It Starts …Again
This has without a doubt been one of the strangest parts of my entire life. At the end of July, I went to a training for Peace Corps, what we refer to as Reconnect, for two and a half weeks in Windhoek. I was reunited with my Peace Corps group, and despite the sometimes gruelingly long sessions, truly enjoyed being there. It was here that I realized just how important surrounding myself with people who could really understand me was. Essentially, we just had the opportunity to hang out together without any particular stress or schedule, but still could feel productive during the day at the sessions. After the two and a half weeks, almost everyone was going stir crazy, and needed to escape.
A group of us spent the next week or so travelling to see both the Zambian and Zimbabwean sides of Victoria Falls. Let me stress, it is a long way away from Windhoek. It takes at least six hours to get to Rundu, another five and a half to Katima, and finally the last two and a half hours north to Livingstone, Zambia. We broke it into three days on the way up, stopping for the night in both Rundu and Katima to see friends. The hostel was totally surreal, it felt like a bastion of the western world in the most random of places. All of the people there seemed to be white travelers from a western country, and were typically tourists. Many of us were in shock at first, but then found a niche for themselves. Yet for me, this was incredibly difficult, as I don’t really know how to do the tourist thing. In fact, being a tourist tends to make me intense degrees of uncomfortable, as it even feels disrespectful at times to the local culture. All that aside, Victoria Falls was absolutely incredible, and some of the people that I met at the hostel provided incredibly good conversation. Imagine a waterfall five kilometers wide that falls into a giant crevasse, while you stand on the opposite side of the same crevasse with you jaw on the floor as you look at the falls. That would be a good starting point in your imagination, but it’s so much more than that.
On the way back things got much more interesting. Before we even made it out of Zambia, a taxi driver scammed us out of a lot of money when we got to the town just north of the Namibian border, and left us far enough away that we would need another taxi to get to the border itself. After finally getting to Rundu, let’s just say it wasn’t any easier.
The next morning, a few of us were on our way to Windhoek, where I ended up getting stuck for a while before ultimately ending up where I am now, at home in Seattle. It has been interesting being back, yet I’m happy to say that my time in Namibia is far from over. Seeing family and my friends who may as well be family has been amazingly nice. It has proved even more how important they are in my life, and just how much is missing without them. Finding a way to balance my need to travel and change with my own need for community is only more clearly defined now.
Just when I thought I was cleared to return to Namibia, I got sick. A doctor said it was strep throat, but the next day my temperature was at around 104 degrees Fahrenheit. I was told to go into the ER, and after being tested for malaria, influenza, general infection, and strep, it was clear to the doctor that I just had a really bad case of strep. In the next couple of days I started feeling much better, but the paperwork with Peace Corps was posing a problem. I was close to the 45 day limit on my stay at home, yet it wasn’t clear what paperwork was even still needed. Thankfully, I got the call that everything was cleared on Friday, and that I would be put on a flight over the weekend. Intially, I was supposed to leave less than 24 hours later, but that was pushed back until the following day.
Now here I sit, the night before I’m leaving to go back to Namibia. It seems as hard to leave the people here as it ever has been, yet is more clear than ever that I need to finish what I started. At this point, I am starting to feel that those personal growth moments are the ones that suck the most. Yet I still go.
1 year ago - read more...
