So let’s see, since last we spoke I have gone on several adventures, as it were. The first was to Oshakati, a rather large town ‘bout 10 hours north of here. The ride sucked, and the week was uneventful. We sat through what was the Ministry of Youth’s annual plannery meeting, a week long meeting discussing what we’ll be doing for the year. Kind of worthless on our part, since most of what was discussed was beyond the Ministry’s control. What was originally a discussion about youth employment and occupation turned into a debate about how come “we” don’t get paid enough. Whatever- stop whining and focus.
Oh, and the several of us that were there were introduced as the volunteers from the “United Nations of America.” I didn’t know we took over the world – kudos to America! Who knew Colbert was right?
What became more interesting and fun on behalf of the other American volunteers that met up with us was where we were sleeping that night. Since it was a 9-10 hour drive up north, we ended up getting there last. AND since this was a plannery meeting for the entire Ministry throughout the whole country, beds were scarce. Suffice to say, the first night Paddy, Rashid, Ian and I slept in the dorm kitchen. The following morning the Matron told us we couldn’t sleep there, but refused to find us beds to sleep in. So the second night we met up with Jenn and Carly in the female’s dorm and the 6 of us slept in their kitchen. All the names I’m mentioning are fellow volunteers in TheOrganization. We scrounged around and found some mattress and pushed them all together. By the third night, the matron was getting pretty pissed and started locking the kitchens, but still refused to go out of her way to find us places to sleep. So then we relocated to the conference hall. This continued on and on moving about for the week that we where there. Nothing really big or monumental about the visit, just a good week seeing other volunteers and having a good time – Drinking after hours and talking about our site placements. Only really interesting thing is about Oshakati is that it’s a very heavy malaria-containing area, and during our week visit there was a massive cholera outbreak there due to the rainy season’s floods.
After the week’s formalities ended and it was time to head home, some of decided to go a little off-roading. We had originally planned to go to Etosha, a wildlife game-park, with Mr. Hermann prior to his death. Since the reservations were still in our name and had money on the line, the organization was gracious enough to let us continue onward to our journey. So we went to Etosha, the sixth largest game preserve in the world. Or national park. I can never remember the statistics…but anyway. We camped at a private camp called Halali, located about 70km towards the interior.
A word to those that wish to ever go on an African wildlife safari: Don’t go into the rainy season. First of all, it rains - A lot. We ended up buying tents and camping and were soaked every day (kinda like camping with Ish…) but don’t get me wrong, the landscape is very pretty. Green everywhere is a wonderful thing. It’s like, postcard pretty. And you get to see plenty of rainbows. But unfortunately rainbows don’t have fur, teeth, horns, talons, antlers, claws, beaks, or tusks, so they get boring after a while.
See, because it’s constantly raining, the animals aren’t confined around the watering holes to survive. There are only a handful of watering holes (~50?) in the entire park that have water year round. Supposedly, if you were to come here during the dry season, there would have been dozens of different kinds of animals there. During our short weekend, we did however shell out for a night safari. But expectedly we didn’t see anything, shy of dozens of impala and springbok. They look like deer, that’s it. Oh, and we saw the ever elusive African cat, ‘cept it was a kitty. It was very interesting to see a tiny kitten alone on the African savannah. All of those on the safari were taking bets on how long it would last for. We named him “Dinner.”
Ironically, we really didn’t see anything much until we were leaving the park. We ended up paying a game warden / officer to take us out of the park. During the 70km drive out back towards civilization, we saw lions, giraffe, wildebeest, black-backed jackals, hyenas, zebras, oryx, springbok, and a plethora of pretty birds. To see a small handful of photos I took, check out Dave’s page on the right among the links (Dave in Namibia.) Dave has access to internet, so he posted a handful that I took.
Trust me, when I get a chance to go back to Swakopmund and use that internet café, I’m bringing some photos to post finally.
But we’re still on the journey home – after we reached Tsumeb, a rather large and famous town in the North, Ian and I decided to find an efficient and safe way home. We ended up hitchhiking and found a free hitch to Otjiwarongo, and from there took a 8 hour train ride home. It was really cool actually, since the train was a gift – it was an old sleeper car from the United States that was used in the 50’s. So we napped almost all the way home…with a picturesque sunset as the conclusion to a pretty wild ride.
Next comes Easter! TheOrganization was again kind in giving us all Easter off for the holidays, so everyone kinda went nuts. As luck would have it, it turns out that Swakopmund is the holiday location for anyone who’s anyone in Namibia. A beautiful coastal town, it’s no surprise Brangelina chose this place to hide/make babies.
Not much to the adventure here, just a great weekend of fantastic beach time and relaxation. It’s nice that swimming in the Atlantic kind of puts off the homesickness for about a week or so. Let’s see, Dave came to Usakos a day early just to kill most of his travel time, after which we obtained a free hike from a two guys that decided to leave their wives home with the kids to go fishing together for Easter. My favorite quote from that car ride, as from one of the drivers: “So guys, which American actor is your favorite? Mines Seagal. He take no shit.” Priceless. Dave, if you can think of any, please feel free to leave.
We spent the majority of the morning walking on the beach, admiring the ocean and the view, and pissing off Dave while I scrounged in the sand trying to get the perfect photo-shot of seashells. It wasn’t until afternoon that we met some more volunteers that came to Swakop for the weekend. We checked into our humble abode, which resembled a weekend house on Fire Island – 8 people to share a 6 person bungalow, ‘bout 100m from the beach.
Other small things done during the weekend: a visit to the Swakop Aquarium, outdoor market shopping, walking a couple of miles toward Walvis Bay to see a derelict and marooned fishing vessel offshore, watching Carly unhinge her jaw as she tried to bite into a burger bigger than her, late-night barhopping Namibia style, BBQ with good friends, and make a trek to the “Kristall Gallerie.” Milan and I decided to go for the sake of going. Its home to the world’s largest extracted Quartz crystal cluster (14 tons.)
I think Milan summed it up best : “Dude, that’s a huge fucking rock.” Rocks are awesome.
That about sums up the weekend, but I feel as though I have to put this quotation from us in. Its stupid, but then again, so am I. On one of the nights, we decided to play Kings, a popular college drinking game. One of the minigames involved is called “Categories.” The rules are easy. The first person names a category, say, “Colors.” Everyone then goes in a circle naming colors. Red, blue, magenta, cyan, you get it. It goes round and round, until the first person that times out, runs out of things to name, or repeats something said. They then have to drink. That being said, there were only 7 of us…
Milan: Ok, my turn! Categories…ok….continents! North America!
Roshn: Europe
Lily: Africa
Dave: Australia
Carly: South
Me: Antartica
Melissa: Asia
Milan:…………………………Dammit!
Way to go. Gotta love this place.
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So at the time of writing most of this update, it’s my birthday and has been for quite a bit. Many thanks to Connacher for calling – dude, it was awesome. And don’t worry, I’ll have more “interesting” stories ready for you. Perhaps some that won’t involve leprosy.
Yep, sorry guys. Only those who call get the REALLY interesting stories. Much love of course to Karen and my parents. Less than two months ‘til I get to share a gondola ride with either my mother or Karen… There’s nothing slightly creepy or unnerving about that statement.
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Birthday was boring and uneventful. Sat around reading about DNA/RNA transcription and translation, in the vain hopes I don’t continue to become dumber here as my brain atrophies. I miss my sciences. Kudos to those that send me Science magazines and journals – it’s helping quite a deal.
Thanks for all the facebook lovings! Life is good.
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Ok, let’s have some fun! Inspired by Kristen, I’ve come up with an idea! It’s a contest of sorts, and by sorts, I mean it’s a plain contest. Here’s the deal: you have to come up with a Haiku about me in Namibia. It can be philosophical, humorous, anything you want. It’s just for fun. Simple rules – it has to be a haiku. For those that don’t know, those are poems that have three lines. The first and last only have 5 syllables, and the middle has 7. For example.
This is a Haiku
‘Bout me in Namibia
Now just make your own.
Submit as much as you want, as often as you want. We’ll let it run, then I’ll pick a winner and see if I can find something to send you. Awesome! Everyone’s a winner.
Except all of you that lose. You won’t be – you’ll be losers.
The competition will start whenever you read this, and it’ll end April 18th. It’ll go that long for a couple of reasons: 1st, I don’t get much internet to come and check. 2nd, I’ll be traveling that weekend, so hopefully I can find something on the road worth sending, 3rd, hopefully I’ll have internet after I’m done traveling to said location and 4th, I think it’ll be enough time to acquire quite a collection. If there’s quiet a few, I may award several winners. Get writing!
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Oh, and just as a note: I still haven’t cut my hair since I got here, and haven’t shaved in a couple of weeks. I think it’s a cross between Ted Kazynski and Billy Connelly, from Boondock Saints when he’s in Jail.
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So just in case anyone’s wondering if I’m actually doing any work here, the answer finally is yes. Nothing big, but its still something – science tutoring. Turns out I miss my sciences too much, so I’ve decided to offer science counseling and study strategies for anyone interested. So far its been somewhat of a small operation – 46 registered and said they were interested, 1 showed up. But, in her defense, she probably works harder than the other 45. Her curiosity and desire to know about basically everything also makes our conversations bother educational and entertaining.
I’ll give you tomorrow as an example. Today we were discussing the cell cycle and patterns of cellular growth, and eventually the topic shifted to cloning – something she has never heard of in her life. So in order to both educate and entertain her, we’re of course going to watch Jurassic Park tomorrow. Since it is based upon a true story, (the dinosaurs now all live on the island of Madagascar) it should be no problem explaining the process of cellular stuff. Thank you, Mr. DNA.
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