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.

Silas Fincher news article

Charlotte Observer July 8, 2007

OUR TOWNS

Remodeling teaches kids about work ethic

Life lessons include responsibility, value of working toward a goal

SARI MONACO

Lee and Christy Luce and their children Nicole, 12, and Cooper, 10, remodeled their Weddington home recently. They put a large addition on the back to extend the family room, and created a new master bedroom and an office for Lee.

This left the master that was previously upstairs as a new game room for the kids -- well-deserved, because this family knows cooperation and teamwork.

Everyone sacrificed something in the process, but what they gained outweighed nights of frozen dinners and pizza deliveries. The Luces are intent on making the house they purchased last year into a home. They took on the huge project because they could see potential in the 1979 rustic farmhouse.

They endured months of dust, plastic tarps and inconvenience. But lots of folks take on remodeling projects. So what makes this family different?

The Luces are trying to instill a strong work ethic in their kids. Young Cooper was handing tools out the second-story window to dad at age 9. And because Lee is a contractor, he can teach Cooper to do home repairs himself.

Working on the home helped the kids develop a sense of responsibility and teach them that if they want something, they have to work hard for it.

After all, they remodeled their last home in Charlotte near the Arboretum. The family attends Christ Lutheran Church in Charlotte and chose to remain for the fellowship and kids' programs instead of moving to a closer place of worship.

"When you relocate your family, you have to keep some consistency in the children's old friendships," Christy says.

Family is a priority for the Luces. In the summer, Christy works shortened hours at UNC Charlotte as coordinator of graduate student teaching so she can be with her two children and transport them to summer activities. Nicole loves tennis lessons; Cooper enjoys soccer.

The kids were instrumental in choosing their bedroom decor. They chose paint colors, but mom painted every wall herself in her spare time and stained all the baseboards and window frames. Lee put in the wood floors and hung light fixtures and the antique doors Christy hunted down.

She is an avid antiques collector who scouts bargains on eBay and other Internet sites. Her favorite haunt is Metrolina Expo. Lee owns Luce Building and Remodeling.

A house project like this, according to Christy, "Takes a lot of patience and the family has to be committed. ... If one person is not on board, it won't work."

Book drive benefits Africans

While American students enjoy their summer vacation, children at the C Ngatjizeko Primary School in Namibia, Africa, are attending class.

Peace Corps worker Silas Fincher is located there and sent word to his congregation at Matthews United Methodist Church that the Namibian primary school desperately needed children's books.

Patrick Henderson, a marketing teacher in Weddington, heard of the need and proposed that his members of the Distributive Education Clubs of America help.

This past fall, Weddington High School DECA conducted a book drive coordinated by marketing students Rachel Donlin and Danielle Brockmann.

With the help of all the DECA members, Pat Kowalo, Hillary Steere and Brigette McSheehan's marketing classes, more than 1,000 books were collected and delivered to Weddington United Methodist Church.

Madeline Kamp packed and shipped all the books to Africa before the Christmas holidays. Before this school year ended at Weddington, DECA members received many pictures and thank-you letters from the children who received the books.

If you want to contribute, see http://silasfincher.myblog.com/

OUR TOWNS Sari Monaco

Article in Amy's hometown paper

Click to enlarge

From Hatchville to Namibia

---

From Hatchville to Namibia

By AMANDA LEHMERT
STAFF WRITER
This winter vacation, Erikka Loftfield feels overstimulated.

Her family's Hatchville home - buzzing with people to chat with and things to do - is a world away from what she has grown accustomed to in her Peace Corps outpost in Namibia.

Erikka Loftfield, left, says she knew very little about Africa before the Peace Corps assigned her to a teaching post in Namibia, where she has 90 students and runs an after-school program for girls. (Photo courtesy of Erikka Loftfield)

The tiny Namibian town of Bethanie has one store, a post office and a bank that is only open on Mondays, 2 to 4 p.m. There, life is all about her job as teacher, mentor and volunteer.

''I go to the little shop there and I have one choice of peanut butter. Here, I walk around the grocery story and I don't know what to do with myself,'' Loftfield said.

The 2001 Falmouth High School graduate has been teaching English and science in the African country since 2005. This week, she returns to Namibia, where she will complete the last 11 months of her two-year commitment to the Peace Corps.

Between her pre-med undergraduate work at Cornell University and plans for grad school, Loftfield applied to the Peace Corps and was accepted to work for the U.S.-based worldwide volunteer effort.

When she was offered the job in Namibia, she did her research.

''I knew very little about Africa, actually,'' she said. ''I was very shocked about how little you can know about a part of the world.''

With a long Atlantic Ocean coastline in the western part of the country, Namibia is bordered by Angola to the north and South Africa to the south in sub-Saharan Africa. The country gained independence from South Africa in 1990.

A mostly rural country, Namibia is plagued by AIDS, with nearly 20 percent of the population affected by the deadly disease.

Loftfield's Peace Corps teaching adventure began at a secondary school in Karbib a year ago. Last spring, she moved to the little town of Bethanie, a rural community first settled by missionaries.

In a holdover from the country's domination by Apartheid South Africa, the line between black and white is distinct in Bethanie.

The blonde-haired, blue-eyed Loftfield stands out among the all-black student body. She lives in a flat at the school's hostel among about 90 students, many of whom hail from the poor outskirts of the region.

''You see more integration then there was in the past, but it's slow,'' she said of race relations in Namibia.

Loftfield teaches natural science and health, subjects that include lessons about dessert ecosystems and prevention of malaria and yellow fever.

The official language in Namibia is English, and students are taught exclusively in English after fourth grade. Still, some of Loftfield's seventh- and eighth-graders must translate for other students who have yet to master the language.

''On paper, it all works very well. But application is more difficult than that,'' she said.

She does plenty outside the classroom, too.

Loftfield runs an after-school program for girls and an AIDS-prevention program sponsored by UNICEF. The UNICEF program tries to build children's self-esteem.

''Just to get them to the point where they can say 'no' is sort of a novel idea,'' she said.

Loftfield is also among the Peace Corps volunteers who run a youth leadership camp that brings together kids from across the country so they can interact with Namibians from different tribal backgrounds.

''It's really just a venue to get kids together and realize they are working toward the same goals,'' Loftfield said.

Despite the tough work and sometimes lonely existence - Bethanie has very few residents Loftfield's age - working with the children has made her feel purposeful and welcome.

''I'll walk to school in the morning and I'm tired and grumpy, but they're happy and singing,'' she said. ''It makes it easy to be there.''

(Published: January 7, 2007)

Copyright © Cape Cod Times. All rights reserved.

Jason featured in his hometown paper

This was from the Idaho Press- Tribune on 12/30. The link didn't work so I posted the text from the article:


Idahoan helps to connect Africa

Jason Sears has lived in Namibia for a year helping to
spread technology, and he's ready for more

By Adam Ross - Idaho Press-Tribune

Jason Sears has fielded plenty questions during his holiday time back
in Idaho, there's just a couple he can do without.

"The worst is when people ask 'what's Africa like?'" Sears said.
"There's just so many things you can say."

But Sears didn't return from a vacation in Africa, he spent a year in
the southwest nation of Namibia as a Peace Corps volunteer, and will
soon head back to the land for another year of service. In Namibia,
Sears is lending his lifetime of computer knowledge to a nation
devoted to fixing its broken educational system.

"They spend a lot on education," said Sears, a graduate of Boise State
University. "Only 30 percent (of Namibians) graduate from 10th or 12th
grade."

Those who do get through the school system quickly find that there
are few career options in a nation whose main natural resources —
diamonds, uranium and fishing — are mainly exploited by foreign
countries. As part of the Peace Corps' Information Communication
Technology (ICT) project, Sears gives computer training to young
Namibians, teachings that are usually not available in a nation with
widespread areas still without electricity.

Traveling across the globe to live in a country that is only 16 years
old (after gaining its independence from South Africa) was a huge
decision, but one that was not entirely unexpected.

"It's definitely in-line with his character," said Jason's mother,
Esther Sears. "It took a little getting used to, but we're extremely
proud of him. He's accomplished a great deal and has made a huge
difference."

Sears' life in Namibia began with spending a month with a local
family, learning the skills that he would need on his own — such as
washing laundry in a basin and taking a bath in a bucket.

Sears spent his introductory weeks in a city neighborhood, but would
be doing his teachings in the poverty-stricken "locations," areas
outside the cities conceived during the apartheid era where the black
population was once forced to live. The locations still remain, with
neighborhoods frequently constructed out of crude metals and wood.

"It's amazing to walk through," said Sears, who attended Boise's
Capital High. "It's in not like (in America) where you see someone and
say 'hi,' there you have to stop and have a conversation with people,
and sometimes they invite you in and serve you food."

The same enthusiasm that thrilled Sears throughout the villages was
also present in his classroom, with students eager to learn computer
training. A challenge facing Sears as a teacher was that his students
had no access to computers at home — all of the skill building had to
happen during his limited classroom time.

"Traditional teaching won't work, because we would have such a mix of
experience levels," Sears said. "We ended up doing project-based stuff
like making movies, and had the less-experienced students learn from
the others. Unless they apply what they learn there's no chance they
will remember the skills."

The technology training is seen by the locals as a way out of the
villages, which have no economy to speak of and a heavy concentration
of AIDS infections and alcoholism. The latter is in part a result of
Namibia's beer culture, with residents frequently brewing their own
beer and often setting up their small house as a makeshift

Back home in Boise, Sears was met with an unwelcome greeting — cold
temperatures. Sears eventually grew accustomed to the constant triple
digit temperatures of Namibia, heat so assaulting that pants and
long-sleeved shirts become the preferred defense against the sun's
rays. Before leaving for Africa again on Jan. 2, Sears is busy raising
funds for the ICT efforts in Namibia. Sears and his partners (a group
of Namibian students who applied to teach alongside him) need
financial help with their bus travel from village to village they make
throughout the year.

Beyond a couple unanswerable questions, Sears has found it easy
adjusting to American life again during his brief stopover at home.

"Some people were worried that I would be a totally different person,"
Sears said. "But we've picked right up from where we left before."

How to help

Jason Sears is raising funds to help with transportation costs related
to his cause in Namibia. Any small donation will be greatly
appreciated. To donate, visit Sears' Web site at www.mindofjason.com

Copyright 2005 Idaho Press-Tribune. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or
redistributed.

Camp shows African boys the American way of life

Luke Heinkel is a Nam 25 PCV in Opuwo, just NW of Amy about 70 km.

Camp shows African boys the American way of life

By Chantel Balzell - Daily News staff

Johannes Halunga, 14, and Aly Shatika, 17, both of Namibia, Africa, enjoy water sports at Camp Deerhorn near Rhinelander. (Photo by Chantel Balzell/Daily News)

Johannes Halunga, 14, and Aly Shatika, 17, are like brothers. They attend school together, they play together and they arrived at Camp Deerhorn together.

But unlike many campers at Camp Deerhorn, Halunga and Shatika flew in from Namibia, Africa.

“I was very excited, but nervous in the airplane,” Shatika said. “It would have been scary to come alone.”

For both Halunga and Shatika, their trip to Camp Deerhorn was the first time they left their villages in Southern Africa. Arrangements for the two to visit the camp were made by Luke Heinkel, a recent University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate who joined the Peace Corps and is teaching at their boarding school.

“I asked how was your country and said I wanted to be there to see how life is,” Shatika said.

Heinkel, a former camp counselor, wrote letters to the camp directors, asking if two or three students could temporarily stay. Heinkel also raised money to pay for their airfare expenses through online sources and various contacts.

“We thought it was a fantastic idea,” Camp Deerhorn owner and director Susan Broadbridge said.

Halunga and Shatika have stayed at the camp for almost a month now. When they talk about their experiences at Camp Deerhorn, their eyes glisten and they flash a conspicuous grim. From the the food, the activities at the camp and the American way of life, Halunga and Shatika say “it's very different.”

In Namibia, Halunga and Shatika attend a boarding school from first through tenth grade. Classes are from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., afternoon study is from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. and evening study is from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. When school is not in session, the two must wake up at 6 a.m. to plant “mahangu” or millet, which is used to make porridge. A typical Nambianmeal includes porridge and bread, and occasionally a small portion of chicken and rice. Sometimes, Halunga says, there is only enough for a spoonful of chicken.

“The food here is delicious, and there's so many different types of food,” Halunga said.

Camp Deerhorn has also exposed Halunga and Shatika to new outdoor activities such as softball, tennis, golfing, swimming, horseback riding, canoeing, hockey, skiing, basketball, riffling and arts and crafts. Back home, they mostly played soccer.

“The United States is a beautiful country,” Shatika said. “It's so green.” Here, they say they can carelessly lie under trees without worrying about wild animals. While the two disagree on whether or not there are cheetas in Namibia, both acknowledge that elephants, warthogs and lions reside there.

Although Halunga and Shatika are enjoying their stay here, they must fly back on July 15. Both say they are not looking forward to leaving, and hope to come back soon.

“Maybe in 2007,” Halunga says.

They will miss the counselors, assistant counselors, team coaches and the friends they made at the camp as well as watching television. “It's very cool here,” Hulanga said. Both are thankful for their opportunity to visit and for the treatment they have received at the camp. “The camp has wonderful people,” Shatika said. “May God bless them all.”

from Rhinelander Daily News July 12, 2006

Link to a newspaper article about the swearing-in ceremony

Article in " The Namibian" newspaper about the swearing-in of Amy's Team

US Peace Corps marks 15 years of service in Namibia

And another one in "New Era" a few days later.

Peace Corps Volunteers Welcomed

A PCV's parents visit her

Here is a link to a Melanie B's web page. She is a volunteer who is one year through her service and her parents just visited her from North Carolina. Check out the current photos (red starred). Her archive of emails is a long read but mirror Amy's experiences so far if you start at the beginning.

Mel in Namibia…a Peace Corps Experience

See drafts for a copy of jossi in Namibia

Volunteers end their terms in Namibia

Kristin: "Leaving on a Jet Plane..."

Shannon: Coral Pink Sands 12/02/05

Jonathan: My two years in the Peace Corps

Chris: I'm home