A year?!

I've been here for almost a year. At times it seems hard to believe. Has anything really happened in that amount of time? And then I think back to myself a year ago and it feels like everything has happened.

Beginning with an anxious, slightly self-conscious, eager, excited, twenty-two year old recent college graduate. Memories of my thought processes are fuzzy. But remembering the nervousness makes me laugh. Expectations? I should have written those down.

And then off to Caprivi. What other volunteers joke is actually Peace Corps Zambia. So far from other volunteers. Caprivi accounts for much of Namibia's statistical exceptions. Caprivi provided some of the hardest and yet some of the best times in Namibia so far. All of my major adjustments took place while residing there. Pile up all the shocks that resulted from problems existing within the education system with the absence of indoor plumbing, the need to fetch water, bathing with a bucket, washing clothes by hand, and not understanding the language made way for some rough days. But then you fall in love with bathing under the stars and being able to reduce your water usage and cooking outside and enjoying an open fire every single day, walking through maize fields, eating pumpkin and malaka, watching the kids dance and sing, and suddenly finding yourself to be accepted completely into a family.

And then a few mistakes were made and it's off to Herero land. Term two is over and I'm feeling good. I spend more time at school in the new location. Days can be long and exhausting but what makes everything great at the end of my day: I love my learners. They can misbehave and drive me crazy in classes, visit me non-stop at my home after school and on the weekends so much that I want to crawl in a hole and hide, they can refuse to listen, be terrible at English, constantly ask me to watch DVDs, but I still love them, even those whose names I don't know (come on, give me a break, I have hundreds of new learners, many names I can't pronounce, and some I only have class with once a week...).

So as the days of this term wind down, I'm preparing myself for a lovely (and hopefully stress free) short break, involving books and reunions and travel.

Then I think back to what started this post. A year. In Namibia. And I still have a year and 4 months to go.