I’m at site! To catch you up on all things Peace Corps and Kimmi since my last post, here are some highlights:

–>We’ve found out our sites. The 33 of us are spread out all over Namibia, and I’m in the Kavango East region in Rundu. My focus during service will revolve around women’s empowerment via income generation, and girl’s education rights and promotion through FAWENA, an NGO under the Ministry of Education.

–> Our country director, Carl Swartz, is stepping down as country director, and Kate Lifanda will be taking over the role this August. Carl was pretty great in regards to taking feedback regarding training (especially sexual assault training), so he’ll be missed. Fingers cross Kate stays around for more than a year.

–>As part of technical training, the community economic volunteers put on a market day that allowed our business partners to showcase their products. In my case, my business partner, a caterer, prepared Namibian rump steak, and I taught her to spice up her menu with teriyaki kabobs. They were quite the hit.

–>I’ve sworn in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer! I even have an ID badge to prove it.

–> Elainey (left) is in Ovambo land around 4 hours from me, and Dana (right) is also in Kavango East in a village about 1.5 hours away. She comes to Rundu every other weekend to do her shopping, so I’ll get company twice a month!

–> (From left) Helga, Mrs. Muntenda, me!, and Mrs. Eises. Helga’s my counterpart and Mrs. Muntenda and Mrs. Eises are my supervisors. They’re incredibly strong women, fighting for girls’ education and empowerment and being great role models in the community. I’m so lucky to be working with them!

–>I don’t have a house yet ): Something went awry and I’m waiting for someone to leave the house I’ll be staying at, so until that happens, I’m in the equivalent of a Motel 6 with my about 30 of my closest friends. My closest mosquito friends, whee!

I sent out an email that delves a bit deeper into the work I’m doing with FAWENA to friends and family, so stay tuned for my next post that talks more about the girls and women I’ll be working with!

Otherwise, let me know what you’d like me to write about – happy to oblige. Sorta.

Love,
Kimmi

Also, I wrote drafted this entry week 2 at site, and now it’s the beginning of.. week 5, so some things have changed and I have more updates, but more on that later! xo