A week in Windhoek

Today wraps up my week in Windhoek for July.  Peace Corps called us down to the capital city first to conduct our mid-service training (can you believe it that my service is half way through, I know it’s bizarre), but also for an All Volunteer Conference to celebrate 50 years since the first volunteers boarded planes to Ghana with the US Peace Corps.  We began our workshops in a conference center in Windhoek’s northern mountains.  Despite the fact we are far from town and the center isn’t what I would consider luxurious, I always enjoy trips there because the scenery is absolutely amazing.  You can hike over a few hills and overlook the location of Katatura.  Peace Corps then moved us to the Safari Court Hotel in Windhoek.  This hotel is one of the fanciest that I’ve ever stayed in, with buffet (cruise style) meals, multiple swimming pools, a gym, and sauna!  During the day we were busy with sessions learning about resiliency and Peace Corps policy and at night we were typically eating our fair share of food.  I don’t think I remember being even the tiniest bit hungry over the last few days.  We had a celebration with a deputy minister from the Ministry of Education and the US Ambassador, then the next day we were invited over for drinks and pizza at the US Ambassador’s house.  It was crazy because outside of the house were multiple security checkpoints and security officers.  The house was absolutely gorgeous, complete with a swimming pool.  By American standards the house isn’t very large, though by Namibian standards it was quite spacious.  I learned about a neat program the Foreign Service has which is that it has a collection of American art work that is available to Ambassadors.  So essentially what the ambassadors can do is create a theme for their home and then select pieces of art work to showcase in their own homes.  Our ambassador to Namibia, Wanda Nesbitt, has chosen pieces from the American southwest, seeing that we are in the former Southwest Africa.  So the pieces are by Texan, New Mexican and Arizonan artists, which was rather cool because her home felt so familiar.  We also briefly were able to ask her about how the events of Egypt and Libya affect her work in Namibia.  As I mentioned before Namibians adamantly oppose the US’s presence in Libya so she admitted that the two state departments have more or less just agreed to disagree about the US’s presence in Libya.  The thing that is the most frustrating to me though is the Namibian government’s response time.  If they want to say that the US doesn’t belong in Libya, but it is an African issue then why has South Africa and Namibia not responded to this crisis. 

So after 2 ½ days at the Safari Hotel my friends and I will all go our separate ways until it seems COS (Close of Service) when we all see each other again before departing to the US.  It’s just amazing how fast the time goes and they spent Mid-Service informing us that if we want to extent with the Peace Corps we need to start the talks now.  It feels nearly impossible to live in the present when every time I turn around someone is asking about next year or when I have a spare moment I wonder what life will be like when I return to America.  Anyways it’s back to reality trying to flag rides down and returning to the classroom on Monday.  I have 2 weeks of revision and then Term 2 exams begin, how crazy is that!