ZACHARY J. STICKNEY
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Welcome to my Blog!

Hard core peace corps!

3/21/2014

 
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Hello everyone!  My apologies for my hiatus recently.  As you can imagine, travelling a long distance and trying to adapt to a new home can be pretty challenging, and honestly it has been nice NOT to be looking at screens all the time lately!  That being said, I want to document this experience well, and also give my friends and family and others who are interested a good taste of what we’re experiencing here.  And so, the blog officially begins.  I hope to keep these fairly brief, but informative, but more importantly I hope to answer any questions you may have.  So please, feel free to leave comments here or drop me an e-mail, and I will reply as promptly as possible.

Before we start, though, there are a few technical things to get out of the way.  While the Peace Corps and the U.S. Government encourage us to do things like blog and use social media as a way of accomplishing the goal of building bridges between the U.S. and host countries, they also want it to be clear that, while we are employed by the government, we are not necessarily their official mouthpieces.  So, to be clear: any opinions or ideas expressed within this blog are my own, and do not necessarily reflect the ideals, policies, or opinions of the Peace Corps or the United States Government.

With that out of the way, here’s the fun stuff: We are only about a week into training, and I can honestly say I have never had so much information tossed my way as I have over the past week – and things are only just beginning!  As trainees, there are a lot of things we have to cover: what we will be doing as public health volunteers, safety and personal health maintenance, Peace Corps policies and expectations, Namibian history and culture, our goals and responsibilities as volunteers, language and cross-cultural training, and so on.  We also sing often, and are learning important things like the Namibian national anthem as well as the anthem of the African Union.  I also sincerely doubt there are many jobs which use more acronyms than the Peace Corps.  I feel as though if I know half of them by the end of my service I will probably be in the top end of the bell curve.

If that paragraph seemed broad, generalized, and disjointed, then I feel I have succeeded in giving you an idea of what we feel like sometimes as trainees.  Our training is VERY comprehensive – and on any given day we can talk about one, a few, or all of the abovementioned things over the course of 8-12 hours. 

This isn’t to say that our trainers are doing a bad job.  In fact, their work has been among the most professional and intelligently presented I have ever seen.  It merely means this: we are jumping in to a very difficult, but incredibly rewarding field of work, and our success or failure depends heavily on how prepared we are to handle a very ambiguous and nuanced job environment.  These trainings seem like mini-marathons in themselves because they are preparing us for a greater marathon – our 2 year service here in Namibia. 

That will do it for these very early thoughts – but I want to know: what are your questions about this experience so far?  In subsequent blogs, I plan to narrow things down to very particular subjects, and make them as useful to everyone back home as possible.  Shortly, I will also attempt to incorporate video into these things!  Until then, please keep sending me messages, sharing your stories back home, and working in the small ways to build bridges between people.  That’s what this journey is all about!



Ian
3/21/2014 08:31:25 am

Zach, you African stud muffin you! It is awesome to see you are up and running with the blog. I will continue to check back in. First question from Utah, what is the food like?

Zach S.
3/22/2014 10:01:16 pm

Ian! Good to hear from you man. Going to try and post photos and videos soon too to make this thing as fun and useful as possible! Glad you are reading. As for the food: I feel this early into things they have spoiled us to some degree. Especially the first few days, when we were living in hostel-style housing with the other volunteers, the food was very much what you would expect in the United States, albeit with a bit of a Namibian twist. My host family, too, has been cooking somewhat Southern-style comfort food, so it isn't terribly different than home. That said, there are signs that when we leave Okahandja for our permanent sites that things could change quite a bit depending on our regions. Namibia is VERY diverse, so it's hard to say exactly what I will eat on a day to day basis when that time comes, but yesterday in Windhoek I tried some fried local worms and a pig's ear. The worms were alright - very dry, though, - and they tasted something like a stale cheeto. Probably a lot better for you than a cheeto though. And the pig's ear... well... I was told that it wasn't cooked in quite the best way, but nevertheless I'll just say that it tasted exactly like you'd imagine an ear to taste. Mmmmm... Cartilage.

Alana
3/24/2014 01:48:45 am

Wasn't Namibia part of Dutch Africa? I'm assuming there will be Dutch influences galore in the food (aebleskivers with crocodile filling?), and maybe some stuff from South Africa as well (there's this chicken soup thing called pittypeut? that might have made its way up)? I'm making wildly generalized assumptions about the food, but I'm genuinely interested. And too bad about the pig ear! My cousins and I used to gnaw on those at family reunions/funerals and it was such a treat for us.

Wendy
3/22/2014 02:11:17 pm

Wow, sounds like you are already very busy. Glad you are enjoying it and learning so much. Love you!

Zachary J. Stickney
3/22/2014 10:02:56 pm

Love you too Wendy! It was definitely been wonderful so far. But our trainers tell us we are still in the Honeymoon period, which I think is a fair assessment. Hopefully this blog and interacting with everyone at home will help during the not-so-fun times when I miss you all! Much love to everyone back home.

Alana
3/24/2014 01:42:21 am

Since the Peace Corp is focused on public health, and you're not trained as a medical professional, what are the expectations concerning that part of the job?

Zachary J. Stickney
3/24/2014 05:08:01 am

Hey Alana! Great to see you are reading too :) Namibia was indeed a part of Dutch Africa, and in fact Afrikaans was considered a dialect of Dutch until the mid-1920s (I believe). Namibia was also a German colony in the late 1800's to early 1900s, and then was occupied by South Africa during World War I. It then remained a part of South Africa until 1990, in spite of many UN declarations and resistance efforts. So, there are a TON of influences here, on top of the many cultures of indigenous people. So, really I think the food will be wildly different depending on where you are exactly. Unfortunately I can't tell you much more than that right now, as my own experience has been somewhat limited, but I'll keep posting new things as they come around!

As for your second question, it's such a good and important question that I think I'll just answer it in a separate blog... starting on it now!


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  • About Me
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