Translation: My name is Ashley
So! After almost a year of waiting, planning, and talking about it I am finally in Namibia! FIRST POST FROM AFRICA! It was a really long flight that wasn't so pleasant but I survived it and thankfully don't have to do it for another year. There was bad turbulence the entire flight and it was a 15 hour flight. Who likes 15 hour flights?! Thankfully there were good movies to catch up on and a wide variety of music. After landing in Joburg for our layover we had to run, literally run, to catch our connecting flight. Getting through customs and immigration in Namibia was the easiest thing we had to do all day yesterday. From the airport we arrived at our hostel in Windhoek, the capital, where we met up with the rest of our group. We had about 1.5 hours to regroup and then went straight into meetings beginning at 2. It was a huge struggle to stay awake but prevailed and was in bed before midnight even happened. We experienced our first braai last night. A braai is a cookout. We had chicken, sausage, pasta salad and regular salad. It was delicious but so late! I was falling asleep eating haha. Needless to say, I slept like a baby last night. We were up early this morning for more training and meetings on Namibian culture and culture shock. It was interesting but nothing I hadn't gone through when I had orientation in Costa Rica. Although, some of the cultural things are interesting and all the rules they have about elders and how to be respectful. You have to shake their hands and curtsey when you meet them. When you talk to them in a greeting you have to look at the ground. That is only in some cultures. From what I gathered the Himba and Herero are really laid back as well as understanding. They appreciate you trying to attempt their language. I still don't have much information on my school so I am trusting and praying that everything works out. We are guaranteed a bed, dresser and a fridge so at least I know I will be getting those things haha. We had our lessons on hitch hiking and traveling safe. It should be such an experience and I am sure I will have tons of stories to go with it because we have already heard some. We had our first language training session!! I was so excited to start learning my language! It is called otjiherero. Our teacher, Remsey, was very good and organized. I actually learned a lot! I'll show a few words below. There are about 4 of us learning it so it is very personal and one on one. He makes sure we are pronouncing the words correctly and understand what is going on.
Thankfully we have the rest of the day off to chill and catch up on things. We have about 2 more weeks left of training before we go to our sites. We leave to start our teaching practicums on Sunday and tomorrow we head to the stores to set up cell phones. After tomorrow I will be as connected as possible. We can't set up our bank accounts until we get to our towns so there will be a day dedicated to do that.
Otjiherero 101:
Ami mba za ko Amerika ko New York: I come from American from New York
koko: no
Moro: Goodmorning
Metaha: Afternoon
Hwenda: Evening
and since I am posting this as I am going to bed... raree nawa (Sleep well)
No comments:
Post a Comment