Tses! (pronounced something along the lines of "chess")

Tuesday marked a big day in the lives of all 35 PCTs! Not only did we take our first language proficiency exams (I’m officially a novice-high Afrikaans speaker), but we also received our permanent site placements!! I’m going to Tses! https://maps.google.com.na/maps?hl=en&q=tses+namibia&ie=UTF-8&ei=_YErUMvrMcOChQfk_IGgDg&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAg

Tses is a small village in southern Namibia. I will go to Keetmanshoop (only 80 km away—yes, this really is “only” since some volunteers’ shopping towns are several hundred km away) to do my shopping. I will be the only volunteer in Tses, but there is a volunteer from another group in Keetmanshoop (who I just met in Okahandja where she stopped for a night). From group 36, we will also have 2 volunteers in Aroab and 2 in Ludderitz (both a few hundred km away from me). So definitely some opportunity to hang out with fellow PCVs!

I’ll know more after I spend next week at my site and nail down some details, but I’m replacing a current volunteer in Tses. I’ll be teaching grades 8-10 math and science, as well as helping with some art classes/clubs, BIS (basic information science = setting up & running the computer lab, helping with the library), etc. I’ll be living in teacher housing that’s associated with the hostel at the school. Our school is very small—230 learners and 8 teachers—which I’m psyched about! I hope that the small size will mean I can create closer connections with the teachers and many of the learners, giving us more of a community more quickly.