Kajol's Peace Corps Blog

Morokeni all! (Good day, Rukwangali)

Blogging live from Namibia at the training center I will be staying at for the next three months until I move to my permanent site for the next two years. Week one of training is officially complete, and I am feeling inspired, energized, and ready to live out the next two years of my life here. While I do go through periods of homesickness and anxiousness from all the change and distance, my positive feelings outweigh the negative ones by a lot for now.

As I write this first blog post, I contemplate what I want to achieve with my words here. I started this blog as a way to keep my loved ones informed on my Peace Corps pursuit, and keep a public journal of my experiences to look back on for the rest of my life. I will now add one additional goal I hope to achieve with this blog. In sharing my experiences out here in Namibia, I hope to help break the single stories around life in the Peace Corps and life in Namibia or Africa in general. Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie refers to “single stories” as the over simplistic and false perceptions that people form regarding different organizations, countries, people, etc. The common single story that exists around Africa is that of a place of catastrophe without proper food, water, or other basic human needs. 

I look forward to having the privilege to share more about the Peace Corps experience and about the beautiful and layered culture of Namibia during my time abroad. With that being said, I hope you enjoy reading a bit into Week 1 of training during life in Peace Corps Namibia.

Training Life

Our training schedule is rather intense. I assume it’s because there are many things to learn in our short three months of training before we depart to live on our own at our independent sites for the next two years.

We start at 7:00 and end a little past 17:00, six days a week. Week one of training consisted of learning about Peace Corps policies regarding Health, Safety, Development Work, and Language! We are each currently learning five different languages: Afrikaans, Oshikwanyama, Oshindongo, Otjiherero, and Rukwangali. The language training is certainly challenging but also extremely rewarding and I look forward to using it as a key tool to integrate once I am placed at site.

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart

Nelson Mandela

Foodie Life

The food here has been great for me. While I do miss my sushi and Chipotle, the Namibian diet consists of a lot of meat and carbs, and very little veggies. If you know me, you know I don’t like vegetables, so there are no complaints on my end.

My Namily (Namibian Family)

Since arriving, our training group has been sequestering in our training facility. This means we have not yet gotten to explore the beautiful landscapes and geographies of Namibia, but we have been able to spend a lot of time with one another. My training group consists of 16 American volunteers and 39+ local Namibian staff who teach, tend, and care for us daily. As a people person through and through, the people here have been the best part so far.

The local Namibian staff greet us daily with new song and dance. They spread much love, care, and patience in teaching us how to navigate our assignments and integrate into Namibian culture. I look forward to gaining some rhythm with them and learning more about what their lively country and culture have to offer.

In the volunteer group, I am inspired by the talent that I am surrounded by. I am joined on this journey by alumni from Oxford, Notre Dame, Harvard, Wake Forest, UC Irvine, UNC Chapel Hill, Georgetown, McGill, and the University of Michigan to name a few. My peers come from a diverse range of work experience spanning from working in law, tech, strategy consulting, education, non-profits, and more. Albeit the most impressive thing about each one of my peers here is that they are each on this journey, demanding more out of life than climbing the corporate ladder with their impressive backgrounds. We are all here to learn more about the world, ourselves, and are hoping to do a little good out here in Namibia while we are at it. I cannot wait to learn from and develop deeper friendships with each and every one of them.

That is all for now folks, thanks for tuning in! Totsiens, tot later!  (Goodbye, see you later, Afrikaans)