Luck of the dice.

So apparently there's always a volunteer who gets totally hooked up: sweet homestay family, awesome site, great school, etc. (probabilistically speaking it makes sense that there's one)...which may potentially be me, which is just so Namtastic. I'm not kidding, I keep forgetting I'm doing Peace Corps...though all I really need to do is walk outside of our school compound and it hits me harder than a brick.

But seriously, my family back in Okahandja was so awesome and great (as were a lot of the families). I'm the 4th volunteer (in a decade) at my site and my home is very well furnished like I have mentioned (probably even better than what I would have back in the states...sort of, the water definitely not haha). I'm a little sad I won't get the traditional homestay experience like so many of the other volunteers will but I will definitely be visiting some of the others and hey, if I'm that deperate there's always a 3rd year extension or even a second tour (and I have a lot more weight when it comes to that selection...hello Fiji!). My principal is so awesome and all the teachers and learners seem fantastic as well. Granted I have yet to really get to know them but first impressions count for something right? And I'm just 60k from my shopping town (Tsumeb...you should totally be able to find that on a map) which has SUCH a big selection for almost anything I could want. For example, I have been getting back into Nutella, yep, freaking Nutella. If you don't know what that is I strongly suggest you embark on the experience, it's glorious.

But really, I have so many blessings here and I am so thankful for all of them. I'm sure the full weight of what I aim to accomplishhere will fall upon me sometime soon but we must enjoy our small victories when we can. They (other PCVs, RCPVs, staff, etc.) keep telling us it's an emotional rollar coaster so I'll do my best to enjoy the ups, ride out the downs and always throw my arms up in the air inbetween! They weren't kidding though, I got teary-eyed last night thinking about the snow that must be falling back home in CO (and now again...); it hasn't snowd here in a decade (insert Global Warming comment here) so I won't be seeing any frost outside of my freezer anytime soon (yep, I have a refridgerator haha).

And it's not something I've just started doing here, it is something I've been practicing for a while now. I find life much more enjoyable when we take the time to appreciate the joyful things in life while we have them. And when things turn sour, to just bite down and work your way through it. It's like swimming, I think, maybe running, okay I know there's some athletic simile/metaphor here. If you keep your nose/chin looking down, all you will do is run yourself into the ground, or swim down and drown. That's why you have to keep it up and always pointing ahead...and slightly up if you're running downhill, helps keep your form and lengthen your stride or at least it worked for me (and Miles).

Another metaphor is you save so much energy too! If you spend all your energy being all mopey and negative, you won't have any left when things shape up. I rather be distant and aloof and be told I don't care when everyone's crying about stuff, followed by being super enegetic and told I'm trying to do too much when everyone's out of their funk than going with the flow. It no one disrupts the flow, it never changes and just remains stagnant. And stagnant is always gross and boring, plus mosquitos hang around stagnant water and they suck(bam! pun!).

Ugh, speaking of stagnant, I should get off my bottom and get some more work done. I've taken the past couple days (this is only my third at site!) to relax but also just clean up everything here and get settled in. I actually read for the first time since being in Nam, for fun at least. That's about it though, I did a lot of catching up on things, typing up some loose ends, organizing, cleaning, etc. Just easy, menial things that require not too much mental work, I've had enough of that the past two months. But I need to start teaching myself KKG sometime, and look, I have two hours before a community meeting. Seems like a perfect time to start.

Let's just hope this good luck continues as long as it can.

Two days later, when I am posting the luck ran out. Just f.y.i. There was a spilled baked beans fiasco, and lots of running into furniture, power outage, etc.

Oh well, c'est la vie. Throwing the hands up in the air!