It’s as though I stepped off the plane in Namibia three months ago and entered a second adolescence: tiptoeing around authority figures, surreptitiously drinking alcohol, flirtations with boys.  It’s all very high school.  I might as well be sneaking out of my window, hopping into a black Camaro and speeding down the highway with a bottle of vodka in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

It’s not that I don’t understand the reasons for protocols.  I do. Completely.  However, it is maddening to be trapped in a small town with SMS to provide me with connections to the outside world with no more than Namibians to communicate with all day, every day.  I have yet to have a real conversation with any one in my community and that is not for lack of trying. Our lives simply vary in so many ways that it is difficult to move beyond the small talk that binds us to the customary greetings and questions about our daily activities.  There is not a common ground that makes it easy to broach friendship, as you would find in your own cultural setting.

Another frustration is the lack of social drinking.  You either drink or you don’t.  Drinking is stigmatized and alcoholism is so prevalent that it is virtually impossible to enjoy a glass of wine or a beer without feeling guilty about how alcohol plays a key factor in the HIV/AIDS epidemic.  As Otavi is such a small community drinking is out of the question.  Though I don’t need alcohol to make my day, week, or month bearable it would be nice to go out and enjoy a glass of wine every once in awhile without the fear of my community judging me.

Finally, two years with only a handful of male PCVs and Namibians is going to result in a) PCVs hooking up with each other, b) PCVs hooking up with Namibians, or c) PCVs going home very frustrated.  Thus far only one member of our group has managed to snag a boyfriend in country.  Supposedly a huge percentage of PCVs find spouses in the Peace Corps.  Perhaps that should be Peace Corp’s next ad campaign, ‘We have better odds than Match.com. Where will your life take you?’ …cut to a village in Africa then to a wedding chapel and the ensuing wedded bliss.  So, those of you looking to find a hubby, apparently all you need to do is join the Peace Corps, move to Africa, and bide your time, they fall from the sky here… I promise.