Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Nyangana District Hospital

Things have been going pretty well lately. This morning I got my pre-natal class approved. It will be 8 weeks long meeting once a week for an hour. I am going to cover topics like reproductive health (how they got pregnant in the first place), what to expect during their pregnancy and labor/delivery, how to eat a balanced diet, breastfeeding, basic newborn care, etc. Hopefully a lot of women will sign up... but I'm not sure how it will go.

So I wanted to show you all what the hospital looks like and some of the things I have been doing since I arrived in Nyangana. A few weeks ago I got to go out into the villages and teach alcohol and drug education in the schools. My coworker took some pictures and I've posted them below along with pictures of the hospital!

 The hallway outside the Admin building where I get my internet access!
The entrance to the Out Patient Department where my office (without internet) is located.

The front gate of the hospital (here spelled "hospita")

Nyangana District "Hospita"

Some fliers out front.
New Start, our voluntary counseling and testing center where people can get tested and treated for HIV free of charge. 

Doctors housing.

Some of the learners (a.k.a. students) that I taught. These ones won prizes for answering questions correctly in our quiz competition. 

My coworker (and we share an office together) Mr. Kudumo talking to the kids.

Me talking to a HUGE group of learners. They filled the entire hall!

Me, my counterpart Helga, and our driver Christoph, still talking to the learners.

Me talking to another (but smaller and more manageable) group of learners. 

And STILL talking :)
Another group of learners who won prizes. 

 
I really like this picture. I am just about to hand out a backpack as a prize!


But this is my favorite picture. Mr. Kudumo is about to get knocked over by these boys in the front row. They REALLY wanted a prize! 

Hope you enjoyed the pictures! Stay well!

Monday, July 5, 2010

4th of July

4th of July was spent in Rundu! All of the Peace Corps volunteers staying in the Kavango Region met up in Rundu for the weekend. The houses were packed with people, but it was still a lot of fun. We celebrated on Saturday by having a BBQ. It was a great time. See pics below!!!
Me and my friend Emily.

A good old American game of football. 

Caitie, Me and Emily. 

Me and Kate.

Me, Justin and Kate. You can see the football game in the background. 

Me and Lee. He is the closest volunteer to me, about 20 km away. 

Ok, so I know it's a blurry picture, but there were some kids around and some of the volunteers were giving them piggyback rides.

Justin enjoying his dinner of pasta salad. It was soooooo good!

So these next pictures are the sequence of events when Katie Brown was trying to hit the pinata.  Yes... Ashley made a pinata shaped like a penguin that said Freedom on it. Why? I'm not sure! And yes... we used a broom as a bat :)

Katie after she was spun around the first time.
Katie about to put a dent in the wall of the house... missing the pinata. This is a good shot of the "Freedom."



Katie hit the pinata this time, but broke it on the first hit so it could no longer hang.

Nick and Alex trying to rehang the pinata off of the DSTV dish. Poor freedom penguin :(


 
The poor penguin now is being hung with the rope around its next. Katie did manage to hit the penguin without breaking it this time.

After the Freedom pinata, we ended the night with fireworks. But not good ones. They were cheap and colored green and red. It was more like Christmas in July than Independence Day. Someone managed to get sparklers too, so that was fun. And then we sang a few patriotic songs then ended the night. Overall, it was a very nice 4th of July. Hope you all enjoyed it back in the states.