hiv/aids sessions at omaruru

Not to be flip but we had more of the same ol' chit chat about HIV/AIDS in Namibia, at this point it's all starting to get redundant. We've got sessions all day about risk factors affecting Namibians especially the increasingly feminine face of HIV infection in Africa. The most startling realization is that the number one risk factor for women is marriage -- men engage in unsafe sex outside of marriage and bring the virus home to their faithful partners.
Empowering women through the use of condoms is extremely difficult. For the most part, women are completely dependent on their husbands for food and money and thus cannot deny their husbands access to their bodies as women might do in America. Men use the excuse, "I don't eat chocolate with the wrapper on," and this quote epitomizes their objection to a disease that is alternatively seen as a women's issue or God's judgment.
The use of male and female condoms is unknown but presumed to be extremely low -- despite the fact that Namibia actually receives the most funding for HIV prevention per capita of any country in the world (according to the USAID representative that came to talk with us). Education is one thing but behavior change is still an unknown, I know that our message is important but I am unsure as to its efficacy at doing anything to alter social and economic realities that have existed for hundreds of years.

back to omaruru

On tap for today: more training. It’s a little awkward to be back -- it feels like we didn’t make it or somehow our wings weren’t strong enough to take us out of the nest. Today’s schedule was language school in the morning, processing for model school and an IT session with Jason and Jay. After the sessions went on a run in the evening and had armadillo meatballs and macaroni for dinner. Had a hilarious conversation with Richard, our Otjiherero language teacher.

x-mas

Christmas was a pleasant affair – we had a secret Santa present giveaway with people trading gifts – I received a stray cowboy hat with a Dallas ribbon around it. For dinner we had home-smoked pig as well as “artappleslei” (potato salad)

x-mas (the eve)

Christmas Eve we had a bonfire and cooked smores and played scrabble. For dinner we enjoyed finger foods and had traditional “meatish” delicacies like biltong (jerk beef) and goat. Some of us went to downtown Omaruru to shop for goodies for X-Mas, the town was a madhouse, I’ve never seen so many people in any town in Namibia as then. There were even street vendors selling food and wares. It was reminiscent of what I imagine a more densely populated African country would look like. We went swimming at Kaffeestube after lunch. Because the water was cloudy we invented a game called “swamp monster” where someone would drop into the water and sneak up on another person which Silas was particularly adept at.

last day in otjimbingwe

We rose bright and early and did goodbyes with the host family. Mrs. Tuahepa wrote a very nice note and included some essentials for my stay in Namibia. It was a very kind gesture and I was truly touched. I made a CD for Julia and Desiree with songs they picked out (now they just need a player to listen to the music) and one of my passport pictures which they claimed did not even look like me.

model school fete

Model School Graduation day – gave out the certificates (although nearly all of the names on them were either incorrectly spelled, were last name first or simply didn’t exist). The learners were very happy to get the sheets and the highest scoring learners received special certificates. Unfortunately none of my host sisters received any special recognitions which was disappointing as they certainly could have if they had applied themselves.