Hello from Namibia

  The first thing you notice is how sparse it is.  We're flying over Namibia now, and you look out the window, and you just see space.  A lot of landscape, a lot of desert, some hills and trees, a road here and there, maybe a small body of water.  A few houses here and there, but mostly space and sand.  I'd read about Namibia, and all the info mentioned this fact, but having lived in or near cities all my life, I just couldn't have ever pictured this until I finally saw it with my own eyes.  Think of an oil field in Texas, but without the oil rigs, and you're still not close.

  So, in case you haven't yet figured it out, I've made it to Namibia.  We made it.  All 19 of us who showed up to staging in Philly.  After an afternoon of orientation classes, I had a final dinner with my parents, went out for drinks with a few of my other trainees, and around 2am, I said goodbye to my mom and dad and boarded a bus to New York's JFK airport.  “Here we go” we all thought.  Of course, we get to JFK about 2 hours before the South Africa Air check-in opened, so we had to wait.  Then, once they opened, we went through security, and again, we waited, about 2 hours, until, finally, we were on our plane to Africa.  For about 15 hours.  And then a wait in South Africa.  For about 5+ hours.  Okay, so rather than the climactic start with music blasting and a dramatic slow walk across the runway as we arrived in Namibia, it was mostly a lot of waiting.  I wrote and mailed off a couple post cards from South Africa, got my first Windhoek Lager (not the best beer, but I can certainly live with it).  A long taxi that required a re-fuel, and finally, about 2 hours late, we arrive in Windhoek.  And by we, I mean the volunteers.  And all but 1 bag.  The one with my clothes.  In the grand scheme of things, not the end of the world, and of all the people in the group, it was probably best that it happened to me (it still hasn't arrived, and might not for a week, so tomorrow, one of the trainers is taking me shopping and showing me around the town).

  We were supposed to have a little welcome session, but we arrived so late (after about an hour and a half van ride from the airport in Windhoek to our training center in Okahandja) that they just served us dinner (while we watch the reveal of the new Pope) and hit the sack for a good night's sleep.  Well, some of us.  Well, me.  I think I might be the only one who actually slept the whole night.

  We had our first day of training, got mosquito netting, I took a walk around the town with one of my fellow trainees (I will probably be using names in the future, but for now, until I have permission, they'll remain anonymous).  Not sure which language, but we got our first language lesson on fruit as a bit of a mixer (though one of my fellow trainees and I sort of got lucky and cheated).  This town is really pretty.  It reminds me a bit of Pardes Hanna, to be honest.  A lot of sunshine, which makes me happy.  We had our medical and programming interviews, got our first round of rabies shots, but, otherwise, today's a light day.  So is tomorrow.  I know I left a lot out.  There's no way I could chronicle everything adequately here, but I'm trying to keep a journal of things also for people to look through when I get back.

  However, whenever your day is started by being serenaded in a language you can't even read or pronounce, much less understand, it's gonna be an awesome day. (see Facebook or ask me to e-mail you the videos).

Oh, one more thing. As beautiful as this place is (every time I walk around, I get happier and happier), that's not the best part.  Here's the best part: THE WATER IN THIS COUNTRY IS DRINKABLE IF IT COMES FROM A TAP!!!