happy New Year to all of you! I wish you the best for 2012.

I tried to upload some pictures but kept getting an error message....sorry. If you'd like to see some pics of the animals and Cape Town, send me an email. Thanks!