Man oh man. I'm usually liberal (or I was liberal), but the stuff that people get away with here can be odd. I am pretty tolerant of other cultures; I don't mind strange foods, different gender roles, religions, or whatnot. But sometimes the excuse "it's my culture" gets carried away and there is a point, even if it is someones "culture", behavior is unacceptable.

Certain things really bother me about Namibia. I am not going to list them all because the list is too long. (A lot of things back at home bother me and I do call out those things). I get constant ignorant remarks and taunts thrown at me for working hard, being productive and actually trying to make a difference without bankrupting the country. It doesn't bother me as it used to. It does worry me because it set's a culture where hard work, ethics and productivity mean little. And I realized that as long things look good on paper, the results do not matter. Extreme nepotism/corruption, rise of "hip-hop & gang" culture in the youth, racism and bigotry are just the major things I notice and hate.

Repairing a culture is hard work and takes time, and calling for reforms when you're not a member of the subculture gets you a lot of grief. And I have been getting a lot of grief. On a side note, I hope people realize that calling a culture dysfunctional does not mean one is racist.

YEAH I get nagged all the time. What am I doing for my free time? Working out. I found a gym, pretty legit in my standards. They have machines, dumbbells and barbells. This is what I do

Workout A:Squat 3x5Bench Press 3x5Barbell Rows 3x5Pull-Ups 3x*Reverse Crunches 3x10Workout BSquat 3x5Overhead Press 3x5Deadlift 1x5Dips 3x*Reverse Crunches 3x10

Being poor is never an excuse to be impolite or rude. But many people seem to think that having no money justifies any behavior. I see it everyday. People come to me and tell me "give me 10 dollars!" or something else that I rather would not type. I guess poverty and the extreme conditions shape how these people act. Although I don't like it nor accept it, it's just a fact of life here. The society in which they live in does not allow for any other type of behavior. I come to accept some "hustling" from Namibians because these people do not know any other way.

But my main angst is towards my fellow volunteers. Time and time again PCV constantly are just ill-mannered. This mentality sinks in that because we are volunteers and because we are not paid well, we are allowed to behave in a manner to profit oneself, in expense to others. I see it constantly, when PCV's come to my house, when they interact with other volunteers and amongst each other. And it is disgusting.

I am constantly doing damage control, either trying to ratio the remaining food in my pantry so I don't starve, apologizing to other volunteers, or rebuilding my reputation in the community. It is a lot of work, considering I also take so much shit from others because I live in Tsumeb. Many PCV's seem to forget their manners when they stepped off the airplane in Windhoek.

I decided to keep my distance away from others. Granted not all the volunteers act this way and this may be isolated within my group, but I hate it. Everyone is going through emotional and physical duress, but making someone else's life miserable is stupid.

I found this on a website, cracked.com. Some of it is raunchy, but the rest is pretty funny.

Phys. Ed: Practical Self-Defense

Chapters Include:I. Why Your Wallet is Not Worth Dying For;

II. Why Guns and Knives Are Not Awesome (Includes Visual Aids Depicting Wounds of Gnarled Strips of Exposed Fat, Tendons and Skin, Plus Graphic Descriptions of Life in a Wheelchair);

III. How to Break Off an Argument With a Hobo Before He Stabs You;

IV. Why You Can't Reason With a Screaming Drunk;

V. Why Believing Action Movies Are Real Will Get You Killed;

VI. How to Tell When That Guy Walking Toward You is Concealing a Weapon.

Industrial Arts: Emergency Repairs

Chapters Include:I. How to Patch and Paint a Wall So You Can Get Your Deposit Back From Your Landlord;

II. Identifying Which Wires in Your House Will Kill You if You Touch Them;

III. What to do When You Wake Up to Find Your Toilet/Refrigerator/Hot Water Heater/Air Conditioner/Sink is Puking Water Onto Your Floor;

IV. When to Call the Repair Guy;

V. How to Figure Out if the Repair Guy is Screwing You;

VI. Foreign Objects You're Going to Try to Put in the Microwave at Some Point so Let's Just Get it Out of Your System Now.

Business: Success = Meeting the Right People

Chapters include:I. First Impressions are Really Important;

II. Subsequent Impressions Are Also Important;

III. No, You're Not Terrell Owens (aka Why Acting Like a Douchebag is a Bad Investment).

Health: How to Stop Throwing Your Money Away on Snake Oil

Chapters Include:I. Pharmaceutical Companies Are Dicks, But at Least They Use Scientists;

II. Why Hippies Have Never Discovered a Single Disease Cure;

III. "Homeopathic" is Another Word for Voodoo Bullshit;

IV. Just Go See a Doctor You Big Baby.Home Economics: How to Cook Cheap Food That Won't Kill You

Chapters Include:I. Pay Attention to Serving Sizes on the Label, They're Laughably Small;

II. Fat Free Versions of Fat Foods Are Terrible, Don't Bother;

III. Seriously, Fat Free Cheese Doesn't Melt;

IV. It's Hard to Screw Up Spaghetti;

V. Why if You Eat Fruity Pebbles for Dinner, You'll be Hungry Again 30 Minutes Later;

VI. If You Make a Pot of Chili and Freeze Bowls of It You'll Totally Have Like Two Months' Worth of Meals There.

Social Studies: Life is Hard and You Will Die, Get Over It

Chapters Include:I. You Can Die at Any Moment, Get Over It;

II. Required Reading: The Road, by Cormac McCarthy;

III. Roleplay Exercise: Various Scenes from The Road, by Cormac McCarthy;

IV. Yes, It Takes 10,000 Hours to Get Really Good at Something, But At Least You're Not Scavenging Through a Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland.

I guess the main reason why I find this stuff funny is because critical thinking is never supported in any educational system. C. Wright Mills, the Father of Modern Conflict Theory, stated:"Human potential (e.g., capacity for creativity) is suppressed by conditions of exploitation and oppression, which are necessary in any society with an unequal division of labour. These and other qualities do not necessarily have to be stunted due to the requirements of the so-called "civilizing process," or "functional necessity": creativity is actually an engine for economic development and change."Everyday I get kids and adults that come to me for help. The kids, most of which are just out of school, what to do some grand career like medicine or business. I proceed to ask them about the usual questions, e.g. what are you'r grades in subject x,y,z, why do you want to study this, etc.

This week a 18 year old asked me how he can get a BBA. When I was in getting my degree, many of my friends where at the business school. I asked him what his grades where, and they were pretty good except math. Of course he wanted to go abroad, but I felt he was unprepared; the likelihood of him getting scholarships is low and most likely only diploma mills would accept him. I told him that he should stay and work as hard as possible in Namibia and our conversation went like this.

Him: It's boring here. You know, Namibia is boring and I didn't feel like working too hard.Me: So what makes you think you will work hard abroad?Him: 'Cause it's different.Me: Ok....Why do you want to get a BBA?Him: 'Cause my parents run business and I want to run my own business.Me: Do you actually know what you will learn with your BBA?Him: Nope... Me: You don't need a degree to run a business. But I think you should try for the basics like math.

Him: But I want to make money.

I swear to God, if someone wants to make money here they should bring in for-profit schools like University of Phoenix Online because all people care are credentials on paper. I hope that other PCV's teach outside their subjects and invoke some critical though/creativity in their students. At the end of the day, if these kids can't think for themselves they will be manipulated and exploited, and the country will be stagnant.

I have a lot of free time. So What have I been doing on my free time?

1. Learn a Language

Yup, during training we all learned a language. We learned a language spoken in our areas e.g. Owambo, Kavango, Caprivi, Hereo, etc. Well I learned Afrikaans, which has been useless. Why? The two major ethnic groups that speak it are the mixed (they called themselves "colored" in Southern Africa), and white Afrikaners. To a lesser extent, educated blacks and damara/nama speak it as well. Well there aren't too people that speak Afrikaans in Tsumeb. Actually this is a lie, there are. But my interaction with them has been small and non-existent. There are very few coloreds in Tsumeb, and most of the Afrikaners don't need/want my help. So I'm learning a new language, Dutch. Why? Dutch is the source of Afrikaans. The Dutch were the main colonizers of Southern Africa. This is what I am using.

So it's been a while. And yes there have been stuff that has happened, but if I want to follow the "blog rules" Peace Corps makes us follow I can't really blog about it. Yeah, shit went down and yes I'm still pissed about it. But whatever, it's life. And for Christmas I had a fun time in Swakopmund. But am I going to write about it? Not really because almost half our group was there and you can really just read their stuff to get the picture.

But one thing did come out of the vacation, making a new bad-ass Namibia friend. I don't want to give out the dudes name, but people like him really motivate me to stay in the PC and do a good job. So what is he like? Well I could tell he is from an affluent family and that he is very well educated; he wore a jacket that had USA written on it. He studied in South Africa and visited all over the world. He's been to Nashville, New Orleans, New York, etc. It was so nice talking to a person that was worldly, and understanding for once. I've been so hammered by stupidity, ignorance and abundance of passive aggressiveness from the people I'm trying to help that it's been hard to stay focused.

So what have been up to? Since I haven't met with the schools on an official level, I can't really do specific things. Instead I've been getting ready for everything. At the moment I am downloading resources for the schools and working on workshops to use them.

Wiki-OfflineOpenCourseWare from MIT and TuftsVideo Tutorials from KhanAcademy.orgCK-12 Textbooks CS UnpluggedI really don't know what I'm supposed to be doing. Everyone else has something e.g. teaching, library, clubs, etc. But for me, I have to do a community evaluation first. The way that things have been ( non-existent boss, lack of transportation, strict hierarchy which I can't skip), everything is moving 100 times slower then I would like. Oh well

So yeah, it’s been a while. What is up everyone? Sorry I haven’t been updating my blog, and to be honest I don’t have an excuse. I just sit in front of a computer all day, fix stuff, teach basic literacy and what not. But today I felt different; I felt like being ultra productive! So what did I do today? Woke up at 5 am and ran 5k in the rain. Then I made breakfast which consisted of eggs and lentil stew( which I made earlier on Sunday). I trotted to work where I got glares from people and got soaked because I magically forgot it was raining. Then at work, I helped out a University student review her failed test, which by the way was due to her lack of abilities to follow instruction and the syllabus. Unfortunate for me, she was rather pissed off and most of the anger was directed towards me. Then I proceeded to reformat the server. Ah the server… I tried to get the Installation disc needed, because the Ministry of Education fails at all levels. The problem is simple, Windows Server 2003 doesn’t have the SATA drivers for the hard drives and what piece of hardware these days has Floppy Drives? Seriously, installing old and fail software on new hardware is just FAIL. Luckily my supervisor and co-workers agree with me and allowed me the freedom for the necessary fixes. GO ME!

WOW, two months in Namibia and now I'm a PCV. The swearing in ceremony was two days ago and I still can't believe it. The ceremony was nice. I had to get up and say half a speech, luckily I didn't make too many mistakes. Oh by the way, the speech was in Afrikaans! Least the food in the reception was decent...

I'm really lost for words at the moment. Were all together in Town and now we are all across Namibia. Saying goodbyes was the hardest. I know that we have cellphones and we will see each other in 6 weeks, but it is still hard. In Tsumeb, I am the only volunteer that is living in town. The closest is 60km north. I still feel rather lonely in the town, even though I have luxuries.

Getting here was easy. We packed into a bus and vroooom got here. I didn't expect to get into Tsumeb so quickly and when reality sank in I freaked out. It's just really crazy right here and I hope I don't freak out. Well, I already kind of did when my roommate took me shopping and all my cooking abilities just vanished. I suddenly couldn't remember how to pick onions, potatoes or garlic. And out of fear I didn't buy any meat because I'm dirt poor. The T-Bone did look really nice, but oh well SPAM wannabe was on sale.

My room is a mess right now. I have tried and tried to un-pack but this is going to take me forever. I don't know why, but I like it really messy. Hopefully I'll get my act together and get my shit in order. I'm looking forward/stressing out about the first day of work on Monday. And oh, I need to update with pictures by then too! Oh My God, so much to do and so little time.

First of all, thanks Mom, Dad and little Woo for the care package! I will treasure and ration the food out as long as possible! Everything in it is really great, although I did eat the jerky and candy too quickly. Oh well, the ramen and the miso are going to be saved for a needier time. Really love you guys at home; stay strong and don’t get into trouble. One of the things I just got was Saracha Hot Sauce. Now this badboy of a hot pepper inferno burns everything in your upper respiratory track. Now I was able to convince Jandre and my host Dad to take a sample of it. Yeah, their reactions were epic. First they didn’t feel the heat, but then WHAM it hit them. If they were cartoons I imagine that their ears would be steaming. They rushed for water. But everyone knows that water is not ideal, milk or sugar is. Nevertheless they rushed for water and I got to watch them sweat for 10 minutes. I love this stuff. Then the three of us were able to convince un-expecting victims that this was just “American” ketchup. Oh boy, the reactions were just as golden as the first ones. Yeah I know, some of you think this cruel. But it was hilarious seeing everyone run to get water and they sweat. At the end we all went to get ice cream and a beer. This was one of the best bonding moments ever.And before I forget, thanks for the great package!

It is almost time to head to site and work for two years. My site is in town called Tsumeb, just south of the “red line”- the line marks the quarantine of cattle. I am going to be working with the community and develop the IT curriculum. Things that are basic to me, keyboarding, using the internet, basic trouble shooting and etc., are not supported in the education system. They do have classes and subjects based on computers, but they are not emphasized. Teachers may not be qualified to teach, students might not know the importance of an education, or the schools may not even have computers.

I have been thinking about what I want and do not want at my site. It has been a difficult process adjusting me ideas on what I should do as a Peace Corp volunteer. The difference I can bring is small, miniscule at best. So realistically my goal is to make things sustainable by training others to do what I can do. Typing, MS office, programming, and hardware trouble shooting are a few things I plan to do, but I want to show how an education, not necessarily in IT, is important in Namibia’s development. I would hate to see teachers, principals and my co-workers develop skills and then leave for a better paying job. I know this is going to happen, but hopefully I can genuinely tell who wants to improve their country from those who want a skill to get a better paying job.

I know I will not be a technician or go to guy for every problem. I am not going to do work for others; if someone wants me to type a document, I rather sit for a day showing them how to do it then doing it myself in 15 minutes. But there is a caveat; I have a few projects that I want to do. These projects are probably not sustainable, and frankly, I’m going to be selfish and do them. My goal for is for someone to be inspired to take over when I leave. It’s going to be a long two years, and I know I’ll have my ups and downs. But I’m seriously ready to kick some ass.

Sorry for the delay, but I just came back from site around a week ago. Somewhat stressful, somewhat fun and the rest was interesting. First thing that happened to us on route was a flat tire.

And everyone ran outside to help out. Most of the highways here are just two lanes and the passes that people make are sometimes really dangerous. But luckily this was fixed quickly.

Now for my site. I will be working at a Teacher Resource Center doing whatever needs to be done by the community. I don't know how else to describe it so here are some pictures.

PC Labs

The PC labs here use Windows Server 2003 and I need some literature on it! The internet is from a ADSL line, which is decent, and there is a WiFi at the center. Most of my work is going to be based off of community needs assessment, so I really can't tell anyone what I'm supposed to do. The mailing address is:

PO Box 411Tsumeb, Namibia

And my house is pretty nice too. Modern, has hot water, electricity, and all the good stuff. Compared to some other sites, I lucked out. Here are the pictures for it!

So this is some stuff about my site. There is more to come, but I'll wait after I leave for site Oct. 16, 2010.

Everything is alright here. Today we were given site enouncements. I will be in a Teacher Resource Center (TRC) in Tsumeb. I am going to need some resource material sooner or later on teaching stuff. Excel, Word Processing (Typing), Power Point, “Computer Literacy”, and the internet are a few (or only) topics I will train the teachers here. I looked over the Ministry of Education’s curriculum and I’m going to work hard to make it teachable. Seriously, what’s the point of teaching if I can’t make it fun? And I will make it fun. But my main goal is to teach someone to train others. I don’t want to leave in two years and leave the TRC back to square one. Teach a man to fish, right? Hopefully I can do both.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsumeb

View Larger Map

Tsumeb is a town in the north and is really nice. Some of my trainers call it paradise because it is so green. I will also have many amenities (supermarkets, washing machine, etc) there too. I am going to visit there on the 23 of September. I will give an update and a photo shop pic afterwards. I really hate this blogging stuff, but it is much easier then mass emails. I’ll try to put more frequent updates because I have a routine. Later y’all.

Everything here is pretty modern. I have a room with a bed, closet and an outlet. The bathroom has running hot water and a pretty nice toilet that flushes with two different settings. There is a garden with roses and a semi-mean dog. I can watch TV when I want, get cold water from the fridge and even drink water from the tap. This is not the Africa we were told about.

My host father’s name is Alaban. He is a pretty big guy that works in the brewery. My mother’s name is Charon and she world in the diamond company. My host sister’s, who is three years old, is Shalan (but we call her Nunu). Everyone is extremely hospitable and nice. The food is decent; it can be too sweet, too oily and too salty at times. Meat here is only red; everything is chicken, fish or pork. Life during training is too hard but I hate sitting for 8 hours a day being lectured. Not only does my butt hurt at the end of the day, but I’m too tired to write anything coherent. Hopefully this is enough for you all.Pictures are here!Big PapaMamaThe babyCousin Jacky

A lot has happened since I left Philly a few weeks ago. I've stayed in a place called NIED (National Institute for Educational Development) which is in a town called Okahandja. Okahandja is about 60 km outside Windhoek (which is pronounced Vind-hook if you are speaking Afrikaans, more on this later). After a week of that I moved to my host family.

It's a week since I moved in with my host family and all is awesome. I'll update more on this later...

Yeah title says it all. Got a safe and reliable internet on my computer. Be ready for some massive updates in the next few days!

Packing stuff right now. Well not packing; more like rationing what to take and what to leave behind. Who made these rules on the luggage. I can carry > 100lbs worth of stuff. But nope, it's gotta be less then 80lbs. Maybe they wont notice if it is around 90 lbs.

And I wish that I more bandwidth to use. Downloading is really slow a the moment.

So last night I was surfing the web and I found this on Reddit. It's a series of videos posted on Youtube of a guy that is being a pranked on constantly. There are 23 videos total and the time stamps on the videos are between 2008-09 academic semester. I was pissed off and so are a lot of people. Since then, the youtube channel was shut down and a massive e-mail campaign has started notifying the school and the media. And now /b/ (4chan), reddit and digg are backing the victum.

But what shocks me the most is usage of the Just World Fallacy. I realize that this could be valuable insight for me when I head out to Namibia; victims aren't victims because they choose to be. I am still rather raging about this and for those who want to read more about it, the link will be at the bottom.

Link

Okay, here is a story about stuff. It's heavy, very heavy. Now I got all the "essentials" packed, but the stuff that are going to prevent a mental breakdown can't come with me. So here is a list things I need to decide to take with me or not.

Judo Gi Assortment of books (Damn you Kindle for selling out; I was going to buy the new one but noooo you had to sell out. Thanks a lot!)Art kitMore booksFood Stuffs

A gi is one of those uniforms that judo practitioner wear. As soon as I land in Namibia, I am magically going to be fluent in Chinese and a kung-fu master. Or more nicely put, I want to put some stereo types about Asians to rest.

So books. Yeah, damn you Amazon. I got the kindle on my iTouch, but the Kindle is so nice. So I have a few paper backs and hardcover books. Decisions, Decisions.

Art. I got photoshop on my laptop. Can't take an easel with me. I'll think of something.

So food. Umm I'm a rice eater and rice is heavy. I am going to be so gastronomically screwed the first few months while my body adjusts. For those who don't know "sushi" rice is a staple for Korea and Japan. Ask what a meal is and people will answer rice. Everything else, a large pan pizza from Chicago or Texas BBQ, is just a snack.

So I'm philosophically debating what to do. I wish I could take my guitar, but if Lucille got hurt I would die. And yes Lucille is my guitar. Also I wished I used the last three weeks to get movies and shows. My collection looks really pathetic right now; it's all anime or cult classics or Battle Star Galactica. Who watches those except me... I'm such a nerd. Getting a few textbooks to keep me busy. Hopefully learning R (Statistics) or Matlab will keep me sane.

So I decided to do this blogging thing; I know I write well and hope that people won't be bored. Soon, and that means this Sunday (15 August 2010) I am heading to Philadelphia to before heading out to Namibia. Where is Namibia?

Here it is. Thanks King Leonidas for showing everyone where it is! So yeah, it's in west coast of Africa and just north of South Africa. What to know more about this place? Stay tuned.

Oh before I continue this blog I really need some help with the HTML and coding for it. I don't know why this "simple" stuff is hard, but every time I look at the code it just gives me a headache. I can't find the CSS and half the tags are being rejected cause Blogger hates me. Also I'm taking requests for widgets and stuff.