It’s been almost two weeks since I arrived in Windhoek. Classes have started, I’m staying with my host family, and I’ve worked at my internship site. So, while the pace of my life is starting to slow down and become constant, I still have a lot to talk about.
The three classes I’m taking are African Politics, Racism and Resistance in Southern Africa and the US, and Religion and Social Change. Another course, in which I am not enrolled, is the Development Process. Since that seems like a great course (and the instructor – a Clark grad – is really cool) I will be going to it sometimes just to observe. My politics class may be somewhat repetitive for me, since I took a Sub-Saharan African issues course last fall. The readings for the first week were readings I had done for that class at Clark. The history course (Racism and Resistance) looks promising – we went to a museum focusing on pre-colonial Namibia for our first class. The first meeting of Religion and Social Change is tomorrow. Our first assignment is a creative autobiographical religious road map. A little overwhelming, but I really liked the readings, so I am looking forward to the class.
My host family is really cool – there are three kids ages 13, 17, and 19 and two parents. Most of the family went up North for a wedding this weekend, so just me and my 17-year old sister, Girliy, stayed at the house. The family is pretty well-off and seems very similar to families at the states, so I’m not necessarily getting the “traditional” cultural experience that I was expecting. I am definitely feeling at home with them, though, and through that experiencing Namibian family dynamics, as well as learning about their views on politics, current events, and celebrities.
My internship has started and it seems like it will be challenging, but I will be doing a lot. In addition to the literacy program, I will be creating a new issue of their newsletter, hopefully creating a new template so that the staff can update the newsletter instead of relying on interns, and doing administrative work. The literacy project begins almost immediately – I have introductions tomorrow and start the program on Monday – and I am feeling underprepared. The Ministry of Education donated some materials, but my co-worker told me they were not well-received during the last session. I am working with adult women. They are HIV positive, and because of their lack of English language skills they have a lot of difficulty communicating with doctors and having their health needs met. I will be doing a lot of preparation this weekend, trying to get ready, but I know that until the program actually starts I won’t be able to predict how it will go. To that end, I will spend the semester developing a literacy program manual that future interns, trainers, and teachers for the organization can use. Between that and my newsletter template, hopefully I will have done something sustainable and provided the organization with tools they can use even after I have left.
On a slightly less academic note – still having a great time getting to know the city. I’ve made some friends from UNAM and the College of the Arts and met tons of great people. I went to a really great spoken word session at a cool venue called the Warehouse…unfortunately spoken word is only once a month, but I’m sure I’ll be going to the Warehouse more often that that for music shows as well. I saw some great local musicians at the music festival I went to in Zoo Park, and on Friday night I went to the College of the Arts Theater for comedy night. It was supposed to be all female comedians, but some guys performed in drag. Also been going to different cafes by day and clubs by night to try and find my niche in the city. The social atmosphere is a lot different than in the US, but I’m figuring it out.
This was a long post, congratulations for making it through it all! I have class in half an hour, so I guess it’s time for me to stop rambling and go drink some coffee.
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