One Hour in a Day

Yay! 3 months later and I’m finally caught up. This post will, in real time, sum up my life from the past 2 weeks! Hopefully I can stay on track from here.

I’ll talk a little bit about the people who have made me feel so welcome already! My housemate, Auxilia, is a Grade 12 maths teacher from Zimbabwe. Grade 12 finished external exams 2 weeks ago, so she has been done teaching and marking since that time. After school, her and I have pretty free schedules. I’ve met and befriended lots of colleagues through her, like Sylvia (the first teacher who welcomed me here) and Kasona, a nurse at our local clinic, from Kenya. They have all been so welcoming and fun to spend time with! We bake together–Auxilia has taught me how to make pap (porridge from maize meal) and fantastic bread rolls, and Kasona taught me how to make chapati (Kenyan flat bread) and a bean-coconut curry. Kasona had a baby last year, so it’s fun to be around her son, who is my niece Natalie’s size (makes me miss her more though). Kasona also has a fully stocked kitchen, so the last few weekends and weeknights we’ve cooked at her place. Last Sunday, we threw together a 3-course meal (lentil soup, chicken and rice, then homemade ice cream). Other times we just make rolls and eat them straight out of the oven. They are like my adopted aunts; they remind me so much of my ciocias. The only thing we’re missing is a deck of cards to play threes and some Polish egg nog. (don’t worry though if any of you are reading, you can’t be replaced!). We just sit around, make small talk, poke fun at each other, and enjoy each other’s company. And in the process I’m learning so much about Namibia, Kenya, and Zimbabwe all at once (and now picking up a few words in swahili and shona here and there). All three ladies are also trying to lose weight and/or get fit. So these past few weeks we’ve gotten our daily walk routine down. Every morning, my alarm goes off at 4:30, I roll out my bed to quickly change and brush my teeth, and we’re at the road at 4:45. We walk a brisk ~6km–down to the main road and back–starting under the stars and the moonlight, and ending watching the sky wake-up. It is so incredibly amazing. Plus, as most of you know, I’m not the biggest fan of sleep so I love utilizing all the sunlight possible in a day. By 6/6:15, I’m back home to take a quick shower and a bite to eat before staff briefing starts at 6:40. Plus, the temperature is great in the morning; the last few mornings I’ve actually been cold and am considering breaking out my ear warmers and gloves. According to my phone, it says the lows at night only get to the low 60s. It feels so much colder though! It must be the contrast; it’s usually stays around 100 degrees from 11am-4pm.

My school has been busy the last two weeks with exams. Each grade normally writes (i.e. takes) 1-2 exams per day. The rest of the time is allocated for review sessions and studying. While at school, I’ve spent the last two weeks helping to invigilate (i.e. proctor) classrooms, mark (i.e. grade) exams, and read books from the school library. So, there’s not much for me to do during this time in terms of teaching, which means I have lots of time to work towards other personal goals and invest in well-being activities.

After school ends at 1, I make the short (50m) walk to my home and cook myself a nice lunch. I’m having a lot of fun trying out recipes from the Nom-ibia Peace Corps cookbook, as well as ones I’ve brought with me. Then it’s the hottest time of the day so I usually lay down and read a book, work on a paint-by-number, decorate my room, think about my garden, plan what to eat for dinner (so much of my brain is about food). At around 6, I usually go for another walk or jog, sometimes by myself and sometimes with someone who didn’t make it on the morning walk. I’ve also been doing a lot of goal setting, to help me make sure I don’t waste this period of unstructured time (which I’m sure I will look back on so fondly when I start teaching). So, some of my Phase 2 goals (both personal and PC): read a book a week, start my garden, train for a half marathon, make posters for my classroom, review my syllabi, learn where all the countries are, study 200 sifwe verbs, figure out how to make baguettes, memorize all grade 9 learner names (my future students!)… and the list goes on. Writing down the goals is step one, yeah? If you have any more I should add, or if you want to take part in a remote goal with me (let’s read a book at the same time or run one day a week “together”), talk to me! Let’s just say I’m having fun with all my free time. There’s so much to do and so much to learn!

I also got my new P.O. Box! I’m not allowed to post it so if you want it, send me an email or something on the contact page, or reach out to my mom! I hear packages are pretty reliable and (unfortunately) letters frequently get lost. Speaking of, my mom mentioned a few of you sent me letters! Thank you so so much, I can’t wait to get them. Sadly, so far during PST only one of them (from my mom) made it. I still have hope that the others are making their way through whatever mysterious paths mail goes through, it just will take even longer to get to me since when they arrive to Windhoek, they won’t be forwarded to me, they’ll just come with the next person who leaves the office to come up to my region (which I don’t think is too often). So, I hope you didn’t assume I’ve been a bad pen pal (even though that’s a very valid assumption), and I hope I get to read your words soon!

That’s all from me for now. Happy November! Enjoy the leaves (or the snow probably already) and Thanksgiving and wearing flannels and scarves and sweaters! When you’re cold, think of me. I’ll be sweating.

Oh, a note on my post title! I’ve realized I’ve been an official volunteer for about 1 month. I can’t believe how quickly that went! So, 1 month down, 23 to go. And there’s also 24 hours in a day, so it’s like I’ve already experienced midnight-1 am in the day of my Peace Corps service. I don’t know how that’ll sound to your brain, but to me that seems so fast… And like in most days, it’s necessary to sleep through some hours to get energy for the day to come. Phase 2 will be my gathering energy time. Good thing I don’t like to sleep too much. And also good thing I’ve been practicing getting up early; I’ll be ready to start the day and my service right when the school year starts!

I hope you’re still with me after that analogy… here’s some pictures: