Thanksgiving and the Adventures of Reconnect

We are in the midst of Reconnect which completes our training phase.  I have made some realizations over the last few days along the way to Reconnect.  The first thing being that my home in Namibia is officially my village.  Upon leaving I felt sad knowing that I wasn’t going to see the teachers, my principal, and the learners for two weeks, and some of them for over a month because the holiday season is upon us and by the time I return everyone will have left for the holidays.  I then arrived in Tsumeb, a larger town just south of the red line and experienced a couple of days of culture shock.  I was in awe at the fact there were grocery stores, mowed lawns, neighborhoods, restaurants, biergartens, traffic robots (lights), garbage cans and novelties like comfortable beds, couches (as opposed to plastic chairs, or fragments of broken chairs), television, and soft serve ice cream.  We went a little crazy ogling over all these things that we have lived without over the last month and a half.  We then stopped in Okahandja, and stopped at Spar (the grocery store) and of course said hi to all the old faces that we had left behind, which was fun considering during training I went to Spar in Okahandja at least once a day.  We then spent the night in Okahandja at my friend’s host family’s house which was just crazy because it was the first time I felt like I slept in an actual bed in an actual neighborhood.  I am realizing in two years when I return to the United States I am probably going to annoy everyone with my disbelief for how big everything is and my fascination with things as simple as foam soap (I used some the other day at a restaurant in Okahandja and I can’t even tell you the last time I used foam soap, I use a bar of soap called Sunlight soap and it is a green and it can be used to wash your body, clothes, or dishes, so it is quite functional).  So I guess my point is for those of you who plan to see me when I first get back in 2012 be prepared for me to be like a small child who is more or less in a toy store and wanting to touch and play with everything in their sight.

At Reconnect I have taken my first warm shower since August which is quite amazing!  It’s funny because in Honduras last summer I thought that I was not going to survive when I had to take cold showers, and I have now survived over 3 months of cold showers and bucket baths!  I also have an incredibly comfortable bed for the next few weeks, meaning that I have a mattress with springs and I have an amazing view of some hills in Windhoek so I am really happy.  It’s also great to see everyone and hear stories about their sites.  Some of the stories are so funny and others when they tell them you end up kicking yourself realizing that oh that is why a Namibian said that to me or did that.  For example I’ve learned if a Namibian tells you something like simply “I am going to town,” it does not mean “I am going to town and you are not invited,” but it actually means “I am going to town, would you like to come?”  Looking back on it people have told me that they are going to do something and left it at that and I didn’t realize that was actually an invitation to join them.

For those of you who are concerned, I did indeed celebrate Thanksgiving.  On the actual day of Thanksgiving I ate Pizza and was able to talk to my family which was wonderful.  Later, in a small group we cooked a pumpkin filled with veggies and cheese (we’re a bit veggie deprived), made a salad and cooked macaroni and cheese.  Not the traditional Thanksgiving meal but we were satisfied.  We also made an apple pie, it was supposed to be a caramel apple pie, however the Salted Caramel did not turn out well at all so it became just an apple pie.  I am not sure if it was because of the butter or the milk but something made it taste absolutely horrible.  I miss caramel because whenever someone gives me a sweet that says caramel, it never ends up tasting much like caramel.  We also had a collection of other treats and we all ended up indulging in way too much food and sweets. 

So something else that I’ve learned about Namibian culture is that it does still very much work on a bartering system.  A meme from my village gave me sorghum (to make oshikundu, the traditional Owambo drink) and my principal told me that before I gave her back her container I needed to put something into it.  My principal suggested something as small as a bar of soap because it doesn’t need to be large, but you should never give back a container empty.  This applies to actual business settings too because at the craft market you can bring shoes or odds and ends to barter for Namibian crafts.  It’s pretty cool.  It also goes for rides too.  Often we are able to get free rides (well on longer trips) because we can say that we are a volunteer and we are not paid much money, so out of generosity the driver will allow us to get into the combi or into their car because we are giving something to their country.  It’s different, but I like the idea that not all transactions revolve around the exchanging of money. 

So upon returning from dinner tonight we discovered that our room had flooded.  Which just seemed typical for Namibia and seemed that we shouldn’t actually be surprised by the fact that it flooded.  It wasn’t too bad it only took a few inches of water but left some of my stuff pretty drenched.  The conference center though was really efficient and within an hour had everything cleaned up for us.  How our room flooded was the weird part.  We came back to find it flooded, when we went to get the conference center staff we returned to find water shooting out of the faucet, however when we left the sink was not running.  It was just really bizarre that the water would switch on, my hypothesis is that the room is probably haunted, though I don’t know what we would have done to disturb the ghosts, as my friend said “We’re the good ones”.