The adventure begins!

Well, day 3 in Windhoek and all’s good so far. We got collected from the airport by Barney, a very friendly VSO employee who took us on a tour of the city before depositing us off to our home for the week during our in country induction programme. We’re staying with a couple of other volunteers, one of whom, Rashmi, has been here for 6 months so has all the local knowledge including how to make the most of the $8 (75p) taxis around town – there’s no bus service so this seems to be the way to travel! It’s all very civilised in the city. It’s clean, everyone stops at traffic lights, no hassle, friendly and reasonably safe (although we’ve been advised not to go out after dark alone, and all the houses have gates and electric fences and bars on the windows…other than that all ok).

On Sunday evening we met up with the other 7 volunteers who are starting at the same time as us; 4 of them are from Canada and the others from the UK doing a mixture of placements including education, IT, developing girls involvement in football and audiology. We were taken to a pretty cool bar called Joes (a definite must for those who are visiting) and sampled the local cuisine of Springbok kebab and Kudu steak and excellent local beer. This is a taste of things to come as we’ve learnt today that we’ll be eating a diet of Maize and meat for 2 years in Okakarara – they’re not really into veg!

This week’s going to be quite relaxed, learning practical tips such as opening bank accounts, child protection issues, a bit of Herero language training and network building with other volunteers. On Friday we get collected by someone from the Ministry of Health and taken to Okakarara where we have a 1 bedroom flat at the hospital – watch this space as we don’t really know what to expect. We do have a shower and electricity though so it sounds promising!

A big shock has been how cold it gets at night. Literally within half an hour between 5.30 and 6pm it gets dark and goes from being 20 something degrees to about 5 degrees – good job we brought our thermals!

There’s been a lot going on and there’ll be photos for the next update once we’ve sussed out the internet options in our new home. Hope all’s well back in the UK. xxxx