Monday, April 1, 2013

Windhoek, Cultural Day, Cell Phones!



I had another great week! On Saturday, March 23, we went to Windhoek for the day. We visited the Heroes Acre, a huge memorial to those who died in the independence struggle. Then we went to the mall, which ended up being quite frustrating because the cell phone clerk did not know anything about the phones. Another friend and I ended up giving up and decided to wait to get a phone. The rest of the day was a blur, and I missed out because I got into a really discouraged mood. We went to a lot of great places, but it was also a VERY long day. I found that my moo was also negatively affected by dehydration. I had some water on the bus ride home and my mood perked right up!
My buddy, Alicia and I, are planning a Fiesta Night at her place coming up, so we have been looking at costs of making Mexican food. I also had a few bbqs this week (they are called braai’s here). I love the Afrikaans braai food. We have lamb, roosterbrodt (bread with garlic butter), vooroborsche (sausage), and salad. All my spellings of the names are wrong by the way. I love mine and Alicia’s host families. They are related so we are always hanging out together. I call her family my family and vice versa. 

The big event this week was Cultural Day. All of our host families came to the training center and we cooked and ate food all day. It was definitely interesting and fun. We started cooking early and the food took several hours to make. I took a lot of pictures and video. This sounds bad, but the best part of my day was learning how to kill the chickens. Apparently, I did very well and it was not bad at all. The girl after me prolonged the cutting and I had to yank the head off to put it out of its misery (gross, I know). After that I felt very accomplished, as if my day’s work was done. The rest of the day was spent hanging out and cooking. We were organized into language groups. After all the groups were done cooking we went inside and set out the food. There was A LOT! I have to say that I would rather slaughter almost any animal they asked me too, than eat some of the things I had. I don’t like meat on the bone very much. But I was proud of trying most things, although I almost lost my food twice. Here is the list of what I had: Mopani worms (my trainer knowingly gave me raw ones; they weren’t bad), turtle liver with fat, beef jerky, porridge, donkey, goat ear, chicken, pigs feet, fat, cakes, spinach, and tiny fish.

The next day we went to a really pretty resort called the Okahandja Country Hotel. We relaxed there for several hours and ate. We had some really good conversations. One of the things that is weird is that I don’t feel I’m going through all the stages that the other PCVs are going through. We are together so much that it only makes sense that people would become more irritable and emotional. However, I haven’t felt that at all. Granted, I do feel it around me, and am definitely on the receiving end of some of the stuff. However, it seems to roll off me much better here than it would have in the States. Maybe it’s personal growth? I hope so! 

I forgot to mention that I got a cell phone and can now text and call! I also have this app called “whatsapp.”It’s amazing! It lets me use data to send texts anywhere in the world. I have been texting friends around the world since I got the app!  

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