Happy Holidays....and my Permanent address!

Hello!


I know, I’m not as good at this blogging thing as I’d like to be, but here I am again! Let’s see how much of the last month I can recount…….

We spent a week at our permanent site to meet our supervisors and check out our town. Just to recap, I will be living in Swakopmund (or rather the San Diego of Namibia!). I really cannot believe how developed it is. As I said before in my previous post, it is definitely not what I pictured for myself in coming to Africa. However, there has to be a reason I have been placed in Swakop. I am really excited about being in such a beautiful place.

My week visiting was excellent. It was nice to be in a temperature that is about 20-30 degrees cooler than Omaruru (I think it’s around 70 or 80 degrees). There are many cute coffee shops in the area, along with everything else I will need. My Teacher Resource Center (TRC) is 1 block from the beach. It is about a 20 minute walk from my house. I met with my supervisor and discussed my job more in depth. I am very excited about working with teachers and building relationships. I know I will miss having a classroom of my own, but I know this will be a tremendous opportunity to continue to learn about the art of teaching.

The next week we moved in with our host families. I absolutely adore my family! I have a mother, father, and 4 teenage brothers! It is a very lively and loving household. My host mom and I have cooked a few meals together. I love learning new recipes and have found cooking to be quite a nice stress relief.

Our group of 58 has been split up for the month while we live with our families and concentrate more on our subject areas. All 8 of us TRC’s and Techie’s are here in Omaruru. Our days are jammed pack from 8-5 with workshops and language sessions. This week in particular has been even more packed. My group has been traveling to the other sites for what is called model school. This is the “student teaching” of Peace Corps. We have had a chance to observe many of our colleagues in their teacher role. It has been very impressive and exciting to see those with many years of experience and the novices work with the learners and take ownership of their classroom. It has also been great to travel a bit and experience a more rural setting.

Things I’ve seen that make me laugh:

· Donkey carts FLYING down the road,
· driving 160 km down a gravel road with lots of dips through a dried riverbed (seriously, it’s way better than anything at Six Flags!)
· learning a poem about Ouma and Oupa in Afrikaans
· watching “When You Are Mine” – the Mexican soap opera dubbed over in English. It is seriously hilarious AND ridiculous and every man, woman and child watches it nightly.
· Finding out the word for tissue in Afrikaans is ‘sneesdoekie.’ Haha!

I really hope you all are doing well these days. I know it is a busy time of year for many of you. It’s hard to think about the holiday season and the fact that it is snowing and cold in parts of the US right now. Please continue to send me emails, letters, etc. The mail system is really ridiculously slow, but don’t let that discourage you from sending me letters and anything else you would like! Honestly, anything that comes from my friends and family right now would be great! Pictures, cards, letters, magazines, newspaper articles…would really brighten my day J. If you want to send a small package, I could really use some lotion, as this dry air is taking a toll on my skin. Any other toiletries would be great too like pantene shampoo/conditioner, burt's bees chap stick, and deodorant. They are really expensive here and difficult to afford on a volunteer stipend.

****My Permanent Site address beginning January 6, 2006 is: *****

Pamela Lowry, Peace Corps
Teacher Resource Center
P.O. Box 1182
Swakopmund, NAMIBIA
AFRICA

Thank you for checking in!