6 Months!

OHMYWORD! I can’t believe I’ve been here for six months! I am SO excited that I’m still loving it here, despite my occasional ride on the struggle-bus at work. Also, every single member of Group 34 is still proudly here [knock on wood], which is mind blowingly awesome and completely unheard of! As Matt would say, ‘we don’t just survive we THRIVE!

6 months by the numbers/ilovemakinglists

-       Articles of clothing that have been destroyed: rainbows [casualty of swakop], and both my other pairs of summer shoes minus the chacos… hence why I now wear chacos everyday, but they are the most practical after all! A great number of shirts/sweaters are now rocking some sweet stains and assorted holes. But frankly, I still think I look good [in reality I look like such a bum compared to some of my colleagues]

-       cool animals I have seen roaming about: baboons, kudu, springbok, oryx, and all other assorted antelope, GIRAFFES, ostriches, peacocks, and dolphins swimming outside my house! Mission avoid-contact-with snakes is still a go.

-       Foods I have tasted [**and found out what I was eating]: mopane worms, owambo traditional beer, some part of a goat head, regular goat meat, tripe, kudu, springbok, oryx, and other assorted antelope, makakala, lots of pap aka porridge, many types of fish I can’t remember all the names

-       Interesting things I’ve seen: Hero’s Day in Okahandja, a couple of different kinds of church services, an Owambo Wedding, an Owambo funeral, a flashmob at the mall in Windhoek [awesome!]

-       insights I have found myself thinking often: I am totally ok with spending the majority of my monthly paycheck on baking supplies. Also, if it’s not email, facebook, news, or pinterest what do people do on the internet??? Why is there a kind of juice here that tastes like that pink medicine I had to take as a child?!!? Why do approximately 88% of my daily conversations revolve around the wind?! My feet are going to be continuously dirty until I return stateside…  it kind of magnifies my chaco tan though so it’s cool!

-       Number of bugbites: surprisingly few [apart from something that bit me on the face last week, that was an uncomfortable look], thank YOU wind for blowing most of the creepy crawlers away! Minus the flies, which I’m convinced spontaneously generate on a 5:1 ratio, as in every time I kill one in my classroom five more appear from nowhere… and the ant infestation in my house, which I am surprisingly apathetic about

-       Number of propositions I have received from people on the street: too many to count. But let me leave you with the latest entertaining one. The other day when I was on my way into Pep three guys stood in my way to stop me. One of them reached out his hand to shake mine, and didn’t let go. This is normal to an extent, but then he literally would not let go for way longer than usual as he talked to me. After I jerked my hand away I responded to his question of where I work, and he told me he must come see me there sometime. I said, ‘ahh I don’t think so I am busy teaching there.’ And he exclaimed, ‘ah but I must come set up a time….’ And I couldn’t quite hear what he said. I asked him to repeat himself two times, and I finally understood that he was saying he needed to set up a time for my body to be under his. Ok seriously, lame proposition, I expect more creativity. Of course, I responded with an inappropriate laugh and walked away saying I was busy. 

This was my backyard as I left for work a couple days ago... awesome

 

Top 5 Awkward Moments Thus Far:

1.     Far too awkward to ever go on a blog, but if you're interested email me! 

2.     The stranger sleeping in my bed incident

3.     So back in training as I’ve mentioned I didn’t get along so wonderfully with my host fam. They made tripe one night and sat and watched me swallow it down to be polite. They knew I hated it, but for some reason, decided to serve it to me again, 6 days later. However, this time they just brought it to me in my room. Well, I was pretty sick and tired of eating meals alone in my room by the end of training, and I also had a stash of peanut butter for my breakfasts/lunches. I proceeded to finish the jar of peanut butter on a sandwich, then put the untouched tripe wrapped in a napkin in the empty jar, and threw it away. The next afternoon I found said jar… emptied and washed of its contents, sitting in the pantry. No one said a word about their findings, but oh boy did I feel awkward.

4.     This would be a tie between that time when I had a crowd of Grade 7s dancing in unison towards me, and I was expected to know the dance, and the first day of school this year when I didn’t notice a teacher going in for a kiss on the mouth with me after we hugged each other [in front of about 20 other teachers]

5.     One afternoon recently I walked out of my classroom and noticed about 8 teachers hanging around. I went up to say hi to them, and one of them proceeded to rub my stomach and ask me why I was getting fat again. I was too shocked to speak because a) no one has ever said to my face that I’m getting fat b) I was wearing an outfit I thought I was looking pretty good in, and I've actually finally been getting back into shape! and c) I live in a town, where even though my movements are certainly watched, comments like that are not normal. Awk sauce.

Anyway, life is good here! SO happy it's March, and I'm starting to have things in the near future to look forward to :)