You Can't Take the Sky From Me

hello sistersister and hikmet and anyone else reading,

how are things? i hope you are enjoying the end of summer. get in all those park runs, picnics and swimming you can.

it is getting hot here. so, i am enjoying all the cool nights and relatively sweat-free days i can. life here has been good. i want to say the term ended up well. and i guess it has. exams kind of sucked the life from me. exams and staff meetings. why we need to have a concensus and discuss (for an hour and a half?!) about the psychology of chickens, is beyond me. i don't know how chickens behave or think, and when it comes down to it, i don't really care.

we have our school reunion this holiday. that is why all the meeting and chicken debates. and debates on how we should serve food, debates on where we should sit, debates on if the letters are okay, debates on what should cover the table, detabes on....well, everything.

sitting through daily staff meeting and watching learners write exams would suck some life out of just about anyone. you want to debate that? fine, i'll say you win. i am on holiday, and no more debating for me :)

i am looking forward to a few days in windhoek and really, really, really looking forward to durban. after holiday, it is back to term three. i have a few things i want to accomplish this term, so it is going to be a "hit the ground running" start. let's hope everything works out. my little volunteer heart will be a little sad if they don't. i want to take a relay team to the swakopmund marathon, continue with my club (continue and improve upon), try and get some computers for school (crossing my fingers on that one) and get as many learners to understand as possible. semi-ambitious and very hopeful, i know. just got to keep trucking.

time for me to hand over the computer. i hope life is grand.

take care!

-abby

p.s. the title is from the opening song of a show i've watched. when i have bad days and when i have good days, the sunsets here always give me something to smile about. evening is becoming my favorite time of day. it is when i run and so peaceful....a great time to think

Harry Butthole Pussy Potter

Hello internet!

How goes life? I hope everything is fine and dandy.

We are nearing the end of term 2 here. Exams started and all that is left for me to do is mark entirely too many projects/tests/papers and pray that my learners pass their exams. I’m keeping my fingers crossed these next two weeks. Though, I must say…being on the teacher end of exams is quite different. If I had my choice, I think I’d rather be on the teacher-side, at least until the marking comes.

I must say, this term has been much better than I really had hoped for. There will always be those challenges and frustrations that you can’t escape, but I’ve really enjoyed, if not most, then a good part of this term. Teaching isn’t always my cup of tea, but the interactions with the learners and staff members was well worth it.

My run is always a highlight of the day. On days when I’m alone, the sunset and peaceful time to myself keeps me in balance. At least a few times a week someone will join me, usually for a few hundred meters. Most often the little ones tag alone. They laugh and have a good time with it. It is hard not to smile when you have a pack of rugrats running after you, having a good time. Once, I had this brand new cow join me for a little ways. Can’t tell you how amusing that was. I will say one thing, cows smell like cows, no matter what continent they live, eat and poop on.

Why did I title my entry after Harry Potter, you ask? (if anyone can tell what the title is quoted from, 10,000 points for you). Well, I re-read number 6 in anticipation of the last book, even if I can’t read it for several months. But also, it was my daily escape from reality this week. This week was kind of rough and an hour with Harry was more enjoyable than an hour of pointless worry. So, I got to thinking if I were an animagus (sp?) what would I be? I can’t say just yet, but it would be something good and preferably blue.

My club has started and I think by next term we will be moving along. I don’t know if it will do any good, but at least it is a place for the learners to relax and have a little fun.

Funny learner moment: The smallest boy I teach, Jeremiah, (he is grade 8 and about the size of a five year old) tried to erase my chalk board the other day….he couldn’t reach half way to the top. He kept jumping with the duster, and just couldn’t make it. He was trying to help and it was real sweet. He has taken to doing this little dance walk whenever he gets walks into/out of/around class.

Take Care blog fans,
-abby

help me one dollar

hello blog fans! a special hello to sister and holly's boy!!!

how are things on your side of the web? i hope all is well. these past few weeks have been great and these past few weeks sucked. i feel like i am really connecting and making a difference to some learners. if i don't teach them anything, at least i am a postive and steady factor in their lives. that is enough to keep me smiling everyday. i also silenced an entire class several times this past week with one stern reprimand. i can't tell you how empowering that felt to little quiet me. :)

at times, it is tough being a woman here. especially a small woman. most times, i just deal with the proposals and attention and demeaning comments/attitudes, but it gets trying. this past week i've had a lot of namibian men moments. it is enough to make a girl avoid all contact with men here. but i don't. i keep things very vanilla boys here and it works with the guys with are "friends". friends is in quotes because women and men don't really become friends like they do it the states. it just doesn't happen.

ending the blog on a happy note. one month from now i will be sunning myself on the beaches of durban :). i'm really looking forward to everything about this trip. i'm visiting evan. i've got a great traveling group (a bit big, but meh...it will make the 2 day bus ride more interesting). curry. sand. and vacation. what could be better?!

take care blog fans

-abby

p.s. "help me one dollar" is the standard i see a white person, white people give us stuff, calling i hear at least 10 times a week. sometimes more.

There's a Snake in my Boots...

heeeeelllllllllooooooo internet,

i haven't exactly been a diligent blogger. i'd like to say, that will change....but probably not. i apologize blogger fans.

Life here is the same as it usually is. get up, walk to school, teach and hope these learners understand at least half of the words leaving my mouth, come home, run, watch a cheesie soap with the roomies, sleep and repeat. yet, i'm still finding something if not entirely interesting, at least amusing everyday. being able to amuse yourself with the simple stuff....big asset in peace corps. often times, it is the run that saves the day. little kids join along for a bit. they laugh and last about 200m, but is a refreshing 200m. amazing that having happy people around for a few minutes will do to the mood.

last week on my run, i saw this baby goat (called a kid, i think). baby goats are so cute. loud, but cute. he was so lost and scared. crying for his mom, running around in this little circle. kind sad, but quite touching. i had to stop. mom was no where i could see, so i said an "awwww" and continued. i'm pretty sure that adorable baby goat is no more. i saw a dog stalking just around the bend. that might make me kind of cold hearted, seeing a helpless animal and running along, even after i saw that dog....but such is life here. animals get eaten. even the cute ones. sorry baby goat. i'm a bitch.

ending on something positive....i'm starting this "club". i'll give more details when i know for certain that it will materialize in all its glory. but, basically, i'm trying to encourage/build self-esteem/maybe impart some great abby-wisdom. there's more to it, details to follow. but, basically, kids (especially OVCs...the members of my little army, i mean club) are beaten in every possible way here. i figured i could do something about it, so i'm going to try. see, i'm not a complete bitch.

i hope all's well in your corner of the world. :)

Term Two

hi to all....

how is everything? i can't say life is too exciting for me, so i hope you all are having a blast and i can live through my way cooler friends.

the second term started two weeks ago. i must say, term two is looking much better than term one already. for starters, i know what i'm doing...sort of. at least, i'm a whole lot more confident in my bluffing. the learners are still little brats at times, but i love them. one of the best things coming back was seeing my learners again. the certainly make life interesting (as interesting as life can be in the middle of nowhere namibia).

this past week was a little rough. everything just seemed off. but, you'll have that at times. i'm looking forward to a weekend of being a bum and spending too much time reading.

well, that's enough for now. more boring details of my life to follow :) i hope all's well.

-abby

Life's a Beach

heeeelllllllooooooo internet,

i have yet to tell anyone about this blog, so right now it is almost masturbatory. that might not be the correct usage of the word, but my english skills have been fading. kind of funny (not funny ha-ha) how fast you can lose something you don't really use. people can't understand proper english, so i don't speak proper english...and it just becomes natural. luckily, my num-chuck skills are still well preserved.

i have been on holiday for almost a month now. i like holiday, i like holiday a lot. i've started to get attached to my learners and am starting to almost-enjoy my site....but nothing beats traveling. getting out and seeing a different namibia is great. and it really is like traveling to another country.

i'll outline more of holiday later (maybe) but for now, it will be my trip to swapokmund. when you've been in hot dry ovamboland for the past couple of months, swakopmund is refreshing in sooo many ways. first off, it is cold! i wore a fleece most of the time. there is the ocean, there are these incredible sand dunes, and good food. walking along the beach never gets old.

seeing so many white people and so many tourists was a little odd. in a way it was nice not to stand out so much, but it was also a little disconcerting. mostly, because i didn't like being grouped as an uninterested tourist who isn't very nice, doesn't really see or experience anything past the cute shops and unoriginal knock-off american food. i hope i'm not becoming a snob...maybe i am.

anyways, time to grab some food. while in windhoek, get like an american :) hope life in grand!

-abby

Taste the Good Times

hello to those of us with too much time on our hands,

i hope life is good in your corner of the globe.

i'm in town today, and decided to stop by the peace corps office. well, that is nothing new. this office is like my home away from home away from home away from home. it has books, a computer (with internet, obviously) and air conditioning. i could spend weeks here and be nothing but content. i don't. i'm a good PCV and go teach these learners. well, i try to teach. i try to keep class fairly enertaining because if anything, the learners have something to look forward to. i'm fairly certain many can barely understand any english, let alone an american accent. so i do what i can, while making an ass out of myself... i have found that embarrassment is funny, no matter what language you speak.

what else is new....

spent the week in windhoek at a meeting. so much pavement is a little surreal when you are used to dumping piles of sand out of your shoes after every run.

gotta cut this short. gotta hand over the computer to other eager and internet-happy PCVs.

-abby

p.s. "taste the good times" the slogan for tafel lager, namibia's popular beer. funny slogan because there is little good about beer tasting like warm, dirty bath water