Leslie Michael speaks from Swakopmund
By Leslie Michael
Editor's note: Leslie

Michael is a 58- year- old

who taught in Richland

School District One. She left

for Namibia, Africa in

October for a 27- month

assignment in the Peace

Corp.

It is now official. I am a Peace Corps Volunteer. The swearing in ceremony was January 9, 2008. I am now in Swakopmund, and I feel like I am in paradise. I have a large two story, two bedroom flat two blocks away from the beach. I don't have a roommate yet, and no one seems to know if I will get one.

I have spent a lot of time walking around Swakop, and this is definitely

not the National

Geographic experience. This is a vacation town. There are four large food stores, many restaurants and cafés, a movie theater, a casino, a couple a book stores, and a large number of little shops I want to visit.

It is a German looking town with many German tourists. There is a section of town that has many large, beautiful homes and another section that has shacks. The weather has been cool considering this is summer. It reminds me of the weather in Columbia during the month of October. I am so glad I am not in a mud hut taking bucket baths.

Christmas was fun. I really liked my host family and got along well with them. There were a lot of visitors staying over, as many as 17 at one time. They opened their presents at 3 am on Christmas Day, but I slept through it. I only had off Christmas Day. The rest of the time I was working at Model School. This was a chance for the teachers to get a feel for what it might be like in a real Namibian Classroom. There is a wide academic and age range in most classes. This will be very challenging with a large (40- 50) class.

At the end of December, we went back to Okahandja for debriefing and swearing in. I will miss my host family and plan to stay in contact with them. A group of us went out and had a drink for New Year's Eve then came back and watched a movie.

Watching movies is a big pastime with the volunteers, so if anyone has any DVDs you are tired of watching, please send them my way, and I will share them with the other volunteers. On New Year's Day, some of us cooked breakfast for the trainers. The pancakes and French toast tasted sooo good.

Last week was my first week at work. The district to which I have been assigned is one of the top in Namibia. I spent last week helping to register new learners. A lot of the schools here have to have double sessions (one in the morning 7:30 to 11:30 am and one in the afternoon 12 to 4 pm) since there are so many learners. Over crowding is a big problem in the schools.

My address is PO Box 1182, Swakopmund, Namibia. Please come and visit. There are many interesting places to visit in Namibia. The first thing I want to do is to go sand boarding. I will let you know how that goes.