Sunday, June 7, 2009

Long time no blog. A lot has happened since the last time I posted but I haven’t been able to get to an Internet café for about a week.

Here’s some of things I’ve done:

The U of T interns and I visited the University of Namibia (UNAM) and met two women who run the HIV/AIDS unit at UNAM. Skolastika Iipinge is a former nurse turned HIV/AIDS professor who works at the university to help educate students about the virus. Dr. Iipinge along with Dr. Kavena run a program called ZAMANAWE (ZAmbia, MAlawi, NAmibia, WEstern Cape) that the universities at each location employ to educate students about HIV/AIDS. They get about 30 student volunteers to work as peer educators at their respective universities. About ten or fifteen students came to an orientation for us at UNAM and presented their stories, a short play and a musical performance. They’re pretty amazing people, and almost all of them have been affected in some way by HIV/AIDS. One of the girls’ stories was really powerful and I got a little teary eyed while she described parts of her life to us. The presentation/orientation and UNAM was really great. It worked as a kind of orientation for the UofT students and I to get to know Namibia, and more specifically the kinds of things that university aged men and women have to face here. Of all the orientations I’ve ever had to sit through in my life, this one has by far been the most engaging, interesting, moving and, without trying to sound pretentious, actually inspiring.

Solome, Annie, Alison, Michelle and I are all going to be working in the north, but the rest of the Interns will be working in Windhoek. So for the most part, the northerners spent most of the days in Windhoek tagging along as each Windhoek-intern went to his/her placement. There are six Windhoek interns and they’re all paired together and working at three different organizations. The first is called Physically Active Youth (PAY), which is an after school program for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC’s). The kids come to PAY each weekday and spend 2 hours on homework with a group of educated young adults who tutor them. Then they spend the next 2 hours playing sports with the same group of adults. I’ve met two of the PAY employees: Harry and Patrick and they are so enthusiastic about the program. The energy they bring to the program is amazing and the kids really seem to love them. Meghan and Sarah have been placed there and have so far really enjoyed their work.

Vincent and Jonathan are working at an ARV clinic. They are both pharmacy student and are really excited about their placement. In their first week of work they’ve actually gone and delivered ARVs to people outside of the city. Jonathan told Alison that one of the recipients of the medications was a four-year old boy. Needless say, their work, and the rest of the interns’ work, is going to be really tough.

The last Windhoek placement is at ICW (International community of Women?) It’s an organization for HIV-positive women in Namibia. Ciann and Alisha will be working their and they’re going to be doing something along the lines of working with the support groups and supporting the organization as they attempt to get more funding and more programs running for women in the community.

After everyone got placed in Windhoek, we had a group dinner and invited Patrick and Harry (and Harry’s wife and ADORABLE baby) along with us. The following morning the northerners (me included) took the 9-hour drive up to Oshakati. The drive was long, but it was pretty fun to look out the window and see goats crossing the “highway” and vultures in some of the trees and cows chillaxing on the gravel shoulder.

Our compound in the north is really nice. There’s a one floor building that houses 4 bedrooms, each of which has a door that opens to outside. There’s a small courtyard on one side of the building, and an electric fence on the other. Across from the courtyard there’s an open structure that houses a small kitchen and a dining room. We spend most of our time here. It’s nice in the afternoon because you’re under the shade and you can stay cool, but you’re still outside. I’m really enjoying the outdoorsy aspect of this trip

There are five bedrooms. I'm sharing a bedroom with Alison. She's my age and we get along really well. I haven't ever really shared a room with anyone before, but so far it's working out well. Probably because we both like to watch Arrested Development or 30 rock before bed.

On our second day in Oshakati the group was invited to the police station where the commissioner of the entire Oshana region (which is like a province) came to welcome us to the area and to give us a run down of the safety situation in the area. He was accompanied by five other officers and they all seemed really interested in us, considering we're a bunch of Canadians coming to work FOR FREE!! Note to parents: There have been no safety issues for interns in the past.

There are a total of 4 placements in Oshakati. Annie and Solome are sharing a placement at the Multipurpose Centre which is like a community centre. They are working with OVCs and are having a really good time. Michelle is working at the hospital in the malnourishment ward with orphaned infants. Interestingly, most of the children have family, but they are placed there because the parent may not be able to feed the child, or the mother may not be alive. After 6 months, though, the parents have to come pick the children up. Alison is working with an AMAZING woman who teaches dance to children in the area. Some are students at the school for the blind and deaf and some are OVCs. So far I've joined Alison about 3 times to help with the classes. It's really fun to learn African dance. It's definitely out of my comfort level. The kids are brilliant and there are even some really young toddlers who come to the classes with their older siblings. And, although they can't actually perform any of the dance moves, they just stay with the group and bop along to the music. It is probably one of the cutest things to witness. Dance and babies are a perfect combination.

My internship is really interesting. It's located in an informal settlement that is one of the most impoverished in the area. It's been a challenge for me to feel completely comfortable in the area, but that's something I'm working on. The six DEEP employees that I'm working with are really nice to me. Moses and Lavinia speak English the best, so we've really connected so far. I'm working on getting to know the other four, but it's hard because they mostly speak Oshiwambo. The group has been teaching me how to speak Oshiwambo but I'm finding it really confusing. You have to say "Walalapo meme/tate" and then the other person says "Nawa" and then there's this back and forth dialogue that I really can't understand. But to return the favour I've begun teaching them some french words. So, in the morning I greet them in Oshiwambo and they greet me in French.

My main tasks this summer are going to be to write a constitution for DEEP and to write up profiles for each of the employees. I think it will be a great opportunity to learn about how disability has affected the group's lives and how they are able to access their rights as disabled citizens. I'm still learning the day to day routine at DEEP, which involves running errands and helping them out with some administrative tasks. It turns out that even though I can't fix any bicycles, I can provide them with some help when it comes to writing emails, sending faxes, taking inventory and other things like that.

I'm excited to see how this internship pans out and what kind of things I learn while working at DEEP. I'm also really excited to learn from the other girls and to help out with the dance classes.

I think this may be the most boring post ever but I'm sure I'll have some more interesting things to say soon.

In the mean time, here are some interesting Namibian facts:

1. In Namibia, they drive on the other side of the road.

2. Taxi drivers listen to soft christian rock.

3. I'm getting a tan

I can't seem to load any pictures for some reason, I'll try again soon.