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!!!?
1 comment:
Love the Glamour Shot!
Afbro, MAC is adorable. What breed is he, or is he a Heinz?
And the Hut looks amazing! Definately cleaner and nicer than your digs at the Beta House. You look great, and you're obviously having a great time.
I'm proud of you, and I can't wait to come out and see you. Keep Blogging.
Your Ambro
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