Wa lala po!

Today is my last day of orientation in Windhoek. Tomorrow (Saturday) morning I will be picked up by a bus and driven up north to my placement in Ogongo. This last week of orientation has flown by! We got back from Tsumeb on Tuesday and the past few days have been full of training sessions. We had language training every day in Oshindongo – the language of my village. It was very difficult to learn and I definitely need to do some studying! Here is a taste of it:

Wa lala po = Good morning
Wa hula po = Good afternoon
Wa tokelwa po = Good evening
Ka lale po nawa = Goobye
Tangi = Thank You
Meme = mother/or woman older than you
Tate = father/or man older than you
Ombwa oya sa = the dog is dead

Yes, that is correct, one of the key phrases that I learned was “the dog is dead.” I also learned how to say “Hey white person, what do you want?” and “Run, whitey, run.” Our language instructor, Meme Shiivute, was one crazy woman! Ten minutes into the first lesson, she asked us to write sentences in Oshindongo (without teaching us any vocab!) and the second lesson she said that she was only going to speak in Oshindongo. She told us a few great stories about her life and growing up in the north during the apartheid. Prior to independence, black students were required to repeat 2nd grade and 8th grade just because they were inferior to the white students. She finished school and completed her teacher training. Her husband was put in jail for political reasons and her family was in danger. So they moved to Windhoek and she has lived here since.

It still hasn't hit me that I will be teaching in a small village for the next year! I have had some great cultural experiences thus far, but I still feel like I am on vacation with 30 other Americans. I cannot wait to get to Ogongo on Saturday! I have a few anxieties about teaching/living/getting around, but I'm so excited to get settled, meet everyone in my village and get back into a classroom! It has only been a month since I left WCHS and I already miss teaching!