This is my first post from Namibia! We arrived at the Windhoek (the capital) airport Wednesday July 22 in the afternoon and took a bus directly to our training site, Okahandja, about an hour north of Windhoek. We were greeted by Peace Corps staff and trainers as well as a choir who sang us some songs.
At our training center we are sleeping in dorm rooms. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are provided. It has been very cool staying with all the other volunteers. We are Group 40 (the 40th group to go to Namibia) and there are 49 of us (one of the larger groups that has gone). Pretty much every corner of the Continental US is represented which is pretty cool. The training program is 3 months long and so far we've just been doing introductions, getting to know what we can expect in the near future. Tomorrow we will all get our language assignments. There are 7 languages spoken here and each volunteer will be assigned 1 to learn. On Tuesday we move in with host families. Every volunteer stays with their own host family for the rest of training.
Moving in with a host family definitely makes me a little nervous, but I am also extremely excited. It will be an incredible experience and will help tremendously with integrating into the culture. As for what I will be working on after training, I still have to wait a month to find out. I got to read some position descriptions and pick preferences, but its pretty much out of my hands. I'm not to worried about it, because I'm confident that wherever I end up will be an incredible experience.
We've had a lot of downtime the past couple of days. Its given us a chance to hangout and get to know each other. We've explored town, went on a hike, been tossing frisbees and footballs, soccer games, yoga, running, card games, and so on. So pretty much we've just been having a great time. There is also a bar across the street. The beer is nothing special, but a draft is 17 Namibian dollars or roughly 1.70 USD...No complaints here.
The real training and cultural integration starts this week, so our downtime is going to decrease, but I'm looking forward to everything. We've only been here for 5 days, but its been amazing and best (and probably the worst) is yet to come.
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