Geronimo!

The holidays have arrived.  The school year ends early December, and all of us volunteers have the next month to travel.  Some of us are spending some time at our sites, while others will be hiking constantly.  For me, I'll be in the later group.  My village clears out when school breaks happen.  If I wanted to stay, I'd have the cows and goats to talk to.  It'll be nice to be able to see the country, though.

We've already started our Namibian adventures.  Last week we spent time at a conference center for Reconnect.  There we talked about what had happened over the last few months at our sites.   We had some sessions about serious issues like white privilege and funded projects.  There was one on libraries in the country and getting books for our schools.  The person in charge was a previous volunteer who decided to come back to the country after service.  He assured me that while they usually don't like  books from out of country, I was fine because they are getting checked before they are sent.

Spending the week in the big city was a nice change to being in such a small village.  This week we have been chillin' on the beach. On Wednesday some of us decided to go skydiving.  It was one of the most amazing things I've done.  After about a 30 second instruction pre-jump, Sara and I loaded into the tiny plane with our jump buddies.

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Roughin' it Peace Corps style!

 

Poor girl had slept on a desk the night before.  Don't ask my why!

 

We got to spend the next half hour flying over Swakopmund and the dunes.  The weather was perfect.  The guy I was connected to thought it would be a great idea to pretend to push me out a few times.  Our plane didn't have a door, so the possibility of falling out was a real one.




I was the first to jump out.  I didn't have time to think as my legs were dangling over the edge of the plane.  Next thing I knew I was falling in the air.  I don't remember much of the free fall, but the view was amazing after the  chute was pulled.  He let me take charge of guiding the parachute for a while, which was amazing.  We spun in circles and dived.  By the time we landed I was ready to go again.  We tried to see if we could go again for free, but unfortunately they had almost gone bankrupt from giving jumps to people.

Now the week is almost over.  Tomorrow a few of us head to go camping.  We decided to rent a car which will make getting there soo much easier.  We'll camp for a few days in the Naucluft mountains, with a day trip to Soussusvlei.  Google it and see the pictures.  It's absolutely beautiful.  We will go to Luderitz, another seaside town, for Christmas, then back up to Windhoek for me to get my Christmas dog.