Alright, I promised that last week’s post was dedicated to your questions. But since I kind of put it off until I had a chance to really download, ponder, and write about them, I’ll take this space and do that now.
Cheers
N
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Andys:
So now I ask you, thusfar, have you found more bliss living in a strange land or have you found more disillusionment? I would hardly say that living in a desert offers some sort of bliss, short of heatstroke. Imagine it like entering college – For the first couple of months you’re all excited, ready to meet new people and have new experiences, all ready to learn and make a difference in the world. Then a couple months pass and you realized you’re still here, and haven’t really accomplished all that much.
Do you feel useful there, like you're making a difference? Or do you feel more like an anthropologist, absorbing a culture, ready to share it with anyone who will listen? At this point, the latter definitely. That’s actually part of TheOrganization’s goals, which is to share the target culture with our American culture. Hopefully, in the coming weeks I’ll prove to be more useful and hopefully making a difference.
5 months down, 22 more to go. How do you feel about that? I’m 6 months in…and in 6 months, I’ll be helping the next group of volunteers that enters this country. What the hell just happened? 5 Down, 20 to go…
Do they have toilet paper there? If so, is it soft and fluffy? We’re one of the lucky ones. We get the soft and cuddly snuggles style toilet paper. For Free! Most volunteers aren’t as lucky, those that are actually in the wilderness have to use tree bark and pinecones.
Have you climbed many trees there? Nope. Sorry, there just aren’t that many around. And actually once you begin to really look around, Evolution really did its job well here. Every plant that stands above 3 feet is covered in thorns and prickers.
Do you see many birds? Unfortunately no, but I heard that when you go to the Caprivian strip (look it up on a map) you see hundreds of different kinds of parrots. To date, I have seen a handful of macaws and one African Grey parrot.
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Time for Rob’s:
I would like to know which group of people (class age gender etc) respect/listen to you the most. None. Cause no one does. Maybe some of the teenagers. They’re always anxious to hear about the history of rap in the US. The adults treat me like adults, nothing new or surprising.
What is your favorite mode of transportation over there? Truthfully, getting picked up by white people. I’m not trying to be racist, but it’s a simple fact – they have really nice cars. Rich or poor, its nice to have money. And they typically drive safer.
Do you do laundry there? How do you do it? This is actually a good question. For the first couple of weeks, Ian and I would do our laundry by hand, and then hang it up on our clothing line outside. After we got tired of that, a local woman approached us and offered to do our laundry for a small fee. It’s an incredible deal, and frankly, both sides seem to think they won. Ian and I pay the woman N$100 a month to do all of our laundry (About 15-20$) In addition, she also Irons everything, including our socks and underwear. We never even asked her to, but we’re also not complaining.
What would be something that Namibians could obtain as a people, which would significantly improve their quality of life, or way of life? Meaning, what change could be made to common thought or their material possessions which you think could really improve their way of life? Nothing too drastic mind you, but something within reason... something manageable.The problem with this, is that there is nothing “within reason…something manageable” that would describe as you ask. There isn’t anything within reason, if there was it would already be implemented. But to indirectly answer, something insignificant that would greatly change their quality of life, would be the view of women in the eyes of men. I could write an entire post on the sexism here and how I’m sometimes ashamed to be male. But trust me, just the idea that women could truly be equal would have the greatest impact on this country.
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Kristens:
Have you blessed the rain? Everytime. When I’m alone in the house, I also dance on the porch.
Is the landscape as beautiful as they say? Better, depending on where you are. Not so much by me, sand looks like sand. But there are beautiful spots. The new Title Photo of this site was taken by me at Swakopmund. One of my favs.
What kind of aminals have you seen? Lions, Hyenas, Oryx, Springbok, Jackals, Kittys, Owls, Impala, Giraffe, Wildebeest, Zebras, and Baboons.
Has the general cynicism gotten to your optimism? I haven’t come home yet, so I guess not.
Are they good at poker? Nope. No one even knows how to play! They gamble constantly, but never at cards. Obie and I hosted a poker game couple months ago for the volunteers - $450N Jackpot, and no local wanted in. Shame. Although probably for the better.
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The next couple come from my cousin Jim, who emailed some really intricate and interesting questions, so I decided to answer them here. Here ya go.
1) Can you give me an overview of what you do and how it is designed to help the HIV/AIDS epidemic?
As a health volunteer, there are many facets to our assignments. Generally, we are to improve the quality of life in our communities through almost any means, excluding treatment. There are those among us that do AIDS outreach programs, HIV/ AIDS education and training, TB awareness, Seminars involving substance abuse, gender awareness, STD awareness and fact assemblies, that kind of thing. Personally, my current “assignment” is to keep the youth busy. Because of my location, there is an incredibly high unemployment rate, with a very large population. As a result, most teenagers and children are bored, leading them to experiment with alcohol and sex. Teenage pregnancy is devastating here. Consequently, many like me are forced to come up with events that give the local youth something to do, other than the aforementioned activities. Personally, I am currently conducting / working with a choir, and will hopefully set up a Girl’s Club at the local youth center where I work. I am anxious to start the club, as it will also grant me a way to address the incredible sexism problem here as well.
2) What aspects on a local level have you found to be most damaging to HIV/AIDS Interventions?Ooo….This is the question, isn’t it? Locally, there are of course many problems. Gun to my head, the most damaging aspect to HIV/ AIDS here would have to be the relationships between men and women. There’s a new book that just came out that apparently right on par with this very question. I just ordered it, and am waiting for it to get here. It’s called “The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West, and the Fight against AIDS,” by Helen Epstein. She argues that we cannot understand AIDS in Africa, without first understanding the arrangements that underlie the sexual relations here.
Should you visit, you’ll discover all too quickly about multiple-partner relationships. It is not at all uncommon to find that many hold several relationships at one time – everyone has girlfriends in other towns, up to 6 or 7 at a time. Personally, I feel one is enough – any more than that invites too many problems and is overly expensive. (But that could just be me.) As the country slowly becomes westernized, we’re finding that the control of women’s sexuality and property is becoming contested.
This also ties in with Gender issues, where we find male authority exerted over every facet of life here. Domestic and sexual violence unfortunately, are only too common. The problem arises from this behavior, which is reinforced by society - where men must discipline their women in order to maintain power and gain respect. “But its ok, I’m a man.” ….dammit.
Gender issues, promiscuity in relationships, alcoholism…they all tie in – it’s an incredibly complex and multi-faceted web of grief and turmoil.
3) Is there any information that you think is under-represented at the international level? over-represented?
Underrepresented: Not corruption, but the effect that corruption has over the HIV pandemic. Everyone knows about the scourge of African corruption and the countless dollars being siphoned into various pockets, but its not really understood exactly what’s missing, what could have been in place instead. Oh, and that abstinence-only sexual education doesn’t work. At all.
This is also an important point: I think that the world needs to understand that if they want the AIDS issue to change, the country needs infrastructure. AIDS and HIV outreach meetings and programs will fail if the country doesn’t have the necessary infrastructure to keep it running efficiently or even reliably.
Over-represented: The fact that AIDS is a problem, and countless people are dying from it. I liked Jennifer Connelly’s line from the movie Blood Diamond, which to me mirrored the AIDS epidemic in Africa: “I hate writing about Victims, but its all I can fucking do.” It gets tiring. The problem that its constantly announced in the same fashion numbs the population to the problem. In my case, HIV seminars are hard to do since they become bored so easily – they’ve heard all this since the 1st grade.
4) Are there any questions that you think people arent asking that need to be asked?
I think Americans need to ask and to make sure they fully understand where every dollar of their donations go. Get proof if you need to. I do think that someone needs to stand up and ask, “Hey, Southern Africa is getting worse re: AIDS. Shouldn’t we perhaps discuss alternate methods / solutions, instead of putting money into programs that aren’t working?” I do think someone should ask why overseas volunteers are only located at the grassroots level – I think that if we had a volunteer located somewhere within the Administration, we would definitely have more support and be able to get more done.

I think the locals have to sit down and really ask themselves if their culture is important enough to them, and worth the time and energy it needs to be saved.