Adventures Abroad

I’m back after 3 weeks of traveling! I’m planning on posting a couple blog entries to get you all caught up.

In early March, CGE loaded up the van and drove 9 hours to the Northern Omusati region, close to the border with Angola. Each of us lived with a different family on a “homestead” for the week, getting picked up each day to travel around the region and listen to various speakers. My family consisted of Meme Saraphina, one of the toughest and hardworking ladies I have ever met; Kristof, a 16 year old boy who showed me the ropes around the place and kept me very very active; and Angula, a darling 3 year old boy whose antics kept me constantly amused. Their father lives and works in Swakopmund and only comes home occasionally, but I got to talk with him on the phone once. My homestead was about a 7 minute walk from the road, surrounded by fields of maize and mahanghu (millet). The house, which was more like a compound, was fenced with sticks and the open air rooms were defined by smaller fences. My room, like the others, was a hut made of mud bricks and thatched with grass. There were huts for storing, huts for sleeping, huts without walls for shade and relaxation, and huts for cooking.
On a typical day, I would wake up around 6:30, hear the crowing of roosters, watch the sun rise over the baobabs, and drink a cup of coffee and eat some bread with peanut butter. CGE gave our families a supplementary box of food, so we ate a mixture of traditional and pre-packaged foods. Then I would walk to the road and wait for the CGE van to pick me up for our day of activities. In the afternoon, I would arrive home around 4 and socialize in the shade with whatever neighbors were visiting. Afterwards, we would all go to the fields and “cultivate”. This primarily referred to hoeing and weeding rows and rows of their fields. I took awhile to get the hang of it and they found my poor attempts hilarious. After cultivating, the sun would begin to set and I would don my “mosquito proof clothes” and go with Kristof to collect the goats. Animals are turned loose onto the roads in the morning and brought back to their pens in the evening. This is to prevent them from running loose in the fields and eating all the people-food! So it was a common sight to see donkeys, goats, and cattle roaming the roads everywhere in the North. Once we returned home, we would sit by the fire and cook oshifema– a thick porridge made from water and millet flour, and either chicken stew, fish, or spinach. Promptly after the dishes were cleaned we would go to sleep, usually around 8:30 or 9.
Going to bed early was completely find with me as each day presented itself with many physical and mental challenges. It was considerably hotter in the North than it was in Windhoek. Additionally, there were no toilet facilities, you just found a place to go in the fields. Water was collected from a nearby pond, a fact I did not realize until I had been drinking it for half the week– we were advised by CGE not to drink pond water, so I lucked out by not getting sick. Bathing was done using buckets outside, which was surprisingly invigorating and refreshing.
My experience with my homestay changed my opinion on a lot of things. The culture was very open and positive, I did not hear a single complaint from anyone the entire time I was there, even though there was tons of hard work to be done daily. Neighbors and family frequently stopped in to visit and lend a helping hand, or take a jug of the Marula juice my Meme made. The culture, like many other non-American cultures I have encountered, really focuses on politely greeting everyone you meet, which helped me feel welcome and accepted. In addition, one of my friends observed that people in the North seemed more satisfied with their lives than many people in the United States because they work all day to produce food for themselves and their families. They also follow the patterns of the sun, rising and sleeping as it rises and falls and resting during the hottest part of the day. This is potentially more rewarding and fulfilling lifestyle than spending days indoors securing profits for a company that you may not even believe in. There was also much less noticeable inequality, everyone has land to cultivate and some animals to raise and eat. It is no wonder that many people in Windhoek talk fondly about life in the North and want to return. Windhoek is seen by many people as a place for work and education only, and the North is the place where people hope to raise a family and retire.
After my time in the North, I realized why tribalism is such a large issue in Namibia. The area where we stayed was almost entirely Ovambo and Oshiwambo was the language spoken everywhere, even in schools and on billboards. The people I met identified as being Ovambo first, and Namibian second. This sentiment obviously poses problems of national and political unity.
Lastly, despite the positive attitudes of my family, I still witnessed the affects of extreme poverty. Most children I met were very small for their age, and most did not have proper shoes or clothes. And there was no “clean” drinking water, or sanitation services, or electricity. In the eyes of the Millennium Development Goals, my family was severely underdeveloped, yet they still led a happy and full life. It made me realize how easy it is to generalize poverty and turn it into statistics, without understanding the other factors contributing to a person’s well-being, or understanding the lifestyles that have been in place for generations. It also made me realize how difficult it would be for an international development organization to come into the region and “modernize” because of differences in the community structures, a huge lack of English, and a lack of understanding of traditional practices and values. And why spend money to create water taps when each family has access to ponds that provide them with plenty of water that does not make them sick?
Overall, my homestay experience was both rewarding and challenging. It altered my perspective on rural life, development plans, and how we view poverty. I also learned to appreciate being disconnected from the world I am used to with cell phones and laptops, and take time to appreciate sunsets, stars, and a variety of (somewhat terrifying) bug life!

The Center for Global Education (CGE) took us on a long weekend trip to the coast where we visited the towns of Swakopmund and Walvis Bay. The car ride (kombi is the name of the 20 seater van we ride in) there was four hours and it was fascinating to see the scenery change. We left Windhoek passing through lush rolling hills and mountains, we then journeyed through the Otjozondjupa region which had flat grassy plains and tall purple craggy mountains, and finally passed through the flat and sandy Namib Desert before reaching Swakop– a large touristy beach town with very German architecture.
The first day we toured an informal settlement on the outskirts of town and on the edge of the Namib Desert. Swakop attracts many job seekers because of its large tourism industry. The municipality has planned for years to increase infrastructure and formalize the settlement, but as far as I could tell, they had only managed to install street lamps and pre-paid water pumps. Even water is expensive- you must load money onto a small device that can be inserted into the community meter. $10 N only pays for 110 litres. It was truly shocking to see the living conditions of the settlement that houses over 6000 people. The area was completely flat and sandy and small shacks were erected in neat rows as far as the eye could see. We visited a school and a few houses, so we were able to meet and briefly connect with the residents there.
The next day was action packed as we traveled to Walvis Bay which is the main port for Namibia. In the morning we met with a representative from the municipality, traveled to the lagoon to see some birds (enormous pelicans), and saw how they extract salt from sea water and process it. After a picnic lunch, we visited a halfway house for abused children. If child protection services picks up a child, they usually stay at the center for awhile before being transferred into foster care, or returned to their families. Strangely, the center is not funded at all by the government and operates completely on donations and the benevolence of others living in Walvis Bay. The director explained that several very young children staying with them were “dumped.” This means they were disposed of in toilets or abandoned in the desert when they were only a few days old. The stories she shared were heartbreaking, but very believable given the fact that abortion is illegal here and unemployment and poverty rates are very high. The center serves a critical function of rescuing and rehabilitating children that truly would not have a future otherwise.
My favorite part was our last visit of the day to the Port of Namibia. We learned about the main role of the port- moving imports into landlocked countries such as Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and the DRC, as well as exporting raw materials and minerals to Europe and South America. We got to see piles of lead, uranium, salt, and some ingredient for toothpaste, waiting for transfer, as well as UK and US cars waiting to be shipped into the interior. After witnessing so much poverty and stagnation in government policies, Namport was an uplifting and invigorating experience. It was clear that the powerful wheels of the economy were in motion, and it was fascinating to realize that most of what we consume in Namibia must first travel through that port. It really makes you appreciate the effort it takes to make and ship most of the products we use on a daily basis.
To cap off our busy day in Walvis Bay, we headed to Dune 7- a 300 foot dune in the Namib, the oldest desert in the world. The climb up was a struggle- the sand was so hot it burned the top of my feet all the way up the extremely vertical dune. Once at the top, the view was amazing and it felt like we ruled the world.
Saturday, we had a free day and all 16 of us went on a tour that combined quad biking (ATVing) and sand boarding. We rode deep into the desert on the bikes going up, over, and around the dunes. Once we got to some gigantic dunes, we were given waxed boards and we flew down the dunes face first on our stomachs. Quite the adrenaline rush! We ended the day by swimming in the ocean- it was actually warm enough to swim around in for quite some time.

Overall, the trip to the coast was one of contrasts: economic activity contrasted with a shanty town in the desert. The thrills of adventure tourism contrasting with the chills felt learning about the lives of abandoned children. Swakop clearly catered to a high end tourist market and it was strange to think that many people passing through are probably oblivious to the other end of the spectrum and the inequalities the region faces. Now we are back in Windhoek for a busy academic week before leaving to travel to the North!
Photos:
Salt ready for export, Dune 7, and the informal settlement

This past week I have been living with a host family and traveling to the Center only to attend classes. I lucked out and had the most welcoming and energetic family that kept me both perpetually entertained and perpetually learning throughout the entire experience. Their house was located in Katatura, which is a township about a 10 minute drive from downtown Windhoek. Before independence, Katatura was segregated based on tribes- a strategy the colonial government used to keep the black population divided and less likely to come together and revolt. My home was located in the old “Oshiwambo location,” and while my family did speak primarily a dialect of Oshiwambo at home, Katatura is no longer segregated any longer. It does still remain a relatively low-income area- there were seven people living in an originally two bedroom house- which was made larger by several sturdily built metal rooms in the backyard. The toilet room, a stucco room in the backyard, also functioned as the shower room, and water from the sink drained into buckets outside that had to be routinely emptied. Despite a slightly cramped environment, the family all got along well, with everyone pitching out to wash dishes or clothes, and everyone gathering in the living room to eat meals together or watch movies. I can’t possibly describe everything, but here are some of my most interesting adventures:
– Learning how to eat oshifema: This is a warm bread dish about the consistency of silly putty or oatmeal that has hardened slightly. Its made from a seedlike grain called mahango that is then ground into flour, mixed with water, and cooked over the stove. I learned to take a wad of oshifema and then dip it into the meat sauce, and then follow it up by eating the meat with my hands. No silverware allowed!
– Watching “soapies”: Every night the whole family (and probably the entire neighborhood) was glued to the TV to watch the show “Sabor a Ti,” a Venezuelan drama poorly translated into English. Globalization at its finest.
– Practicing my Oshiwambo: My host dad found out I was taking this language in school and helped me (well, drilled me) in this new language I’m trying to learn. An example: Wa la la po? is Good Morning, and the response is “Ee-ee,” pronounced ayyyyyyyy?. I’m just glad I don’t need to learn any of the click languages, ‘Wambo is going to be hard enough!
-Going to Church: Oscar, my host dad, is very involved in the local Lutheran Church, and was the cantor for the Sunday service. The singing from the congregation of over 200 people gave me chills. The whole congregation sang in beautiful harmony and created such a full and powerful sound you could practically feel it vibrating through the air. Halfway through the service, Oscar invited me up and gave me the microphone to introduce myself, and invited me to sing a song with him that we had practiced the night before. So, I sang a hymn about welcoming and acceptance in Oshiwambo to the entire congregation! Despite the fact that I never sing in public, it went ok, and people were impressed- they thought I could actually speak the language, when all I was doing was phonetically reading the words in the hymnal. It felt good to offer something to the community and to show that I genuinely have an interest in learning about their culture. And it was nice to be stared at because I was actually doing something (singing) instead of being stared at just because of the color of my skin!
– Going to an Engagement Party: This was an interesting experience because the bride was Oshiwambo and the groom was from Germany. It was cool to see both sides of the family interacting and concrete proof that social norms have changed since apartheid. The tradition is that the women’s family nails a white flag to their home to show that their daughter is betrothed. And then, like in all cultures, you eat a ton of food to celebrate!

That’s all for now! If you have any questions, feel free to send me a comment!

Part of my host family, in our traditional outfits

Today, I have officially been in Namibia for two weeks, but it feels like so much longer and Windhoek is starting to feel like a second home. All 16 of us on the program are living and going to school in a large house situated about a 10 minute walk from downtown. We are all starting to get into more established routines, a nice change of pace from the frenzied touring we did on our weeklong orientation in South Africa. I have either a politics, history, or development class in the mornings, and then afternoons I take Oshiwambo language class, an internship class, or yoga. I have been placed at an internship with the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare in their statistical research division. I go there from 8 to 5 on Mondays and from 8 to 1 on Wednesdays. So far it has been quite the eye opening experience. The Ministry does not get funds from the government until March which means that while they have money to operate, they do not have the means to implement any of their projects. In the meantime, most of the employees are taking Master’s classes and use the downtime to focus on their education. On the positive side, there is another intern who graduated from the University of Namibia and we have become friends. It has been interesting to hear with her experiences trying to find work post-graduation. Just as in the USA, college grads are having a hard time to find meaningful employment. In addition, all the other employees are eager to help me learn about the government, and even volunteered to set up meetings with other government officials if I want to create my own research project. So if anyone has any research suggestions, I am all ears. If the Ministry job is going to be on the slower side for the next few weeks, I am eager to take initiative of my own learning and figure out something fun to do with my time.
I’ve had a couple enjoyable weekend excursions around Windhoek. The first weekend, I walked all over Windhoek with a friend, this included visiting the breathtakingly beautiful Parliament Gardens, an old German Church that looks like a gingerbread house, and the top of the Hilton hotel which afforded panoramic views of the city. I wanted to upload pictures today, but the internet connection is too slow! Another weekend I went to a Young Achievers youth group meeting- the goal of the group is to empower youth to stay in school and achieve their “life visions.” I had a lot of fun and was impressed by the focus, dedication, and positive energy the Young Achievers had, a theme that has been prevalent in most of my interactions with Namibians…the chance to get an education is taken very seriously here. One night, all 16 of us took taxis out to Joe’s Beerhouse, a popular restaurant serving mostly game…I had small filets of ostritch, kudu (a kind of antelope), and springbok, all which were delicious. The only bad part of the meal was biting into a “green bean” only to find that it was a spicy green chile pepper! All in all, these past few weeks have been dedicated to adjusting to my new semi-permanent home… everything from crossing a busy street using “robots” (street lights) to buying “airtime” for my new cell phone, to getting caught in a surprise rainstorm has presented its small joys and challenges. I’m living with a host family this week, so get excited to hear stories and see pictures from that in a few weeks!