nkurenkuru

oh mercy. i've just spent five days on my permanent site visit in Nkurenkuru. check it out on the map, it's west of Rundu right on the boarder of Angola and Namibia and the Kavango river. the other night i met up with my neighbors scott and lindsey (two pcv teachers in my village....well i guess im in their village now;)) and ben who lives 10k east to walk to the river and watch the hippos. i have some amazing pictures that i hope to load soon.

i love my village. it is soon to be a town- which means the road will be paved and huts will be moved to the outskirts and cement houses will be built- oh development. we'll see tho, it's a long process i suppose. i do have everything i need there- a few food stores, an open market, wholesale store with appliances, furniture etc. i live right near the health facility compound in a small two bedroom place which is a bit dodgy at the moment but once i get a hold of it will be awesome:) im allowed to paint it so i'm looking forward to that. i have running water and a sink outside for laundry- chickens are running around my yard and im hoping to plant a little garden- there are so many new things im going to try while being here- im sure my garden will fail at first but i'll persist:)

i've got some favorite kids already, no, jadyn deven delany- they havent taken your place- :) i love them though, they dont speak any english and get really annoyed with me when i just repeat what they say in rukwangali but whenever i leave them they are shouting mbaa!!!! (bye) and when i show up in the morning they are waving profusely and running to greet me. the little ring leader finally smiled the other day:) it makes me a little sad because i wont be back there for good until January so i had to have someone explain to them that i'll see them in a month. but even more sad is that they are patients at the TB ward and i guess it's not guaranteed that they will be around when i return anyway.....it's a small town, im sure i can find them if i try hard enough.

i celebrated thanksgiving with scott and lindsey and a zambian family on thursday. and now i am in rundu with 12 other pcvs for a t-day bash. we even have turkeys!!!! a guy who did peace corps with the 12th namibian group has a hostel/bar/gym/pool here and hosts thanksgiving almost every year for pcvs in the area. so we are all crashing at maggies place and enjoying company and good food tonight.

im walking miles each day but eating the most ridiculous food so we'll see if i get nice and plump by the end of the month. when im in my regular routine im sure things will settle down. :) i hope to come back to the internet soon and load some pictures- my eyes cannot open wide enough for all there is to see.

i had a pretty hard day last monday but everyday since has gotten progressively better which is overwhelming. but positive.

i love namibia.