Nawa!

Hello again everyone! This past week I was on my urban homestay. I was staying in Katutura, one of the black townships right outside Windhoek. Katutura is also where my internship is as well. My family included my host mom, her grandson, her brother and his girlfriend, and her two kids. The kids were 4, 4, and 11. The house was pretty small so you could hear everything in the house all the time and very run down. I was lucky enough to have house that has a bathroom inside the house. Many houses in Katutura and in the informal settlements just have outhouses. I just felt so privileged that I only had to live like this for 10 days and that I have the choice to leave this lifestyle whenever. This family and many thousands more have to live this way everyday. My family spoke Oshiherero as they are Herero, which is similar to the most spoken language in Namibia, Oshivambo, spoken by the Ovambo people. Most Ovambo people are in the North. This past week was very trying on me. It was hard to spend time with my family and get to know them and still go back to the Center for classes and for internship. I had to find a balance of getting my work done but still getting everything I could out of my experience at my homestay. The family had very traditional gender roles, my host niece, I guess that is what you can call her, the 11 year old, had to do most of the house work. She had to clean the dishes, wash the floor, wash the laundry. I tried to help her out but they would push me away so I always felt like a guest in the house, never a family member. Also personal space does not exist so the kids would just follow me around and try to read what I was reading or sit on my bed and just watch me. That was really hard to get use to.

I never really got a sense of community as I did on my homestay in South Africa. My host mom here in Namibia has host CGE kids since 1999 so I think that she was use to showing off these "white people" before and that is why I didnt meet her family. I finally got to meet her actual daughter and we hung on both on Saturday and Sunday. I went to a salon, which here means a small room inside an open air market to get my nails done. I got to watch African women get their hair done. That was a whole new experience for me too. My nails are really cool they have this whole intricate design and it lasts for 4 months so when I come back to the States, I will have some really nice nails.

This week is really our only "normal" week. I have my internship tomorrow and wednesday and classes every other day. We also have our first free weekend so hopefully some of us will figure out some fun things to do around here. We just dont have a routine and that is really hard to get used to.

So I will check in some time soon again.

Inda po nawa! (meaning go well in Oshivambo)