For those of you who want to take your blog to the next level in 2011 (perhaps you’ve stepped up to the Post a Day or Post a Week challenge), we’ve got your back. From now on, we’ll be offering tips on blogging best practices to help you produce high-quality content, boost your readership, and [...]
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I love winter and I bet you do too but if you’re like me you probably don’t like the cold very much. You might be wishing you could take a trip to a beach somewhere right about now. Well, if you can’t make it to the beach yourself how about taking your blog there? Today’s [...]
Learn WordPress.com is a step-by-step tutorial that includes lessons on how to start a blog, customize your site, and connect with other bloggers in the WordPress.com community. It’s a great resource for anyone who: Wants to create a blog but isn’t quite sure where to start Needs help choosing a blog topic Wants to better [...]
Are you the type of person who enjoys simple and uncluttered looks on a theme? Clean Home, our new addition, is a crisp and structured theme wielding a traditional two column layout with two widgets areas. But don’t let Clean Home’s simple looks deceive you since it hides some great functionality to help you personalize [...]
Last year we—the Theme Team—were quite busy, not only offering you 29 great new themes, but also improving the themes you already love and use on your WordPress.com sites. In case you haven’t looked closely at your theme in a while we’d like to point out several recent improvements. Custom Menus 61 of our themes [...]
There is a saying among writers: to write more, write more. The hardest part of blogging isn’t the tools – it’s what goes on between your ears. Many people start blogs with excitement, but lose courage when facing the blank post page, or chicken out before hitting publish. Here at WordPress.com, we know. And we’re [...]
The holidays make for a crazy time of year. You’re spending time with family, traveling, maybe enjoying some winter weather. All of this can help you create wonderful blog posts. Here are a couple tips on how to let your blog shine as you head into the new year. Blogging made easy Press This is [...]
The short version of this story is that the contact form on WordPress.com has been upgraded. But that leaves out so many of the juicy details A couple of months ago we took a step back to look at what sort of things the contact form needed and what it could be. While this is [...]
Last year we started a little tradition, commissioning an illustration to give away as desktop wallpaper during the holidays. This year, Spanish artist Gary Fernández has created a wintry forest scene filled with curious characters who have great taste in blogging platforms. Friends in the southern hemisphere, we love you too, but if you haven’t [...]
Do you love WordPress.com themes? Have you ever wished you could view all the available themes without being logged into your dashboard? Curious how other WordPress.com sites use the theme you’re using? Want to be sure you’re using your theme to its full potential? If you answered yes to any of those questions you’ll be [...]
My apologies for not blogging…well…at all…for the last few months. In my defense, since I’ve started teaching, things have become pretty normal. Things that 4 months ago would have made me scream, laugh, run out of the room, pee my pants, cry, or throw a temper tantrum now just make me shrug my shoulders and [...]
Dear Donna:
I am so pleased how this safari itinerary has come together for you, Aimee
and Caitlin. Your adventure includes some of the most scenic regions in
Namibia combined with time in Swakopmund. Allow me to walk you through
the itinerary.
You and Aimee will arrive Windhoek on August 23rd where you will have a
comfortable overnight at the Elegant [...]
Oh, the first days of school in Namibia.
They were very similar to the last days of school, somehow. No real organization. Learners running around everywhere. Teachers not in the classrooms. But there difference is, there’s a feeling of optimism.
Monday and Tuesday were days for just teachers. I arrived in the staff room on Monday [...]
The last few weeks have been without a doubt the craziest and most enjoyable times I’ve spent in Namibia.
On December 20th I headed out to Khorixas to meet up with some friends who were already beginning to celebrate the holidays. It was a day I had been looking forward to for a while. I had [...]
Many of you have expressed interest and/or concern about the fact that my main mode of getting around Namibia is hitchhiking. It’s all very romantic and Kerouac-ian. I’ll explain my first experience hiking by myself.
Sunday December 20th 2009 was a day I’d been looking forward to for a while. It was the day Peace Corps [...]
I learned a lot in 2009. It was a year of big changes – graduating from college, moving to a strange, new country. I’ve spent more time away from home than ever before in my life. I fell in love, I got my heart broken. In a lot of ways, I guess it’s been like [...]
Finally I’ve moved into my permanent housing. It’s something I’ve looked forward to for quite some time. All my worldly possessions are in one place for the first time in months. I have spent hours price-checking pots and pans, bowls, cups, knives, forks, and all of the essentials I’ll need for the next two years [...]
I take a pause on tales of my now 4-month-old Namibian life for a little reminiscence.
Over the last few months, particularly those where I have been going to school with not much more to do than help teachers with their busy work, and distracting my colleagues from said busy work by socializing and asking questions [...]
My site may not be in the North, but this weekend I got the opportunity to pound maize. Mark bought a couple bags of unpounded maize (technical term) while he was in Rundu. While I visited him this weekend, we pounded it.
Pounding is a long, tedious process. It took us amateurs (with the help of [...]
With a little liquid courage and a lot of help from my friends, I cut my hair shorter than I ever recall it being. Here’s documented proof:
Menage et cut
…the 147 hours of language that left me with a dwindling intermediate-low level grasp on Afrikaans which now allows me to eavesdrop on about 55% of the conversations in the staffroom
…Group 30, my support system when moving to a strange, new country who gave me some of the most fun times of my life throughout [...]
It’s examination time! That means there’s not much to do at work but proctor exams, mark said exams, and babysit. Learners finish exams at 10am but don’t get out of school until 12:30. If you think they’re sitting and studying during this time, you’re incorrect. I spend most of my time trying to herd hundreds [...]
So I almost died this week.
Not really. But the not-so-funny thing about being sick in Africa is you could have the stomach flu…or you could have a mild case of malaria. Only a few symptoms tell the difference.
I seem to have the worst luck with getting sick in Namibia. This is my 4th round of [...]
Want to hear the magical voices of Group 30 singing traditional African songs?
Look no further! Actually, just click on this link:
Brad’s African Recordings
Life in the Peace Corps so far has been a series of ups and downs. On a day-to-day basis, I’ll have some of the most positive I’ve ever had, and seemingly some of the most negative. While the positive and negative experiences usually about even out, the negative ones can build up.
It’s like the negative [...]
I think I have no ‘place’ home. Home is people and where you work well.
-John Steinbeck
Home has been a major trend in my writing. For a lot of people, it’s really clear where they come from, where all their friends and family are, and where they’d like to be for the rest of their [...]
I have a new love for that glittering instrument, the human soul. It is a lovely and unique thing in the universe. It is always attacked and never destroyed – because ‘Thou mayest!’
John Steinbeck, East of Eden
It’s been a long summer.
I guess that’s what I get for moving to the southern hemisphere and into the [...]
Can you tell us apart?
Because our Namibian trainers couldn’t.
A new week, a new life.
The transition from training to what I really came to Namibia to do – be a primary school math teacher – has been nothing short of drastic. After the strict training schedule that left little room for choices – up at 6:30am, walk to the training center, 4 hours of [...]
Ek, Caitie Hawley, sweer om my dienste vrywillig aan die Volk van Namibie te gee, veraldie gemeenskap, waarin ek gevestig sal wees as ‘n Amerikaanse Peace Corps vrywilliger. As ‘n Peace Corps vrywilliger sale k my talente, kreatiwiteit en toewyding met my Namibiese kollegas deel om diedoel van die Primere en Sekondere opvoiedings Projek te [...]
On Saturday we had a Homestay Appreciation Luncheon. Earlier on in training, our host families and trainers came together to help us put together an enormous Namibian meat feast (which, if you’ll recall, I missed because I went to a wedding with Lauren). After 6 weeks of approaching most meals at home stay with some [...]
Testing, testing. First blog post from my mobile? Perhaps. I guess we’ll have to see. Utilizing the free 1-5am internet.
I’ve only been in the Peace Corps for a month and a half, and I’ve already started to notice changes about myself. I know that if pre-PC Caitie met me now, I wouldn’t recognize myself – or at the very least, I would think myself crazy. Here are a few examples:
I’ve turned into a crier. [...]
This last week was one of the craziest of my life. It was nothing less than a roller coaster – a glimpse into my life for the next two years. I laughed. I cried. And often within the same hour.
On Wednesday, we got our site assignments. My theory was correct – I will spend the [...]
Every day I walk to training with Lauren, another PCV who lives with the host family two doors down from me. This past week, she has been telling me about various traditional parties she’s been attending in anticipation of a wedding. One day last week I ate dinner with her family, the Damaseb’s, who consequently [...]
Every morning for the past few days, as I approach the classroom that we spend endless hours of each progressively hotter Namibian “winter days”, I hear the loud mutterings of 30+ volunteers, chit-chattering about what culturally mind-blowing thing our host families did the night before. “My host mom told me she found a cobra in [...]
I remember thinking as I was saying goodbye to friends and loved ones for more than two years, packing my life into two suitcases that I was putting my life on hold. Forget about your average 2009 grad’s job search, studying for graduate school entry exams, and the 9-to-5 rush. Forget about being able to [...]
If you haven’t seen my Facebook or Twitter update, rest assured that I am in Namibia and safe. Not only that, but I”m having a blast! I haven’t been motivated enough to write a blog update with all the emails, letters, and journaling I’ve been doing (which, sadly, takes priority over my blog) but I thought [...]
In true form, an AIESECer has changed my worldview.
Today, Arcadiy send me an article from Speigel Online entitled How a Basic Income Program Saved a Namibian Village. Naturally, I was intrigued. Aid to Africa and other impoverished nations has long been a topic of debate between developmental economists, political scientists, and many other interested disciplines. [...]
It’s still 4 days until I leave, but I’m already looking forward to all the letters and packages I know that my friends and family are going to be sending me. If you send something now, it will probably arrive shortly after I do.
So for those of you who haven’t discovered my address on Facebook [...]
[Cue Final Countdown]
So, it’s getting close. Only 10 days until I leave. I’ve spent the last few days spending time with my friends at my going away party in Michigan, and then helping Josh get ready for his next adventure – teaching English in Korea for a year. These have definitely taken my mind off [...]
When I tell people that I’m joining the Peace Corps and will soon be shipping off to Namibia, one of the most commonly asked questions – you know, besides OH GOOD GOD, HOW ARE YOU GOING TO LIVE IN A HUT FOR 2 YEARS!?! – is how I’m spending my last few weeks.
So what have [...]
I recently found several blog posts that cut down (pun intended) The Giving Tree – one of my favorite children’s books of all time – as “overrated“, “a bleak fable about kids who selfishly milk their elders for every drop they’ve got“, and “downright unethical, if not quite villainous, in the way that the tree [...]
Some shoes I purchased from Chaco at 50% off with my Peace Corps Volunteer discount. Win!
Comfortable shoes for work
Thick-soled sandals for those rocky Namibian roads
Multisport sneakers for long hikes
I also purchased a Kindle (for only $140 on Craigslist!) so I don’t have to lug a ton of books to Africa. By the time I [...]
Peace Corps Volunteers made a series of videos documenting the host family experience in Namibia. Watching it has given me a greater understanding of what my experience will be like.
Living with a Host Family
Living Conditions
Privacy, Language and Food
Diet, Challenges, and Coping Mechanisms
Credits
Today I read a post on Life Without Pants that asked, “How Far are You Willing to Go for Your ‘Dream Job’” Would you lie? Would you cheat? Where do you draw the line?
This is an interesting dilemma. Especially in a time when jobs are hard to come by, we are all tempted to stretch [...]
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