Yesterday we found out the language that we would learn. We were each given a piece of paper with our name on it and an animal. Then we were told to make that noise and find other people making the same noise. Then we found our teacher. My animal was a jackal, and making a noise for this was a little hard. I found 3 other people making the same noise. Our teachers name is Ramsey and we are learning Otjiherero. Otjiherero is spoken pretty much through the entire country. For some people their language is only spoken in one region so they pretty much know where they're going to be. But for me I could literally be anywhere. Today we had our first language class. We started off learning about possible consonant and vowel combinations. This language has single sounds like A (ah), E (hay without h), I (ee), O (oh), U (You without y). Then there are consonant and vowel combinations like ta (tah),and me(may).Then there are double consonant and vowel sounds like nwa (the n is a short sound not fully prounced) and vye (v ay). THEN there are triple consonant and vowels like mbwa (the m and b aren't as prounced) and tjwe (the tj makes a sh sound like she). Getting my mouth to form some of these sounds was really hard. We also learned greetings. If you want to say to someone or ask them how they are you could say Kora which means what's up. The person could respond with Nawa which means good.
In the evening we got to meet a member of our host family. We were given a slip of paper with a name on it. Then after a session about the expectations and what not for host families we stood up and one at a time say the name of our family member.I'm living with the Hijarunguru family. My family consists of Belinda (the mom), Judu (the son) and Tukoo (the sister). Belinda is a single mom living with her 13 year old son and her sister. She teaches English and on the weekends makes her perfume. They live in town so I will be walking to training everyday. It will probably be a 25 minute walk. Thankfully the first morning we will be picked up at a central location. The house that I'm staying at is a 1 story cement house. When you first enter through the gate there are 2 houses and the one I'm in is the 2nd one. You enter right into the kitchen. The house has everything, running water, electricity, and internet (which is how I'm typing this now). I am required to have my own bedroom (not my choice, it is a peace corps. requirement). It's a simple room but very pretty. The bed has orange sheets, there is a closet and a dresser. Another requirement from the Peace Corps. is that my room is able to be locked. If the house doesn't have a lock on the door, or it's broken the Peace Corps. will provide a new lock. All the volunteers were placed in either town (like me) Smarties(see previous post), Vedersdale(the town that I thought began with F...again, see previous post), Nau-Aib (previous post), and Nieb ( which just got added.) Everyone not living in town will be driven to the training site, so I'll get plenty of exercise walking everyday. Housing a Peace Corps. is considered an honor and to make sure that the families can support us they are given gift cards to multiple grocery stores. We will have 2 meals a day with our families (breakfast and dinner) and lunch is during training so it's on our own. We were given money so that we could actually buy food. Dinner was a bit awkward. My family dinners are always very loud and full of discussion. This dinner was quiet but then again there was only 3 of us and I'm brand new. I wish I had a little bit of warning because I was about to eat before she mentioned saying grace.
I figured I'd say something about the food here. So far it's been a form of meat (if you ask the type they won't usually answer until after dinner), rice, and some form of vegetables. Apparently I've eaten antelope one day, beef, liver, and even chicken one day! But most of the time the locals don't know what type of meat they are actually cooking. I've noticed that the game meat (antelope and really anything not beef) has a very distinctive taste and my stomach isn't really sure if it likes it or not. The juice here is amazing, or so I think so. It is very sweet and very rich in flavor. One of my favorites is guava juice.
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