Sunday, June 28, 2009

Wildlife

I've been in Namibia for over four months and so far I've seen giraffes, zebra, kudu, orex, baboons, and a variety of other assorted creatures. The bad news? No pictures of any of them. I know, I suck. Sorry Mom. At any rate I have been able to snap some pictures of some of my favorite local critters, and I will share them now....




Really big beetle. They seemed to love the grass at the Kukuri Center. Their furry-looking feet make them excellent diggers. :)


This picture is for my mom. She has the most irrational fear of moths, and I enjoy teasing her about it. Betcha cant wait to come visit!





This is my spider Bob. He's really big. I noticed him one night stringing his web from my windowsill to my jerry can and the original game plan was to sweep him outside, only I was too tired. The next morning when I looked he had somehow managed to trap a gigantic cockroach in his handy-dandy web. So he can stay! (Bob is up at the top, followed by a cricket he caught and the monster roach).






Praying Mantis. There are tons of them around my house and I love them because they eat lots and lots of bugs.





On the outside, it looks like a normal toilet........






But inside it's the home of Ronald and Reagan (thanks for the names sissy)!







Rara likes to pretend she is a lion. She lays on my porch and surveys the tall grass (and of course growls at anything that happens to walk by).






She's also likes to help with laundry. :)





Rara <3

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Feels like the first time.....



Thanks to some pressure from my little sister, I am now blogging! Thus far my updates have been sent through email, but its proved to be a pain for a variety of reasons so hopefully this works out better.


In honor of Keri's new blog, i have decided to share some photos from my last four months in Namibia! Hope you enjoy :)


I honestly don't think I'll ever get over the Namibian sky....



This is the welcoming mural at the Kukiri Center, where we had our Pre-Service Training.





Ashley and I had our Otjiherero language lessons under the grass hut every day :)





A beautiful cactus garden which was right next to our language hut...




The not-so-nice creature which came out of the garden...ya, that's a black mamba.




Benna saved the day.






Group shot with my family: (Top left moving counter-clockwise) My sister Drusilla, and her children Tandiue (age 9), Camerster (age 11), Tjizaa (age 6), and Victoria (age 6)





Victoria :)







Victoria and Tandiue playing in the backyard. The white thing in Tandiue's hand is a bunch of rolled-up plastic bags. That is what kids commonly use to play soccer here.

This picture was taken right before I left homestay for my permanent site. It cracks me up every time I look at it because Tandiue is making a marvelous face and Victoria is looking at the T.V. screen. The show that's playing is Camilla, a Spanish soap opera that is dubbed (horribly) in English. The drama is intense and for whatever reason many Namibians are really into it. By the end of training a fair proportion of Group 29 was hooked too!

My kids. <3>

I will just preface the next few pictures by saying Namibian food is great....if you like LOTS of meat! However, if you are vegetarian/PETA friendly (that means you Keri) you may want to skip these next pictures.


Important lesson learned: Herero men are not good at making fires. They struggled with this one for about 45 minutes until our training manager Linda and I showed them how it's done.


Peggy and I preparing the chicken for our meal.




Magreth hard at work.







Some of the girls from Nam 29: (from left) Myself, Peggy, Lindsay, Ashley, Shawn, and Amelia.
This picture was taken on our cross-cultural day. We spent the morning learning to prepare regional specialties from many of the different cultural groups in Namibia.




On our Host-Family Appreciation Day we bought a goat and slaughtered it.





My language trainer Richard. He loves warm Coca-Cola, Shamu #2, and throwing babies around. Ok that baby thing is a lie but the rest it true. (:




Richard working the braai. Its necessary to char the hair off of the hooves and head before they can be cooked.





Busy scraping the charred hair off of the hooves. Yummy ;)

Our trainers Linda and Raymond enjoying the chow. Linda is going to kill me if she sees this picture because she has a whole plate full of meat. Love you Linda!



My host-mom Barbara and I during our host family award ceremony.

This is a typical training day. We often lounged around on the grass during our much-needed break time.


Swearing in ceremony. We are now PCV's as of April 17, 2009! Whooooo!