Monday, December 31, 2007

Where is Amy today? Monday, December 31

Arusha, Tanzania
From Dar es Salaam they travel through vast sisal plantations to Arusha. On the way they pass the Pare and Usambara mountain ranges before driving through the town of Moshi. Moshi is the base for Mount Kilimanjaro climbing expeditions and weather permitting; they may even catch a glimpse of this magical mountain’s snowy summit - a photo opportunity not to be missed! Tonight they stay in a lovely campsite in Meserani on the outskirts of Arusha, before heading out excursions to the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater.






Time in Tanzania


Sunday, December 30, 2007

Where is Amy today? Sunday, December 30

Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania
After several relaxing days in Zanzibar, they return to the mainland and stay in Dar Es Salaam again before starting on their last leg of the safari.


View Larger Map





Time in Tanzania


Recent Nam 25, Nam 26 and Nam 27 PCV bloggers, news and information for the month of December

Support World AIDS Day

New Era newspaper article about the launch of Nam 25 PCVers, Will and Beth's HIV/AIDs CD project: Namibia Alive Volume 11

Save the M-Bag!!


All Nam 25 bloggers

Nam 25 bloggers active lately:
Amy
Zambian Border (12/19)

Victoria Falls and the kwacha (12/15)
Livingstone, I presume (12/13)
Itinerary for my trip (12/5)
Links to photos of our trip in August
Amber
Beth
Brock
Coppelia
Jay
Matt
Michael


All Nam 26 bloggers

Nam 26 bloggers active lately:
Briana
Chris
Justin
Ami
Elise
Scott

All Nam 27 bloggers

Parent, sibling, relative or friend of a Nam 27'er? Have questions? Want to ask someone who's been there? click this link:
PeaceCorpsNamibia Yahoo group

Nam 27 bloggers active lately:
Dave

Eric
Jessica
Maria
Beth
Jill
Rashid
Aly
Sarah
Nicholas

Other Namibia Peace Corps Blog links

Link to previous list of recent blogs (November 2007)

Recent news from Namibia

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Where is Amy today? Tuesday - Sunday, December 25-30

Zanzibar, Tanzania
History aside, Zanzibar offers a wealth of experiences for the visitor. Today the quiet streets of the old Stone Town still retain their Arabic influence, from the Medina-like shops to the palaces of the Sultans, who founded their vast empires on the spoils of the slave and ivory trade. The island is famous for its spices and an excursion around a spice plantation is always a fascinating experience. Other options include a trip to the beautiful beaches and giant tortoises of Prison Island, a full day scuba dive in Nungwe or a fishing trip in a traditional dhow. Mopeds are available for hire if you’d like to explore the more remote areas of the island. Zanzibar is a seafood lover’s paradise. Numerous restaurants offer a great variety of the freshest catch from the ocean - crayfish being a popular speciality. Alternatively, mingle with the locals for dinner at the Forodhani Gardens seafront market, where delicious, inexpensive seafood is on offer.

View Larger Map

About Zanzibar


Weather in Zanzibar






Time in Tanzania


Monday, December 24, 2007

Where is Amy today? Monday, December 24

Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania
This morning they make their way to Dar es Salaam from Iringa, where they stayed last night. They pass through the Mikumi National Park where it is possible to view a range of wildlife from the roadside, totally impervious to the passing traffic. On arrival in Dar es Salaam, they make their way to a lovely seaside campsite and prepare for their departure to Zanzibar the next morning.

View Larger Map

About Mikumi National Park

About Tanzania

About Dar Es Salaam

Weather in Tanzania




Time in Tanzania


Sunday, December 23, 2007

Where is Amy today? Sunday, December 23

Iringa, Tanzania
Not quite sure if this is where she is, but according to her last email and their itinerary, they might be moving their schedule ahead by 2 days. If so, then after a relaxing 3 days, the tour leaves Malawi, entering Tanzania through the border post at Songwe. Taking in the beauty of the Tukuyu tea and banana plantations, they head towards Iringa where they spend the night in a beautiful rustic ‘Farmhouse’ campsite famous for its Amarula Hot Chocolates and its steamy showers!










Time in Tanzania


Friday, December 21, 2007

Where is Amy today? Thursday - Saturday, December 22

Malawi
Leaving Zambia the tour crosses into Malawi, the ‘Warm Heart of Africa’. They stop off in the capital, Lilongwe, a small city distinctively divided into the old town and the new administrative centre. Malawi is a landlocked country with 20% of its total area made up of beautiful Lake Malawi. They will travel the full length of the western side of the lake, stopping off at various bays and inlets over the next 3 days.

View Larger Map


About Malawi

About Lilongwe

Weather in Malawi



Time in Malawi

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Zambian border (email from Amy)

You meet interesting people when you are hiking. On my way up to Livingstone I met an Angolan diamond smuggler. "Where does your father live?" he asked me in a reserved voice while sitting close to me in the combi. I responded that he lived in America. "Would he be interested in buying any precious stones?" No, as a matter of fact, my father is not in the market for any blood diamonds from shady Angolan immigrants...I think I will miss these things in America. You just don't meet people like that in your day to day life there. I am on the border between Zambia and Malawi at the moment. Tomorrow I head to Lake Malawi It looks like I will be spending Christmas in Zanzibar, so I may be completely out of touch for a while, but have a very Merry Christmas without me.

Where is Amy today? Wednesday, December 19

Chipata, Zambia
From Lusaka they head north east to a beautiful little campsite just 10 km before the Zambia/Malawi border. Here they spend the night before heading into Malawi.

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Photos on Google Video from Chipata, Zambia




Current Time in Zambia

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Where is Amy today? Tuesday, December 18

Lusaka, Zambia
An early morning start from Livingstone sees the tour head north through southern Zambia to a campsite on the outskirts of Zambia’s capital city, Lusaka. The campsite is home to some local wildlife including the largest antelope – Eland.





View Larger Map. Zoom in to see the maze of city streets.



Current Time in Zambia

Monday, December 17, 2007

Where is Amy today? Monday, December 17

Zambia
The overland tour begins today in Livingstone, Zambia. It will end in Nairobi, Kenya in 21 days. A link to the description of the tour is below the map.


View Larger Map


Link to the Overland Tour page


Amy's itinerary

Amy's latest email

About Zambia


Current Time in Zambia

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Where is Amy today? - Friday, Saturday, Sunday, December 14 - 16

Victoria Falls, Zambia/Zimbabwe


View Larger Map
Click the yellow placemark above for an aerial video of the falls. When that video ends, there are another dozen short videos you can view at the bottom of the video screen. Zoom in/out, change views or scroll around using mouse or controls in the corners.

Map of Victoria Falls Area

About Victoria Falls

Current Weather and Radar for Livingstone, Zambia


Victoria Falls and the kwacha (email from Amy)

Hey everyone,

I'm doing well. I saw Vic Falls yesterday. I have decided not to go see the Zimbabwean side because the visas are just too expensive and Ifigure that it probably looks pretty much the same as this side.Victoria Falls is a very large waterfall. I don't know how else to describe it. Even if I sent pictures they'd be the same pictures everyone takes (Google "Victoria Falls" and save me some internet time.) First we went to a place called the "Boiling pot" basically it's the very bottom of the Falls. This sounds nice and easy, but the Zambezi river is a bit high right now, so once we got to the bottom of a large staircase we had to wade knee deep through the river in the middle of a tropical rain forest. Luckily, nothing and no one fell in. Today I went to the Livingstone museum. I'm still getting used to the currency. The exchange rate is high here (the local currency is kwacha and 3400 kwacha= US$1) so everything looks expensive. It's a bit strange buying a loaf of bread advertised at "only" 2000k. Plus, they don't have coins, everything is notes, and the smallest note is 50 kwacha (about 1.5 US cents) so you carry around these big wads of money.) I meet the tour that takes me to Nairobi tomorrow. I
don't know how regularly I will be able to send email, but I'll try to keep you all updated as I continue on this crazy trip.

Currently Reading: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Much Love.

Peace,
Amy

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Where is Amy today? - Thursday, December 13

Katima Mulilo, Namibia to Livingstone, Zambia
The plan is to cross the Zambezi River at Katima and catch a ride from a tourist or locals and to get to Livingstone by afternoon. She will stay at "Jolly Boys" hostel for the next three or four nights and meet, Patrick, who will be her traveling partner for the next month. Patrick is a PCV teammate of Amy's who COS'd the week before her and made his way to Livingstone via Botswana a few days before Amy.

***Update: I just "chatted" with Amy on Gmail at 9 AM (5 PM her time). She got in an hour ago. She walked across the international bridge at Katima and got a bus there to Livingstone. She said it was nice to have her own seat and no live animals aboard. It is pouring and everything she has is wet but she has a hot meal, a dry bed and three days to stay in one place before the tour.

See her email sent just after we signed off


View Larger Map
Click on placemarks and lines above to see locations and distances. Zoom in/out, change views or scroll around using mouse or controls in the corners.


Click for Livingstone, Zambia Forecast

Livingstone, I presume.(email from Amy)

So,

I am safe and sound, at last, in Livingstone Zambia. On Tuesday I hitchhiked from Windhoek to Grootfontein. Then, in a marathon bit of hiking I made it all the way to Katima Mulilo on the Zambian borders yesterday (in extremely overcrowded Ford Ventures whose drivers insisted on playing Thimbukushu Pop music full blast and blatantly ignoring the 3 meter signs that consisted entirely of a giant triangle with an exclamation point in it and one word "ELEPHANTS.") This morning I took a taxi from the backpackers where I spent the night to the border, which I walked across. Nothing makes you feel quite so much like a refugee as walking across an African border carrying everything you own on your back. I managed to rebuff the moneychangers (it's not a good idea to change money with random guys talking in fervent whispers and holding wads of cash just outside of border posts.) While I was inside the Zambian Customs Station (which sort of resembled an impoverished 19th century schoolhouse, well scrubbed oak tables and neatly kept, hand printed registration books where I had to neatly pen my name.) it started raining, no, actually the proper word is pouring. The taxi pulled right up to the bottom of the stairs outside the customs house and in the two seconds it took me to get inside I was soaked to the skin. When we crossed the Zambezi river it was raining too hard and I was too busy trying to keep the front windshield clear of fog, that I didn't even notice. The taxi driver let me off in the town of Seshike. So, without a kwacha to my name (I paid in Rand) I boarded an overcrowded bus and here I am, in Livingstone. In Dark Star Safari Paul Theroux says that traveling is like going back in time and that's what this place sort of feels like. You have the muddy streets, the vibrant street markets, the decaying old buildings, and the beggars, crazy people, street performers and other random people vying for your attention. If Namibia is what the Germans imagined Africa to be, properly ordered with schedules and neatly lined streets and little German frau dresses everywhere, then it sort of makes sense that this is Africa as the British imagined it, muddy and sort of disordered with everyone sort of going about their own business. I stay here a few days, then on to Lusaka and beyond. Finished Middlemarch on my crazy hike. Seems a little strange whilst barreling past mud and reed huts and tropical rainforests, but whatever.
I'll keep you all updated.
Much love
Amy

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Where is Amy today? - Wednesday, December 12

Grootfontein to Katima Mulilo
Amy got into Grootfontein at about 8:30 PM (Namibian time)last evening and stayed with Skye, a Nam 26 volunteer. Her driver brought her right to the house. She caught a ride this morning at the hike point outside the city in a Chevy Venture minivan with 9 other people bound for Rundu. We talked to her this morning at 2:30 PM (Namibian time)in the van about 70 km from Rundu. She plans to get to Katima Mulilo and stay in a hostel by tonight. She also has the option of staying with another Nam 26 PCV in Divundu, 215 mi. from Katima Mulilo. She sounded happy and excited.



Click to view larger map
Click on placemarks and lines above to see locations and distances. Zoom in, change views or scroll around using mouse or controls in the corners.

About the Caprivi Strip and Katima Mulilo

Click for Rundu, Namibia Forecast

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Where is Amy today? - Tuesday, December 11

Windhoek to Grootfontein, Namibia
At 6:30 AM (CST) this morning (2:30 PM in Namibia), Amy was in Windhoek waiting for a ride at the hike point. She just got a ride to Otjiwarongo as we finished talking and was hoping to get to Groootfontein by this evening.




Click for Grootfontein, Namibia Forecast

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Itinerary for trip (email from Amy)

OK, here's my itinerary for my crazy trip. Just in case you were interested.

December

3-leave Anker, hike to Windhoek
4-Windhoek, COS (close of service) interviews and stuff
5-Windhoek, COS stuff
6-Windhoek, COS stuff
7-Windhoek, COS stuff - Last day as a PCV
8-Windhoek, hanging out, staying at Jason's
9-Windhoek, hanging out, staying at Jason's
10-Windhoek, hanging out, staying at Jason's
11-Hike north, probably stay at Rundu or Divundu
12-Katima Mulilo, Namibia- probably stay at a hostel or something
13-Cross the border into Zambia, hike to Livingstone, staying at
Jolly Boys (a youth hostel), Vic Falls stuff
14-Livingstone, Zambia- Staying at Jolly Boys, See Vic Falls from
the Zambia side
15-Livingstone, Zambia- Staying at Jolly Boys, See Vic Falls from
the Zimbabwe side

Overland tour - link to description

16-Vic Falls, the overland tour begins
17-Livingstone, Zambia
18-Lusaka, Zambia
19-Chipata, Zambia
20-24 - Lake Malawi, Malawi
25-Iringa, Tanzania
26-Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
27-29 - Zanzibar, Tanzania
30-Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
31-Arusha, Tanzania

January

1-Ngorongoro Crater, Tazania
2-Serengeti Game Park, Tanzania
3-Arusha, Tanzania
4-Namangana, Kenya
5-Nairobi, Kenya-overland tour ends

Continued travels

6-Leave Nairobi, fly to Cairo
7-17-Cairo, Egypt
18-Leave Cairo for Chiang Mai, Thailand via Bangkok (train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai)
19-29-Chiang Mai, Thailand - Staying with my friend Miah
30-Returning home via Bangkok, Taipei and Seattle
31-Arrive home in Minnesota!

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Friday, November 30, 2007

Recent Nam 25, Nam 26 and new Nam 27 PCV blogs, news and information for the month of November

New Era newspaper article about the launch of Nam 25 PCVers, Will and Beth's HIV/AIDs CD project: Namibia Alive Volume 11

Save the M-Bag!!


All Nam 25 bloggers

Nam 25 bloggers active lately:
Amy
my week and my trip (10/27)
Links to photos of our trip in August
Amber
I call them the "okamati mafia" (11/9)
Counseling (11/2)
Andrew
A Tour to End Two Years (11/12)
Photos of the tour (11/12)
Beth
Happy Thanksgiving! (11/22)
Brock
I'm still alive (11/16)
Caitlin
The beginning of the end (11/7)
Caroline
Coppelia
5 new posts (11/28)
Manic Lunatic is my name (11/26)
my sister's birthday (11/25)
Nam 25 at our close of Service conference in September (11/20)
Open letter to my midnight friend (11/15)
Capetown Visit (11/7)
Fun with Lee and Isha (11/7)
Irene
Fire threatens to take school, then doesn't (11/2)
Jason
Update from the void (11/10)
Jay
Updated Plans (11/2)
Matt
Michael
The Exodus begins (11/18)
Welcoming the Younglings (11/4)
Pam
Two years gone by (11/29)
Meme Pamela (11/21)
Nam 25...We made it! (11/15)
Make than monkey dance (11/1)

All Nam 26 bloggers

Nam 26 bloggers active lately:
Briana
Chris
Justin
Ami
Elise

New Nam 27 bloggers - Just arrived in Namibia November 1!

Parent, sibling, relative or friend of a Nam 27'er? Have questions? Want to ask someone who's been there? click this link:
PeaceCorpsNamibia Yahoo group

Dave in Namibia
An Adventure Awaits
Letters from Overseas
The Elephant in the Middle of the Room
A Nacerima in Namibia
A Carolina Gamecock in Namibia
A Bit Off
Life in the Desert: Beth's Namiban Adventures
...so you might as well dance
Natalie, Namibia
Sand in my shoes
2ndGenerationPCV
a big fat two year trip dans Afrique
Under the Namibian Sun
here goes
It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us
A stranger in a strang(er) land

Other Namibia Peace Corps Blog links

Link to previous list of recent blogs (October 2007)

Recent news from Namibia

Friday, November 23, 2007

Save the M-Bag - Peace Corps Community Advocacy Issue

Background information

On May 14 the U.S. Postal Service eliminated International Surface Mail (M-Bag). This is the method used extensively by NPCA affiliate groups, returned Peace Corps volunteers and friends/family of currently serving Peace Corps volunteers in supporting grassroots efforts in many rural schools and communities in our countries of service.

USPS now offers airmail service only, which in most cases has tripled (or even quadrupled) the cost of shipping items overseas. This has shut down many projects not only with RPCVs but other non-profits, church groups and school groups.

Several groups (Friends of Malawi, African Library Project , One World Childrens Fund, among others) are compiling a list of non-profits and other groups who are protesting the elimination of International Surface Mail. This list will be sent to the Board of Governors of USPS as well as to Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA), the Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which oversees USPS.

Take action now


An interesting Chicago Tribune article about the M-Bag

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Recent Nam 25, Nam 26 and new Nam 27 PCV blogs, news and information for the month of October

Parent, sibling, relative or friend of a PCV serving in or going to Namibia? click this link:
PeaceCorpsNamibia Yahoo group


All Nam 25 bloggers

Nam 25 bloggers active lately:
Amy
my week and my trip (10/27)
Stuff (10/12)
The educational tour (10/8)
Links to photos of our trip in August
Amber
"At what o'clock?" - Achilles (10/12)
Beth
Happy Halloween! (10/31)
Phenomenal girls of Mariental (10/15)
What I get to wake up to (10/5)
Reminder about the Mtal Girls conf $ (10/2)
Readathon in Namibia (10/1)
Brock
The beginning of the end (10/10)

Caitlin
Hunger Pangs (10/23)
Why do we stay? (10/4)
Caroline
Coppelia
Pictures (10/29)
My South African Excursion... (10/17)
The End is Coming (10/16)
The wonders of Caroline 10/15)
It's a girl (10/15)
Medical (10/14)
Fun, fun, fun (10/7)
Irene
She didn't know what she wanted (9/26)
Jason
It's cold (10/10)
The prizes are out (10/9)
Time to award (10/3)
The Tech Squad goes North (10/1)
Matt
Michael
Internet outage (10/23)
Pam
Now lets just get everything out into the open (10/3)
COS Conference Photos (10/1)

All Nam 26 bloggers

Nam 26 bloggers active lately:
Ben
Scott
Kate
Briana
Lindsey
Chris
Justin

New Nam 27 bloggers -Leaving for Namibia October 31!

Parent, sibling, relative or friend of a Nam 27'er? Have questions? Want to ask someone who's been there? click this link:
PeaceCorpsNamibia Yahoo group

Dave in Namibia
An Adventure Awaits
Letters from Overseas
The Elephant in the Middle of the Room
A Nacerima in Namibia
A Carolina Gamecock in Namibia
A Bit Off
Life in the Desert: Beth's Namiban Adventures
...so you might as well dance
Natalie, Namibia
Sand in my shoes
2ndGenerationPCV
a big fat two year trip dans Afrique
Under the Namibian Sun
here goes
It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us
A stranger in a strang(er) land

Other Namibia Peace Corps Blog links

Link to previous list of recent blogs (September 2007)

Recent news from Namibia

Saturday, October 27, 2007

my week and my trip (email from Amy)

So,

It's been a bit of a difficult week for me. Eleven of my grade 6 learners ate concentrated cleaning powder (they thought it was powdered sugar) that had, I think, caustic lye in it. Most of them spit it out and were only mildly hurt (although, by that I mean that Queen had a badly blistered tongue and Selma told me that her eyesight went yellow and then red.) But Mercia, Papou, and Thusnelde swallowed some of it and almost died. They were going into seizures with their eyes rolling back into their heads and they were throwing up white, foamy vomit. Papou in particular was very very sick. Someone had taken some of the extra cleaning powder and put it in the tap so she went to get a drink of water not knowing that it had poison in it. Anyway, eventually they took them to the nurse who gave them some sort of injection and they're all OK now, but it was very very scary for a while. I didn't see them until the next day, but they were still sleeping under like three blankets each (and, I know that doesn't sound like much, but we are approaching the middle of summer here. It's been between 90 and 100 degrees F at noon.)

This weekend I went to Otjiwarongo for a Halloween/Thanksgiving/Goodbye party. Several volunteers are leaving in two weeks so we all got together and ate good food and enjoyed each other's company and some nice movies and conversations.

As far as my crazy post-Peace Corps trip I have a tentative itinerary. I COS (close of service) on December 7 in Windhoek. I then attempt to get to Victoria Falls. I probably will hitchhike and it will probably take me 2-3 days. On the 18th I leave Vic Falls with a tour group we go through Zambia, Malawi (including Lake Malawi), Tanzania (including Zanzibar), and Kenya (including the Serengeti.) We end on January 5th in Nairobi. From there I fly to Cairo with a friend (possibly via Dubai or Adis Abeba) and spend a little over a week seeing the sights. Around the 18th of January I fly alone to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Then, near the end of January or the beginning of February I end up back in St. Paul (via Bangkok, Taipei, and Seattle.) That's the jist of the trip although a lot will probably change.

OK, that's about all I have for now. Lots of love to you all.


Friday, October 12, 2007

Stuff (email from Amy)

It rained today. You cannot imagine the sound of rain on a tin roof in October. It is unimaginably beautiful. It hasn't rained here since February. When I heard it I started laughing and I had this visceral joy. I went outside and I felt it on my skin and I started crying, my tears mingling with the raindrops. This probably seems really melodramatic (and it might be- It wouldn't surprise me to discover that a few screws are loose after my time here) but it was my real reaction. I hope it rains a lot. One drought year (like this year) is like a major depression for the people here. They have to sell some of their animals or they will starve and the prices are halved. But two drought years spell bankruptcy and World Food Programme emergency porridge and malnourished kids. The last really bad years were in the 80's. They were telling me about them and these things are recurrent. Anyway, rain is like hope. It is beautiful and it soothes the soul.

Tomorrow I go to Windhoek for a week for my final medical checkups (so they can make sure I'm not bringing back Ebola or Typhoid or something.) Exciting, but I'm trying to save up my money for travel afterwards and Windhoek is not conducive to frugality. So, hopefully I can resist the movie theatre and the used book store and the restaurants. Other than that, it's been a thoroughly ordinary week. Take care.

Monday, October 08, 2007

The educational tour (email from Amy)

Sorry I haven't written in a while. This weekend was the educational tour to Etosha. We thought that we were going to have to travel in the back of three bakkies (pick-up trucks) but the day before we found out that we had procured a bus. The bus was big enough (unlike the one last year) but it was on its last legs (which here means that it will probably be half-repaired and limp on for another dozen years or so.) Every time we stopped, started, turned, or accelerated it would backfire and lurch into place, throwing people and luggage in every direction. There was also a ten cent coin stuck in the horn that completed a circuit, so every now and then we'd have 30 seconds to a minute of solid honking. Before we could leave Etosha we had to hunt down a fan belt because, apparently, we had been driving with a terribly threadbare one. Plus it didn't help that every time we moved the driver ground the gears something terrible. I am not entirely certain that he ever actually used the clutch.

As to the food situation-it was rather ordinary for here. We left with a goat carcass, 12 cabbages, 30 loaves of bread, a case of margarine, plus a large bag of rice, so the kids were eating mostly rice, cabbage soup, and lots of margarine sandwiches. The teachers, however, brought extra "good" food (i.e. strange meat) to supplement the diet. Perhaps you have never been in a situation where you were unable to refuse a pickled fish sandwich for breakfast, but, trust me, I'm speaking from experience her, you start eying the kid's plain margarine and jam sandwiches with more than a little envy.

There is nothing quite so culture-shocking as Etosha with village kids. Etosha is very touristy and fancy. One of my kids pointed out a two story house with astonishment and told me that he would never stay in a house like that because he was afraid he would fall off and die. Stairs aren't necessary in a place with ridiculously low population density. Even in Outjo, the nearest large city, there are only a few buildings with two stories. Almost everyone in Etosha dresses in khaki on khaki with a large camera on a neck strap and a German accent. They eyed my kids with just about as much curiosity as my kids eyed them.

My kids were separated by the gulf of their poverty and naivete about the world outside the village just as the tourists were separated by their wealth and their ignorance about the realities of life in Namibia. They cannot conceive of each other's worlds. Both of them are stuck just looking at each other. We hold apartheid in our hearts- black from white, rich from poor, young from old, Western from African- all of these are small potatoes compared with the true isolation- me from everyone else. We are stuck in the provincial homelands of our own heads. People ask me sometimes why apartheid is still a problem 17 years after it ended. To me it's not strange that it's still a problem, to me it's a miracle that it's not more of a problem, bridging, as we are, the bottomless abysses that separate us, one from another, with the toothpick and dental floss bridges of our own resources.

As for my plans after the Peace Corps, I think that I will not be home for Christmas (you can't count on me.) I will be doing a little traveling with some friends. Right now the plan is to go to Victoria Falls, then Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Kenya, and take a plane from Nairobi to Cairo, a little while in Egypt and then probably home. Just a little jaunt through Africa. I'm going to try to do it on some limited resources, so it'll probably be a bit of an adventure. I'm hoping that I don't run out of money and end up living on 20 cents worth of bread in Cairo or Bucharest or something, but (to comfort my parents and grandparents and all the rest of you who worry when I say stuff like that) I'm pretty clever and I have young, tough bones. I can survive a lot. I'll be going with friends, as I said, so I'll be pretty safe and, particularly, I'm going with a guy to Egypt, which is nice because it's hard to go to Egypt alone as a woman. Anyway, I'll let you know more as I know more.

As for the reading update- Read Collapse by Jared Diamond over the holiday (very good- not quite as good as Guns Germs and Steel, but few things are really paradigm shifting like that book was and still definitely worth a good thorough read), also almost finished Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky (very dense, but very good), and I'm halfway through Middlemarch. I haven't really been reading as much lately, but I'm hoping to change that.

Anyway, That's the good word from this corner of the world. Hope everyone in that neck of the woods is doing fantastic.

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Yahoo group for relatives and friends of PCV's in Namibia

If you are a parent, sibling, relative or friend of a Peace Corps Volunteer who is in or going to Namibia, there is a Yahoo discussion group set up for you. It was originally set up by a parent of one of the Nam 24 (2004-2006) volunteers and was quite active through the first year of the Nam 25 group (2005-2007). It hasn't been active for a while though. I would like to see if there is any interest to continue it and am willing to continue coordinating it for a while.

It is meant to be a forum where widely scattered (or nearby) friends and relatives of PCV's serving in Namibia can contact others who are in the same situation. It is also a place where those of us who have been through it already can answer questions, and offer ideas or advice. Discussions can be about just about anything that you are interested in relating to your PCV who is away from home. Topics have included: phone calling tips, mailing advice, travel and trip advice, sharing stories/photos/links, communicating projects and fund raising, announcements, emotional support, news, blog links and many other areas. There is a place to post photos, files and other items of interest.

You can look through past messages without being a member. But, if you want to participate in the discussion, you should become a member of the group. If you are interested or know someone who is, you can sign up to become a member and I will add you to the group. You can then decide how much you would like to participate: ask or answer questions, have new posts sent to your email or just listen to others.

The group is moderated by me but information about who you are and whether or not you want people to contact you is controlled by you. You can subscribe or unsubscribe at any time. The list will not be available or given out to anyone else and messages not involving the purposes of the group will be deleted.

So, if you want to check it out click this link: PeaceCorpsNambia Yahoo Group and browse or follow the directions to become a member. Pass this post on to anyone who you think might be interested or contact me via the comments link below this post if you have questions.

Thursday, September 27, 2007