Mpungu. That's Right, Mpungu.

looking back to October 2016:

My PC friend A. lives and works in Mpungu, in Kavango West, which is in the Kalahari Woodlands of northeastern Namibia.  Woodlands means it's low-density forest with "plenty of sunshine and limited shade" per Wikipedia, i.e., the treetops do not provide dense canopy, but some.  I.e., it does have trees, unlike my desert home.

It also has an HIV support group, and A. wanted to provide that group with a business-skills and event-planning workshop.  So he invited Y., M. and me to hike on over and cover a few topics like budgeting, goals and objectives, bookkeeping and such, and we were delighted to accept.

Very kind driver #3, in the shade of a tree.  With A.

Getting to Mpungu involved three hikes of widely divergent natures - 1) pregnant Grizelda and the elephant; 2) 'the back of the bakkie is dirty' and 3) ice cream!  Ask me sometime and I'll tell you.  It takes about 10-12 minutes and includes eye-rolling and arm-waving.  But there we did indeed get, and it was EXCELLENT.  A. lives in a traditional compound, with Tate Joseph and his family.  ('Tate' is pronounced TAH-tay and is a term of respect for men over about 30.)  A. offered a tent if I wanted to sleep outside, and I asked whether I'd really need one, as the weather was edging toward hot by early October, and he said it depends on how you feel about waking up with a snake nestling up to share your body heat, and I slept in a spare room in the compound, in a bed off the ground.  Eish.

One chunk of compound

A. and Y. are both community-health volunteers, and M. was up to his ears in preparing for a big hullabaloo in his northern town, so I organized the materials for our presentation.  We had three half days, so I focused on basics with plenty of in-class exercises to try to drive the material home.  A. was hoping for at least 12 people, though he warned us it might be less, and thought we should cap the group at 20 if we got more than expected.  We didn't do the capping, and had just over 20 every day, not counting the usual complement of babies and toddlers.  Everyone came back on day two even though they did not get free food on day one; this is a major success here.  A good turnout with free food is a whole lot easier.

Registration, day one - and they're still coming...

We were all completely jazzed by how well this workshop went.  When we divided people into small groups to do exercises, there was always at least one or two per group who understood the material and could do math.  This isn't a given here (nor in too many parts of the USA).  We also had at least one or two people per session whose English was good enough to translate our lecture-demos into Rukvangali, the local language (one of about a dozen widely spoken in Namibia, remembering that 'widely' has a different connotation in a nation of two million than it might elsewhere).  Women outnumbered men in the group - that's pretty common - and there were several who were unafraid to participate in group discussions.  That's not always the way, but is always good to see.  People contributed money and goods to enable us to offer a morning tea-break (tea-time is 10:00am here), and several helped with clean up.  And on day two we had two lunches for each participant, and on day three, one each.  There's something enjoyable about feeding people who skirt poverty's dreary edge, even when it's just for a day or three.  Better, of course, to support them in figuring out ways to feed themselves for the long-term!  (And send their kids to school, and get medical care when needed, and...)

A. does intros

Y. and M. listen while a student presents his findings.

Small group collaborating

Guest speakers present on saving at the post office, fielding
a random kid from the audience.

On the last day, as we were tidying away all our flip charts and such, a contingent of women participants hung back to make a special point of thanking Y. and me for being there.  They were deeply grateful to have seen women in positions of authority.

Multi-tasking student; paying attention while nursing.  She was one of the stars.

Most people here just love to pose.  I am so glad to have had the chance to work with these great folks.

These health/business volunteer collaborations have been some of the absolute best experiences of my Peace Corps service.  I am so glad my foundation and my colleagues have made them possible.