PST So far!

Well, after many hours of traveling we finally arrived in Namibia last satuday! We are currently staying in a town called Okandja. It is a small town just north of Windhoek. My first impressions of Namibia: it]s VERY HOT. And it's not even the heat of the summer! I believe I've sweat more in these five days than I ever have in my life.

The first few days we did not do much--mostly hang around, talk, have an occasional lecture and do interviews for medical and site placement. But starting today, we are in full swing training mode.

Our days start bright and early with breakfast at 630 and usually end around 430. The first days or so of training was mostly just going over rules, regulations, etc etc. But tuesday was when exciting things started to happen! We first got our language assignments that we will be learning through PST (preservice training). I got assigned Afrikaans! I am so excited because this was my language of choice! We started learning the language today and let"s just say 4-5 of language classes each day is EXHAUSTING. We've just been covering basic sounds and informal greetings so far, but it's fun.

On tuesday we also met our host family. I will be living with two sisters (?) who are teachers named Lorieto and Sophie.  They both seem very nice and were very excited to finally meet me! I'm not sure exactly how this is working or if they are even sisters. A lot of the times, people will say that "This is my brother or that is my sister" but in reality, tehy arent related at all. Anyways, I BELIEVE they live on a family compound and I will be staying at Lorieto's house. I'm excited for the most part, but I'm nervous about the food to be honest. But I know I will be fine and it will teach me to try new things.

Another thing I've noticed about Namibia is the the bugs are in steroids here. No really. They make any cockaroach I saw in South Africa look like a joke. So far we have seen what we have dubbed "bat moths" (aka moths the size of your hand), a centipede that was a good 6-8 inches long, and a giant grass hopper that was also about the size of my hand. We also saw a chameleon, which was pretty sweet!

So yes, that is my life so far! Friday I move in with my host family and we will go from there.

I miss you all very very much and I love you all!