Special Days

Thursday, April 17th
        Today is my brother's 25th birthday! I know he won't see this, but be told by someone, but oh how I love him and am so proud of where he is in life. He has become a very respectable man, a loving husband and a caring father- all by 25!! I know he will strive to be better and do more. I am honored to be your sister.
        This upcoming week also holds two other lovely birthdays- my sister and my mother. Earth Day holds a special place in my heart as my big sister, kind of second mom and one of my best friends was born. I am glad you continue to pave the path for me as I observe your steps in life and often times choose another which I know can irritate you;) I love you dearly and I know we will continue from each other through challenges ahead.
         My dear dear mother, anyone that knows her is aware of the rare presence they are blessed with. She holds an attitude and respect much different than most and often something I strive for. She deserves to be celebrated for absolutely fantastic woman she is.
         Another shout out should also go to the newest addition to the Whittaker Family, my nephew, as he will be baptized in 10 days. I am saddened by the fact that I will not be there physically to support this event in his life, but am reassured that he has many other family to be there.

As there are current and upcoming important dates happening in the US, there are also a few events that have happened over the past couple of weeks. Last Friday, there was a verbal mid-evaluation exam on our respective language. The whole week, I felt like it was back to final exams in college. People were so stressed out. I had to laugh a little because even if we did not meet Peace Corps standards there were not any negative consequences. Group 39 overall performed quite well and many surpassed the guidelines of scoring Intermediate Low by end of training. I received Novice High+, so it was very close to end of training service standard but not quite. There were three Intermediate High scorers which is absolutely fantastic!

KKG has lost one learner, but she will thrive much better in Africaans and am very happy for this change for her. My trainer wants the remaining two to score Advanced by the end of training, but I believe he is being very hopeful. He is quite fantastic and theatrical with his teaching. He has an 8yr old and twin 2yr old girls and think this helps with teaching us. He is very patient with us and our girlish outbursts of laughter. He is also very silly which helps engage us more in the lessons.

Yesterday (April 16th), we all got to find out our site placements for the next two years! I will be living in the Kuenene region in the town of Khorixas. From what I hear this is the heart of the Damara people which is fantastic because my KKG will be utilized here! My host family has a farm outside this town. I will be working with The Ministry of Health at the Khorixas District Hospital. I will find out much more once I get there and share with you all:)

Site Announcements (Map of Namibia on Ground)

KKG Class Site Placements

Mixed Emotions

Blog #6: Mixed Emotions

Monday, April 7th
My last few blogs I feel have been really logistical and I wanted to paint a picture for family and friends back home of my life here in Okahandja. This blog I want to try and focus on how I am feeling. It is a roller coaster.

Each week we have a resource volunteer that is currently serving come to be with us a week to provide their perspective and answer any questions we may have. Each one seems to agree the roller coaster continues throughout service. Just today I woke up full of energy and was super optimistic complimenting everyone near me and had a good presentation in KKG. Then by the end of the day, I feel conquered, overwhelmed and defeated.

I also have a hard time trying to determine the stressor. I don't know if it is the distance from family, friends and everything comfortable to me or Dad's death. Overall I am happy here, but I sometimes am swept over with this unexpected sadness. I am working on ways to handle all situations. A belief that has always comforted me is the only person to impress is God. I know I don't I need to impress Him for His acceptance, but the reassurance that the only Being I am here for is God is nice to have. I am someone that likes to please people, so taking all the people you know and the culture you are comfortable with and placing you in something completely different is quite difficult. As a people-pleaser, it can be wearing to try and honor and respect a family not your own, but treats you as such, and with a group of individuals that are in the same situation, but you still do not really have a great sense about.

My Personal Getaway

Random Thoughts...
One thing that I have gotten used to is coming home to a family and going to a church where I don't understand 97% of what is being said. I know I am being spoke to when I hear my name. My family speaks very good English which is helpful for integration, but English is only spoken when they want me to understand. I am very blessed in the respect that my family's mother tongue is Khoekhoegowab which is the language I am learning. This might help me pick up speaking or understanding faster. I try to pick out words and piece together the conversation, but my vocabulary is not extensive enough to form sentences most often.

A while back I quit thinking in US dollar and now I am thinking in Namibian dollars as my lunch allowance is in Namibian and that can quickly disappear if you continue to have that mindset. The rate is currently a 10:1 dollar ratio.

The food is not really a big adjustment here, but that is because I am also from Texas where meat is also a staple. All I have to do is go back to my country roots. I stepped away from my meat-centered diet when I was on my own, but I have adjusted back quite easily. I know crave meat and porridge for dinner. The porridge I kept reading about on other peoples blogs seemed so unappealing and bland and was so nervous of having that everyday. It is made from maize meal and is really easy to make. It makes me think of thick mashed potatoes that you eat with your hands. There is usually some meat juice sauce that you dip it in or you wrap the mai-i around some meat. Almost all meat has bones and is eaten from the bones - ground beef or boneless chicken is not really a normal commodity. I have started to enjoy eating food with my hands. My family stares a little bit at me when I eat with my hands, I think they find it amusing and that I am becoming a "true Namibian".

Cows Crossing Major Highway

The two biggest adjustments I have are cars driving on the other side of the road and no napkins anywhere. I still continue to look down the wrong side of the road before crossing the street. I just look up and down the road 6 times before crossing. And yes, no napkins! At first I thought they have a way to be cleaner or they wipe their hands on their clothes, but there is usually a damp washcloth that is shared or sometimes a small wash basin.

To end on a positive note, today I was picked to give a short introduction of myself to the entire class in my language and I think I did well! Another trainer who speaks KKG grabbed my shoulder in congratulations and had a huge smile on his face. My trainer was smiling during my presentation and another trainer who does not speak KKG, but can understand some, said that he does not recall a trainee that has spoken the clicks and the language so proficiently so early in training. I must follow this statement in saying that I am no where close to understanding or speaking at a level to hold a conversation more than 15 seconds, but this was definitely a proud and encouraging moment to continue in my efforts of language learning.

Also, for my family that wrote me letters prior to leaving, I was slowly opening them to last me during the entire training at least. I then decided I can always re-read the letters and am glad I did so. I greatly enjoyed every letter and each held its own unique personality from the individual. Thank you and I love you! I am so very blessed to have such support and love from home.

Looking Up

Tuesday, April 1st
Brand new month! Yesterday just got better and better! I practiced colors and food in Khoekhoegowab (KKG) with my host family. My Tima even got out spools of yarn with different colors to help me practice. They even teased my little 5yr old because I knew the colors better than her in KKG. She knows all the colors in English, speaks KKG and English fluently but does not know colors in KKG. A neighboring couple stopped by the house and the man actually visited Texas A&M University years back to observe the agriculture aspect. I believe he works in foreign diplomatic work and has worked in Europe and New York a couple of years.

IMPORTANT NEWS!!!! Today, my language teacher identified all four separate clicks that I was doing! This is the first time I did them all right! Now I just need to continue to practice so I can say it right every time!

Today my class' April Fools joke was to sit in on different language classes, most of them got a kick out of it. My teacher just told the attempted jokers to move on. He is very funny and teases us in class all the time. He is always jolly, but often looks serious. The head trainer fooled us all and gave us this detailed story of why we were actually getting our site placements today instead of in a couple of weeks. We all believed it for a few minutes, then realized it was still April Fools and he tricked us all.

Just got done presenting to an after school club today. My group goes tomorrow discussing "changing bodies" and I am also going to cook for my family. Wish me luck!

My host sisters and myself

Settling In

Wednesday, March 26th (5:20pm Nam, 10:20 US CST)

I have been living with my host family 8 nights and one day as of right now. I will try to work backwards as best as I can. I have started to focus on highlights of the day because things can easily turn from great to overwhelmed and you must stick to the positive to refer back to. Ever since I have adapted this, it seems each day has gotten better. I know it is also attributed to me getting more comfortable with my surroundings and making Namibia my home.

Tues. March 18th - Homestay Move-In
We learned basic greetings in the five different languages our class is learning. All 19 of us (trainees) went outside and separated into groups. We each had 10-15minutes with each language trainer and afterwards we were not let back into the Okahandja Municipality Hall unless we successfully greeted two trainers (they were very lenient).

My Everyday 8-5pm - Training Center 

We had several other sessions, but more importantly it was Homestay move-in day! Trainees began getting picked up at 5pm. Some walked home with their host family helping with their luggage, some were taken home with the PC busses and others , like me, we're picked up in a family vehicle. My host mom and cousin picked me up. I was a little nervous at what they were to think about all the things I was carrying, but their seemed to be no judgement.

The whole family speaks Khoekhoegowab and English. I don't remember what we ate, but it was normal and good. They all clapped when I said my host cousins name correct which has a click in it. The household consists of a a mother, father, 16yr old daughter, 17yr old cousin, and a 5yr old goddaughter. There is also a 20?yr old son and 23yr old daughter that have school in Windhoek and come home on the weekends. They also rent out the back room to another individual. The three girls share a room, I have my own room and the parents have their own room and bathroom.

My Bedroom for the Next Two Months

Wed. March 19th thru Friday, March 21
I am writing this a week late and all the days blur together. My language group, Khoekhoegowab (KKG) consists of myself, a 26yr old female "Julie" and 65 yr old female "Carly" with a 49yr old male "Jacob" teacher. (Sorry so scientific-like, I am trying to not identify anyone in case they do not want to be. The names are made up.) All are fantastic! Everyday is overwhelming during language session and you feel like your brain will explode at the end. One day the explosion happened during the session and "Carly" cried during session. She felt we were all ahead and she was so far behind, we reassured her that we (learners) did not know what was going on earlier. This helped and later she realized we are just going to be the crying group because I cried earlier in front of everyone.

I believe I forgot to mention that I cried sometime before I moved in with my host family. So, no one knew my Dad died yet and I felt like I was just holding this big secret. So before a session started, I got in front of the class through tears told them my Dad died last month so I may be more emotional than normal. I had not told any of the trainers or anything. So that makes two criers out of the KKG group.

Saturday, March 22nd
On this day we went to Heroes Acre which honors the freedom fighters of the country. We also went to the brand new Independence museum that just opened to the public on Friday. It was very nice. Each floor had a different theme and as you walked through the halls as you were walking chronologically through history.The only thing that was different was that nothing was in glass casing - everybody could just touch things, maybe that will get added. There was some really beautiful paintings depicting the fight for freedom and victory. We also went to the largest mall in Namibia (2stories tall-say what?!?!) which we all got phones and I ate sushi. I am back to my original brick phone to talk to Namibians which now includes Group 39 trainees. We also went to this trade market and tasted "kapana" meat which is just fresh BBQ from what I can tell. We also went to this other more local market which consisted of sheet metal building (shanty town) and we danced in this one bar and all of the trainees made fun of us. I forgot to mention we were in a tour bus which was super fancy- it was comfortable and had air conditioning! I really enjoyed this day as it reminded me of how young this country is - only 24yrs old as of yesterday. The current president is only the 2nd the country has had. A term is 5yrs and a president can serve for two if re-elected. The first president served three terms because the first term was elected bury parliament and the last two by the Namibian people.

Heroes Acre

Independence Memorial Museum

Independence Memorial Museum

Independence Memorial Museum

Sunday, March 23rd
I thought my host dad was a pastor at first, but he is a translator and musician for the Betesda Church. The service is 1.5hr long, but we got there an hour early because my parents are in the Betesda Brass Band and wanted to practice a little. It gave me a little feel of home and reminded me of the Bethlehem Brass. The songs are in KKG, Bible passages read in English and the sermon is in Afrikaans and translated by my Tipa. It is an Evangelical Lutheran church. I sat with my host sisters and got a rough translation of the sermon. What was great about this weekend is my host sister and brother who are staying in Windhoek came down. Everyone was jolly and enjoyed having family in. I felt really connected to both and had good conversations, especially with the brother about the health, the comparison of living costs in America and Nambia, and the expense of Mac products. All my family members are very intelligent and have higher level of thinking and believe it is influenced by my host dad being a manager at the main water sanitation located in Windhoek. My host sister that I stay with travels also to Windhoek during the week for a better education.

Tues. March 25th
I just woke up happy today which is fantastic! I have a refreshing walk to class everyday which is probably half a mile and the mornings are so crisp! My 5yr old host sister says the dinner prayer every night. It is a prayer that she learned in pre-primary school and I really like it and think I will teach my children this prayer: "Thank you Father for the food we have to eat and never let us forget you and bless those who don't have food today in Jesus' name, Amen."


Wed. March 26th
Yesterday my Tima "Mom" told me that she would make me a dress for Saturday for cross-cultural day. I just passed it off. This morning before I went out the door she hurried to take my measurements for the dress and told me it would be done tomorrow afternoon. I could never figure out what she did as most of the children go to school during the day and she said she was at home all day. I found out that she makes clothes as an occupation. She went all the way to Windhoek to get my material even though she could of done that in town. I never quite know how my family feels about me even though they are very nice and this action made me feel very special! Today, I feel like Namibia is becoming my home.

Thurs. March 27th
I woke up missing Dad today and thought about him throughout the day. One guy in my group brought stuff to slack-line and I got to try that for the first time. I really want to do it often to improve my balance. (I don't want to be an old lady with terrible balance, so I must master the skill now!) We slaughtered a goat after class and most everyone got involved. I skinned a tiny bit and tried to do as much as I could because I knew Dad would be encouraging me to "get in there!" I was fine once the goat was dead, but I do not like the transition from life to death of the goat with use it still "baa-ing". We also got candy after one of the sessions which was awesome! I also looked up the Lord's Prayer in KKG and want to memorize it. Today was a pretty fun-filled day!!

Fri. March 27th
Today my Tima finished my dress! She has noticed that I have been wearing handkerchiefs as head-bands and bought the material to match my purple head band. She encouraged me to wear the head band with the dress. Khoekhoegowab is spoken by two tribes the Nama and Damara people. The Damara typically have a darker skin complexion and live in the NE part of the country while the Nama have a lighter complexion and live in the South. My family is Damara and my teacher is Nama. The dress she made for me is a traditional Nama dress. She said for my swearing-in she will make me a traditional Damara dress for when I do my speech in KKG. Both dresses are influenced by German settlers. I have neglected to tell you more about my 5yr old who is adorable and warming up to me more. We sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and some other song I was not familiar with. I also helped make mai-i which is a thick porridge you eat with your hands. I really like it.

Saturday, March 29th
So in short, all the languages had their own little area outside in the back of the training center and cooked their traditional foods. All were on cast iron pots over fire. My Damara-Nama group cooked bread, some goat dumpling thing, and pork stew. All the children were playing and everyone's host family was there. It was very nice, relaxing, and tiring. It began at 7:30am and we ate at 2:30pm. It was all super delicious and I got super full.

My KKG Language Class!

My Host Family :)

Sunday, March 30th
Today would have been my parents 29th anniversary. Today was just a crying day for me of mourning my Dad no longer being with me. My counterpart told me that days like yesterday are the days she misses her father because that is something she would have wanted to share. I think it also made me think of Whittaker gatherings cooking out back with everyone chilling. I spent most of the day by myself, updating this blog and went for a run finally. I am going to start carrying rocks to throw at dogs, they really are biting at your heels. I did not get bit, but I don't want to take the chances. I also played ultimate frisbee with some other trainees. So it ended up being a decent day to refresh my own well-being.

Monday, March 31st
So, guess what?!?! I am actually writing this on 3/31/14! Today language is actually making sense. I start off the day well, but then get discouraged by the end of the day when I have to get home and want to practice my KKG. Every time I say something it is not right and my family looks at me like I am crazy. I still can only do two of the four clicks so I interchange words all the time. I try to stay resilient, but it can get discouraging. On a positive note, my family found out I will be 23 on May 23rd and plan to have a celebration before I leave with a cake and everything!

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."

Week 0

Sunday, March 16th (12:52pm Namibian time and 5:52am CST)
Yes folks this last week was not even counted as one week of training as this past week is week zero. I only have 9 weeks of training instead of the possible 12weeks, so that is nice. I will do my best to explain this past week. You may notice that my post time is different than the time I write and that is so I can type my message and then go to the nearby cafe that has wifi and just post. Most everything is closed on Sundays here except the nearby grocery store, Spar. This past week feels like just one long day.

Monday, March 10th: Staging
My staging or orientation was in Jamaica, NY. For future volunteers, our training laid out as follows... 1-2pm was registration check-in, 2-7/8pm was orientation. It was mainly just a overview on the goals and expectations of Peace Corps and some tips. We got one short break as we wanted to power through. PC gives you a debit card to pull money from for food and travel expenses. They do not organize dinner and you WILL be hungry. Eat lunch, bring snacks and maybe even dinner! The Sheraton in Jamaica does not have any nearby restaurants. There is one inside the hotel, walk to a convenient store that has a Subway, or order food. So I guess there are options, but after a long orientation you are hungry and tired from traveling. P.S. You check out of the hotel between 6-6:30am the next day.

Enough complaining, you also get to meet all your fellow volunteers and become an official PCT (Peace Corps Trainee)!! There are a total of 19 health volunteers in Group 39, 14 girls and 5 boys. People are scattered from across the US, no one knew each other previously, but all are friendly.

Tuesday, March 11th 2014
So, what I forgot to mention is that I volunteered to be one of four leaders for our group to organize us through the traveling process. My specific role was to get everyone out of the hotel and onto the buses and ensure that hotel staff got tipped. I should never have volunteered because I have no clue about traveling and I am always the last one out of the house. So, everybody self-organized and I believe I came down right at 6am and one group was already getting on the first bus and leaving. Regardless, we did all get to the airport just fine. I was one bus #2. Bus #1&2 both got dropped off at the wrong terminal. We all got the the right terminal @7:30am, checked luggage opened at 8am and out flight at 11:15am.

I survived the almost 15hr flight with hopeful attempts at falling asleep and watching three movies (Mandela, Frozen, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid). There was a 6hr layover in Johannesburg then landed in Windhoek around 4-5pm on Wednesday, March 12th. The airport is outside the town and surrounded by land. Volunteers and trainees greeted us after customs with shouts of joy and maybe even a little dancing. Hot cakes and refreshments awaited us once we got to the car. Then another hour car ride to Okahandja. On the way there I did get to see what I call weedsatch that grew into trees, giraffes in the distance and the aftermath of a car wreck (not too bad of one).

We arrived at our home for the next 1.5wks at the Kukuri Center. More PC staff greeted us in song from a variety of Namibian languages including a click language which made me so happy to hear as I do find languages with click quite interesting. We ate a splendid meal then rested.

Group 39 Upon Landing in Namibia 

Thursday, March 13th
I am in a hostel-like set up and I am in one larger room with 6 other girls. I am on the top bunk of one bed. We had to set up mosquito nets with duct tape so slowly my corners fell on me and eventually I just turned on my stomach with my whole net resting on me and slept a couple hours longer. Today we had a couple more in-depth overview sessions with a rabies injection. We get tea breaks which consists of tea or coffee, a Kool-Aid like drink, and a small snack like muffins or sandwiches.

Friday, March 14th
Today is a short learning day. We only had an introduction to what to expect with our host families, and a bucket bath and clothes-washing demonstration. Then we were free to do whatever. I had a tour of half the town and stopped midway to watch the regional elementary and secondary school track meet. This was a lot of fun and brought back track day memories. From what I could tell, all the same events ,that would be in the states were thee except pole-vaulting. I got to watch a few longer distance races. All the children were barefoot, except for the white children that went to private school. The races were divided by boy/girl and two age groups 15+yrs and under 15yrs. There were over 10 schools competing and whoever wins qualifies for the national meet.  I got sun-burned, butwas able to watch the race by the time-keepers. One of the trainees was quite worried about my skin...she was right.

Saturday, March 15th
Trainers informed us that this would be our last free weekend for the nest couple of weeks, so I took advantage of this and did not do too much. I did learn and lose at the card game monopoly deal which was a good time. I forget to mention the food. I have not come across anything I did not like, but I also know that we are not eating the most traditional meals. I have eaten pork, beef, lamb, chicken, and fish that I know of. Friday I also got to eat a variety of wild jerky meat which was delicious and probably my favorite thing I have eaten so far.

Texas Independence Day

Today is Texas Independence Day and I leave this beautiful state in just 4 days. There are a countless number of things I will miss about my home - family, friends, landscape and good ole southern hospitality to name a few. One of the greatest things about Texas has left this world - my father. Exactly one month ago my dad died in a tractor accident. He has given me all a daughter could ask for - he loved me with a love that was so large. He was a proud father and supported my choice to accept my Peace Corps invitation despite the lack of benefits to him. His biggest apprehension was this commitment meant I would be living in the other part of the world for a long time. Despite his fear for my safety and his inability to be at my side in a moment's notice, he saw the passion in my eyes and desire in my heart that this was the next step in God's path for me. I like to think that he has an even better eye on me and a protective hand in Heaven.  "He was the biggest, baddest, loudest, and the most loving, passionate, generous man" but most importantly my dad. He was also the man that inspired my last post as he never would say goodbye. I was hoping to see him when I got back from this adventure, but I will just have to see him later in Heaven. For everyone else the next time I post might just be in Namibia! Off to New York now for my staging (orientation) date!!