Peppa Spray

I should probably preface this post by explaining the significance of the end of the month in Namibia. The end of the month is when everyone gets paid, so people get buckwild that weekend - like people tend to do anywhere in the world when they get paid. With that being said, I saw a dude get tased and experienced pepper spray for the first time.

I'm really lucky to have my roomie, who has been in town for a year and has made some pretty interesting/crazy/fun friends. We went out to a club in town last night. As a group of us were walking from the bar area to the dance floor, we got split up by a crowd at the door. I saw two guys arguing pretty loudly. Then, all of the sudden, one guy just started wailing on the other. Everyone started backing up as one guy was on top of the other, beating the crap out of him. One of the them broke a bottle and was about to use it when I heard the "zzz zzz" of a taser. A police officer was making his way through the crowd, and people started running away when they heard it. I couldn't see everything, but apparently the two guys were still brawling while they were being tased. As the guys were leaving the bar, they were still fighting. One of the them ending up kicking a glass pane out of the door on his way out.  At this point, it was chaotic. The all-out pandemonium came next.

A few moments after the tasing situation, people started running from the dance floor to the bar where I'm standing. My friend came up to me, doubled over coughing with tears in her eyes. As I looked around I saw everyone was doing the same thing. Then...it wafted towards me. First my throat felt really dry and irritated. Then my eyes started to burn a little. Then a little more. Then it hurt to open them. I'm not sure if the officer pepper sprayed the crowd to control them, or if we were just in the line of fire. But dozens of people were either running outside, or running in the bathroom.

It was at this point that same friend grabbed me and said, "Those assholes started fighting when Blurred Lines was playing! Let's dance. I came here to fucking dance." I was still kind of worried about that whole pepper spray/bar brawl situation when she said one of the most hilarious things I've ever heard - "Don't worry, all you have to do is put your hand over your mouth and nose, let's dance!" Part of me was like "this girl is crazy", but the other part of me was like "Yes. Let's do it." So, I took her at her word and we went to the dance floor. It was pretty empty - pepper spray does that - but a few other people had our same idea. So there we were, dancing with one hand in the air, and the other hand covering our noses and mouths. After the club a bunch of us went back to the house, and I went to bed when the sun came up.

According to a volunteer who has been here for two years, I've seen more in one night than he did his entire first year. Calling that one a win.

I Miss Dirty Rap Music

Since this is my first post, I need to put a disclaimer: The views expressed herein are not those of Peace Corps, they are my own.

Necessary background information: For those of you who don't know, I've been in Africa for the past two months. Phase 1 of Peace Corps is training, which is what I just finished.

Some things I did in Phase 1:
- Ate crazy stuff! Warthog, sheep 'testines, donkey, various goat parts, and mopane worms, to name a few. Check my facebook if you want to see pictures of a goat getting slaughtered.
- Encountered a questionable (=rabid) dog in a classroom
- Shadowed a current PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) in a small village for 5 days
- Taught boatloads of children how to wobble
- Lived in a neighborhood with so much history that it's almost a crime to write so little about it

So that's a really small list of things that stick out. The truth is, if I tried to document the 350ish hours I spent in training with my group, this blog would be a mile long. With that being said, through those (literally) hundreds of hours, I've started to make myself a nice little home here with some cool people. After all, I'll be here for 2 years.

Anyway, I swore in on Thursday and officially became a volunteer. I had to give a speech in the language that I'm learning in front of my group, each volunteer's supervisor, my APCDs (Associate Peace Corps Directors) and PC Namibia's Country Director, as well as the U.S Ambassador to Namibia. I will never forget Ambassador Nesbitt shaking my hand and telling me how well I did on my speech. Badass.

Now I'm in Phase 2, which will last until December. For me, that essentially means observing Namibian teachers at my permanent site, helping with projects, getting to know my community, and so on. My school seems really supportive of having a volunteer, and are excited to work with me. It looks like I'll be helping out with the computer lab and the library for now. The computer lab is nearly up and running - another volunteer has done a great job on it so far. The library, like any library, could always use more books. Right now, I'm looking at different ways to beef up our book supply and encourage kids to check out books.

...This is a horrible transition, but, I really miss 2 Chainz. That's actually what prompted me to get off my ass, then sit back on my ass and start a blog. I needed the world to know. There are other things I miss, don't get me wrong (small things like family, friends, Knob Creek, and Wal-Mart.). However, as my people can attest, Lau loves her some horrible dirty rap music. One of my biggest concerns is coming back to the states and finding out that I've missed two years of horribly awesome rap videos and dance moves. I heard Trinidad James or whatever the hell his name is at a party last weekend and...I kind of got teary-eyed because I didn't know if he had any more hits after All Gold Everything. Is that weird, Blog? You should stay tuned for the next random thought I have.