New Family and a New Language

Sunday, March 16th
I started to recap last weeks blog on Sunday, but did not have time to write this entry in. It is now Monday and I will tell you about yesterday or Sunday that is. This past week we have had breakfast
at 6am everyday and we had breakfast at 8am today which was nice to sleep in. I went to church at 9am with a Namibian trainer. This church contrasts to other churches (from what I hear) and that it is only 1-2hrs long and non-traditional. It is a non-denominational church. It also has a mixture of white and black attendees which my friend enjoyed. The first hour was Bible study and the last was actual service which had a couple of singers, bassist, tambourine and keyboard help lead with the songs. There was a projector with the words and it consisted of songs you would hear on Christian radio. The lesson was about conviction and staying confident in who you are and your beliefs. I spent the rest of the day in self-reflection then reorganized and repacked to be more ready for honestly move-in Tuesday evening.

Monday, March 17th (8:20pm Nam time)
So today was thus far the most exciting day! Every day unravels an old unknown and alleviates more of my fears. Today was our head trainer's, Benna's birthday. It is also my cousin's birthday, so happy birthday Aubrey! We reviewed over Peace Corps policies, the role of the Volunteer Support Network (VSN), the goals and objectives of a health volunteer, and the best part finding out our language we will learn and meeting our family! I did not know how enthralled I would be to find out the language I will be speaking until right beforehand. They gave trainers and trainees a piece of paper with an animal on it and we were to make the noise of the animal to find the people in our language group. My animal was a horse and we are a class of three learning Khoekhoegowab which is a click language. This language is one of five languages I could of received. I am super excited about this opportunity! I also want to emphasize that not all Namibian languages have clicks in them. The language does not narrow down the possible region my site will be in because it is anywhere in Namibia except the top north region and the west side of the country. I did have a brief overview of 4 clicks in KKG and can now say "My name is Taylor."