Shadowing, from the other side!

So, you may remember about 11 months ago that I got to shadow a current volunteer in Ghanzi while I was in training. Well last week I got to host my own shadow at my site, and it was lots of fun (and cool to be able to be on the other side). The only bummer is I completely forgot to take pictures! Whoops.

I met Kristin, my shadowee, in Moleps where I buy groceries. One so we could buy groceries, but also so she didn't have to hitch into my village by herself- that's a little scary when you are traveling in country the first time, and 'climb in a pick-up next to the hitching tree' isn't the most specific of instructions. Moleps wound up being a bit of a shadow party, as we bumped into about 6-7 other volunteers and their shadows at the KFC (rule #1 of shadowing: feed your trainee well. Who knows exactly what they get fed at homestay). We got groceries and squished into combis and got on our way. I was a little afraid I'd freak Kristin out with how far in the bush my site is, but she handled everything really well.

PC, for all of their flukes and quasi-illogical policies/communication, seems to be pretty spot-on with matching volunteers for shadowing. Kristin and I talked a ton, cooked good food, and basically had a fun 4 days in my village. She got to see me teach a class, plan a little bit at school, sort pills at the clinic, and interact with an out of school youth I'm helping with a business plan. She also got to play with kids in my yard and see how to deal with not having water for 3 days, including me having to get someone at my school to fill up my containers there and give me a ride home (I can do many things, but I can't walk home from school carrying 40L of water). Then I discovered the reason why my water was off was because the kids in my yard had turned off the valve to my house in the yard. I almost killed a kid. I mean, I started laughing when I figured it out, but SO SO SO frustrating. Le sigh. Kristin rolled with it though. And I immediately filled all of my containers again and we rejoiced at having water :)

It was a lot of fun having a shadow. She was a rockstar and hitched out of my village by herself after I dropped her at the hitching post, cuz I had to go back to school to teach. Having someone to talk to is lots of fun, and she was eager to learn about what its like to be a volunteer, and I was eager to share all the stuff I learned over the past year. A really fun week, hopefully I get an awesome shadow next year too :)