though this blog has now officially been laid to rest, see new blog, there will, in the coming days/weeks, be a few more posts. these will mainly consist of selected journal entries that were written with the intent of posting but never made it, as well as photos that i think it'd be nice to share.
All of these 'afterthoughts' as i'd like to call them, will be referenced in my new blog where i am trying chronicle the uninteresting and unproductive ways i spend my days.
I hope you enjoyed and will continue to do so.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Homecoming.
SO... I probably should have wrote about this sooner, and excuses are like assholes, so I won't bother with one.
I'm back in the US. Like so many things, my Peace Corps service and time in Namibia ended before it was finished. The details are boring, and the story is full of frustration and unanswered questions and medical concerns with, as of yet, no definitive answer.
But here's a taste. I got really sick in late september. local nurse and doctor at katima hospital thought it was malaria. I was put on malaria treatment (twice actually) but didn't show any signs of improvement. I was finally brought down to the capital so that other doctors could get a look at me. Shortly thereafter my symptoms started to resolve, but i still had some anomalies in my white blood cell population. Now, having been in the caprivi region of africa i know what you're thinking, and it's none of your business. But if you must know, it's not HIV. The anomalies are in the population break down, not the overall population. An abnormally high eosinophil count of unknown eitology was declared. No parasites were found (also no signs of ever having had malaria, good thing i had been put on quinine, cause that was fun), and I no allergies were discovered or reactions observed that could be positively linked to the over production.
Since the next step in logic pointed to either faulty tested, or more serious conditions (see eosinophilia/hypereosinophilia, etc. if you're really interested) I was sent home to get looked at by more doctors, and since it was felt that it would take longer than 45 days for stateside doctors to figure out what was going on they powers at be medically separated me rather than giving me a medical evacuation.
I've been home since mid november so at least they were right about how long it'd take to figure it all out.
For those of you that are wondering, I feel fine. The eosinophilia seems to be resolving (the counts while not back to normal range have been successively lower since leaving Namibia). The whole medical ordeal is keeping me busy with paper work, but i'm starting to get the hang of it and i've only had to spend about 40 dollars so far (and i'm just a few forms and approvals away from getting that reimbursed.)
So there it was. I'm back in the US. I'm living at home and trying to find a job. I'm missing Africa and my namibian friends and family.
Oh, and if you're wondering about the assholes comment at the top, everybody has one, that's how they're alike.
Till next time,
RPCV Jefu
I'm back in the US. Like so many things, my Peace Corps service and time in Namibia ended before it was finished. The details are boring, and the story is full of frustration and unanswered questions and medical concerns with, as of yet, no definitive answer.
But here's a taste. I got really sick in late september. local nurse and doctor at katima hospital thought it was malaria. I was put on malaria treatment (twice actually) but didn't show any signs of improvement. I was finally brought down to the capital so that other doctors could get a look at me. Shortly thereafter my symptoms started to resolve, but i still had some anomalies in my white blood cell population. Now, having been in the caprivi region of africa i know what you're thinking, and it's none of your business. But if you must know, it's not HIV. The anomalies are in the population break down, not the overall population. An abnormally high eosinophil count of unknown eitology was declared. No parasites were found (also no signs of ever having had malaria, good thing i had been put on quinine, cause that was fun), and I no allergies were discovered or reactions observed that could be positively linked to the over production.
Since the next step in logic pointed to either faulty tested, or more serious conditions (see eosinophilia/hypereosinophilia, etc. if you're really interested) I was sent home to get looked at by more doctors, and since it was felt that it would take longer than 45 days for stateside doctors to figure out what was going on they powers at be medically separated me rather than giving me a medical evacuation.
I've been home since mid november so at least they were right about how long it'd take to figure it all out.
For those of you that are wondering, I feel fine. The eosinophilia seems to be resolving (the counts while not back to normal range have been successively lower since leaving Namibia). The whole medical ordeal is keeping me busy with paper work, but i'm starting to get the hang of it and i've only had to spend about 40 dollars so far (and i'm just a few forms and approvals away from getting that reimbursed.)
So there it was. I'm back in the US. I'm living at home and trying to find a job. I'm missing Africa and my namibian friends and family.
Oh, and if you're wondering about the assholes comment at the top, everybody has one, that's how they're alike.
Till next time,
RPCV Jefu
Saturday, June 7, 2008
The Story of the Python.
Strait from my journal:
Sunday January 27th 2008
“Today I was worried I’d have nothing to do I brushed my teeth and while doing so two of the boys from the homestead went off into the bush with rifles on their backs. I though nothing of it… Then I went looking for a place to hang my hammock and while walking near the main road towards some trees I saw some more people from the homestead including the father. From the road the man called to me asking if I’d seen a python. He informed me that a dog had been eaten one village over and they were going to find and kill the python. I asked if I could come and he said yes! We all walked into the bush and as we approached the village where the dog had been taken we heard a gun shot. We then caught up with the boys who had gone into the bush earlier to track the python. They had shot the python in the head and were in the process of trying to coax it (it was still moving a lot) out of the bush they found it in. I helped the older of the two boys drag it out and stretch it flat. We then held it down and sliced open the stomach next to the bulge that we correctly assumed was the dog. As we cut through the python’s skin it retracted like a popped balloon in a way that made it seem like it was pushing the dog out. The only thing worse than the sight of the partially digested dog was the smell. We pulled some bark of a nearby bush and used it as rope to tie a noose around the dog and in one motion the boy pulled out the carcass and threw it into the bushes. We then proceeded to carry the python back through the bush to the homestead. That night one of the families on the homestead eat well (I wish I had been around to have some…) because the next day the entire skin was wrapped around one of the rafters in the cooking hut…”
Sunday January 27th 2008
“Today I was worried I’d have nothing to do I brushed my teeth and while doing so two of the boys from the homestead went off into the bush with rifles on their backs. I though nothing of it… Then I went looking for a place to hang my hammock and while walking near the main road towards some trees I saw some more people from the homestead including the father. From the road the man called to me asking if I’d seen a python. He informed me that a dog had been eaten one village over and they were going to find and kill the python. I asked if I could come and he said yes! We all walked into the bush and as we approached the village where the dog had been taken we heard a gun shot. We then caught up with the boys who had gone into the bush earlier to track the python. They had shot the python in the head and were in the process of trying to coax it (it was still moving a lot) out of the bush they found it in. I helped the older of the two boys drag it out and stretch it flat. We then held it down and sliced open the stomach next to the bulge that we correctly assumed was the dog. As we cut through the python’s skin it retracted like a popped balloon in a way that made it seem like it was pushing the dog out. The only thing worse than the sight of the partially digested dog was the smell. We pulled some bark of a nearby bush and used it as rope to tie a noose around the dog and in one motion the boy pulled out the carcass and threw it into the bushes. We then proceeded to carry the python back through the bush to the homestead. That night one of the families on the homestead eat well (I wish I had been around to have some…) because the next day the entire skin was wrapped around one of the rafters in the cooking hut…”
Friday, May 2, 2008
Update Part 3
Woke up the next day to check things out.
Had a great room and great roommates.
The local kids were great… taught them how to play Frisbee, they loved it…
Went on some hikes…
Monkey-ed around the training center.
Spent many nights looking at the stars in the river bed..
More hikes…
Then it was off to visit my site…. Not this time….
After a week at the site we shadowed some other volunteers and we went on a safari…
We saw impala…
Kudu…
A monitor lizard..
More impala…
Birds…
A turtle…
More Kudu…
An Eagle…
What I’m told were Buffalo…
Twice…
Some Hippos from afar…
And then…
Then…
Then my camera died.. We also saw warthogs, springbok, giraffe’s really close by, and oh yeah a pride of lions right in the road…
We then traveled back to the training site…
(this photo has been edited)
went on a few more hikes…
same room and roommates,
Then I went to CBT, to stay here with my host family..
My youngest brother, Tiju, in a rare moment…
My sister Vanessa…
My other brother Killian…
Tiju in his normal state….
Our dogs Bull..
And Lucky..
On Christmas my sister and her friend, Charity, styled my hair…
It took a long time…
A really long time….
And in the end I looked just like coolio….
But it wasn’t all fun and games in Otjiwarongo, I was gaining practical teaching experience at Model School…. Here we are at the staff lounge…
This is Romanas, he was our exceptionally effective and decisive model school principal, The two of us had a lot of fun together…
But the kids weren’t the only ones who learned something in Otjiwarongo…
Yeah well so can we…
He promised to hold down the fort while I was away…
Apparently I wasn’t the only one who got his hair done during CBT…
After a quick trip back to Okahandja, our training site, and the swearing in ceremony, we traveled back up to our sites. I was bound for the Caprivi, and this time the signs didn’t lie…
Twice…
And you should see the size of the bugs…
Seriously….
Before we went to our sites all 8 of us who are stationed in the Caprivi were put up at a hostel for a few days so we could do our final shopping…
this was my room, and all my belongings…
This is the CBD for our major shopping town Katima Mulilo…
Apparently people from around the world travel here for the birds, this is some type of bee-eater, I think…
There’s a great story for this pic... (I’ll post it later.. long story short: it ate a dog, and I helped kill it, remove the dog, and carry it back to the homestead…)
and yes that’s a 2 meter long python…
Nothing like the sunsets at site…
Did I mention that my house wasn’t not yet started when I got to site… this is what it looked like after a month of me working on it with some of the villagers….
Inside…
Walls…
Roof…
I helped build every part. You know they say it takes a village…
but I found it happens faster when their kids help…
This was our general contractor; he made sure everyone was working really had… (he’s my best friend at site)…
After my Learners (students) chipped in and helped me we made a lot of progress…
The inside walls were almost done…
And the roof was still beautiful…
I got the floors ready for us to start laying the cement…
and seeing as how it was about a week before my birthday, and a long weekend, some other volunteers came to site to see how the hut was coming along, and we decided to go to a lodge to celebrate…
we took a boat trip…
the water was beautiful…
I spotted some antelope.. do you see it..?
This one is for you Scott.. my glamour shot…
I also spotted this cool water snake…
We took a break halfway through the trip and had a few cool drinks on the shore…
Then it was back on the boat…
However we weren’t alone….
Seeing the Hippo was cool but scary, apparently that was the main bull and could have easily capsized/torn up our boat… we headed back after that…
Saw another Antelope…
And returned safely to the lodge, which provided us with rooms, at a rate I’m not allowed to disclose…
Before dinner we were sitting on our porch and noticed some bats…
The next day we notice that they lived on our porch…
It was a fun escape, but I had a hut to finish, first we extended the reed courtyard around the hut…
Then we moved the cement mixer into the front room…
And started working on the floors…
Some of the Villagers gave a late birthday present…
Our hut early one morning (the outside still looks like that)… you can see breakfast cooking in the foreground…
The cement was finished shortly after I got MAC. (Marley Atreyu Caspian)…
Through the Front room window…
Through the Bedroom window…
And then I moved in… Kitchen…
(the stove and freezer are run off gas, the electricity for the lights and my laptop is from the school’s Solar Panel system, which I was able to help install at the end of the term, part of my helping was digging a trench to my house and running an extension cable to my hut…)
Table and door/sheet to my bedroom…
View from the rafters in my Bedroom…
And lastly the Bed/bedroom, I’ve been promised a larger one soon, along with a table and some chairs, I’m hopping to find the time to build some furniture, If I find it you’ll see the pictures…
That is how I left my hut about a week ago when I left the Village to travel to Otjiwarongo to stay with my Host family for a little while before Reconnect in Windhoek.
I saw this crazy looking bug on the trip…
It was seriously as big as an almond joy, no joke bra…
MAC was happy to get out and stretch his legs…
I meet my other brother who was at school during the Christmas holiday… his name is Romeo and Tiju is happy we’re all together…
And Killian has clearly started taking after his American Brother….
Till next time… NAMIBIA WHAT!!!?
Had a great room and great roommates.
The local kids were great… taught them how to play Frisbee, they loved it…
Went on some hikes…
Monkey-ed around the training center.
Spent many nights looking at the stars in the river bed..
More hikes…
Then it was off to visit my site…. Not this time….
After a week at the site we shadowed some other volunteers and we went on a safari…
We saw impala…
Kudu…
A monitor lizard..
More impala…
Birds…
A turtle…
More Kudu…
An Eagle…
What I’m told were Buffalo…
Twice…
Some Hippos from afar…
And then…
Then…
Then my camera died.. We also saw warthogs, springbok, giraffe’s really close by, and oh yeah a pride of lions right in the road…
We then traveled back to the training site…
(this photo has been edited)
went on a few more hikes…
same room and roommates,
Then I went to CBT, to stay here with my host family..
My youngest brother, Tiju, in a rare moment…
My sister Vanessa…
My other brother Killian…
Tiju in his normal state….
Our dogs Bull..
And Lucky..
On Christmas my sister and her friend, Charity, styled my hair…
It took a long time…
A really long time….
And in the end I looked just like coolio….
But it wasn’t all fun and games in Otjiwarongo, I was gaining practical teaching experience at Model School…. Here we are at the staff lounge…
This is Romanas, he was our exceptionally effective and decisive model school principal, The two of us had a lot of fun together…
But the kids weren’t the only ones who learned something in Otjiwarongo…
Yeah well so can we…
He promised to hold down the fort while I was away…
Apparently I wasn’t the only one who got his hair done during CBT…
After a quick trip back to Okahandja, our training site, and the swearing in ceremony, we traveled back up to our sites. I was bound for the Caprivi, and this time the signs didn’t lie…
Twice…
And you should see the size of the bugs…
Seriously….
Before we went to our sites all 8 of us who are stationed in the Caprivi were put up at a hostel for a few days so we could do our final shopping…
this was my room, and all my belongings…
This is the CBD for our major shopping town Katima Mulilo…
Apparently people from around the world travel here for the birds, this is some type of bee-eater, I think…
There’s a great story for this pic... (I’ll post it later.. long story short: it ate a dog, and I helped kill it, remove the dog, and carry it back to the homestead…)
and yes that’s a 2 meter long python…
Nothing like the sunsets at site…
Did I mention that my house wasn’t not yet started when I got to site… this is what it looked like after a month of me working on it with some of the villagers….
Inside…
Walls…
Roof…
I helped build every part. You know they say it takes a village…
but I found it happens faster when their kids help…
This was our general contractor; he made sure everyone was working really had… (he’s my best friend at site)…
After my Learners (students) chipped in and helped me we made a lot of progress…
The inside walls were almost done…
And the roof was still beautiful…
I got the floors ready for us to start laying the cement…
and seeing as how it was about a week before my birthday, and a long weekend, some other volunteers came to site to see how the hut was coming along, and we decided to go to a lodge to celebrate…
we took a boat trip…
the water was beautiful…
I spotted some antelope.. do you see it..?
This one is for you Scott.. my glamour shot…
I also spotted this cool water snake…
We took a break halfway through the trip and had a few cool drinks on the shore…
Then it was back on the boat…
However we weren’t alone….
Seeing the Hippo was cool but scary, apparently that was the main bull and could have easily capsized/torn up our boat… we headed back after that…
Saw another Antelope…
And returned safely to the lodge, which provided us with rooms, at a rate I’m not allowed to disclose…
Before dinner we were sitting on our porch and noticed some bats…
The next day we notice that they lived on our porch…
It was a fun escape, but I had a hut to finish, first we extended the reed courtyard around the hut…
Then we moved the cement mixer into the front room…
And started working on the floors…
Some of the Villagers gave a late birthday present…
Our hut early one morning (the outside still looks like that)… you can see breakfast cooking in the foreground…
The cement was finished shortly after I got MAC. (Marley Atreyu Caspian)…
Through the Front room window…
Through the Bedroom window…
And then I moved in… Kitchen…
(the stove and freezer are run off gas, the electricity for the lights and my laptop is from the school’s Solar Panel system, which I was able to help install at the end of the term, part of my helping was digging a trench to my house and running an extension cable to my hut…)
Table and door/sheet to my bedroom…
View from the rafters in my Bedroom…
And lastly the Bed/bedroom, I’ve been promised a larger one soon, along with a table and some chairs, I’m hopping to find the time to build some furniture, If I find it you’ll see the pictures…
That is how I left my hut about a week ago when I left the Village to travel to Otjiwarongo to stay with my Host family for a little while before Reconnect in Windhoek.
I saw this crazy looking bug on the trip…
It was seriously as big as an almond joy, no joke bra…
MAC was happy to get out and stretch his legs…
I meet my other brother who was at school during the Christmas holiday… his name is Romeo and Tiju is happy we’re all together…
And Killian has clearly started taking after his American Brother….
Till next time… NAMIBIA WHAT!!!?
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