Travels

Finally, I made it out of Windhoek!  My trip to Swakopmund was a welcomed and relaxing weekend.  Just getting out of town was quite an ordeal though.  But before I left Friday, there were visitors in town Wednesday and Thursday. Megan K. was in town (well close to town anyway) for a health conference and Amy was in town to see the nurse.  We had a nice dinner, played some minigolf  and watched the movie Zathura which was mildly entertaining.  It was great to see Amy, who I haven't seen or heard from in some time.   She is, as I had expected, doing very well.  Aside from the typical teacher challenges that most volunteers report, her community loves her and she has been fitting in well.  Thursday Amy and I had a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant downtown; getting in one last good meal before leaving for the small town of Anker which is very close to the middle of nowhere.[cut]

Friday was an interesting day.  As March 21st is Independence Day for Namibia, and schools were out the Monday (20th) as well as the Tuesday, all schools had their Independence Day celebrations Friday.  Learners were asked to wear traditional clothes to school and classes ended half-way through the day to make time for the celebration.  The program included speeches from the History teachers, the Principle and a select few learners.  The highlight of the day was definably the traditional dances that were performed.  The combination of these great dances, traditional songs, and seeing everyone dressed up in traditional garments made me feel like I was in a village, not a High school. 

Traditional dress for Namibians come in three or four main categories.  The most obvious are the dresses worn by Hererro women which are variants of Victorian-era bell-shaped ball gowns.  The Hererro men wear suits and walk with canes.  The Damara people wore short dresses and styled their hair in a multitude of braids.  Some of the Oshibwombo men wore long dress-like garments that look like a hybrid of a Greek toga and a long night gown.

The dances that were performed were excellent.  The Damara group sat in two lines, taking turns two at a time to dance in the middle of the group.  The Damara group performed a choreographed group dance in unison.  The O'wambo group paired off and danced what looked like 16th-centry waltz moves, only set to 21st century beats.  It was all very entertaining and quite a treat to witness.

My Friday didn't end with school though.  The principle asked me to go along with her to a friends house who agreed to donated some of her positions to the school as she is moving back to Sweden.  I came to asses the usability of some computer equipment and video equipment which she had.  The 80-year old Swedish lady had quite a few stories to tell, and among her many accomplishments talks about meeting heads of state, receiving a doctoral degree and starting the first women's rights organization in Namibia.  She apparently was involved in some documentary film making because I found quite a bit of audio and video equipment which she agreed to donate.  After a few hours of rummaging through decades of stuff and libraries of books, we sat down for lunch then headed out.

It wasn't until past 4:00 that I made it to the hike point to start my vacation.  I first headed to Karabib to meet up with Erikka.  This being my first hike, I was a bit nervous, but hiking out of major cities like Windhoek is a snap.  My anxieties were quickly relieved when I was sitting in a nice BMW headed out of town just 20 minutes from arriving at the hike point.  The drive was precarious at best; torrential rains hit just outside of Windhoek making the drive both slow and dangerous.  Despite my well trained ability to ignore the road (due to hundreds of taxi rides in Windhoek) I found eyes glued straight ahead as we plowed past trucks with very limited visibility.  But alas, I made it safely to Karabib and was enjoying a conversation with Erikka and Dan (who was in Karabib to do some shopping) in less than three hours. 

At this point in my story, I will cease talking about and using the names of PCV's that I met up with.  Since we were all traveling without having filled the appropriate paperwork (except for Courtney and Snoti) we were technically on vacation "illegally".

I left for Swakop Saturday morning after a very nice breakfast at the "OK".  I decided to just pay the $50 up front to get to Swakop quickly rather than wait around for free rides like other wanted to do.  The ride to Swak was quick and painless (unlike the ride back...).  We met with Pam who took us in for the weekend in her hostel-flat.  Her place is quite large, with two seperate levels and two bedrooms.  With six beds and plenty of floor space, Pam can conceivably host as many as... let's say seven other guests easily.  My first outing was to the beach where I promptly waded in and inhaled that wonderful sea air.  It was great seeing the ocean again.  Funny to think that I was once on the other side of this ocean.

Swakopmund is a very interesting town.  It has a lot of German architecture, but the overall character of the town is closer to a Hollywood movie set than any real-world place.  The buildings are brightly colorful and the streets are absurdly wide.  The sidewalks are neat and clean and the shops are plentiful.  Swakopmund is most definitely a resort town.

We ate out at a wonderful Indian restaurant and watched a movie: A New World.  The food was great, but the movie was probably the worst I've ever seen.  To make matters worse, I had an allergy attack which made breathing and seeing somewhat difficult.  I returned to the flat rather than going out to the bars to get some drugs and rest.

Sunday we dorked around town, reading by the beach, eating ice cream, and sleeping.  Some of us (not I so much) spent the evening preparing a supurb Mexican dinner that consisted of tortillas, chips, salsa and a seven-layer bean dip.  Everything in the meal was hand made, from the tortillas and chips to the salsa and beans.  Amazing.  We were joind by some group 24 PVC's and a Canadian who is serving an internship.  After several hours of conversation we all headed to bed.

The trip home on Monday was quite an ordeal.  I got a combi ride for $75 that left just twenty minutes after I was dropped off at the hike point by a cab.  The adventure started when two more passengers were added to the combi as we were fueling up before leaving town.  with 14 people in a small van, I became very cramped. Just twenty minutes out of town the plot thickened was we suddenly pulled off the road.  Five minutes later everyone got out of the combi as another combi pulled up behind us. They moved the trailer with our luggage to the newly arrived combi, we boarded and were off again, no one knowing what the combi dance was all about.  This new combi was slightly smaller than the previous one, and I now found my knees jammed up against the back of the seat infront of me- a very uncomfortable position.  Ten minutes after thick grey smoke started pouring out of the back of the combi and we were soon yet again on the road side.  This time we waited a half an hour for another combi to come, all the time trying to hide from the mid-day sun; a task that proved impossible as the only thing taller than myself I could find as a telephone pole that was a fifth my width.  

The new combi arrived and my hopes for a more comfortable ride were smashed to pieces when I sat down, finding the seat in front of me could freely recline into my lap.  The weight of the 6' guy sitting in front of me was supported by my knees for the rest of the two hour journey.  Aside from short bouts of relief when my torturer leaned forward, I tried to constantly entertain myself to keep my mind off the pain. When we finally got back to Windhoek, I was amazed my legs still worked.

Monday didn't end there though, some unexpected visitors found themselves stranded when their rides took longer than expected, so they stayed over and we had dinner.

Just last week I was looking forward to attending the huge Independence Day celebration in town, but after a long weekend and a mild cold, I am pretty content to stay locked up in my flat for the rest of the day.  After I cleaned, did the laundry, ate and did the dishes, and organized a few untidy cupboards, I'm now ready to relax for the rest of the day.  Tomorrow brings more adventures.[/cut]