My last post's title probably made little sense because I was planning on talking about my shopping in Windhoek, but couldn't get to it. The explanation is that I found a chachka shop in Windhoek... Obviously. It just seemed really random, and Annie (my Jewish friend) and I felt really at home in a store that sold traditional Oshiwambo art, bedding, cigars, suitcases, coffee, postcards, ostrich ornaments, cutlery, drapes, kids shoes, bras etc. (you get the idea)
Right now I'm sitting in Cape Town waiting for my airport shuttle to pick me up. It's weird because Alison, Annie and Michelle left this morning and all of a sudden I'm alone. May I reiterate that I haven't been this alone since May. I'm flying to Amsterdam and I'll chill there for 8 hours and then make my way to Canada. But for the meantime, I'm here sitting alone at a computer, waiting the 4 hours until I can wait 24 more hours on planes until i can get to Toronto.
Today I just meandered around the city until I found the Jewish History Museum and the Holocaust Center. I spent a good 4 hours in total at both. When I walked out of the Holocaust Center, the museum lady even told me that I had "done it right" by taking my sweet ass time. It was pretty embarrassing because I get pretty emotional in these sorts of exhibits. But crying alone in museum is weird. This mechanic guy kept walking by and every time he did I'd be in a slightly different spot along the exhibit, either sitting, crouching (my back got soar) or standing, but constantly crying. By the end he would walk by and purposefully keep his glance away from me. The last time he saw me I was sitting, crumpled, on a chair staring at the wall. (In my defense, the wall was part of the exhibit, but I think it probably looked weird and depressing to him).
When I left the exhibit I couldn't find a mirror and still haven't, so I can't tell if there's mascara running down my cheeks or not. Hope not, that would be embarrassing.
After the museums I took a different route back to Long Street (the street that my hostel is on) but landed up on this sketch road and kept thinking "I'm going to get sooooo mugged today." So, as soon as I could I got off the street. I ended up walking into this beautiful courtyard, past a security check point and onto parliament/government property. It was crazy deserted, but much less creepy than the previous street. Ooly problem was that I couldn't find a way out. At one point I thought I had, so I walked for like 10 minutes only to find that the gate I thought was open, was actually quite locked. I backtracked towards another exit that would get me back onto the sketchy street, and as I did this guy in uniform came up to me and I said, "I'm not supposed to be here am I" and he was like " Nope, you have to have a permit. The guys saw you on the camera and told me to go find you. How did you even get in?" I told him about the security guard a few blocks up and his boss had to radio him and I guess make sure he was actually at his post. I felt bad cause I totally got that guy in trouble, but whatever. The boss dude looked at me and said, "don't worry, you're not in trouble, it's not your fault," which I think means that he thought I was crying, which therefore means that I do in fact have mascara streaming down my face. Great.
I walked back to Long Street and got some food while reading a supposedly funny book. So far it hasn't been but I think that's because I'm not the intended audience. It's written by a self-proclaimed "Zulu Warrior" and it's about his qualms with people in Cape Town. Be neither a Zulu or a Cape Townian I'm pretty lost most of the time. But I look hella cool when I read it so I'm going to power through.
I have about three more hours to kill in here before the airport shuttle picks me up. I really want to take a nap but I already checked out of my room (damn you past Hannah). So, I'm going to continue to write this post for another half hour at least.
Yesterday was one of my best days this summer so far. The girls and I took the train to Kalk Bay. It's basically just Vancouver, but smaller and in Africa. We headed over to the pier and watched the boats, fishermen, seagulls and the vista while eating some hake fish and chips and sipping on some ciders. Perfection!! We walked up and down the two piers and even saw some seals. One of them stared directly into my eyes. I felt privileged. Kind of like the way Steve Martin's character wants Tina Fey's character to feel when he offers her 2 minutes of uninterrupted eye contact in "Baby Mama".
After watching an old women demonstrate how she descales and disembowels fish on the
pier (and stepping in loads of fish blood and guts), we decided to hit up some of the cute boutiques on the main strip. I got a really cute dress for Mir's wedding. I won't describe it, but I love and can't wait to remember Kalk Bay when I put it on again. After dropping mad cash we all decided an afternoon pickmeup was in order and we sat in a cafe overlooking the harbour and water and mountains and train tracks and beach (etc.)for cappuccinos and croissants. I can't really explain what was so great about sitting there with Michelle, Annie and Alison, but I think it has something to do with the fact that we were all really comfortable with each other, had lot's of stories to regale each other with and many shared memories to recount. We all agreed that this had been one of the best days this summer.
I can't believe that nearly three months has already gone by. Cliche as it sounds, I feel like I was just in Cape Town getting ready for my new internship, Namibia, and spending the summer with some great people. I'm back in the city, but I feel totally different and I can't help but smile when I think of all of the fun I've experienced. Even when I think of the days when I was exhausted, frustrated and even upset, I can't help but think how amazing this opportunity has been. I've gotten to travel, meet truly inspiring people, get passionate about things I didn't know I was passionate about, and seen how well I can persevere when my family and friends are so far away. (This is beginning to sound like the opening for "the Real world" but I mean every word of it)
I'm sad to see this summer over but I guess that all good things have to come to an end. So I just want to say goodbye to South Africa, Namibia, Oshakati, Ongwediva, Oneshila, Alison, Annie, Sol, Michelle, DEEP, Braiis, dance parties, sass at the dinner table, Harry Potter on repeat, long car rides, quad biking, sand, sun, cramped showers, hearts and eucher, stray dogs, "siliously?," supes/totes, one-eyed flansy, miladys, mista plice, tandem ninja kitty, benny's, aaron's dance moves,loud singing, challenges and recommendations, diamonds, flansy and hansy, medi-parc and stitches, lions fighting, robin hood, Game Plaza, searches for NEDBank, honking taxis, Windhoek Lager, Savanna Dry, appletisers, eis bein, and everything else, and say HELLO CANADA!!!!
see you all soon!
love Hannah
p.s. Rebecca, if you're reading this, could you email/ Facebook me to let me know if you're coming to pick me up tomorrow? If not, I have your number on me so I'll just call if I can't see you when I get in. Love you!
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
They Even Have Chachkas in Namibia!
I basically only write when I'm get inspired. Kind of like when I decide to clean my room. Both occur rarely apparently. Millions of things have happened since the last post. It's a little silly that I left this so long, because I'm sure I've forgotten some priceless moments, but I'll try and give you an idea of my life for the past 4-ish weeks. I think I'll do point form so that I can be efficient.
Aaron came up and replaced Richard as a supervisor for the interns in Oshakati. He's pretty much ballin' out of control and has been a real pleasure to live with. He's reintroduced meat into the house (previously we allowed the vegetarians to control the grocery shopping..) Taken us to Etosha National Park and rented a sweet vehicle to drive around in while there, he's also added a lot of sass to the North that has been highly appreciated.
Etosha was amazing. IN short I saw every animal I wanted to see: Lions Elephants, cheetah, leopard, giraffes etc. and had an amazing time with the entire group camping, eating and chilling at the watering hole all wrapped up in blankets to keep warm. It's amazing to see animals like that up close! I've been watching Kratz's Creatures for years now, but it's nothing compared to the real thing. I even watched two lions fight over a lioness ( and got it on video!). While we drove around we blasted some great music, rolled down the windows, and munched on chips. Unconventional, and probably totally against game park etiquette, but it was just our style.
Speaking of etiquette, we had an incident with another car full of park visitors, where we were both watching some lions chilling on the road when another car came up behind us. Trying to create good viewing for all three cars, we drove a little too close to the lions and may or may not have chased them away from the road and into the bush. While we shrugged the incident off, the second car drove past us and the passengers glared at us and one even gave us some sarcastic golf claps, which we initially mistook as genuine applause for getting such a great view of the lions. When a few of us in the car waved back at them and smiled, we soon realized, upon looking at all of their expressions, that we were not supposed to be pleased with ourselves.
Oh well.. we learned something for next time.
Back in Oshakati I just finished up a lot of work for DEEP, and, along with the other interns, I presented a summary of all of my work and observations over the past 10 weeks to all of our Namibian partners at the final forum in Oshakati.
ON my last day in Oneshila I went with Alison to drop off some stuff for DEEP and to my surprise was given a traditional Oshiwambo dress! It's gorgeous and I was really taken aback, because I didn't expect anaything from DEEP. Saying goodbye to DEEP was pretty hard and I was choking back tears (obviously) as I walked out of the neighborhood.
Also, I should mention that Napenda came back for a visit to Onehsila last monday. As I walked out of the area on my last day, I went over to Napenda to cheer myself up, because hanging out with him is pretty entertaining. He's got a lot of pzaz (Sp?)and makes some pretty exceptional facial expressions. Anyway, Alison and I played with him for a while and then began to walk out towards the main road. Unfortunately, Napenda refused to stay by his house and began to follow us out. We kept motioning for him to go back home, but he refused. BY the time we got to the main road, which is sort of like a highway, we were pretty worried to get in a taxi because we though Napenda would run onto the road or something. Fortunately, some boys noticed our predicament and decided to help us out. They began pulling Napenda from us, but he reached for Alison's legs and held on tight. He was crying as I tried to pry his hands from her. Finally of the boys ripped him from his grasp of her jeans and he began to wail. It was horrible! Both Alison and I began to tear up as we watched him kick and punch his way out of the older boy's grasp. As Alison and I hailed a taxi we just sort of looked at each other with... I can't really explain the expression, but we were both just feeling so upset and let down, that we had just made Napenda feel so horrible and that we had just tainted our last impression of the Oneshila neighborhood with a sense of sadness and frustration.
There's lots more to say but I can't write anymore cause I'm getting really antsy to walk around (I'm back in Cape Town as of 4 hours ago) I also need to do a little shopping and stuff too!
Aaron came up and replaced Richard as a supervisor for the interns in Oshakati. He's pretty much ballin' out of control and has been a real pleasure to live with. He's reintroduced meat into the house (previously we allowed the vegetarians to control the grocery shopping..) Taken us to Etosha National Park and rented a sweet vehicle to drive around in while there, he's also added a lot of sass to the North that has been highly appreciated.
Etosha was amazing. IN short I saw every animal I wanted to see: Lions Elephants, cheetah, leopard, giraffes etc. and had an amazing time with the entire group camping, eating and chilling at the watering hole all wrapped up in blankets to keep warm. It's amazing to see animals like that up close! I've been watching Kratz's Creatures for years now, but it's nothing compared to the real thing. I even watched two lions fight over a lioness ( and got it on video!). While we drove around we blasted some great music, rolled down the windows, and munched on chips. Unconventional, and probably totally against game park etiquette, but it was just our style.
Speaking of etiquette, we had an incident with another car full of park visitors, where we were both watching some lions chilling on the road when another car came up behind us. Trying to create good viewing for all three cars, we drove a little too close to the lions and may or may not have chased them away from the road and into the bush. While we shrugged the incident off, the second car drove past us and the passengers glared at us and one even gave us some sarcastic golf claps, which we initially mistook as genuine applause for getting such a great view of the lions. When a few of us in the car waved back at them and smiled, we soon realized, upon looking at all of their expressions, that we were not supposed to be pleased with ourselves.
Oh well.. we learned something for next time.
Back in Oshakati I just finished up a lot of work for DEEP, and, along with the other interns, I presented a summary of all of my work and observations over the past 10 weeks to all of our Namibian partners at the final forum in Oshakati.
ON my last day in Oneshila I went with Alison to drop off some stuff for DEEP and to my surprise was given a traditional Oshiwambo dress! It's gorgeous and I was really taken aback, because I didn't expect anaything from DEEP. Saying goodbye to DEEP was pretty hard and I was choking back tears (obviously) as I walked out of the neighborhood.
Also, I should mention that Napenda came back for a visit to Onehsila last monday. As I walked out of the area on my last day, I went over to Napenda to cheer myself up, because hanging out with him is pretty entertaining. He's got a lot of pzaz (Sp?)and makes some pretty exceptional facial expressions. Anyway, Alison and I played with him for a while and then began to walk out towards the main road. Unfortunately, Napenda refused to stay by his house and began to follow us out. We kept motioning for him to go back home, but he refused. BY the time we got to the main road, which is sort of like a highway, we were pretty worried to get in a taxi because we though Napenda would run onto the road or something. Fortunately, some boys noticed our predicament and decided to help us out. They began pulling Napenda from us, but he reached for Alison's legs and held on tight. He was crying as I tried to pry his hands from her. Finally of the boys ripped him from his grasp of her jeans and he began to wail. It was horrible! Both Alison and I began to tear up as we watched him kick and punch his way out of the older boy's grasp. As Alison and I hailed a taxi we just sort of looked at each other with... I can't really explain the expression, but we were both just feeling so upset and let down, that we had just made Napenda feel so horrible and that we had just tainted our last impression of the Oneshila neighborhood with a sense of sadness and frustration.
There's lots more to say but I can't write anymore cause I'm getting really antsy to walk around (I'm back in Cape Town as of 4 hours ago) I also need to do a little shopping and stuff too!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Still trying to get the sand out of my shoes
Photos are of Swakopmund, Ruacana Falls and Cape Town (table mountain). They’re in random order, but you’re smart people and I'm sure you can probably figure out what's what.
If you were thinking to yourself this weekend, “I wonder what is Hannah doing right now?” you probably wouldn’t have been able to guess. This weekend I went to Swakopmund and pretty much lost my mind from all of the excitement. Swakop is a coastal town that lies between the Atlantic Ocean and sand dunes. On Friday, the Oshakati group bussed for about 12 hours to get to Swakop. Although the drive was no fun at all – we were stuck at the back of the bus, with no AC, and we weren’t allowed to open the windows because apparently it makes the bus sway back an forth on the highway- it was totally worth it because the trip was amazing. At 6pm we arrived at our weekend house, which was basically a two-minute walk from the beach, and dropped all of our bags off and got ready for a nice dinner in town. We were going to meet the Windhoek group that had the easy task of taking a 3-hour bus to Swakop and spending the afternoon on the beach waiting for us to get there. Although they did complain about being really tired from all the sun bathing, the Oshakati group had very little sympathy them.
We all shared a nice dinner together. It was nice to get to see everyone again and catch up with each other, but the food wasn’t that great. I tried shark for the fun of it, but it turns out shark is horrible. However, now I can at least say I’ve tried it and never have to eat it again!
After dinner we all walked home from town, which took about 40minutes, and took us right by the beach. (It was really nice to be near an ocean again). Swakop is so different from northern Namibia, because the air is so moist and there is always a breeze rolling through town. Oshakati is always really dry and generally pretty warm. Swakop is also really different from Oshakati because the population is predominantly white and walking into the restaurant on Friday was a huge shock because there was only one black person in the entire building. Up until this weekend the biggest group of white people I’ve seen at Oshakati has been the 6 of us. So it was quite a surprise to be in a practically all white city that claims to be more German that Germany…
The Windhoek group got to stay on a house right on the beach. That’s right! They could literally walk from their back yard, onto the beach!! We got a short tour of the house on Friday night, but I was going crazy/ cranky from exhaustion that all I could really think about was getting into bed. Speaking of beds, I’ve been sleeping on a really thin foamy that has basically formed itself to my body and thinned in the centre so that I can feel the wood planks of the bed frame, so when I go to bed to relax, I wake up feeling stiff and sore, which seems counterintuitive but if you saw my bed you’d understand. The beds at the weekend house were deluxe, soft, yet firm and totally perfect for a relaxing weekend.
We woke up on Saturday, well rested, and walked back into town with the group and found a breakfast place. Even though I could tell the restaurant wasn’t that great, the food seemed like a real treat because I’ve only come across two restaurants in the north: Wimpy’s (a British fast food chain) and a pizza place. The mere selection of restaurants was overwhelming and the food was a nice change from the regular peanut butter toast I’ve been eating for breakfast for the past 5 weeks.
After breakfast we split up, some went to the beach and others went and roamed around the town, I decided to go home for a nap because I wasn’t feeling very well. At around two Alison woke me up and we both got ready for dune boarding. Jon, Vince, Alisha, Michelle, Sol, Annie, Sarah, Alison and I all got picked up at the beach house and were driven to the dunes which are literally located across from the beach. I kept glancing to my right and left over and over again because I couldn’t understand how a desert and an ocean could live so close together (but since this was a vacation I decided not to go researching the geography of it all, so I just ignored my curiosity and played up my enthusiasm for the dune boarding instead.)
Once the driver parked the car and we got out, the instructors gave us a quick lesson on how to steer the “high tech speed machine,” which was actually a 3-foot sheet of wood. We then trekked up the side of the dune, which we were told would get easier the more times we did it (I still have no clue what they were talking about because the trip up the dunes was pretty hard every time I did it). On our first trip down the dunes, we basically did a bunny slope and although I was a little nervous, I was really eager to try it and so I hopped on my tummy and slid down the slope. I got a little bit of the “elevator stomach” feeling on the way down, but it was still an amazing trip down. Even though I was worried that I would get sand in my mouth, I couldn’t help but smile wide the whole way down!
We all trekked back up the dune and did the slope again, this time not stopping at the sort of landing, and instead going all the way down. This trip down was better than the first and I was totally enjoying myself. After the second time we walked back up to the top, this time my thighs and calves were burning, but my desire to get back to the top and come back down was so strong that I pushed myself up as quickly as I could. The third time down, we moved to a dune that was so steep that we went down at about 40km an hour. The fourth slope was 80km an hour. Even though It’s going so quickly, you can’t feel very scared at all because you can’t really fall off of your stomach, and you can’t break your bones on sand.
On the last ride down, we got to ride tandem, so Alison and I shared the ride down. The first part of the ride was awesome, but the finale was pretty horrible considering we hit a rock and were flung from the board. We both landed laughing and I looked up the dune to see everyone laughing at us too. When everyone had made it down, one of the leaders came up to us, holding the rock we had hit in his hand, and said “there is only one rock in the desert and you managed to hit it!” We totally destroyed their bored, but they found it so funny that they didn’t mind, and we didn’t have to pay them back.
On the last two slopes I took off my runners and used my bare feet as brakes. The sand was so soft, that even going so quickly down the slope, the sand just tickled my feet. I can’t really explain how good it felt to go out into the dunes and go up and down and up and down for about 2 hours, but just let it be known that I couldn’t wipe a smile off my face for quite a while after we returned back to the house in the evening. Everyone went for a quick shower to get the sand out of the nooks and crannies (effort = futile). Dinner was at the Lighthouse restaurant. Alison and I shared some mussels and pizza and I was so content with the meal that I couldn’t speak for a while because as some of you know, if the food is really good I get waves of euphoria and can’t really talk until I’ve finished eating- A good sign I think. Alison and I decided to share a bottle of wine and realized after seeing the bottle, that we had actually been the winery when we were in Cape Town… Again, I’ve forgotten the name, but it’s German-y sounding and the wine was nice.
After dinner I went home, chillazed with the group, and fell asleep listening to Harry Potter on audio book (I’ve been listening to all 7 books in no particular order this entire trip and couldn’t be happier. Also, I found the third movie in the department store nearby and have watched it a couple times already!)
The next day we all woke up bright an early and made our way the beach house to get picked up for quad biking. Only 6 of us went, but it was so amazing that I think the others ended up regretting not coming. Jon, Vince, Alison, Annie and Sarah and I got picked up at 830am and were driven into town to fill out some waivers and pay before being driven to the dunes to start biking. I have to admit; I was feeling pretty nervous about the entire adventure. Quad bikes are four wheeled (duh), motorized bikes that are essentially the most amazing vehicles known to man and I’ve decided to quad bike around the world as soon as the rest of the world has discovered how great dunes are and decides to import sand everywhere and make the entire world sandy. (dad: I know I’m babbling.) At the dunes we got fitted with helmets and then got to pick our bikes out. Once we were all sitting on our bikes the instructor stood in front of us and began to tell us about the hand signals, but just started laughing instead and couldn’t get through a sentence for about a minute. When asked why he was laughing, he said, “ you’re all just so quiet,” and after looking around and realizing that all of us were seated neatly on our bikes, hands on our handle bars, listening politely to the instructor, I realized how funny we must have looked, considering we were about to do some crazy awesome stuff that is neither polite, nor quiet. After giving us the instructions and starting our bikes for us the instructor got on his bike and we all drove out of the parking lot and into the dunes. And, by “we all drove out of the parking lot,” what I really mean to say is that Annie and I had somehow turned off our bikes and were stranded in the parking lot watching the rest of the group veer straight into the desert/ the best time of their lives, until a nice young fellow came by and pressed the “on” button on the bike and got us going right away. I wish I was as smart as him! Before going any further I want to explain what the first few minutes of quad biking is like. The steering feels wrong ‘cause it’s really hard to turn and you think you’re going to flip the bike. The accelerator is also pretty crazy because it’s just a little knob on the handle bar that looks a lot like a regular bicycle bell, except it’s more dangerous and way more fun to push. Needless to say it was really hard to stay on track and found myself veering on and off the course for the first few minutes. Aryeh, I’m sure you remember the first time you took me driving and I’m bet that you can imagine what I looked like on the bike veering hither and thither with no idea how to go straight. If there had been curbs to drive up on, I would have driven up them all (and probably hit all the fire hydrants too.) Fortunately, there was only sand to be hit, and hit the sand I did! Annie had somehow gotten ahead of me and was also doing pretty miserably on the bike. She, however, has never driven in her life, and thus is excused from ridicule. Although, I have to admit that watching her almost lost control of the bike on many occasions and practically drive over the top of a small dune was pretty entertaining. [After reading this section over my shoulder, Annie has requested that I tell everyone that she redeemed herself quite quickly by “ripping it up” and being “fucking rad, bad-ass, and with the skills of a ninja.” So there you have it.]
Once I had gotten a hang of the vehicle (ie; 10 minutes in) I was having a blast. At first we just drove on flat ground with the dunes all around us, but then we started to veer onto the sides of dunes so that our bikes were basically driving sideways up the sand mountains. We did a few small “roller coasters,” as they’re called, and then moved on to the big ones, which probably got to about 30 feet high and meant that we were driving perpendicular to the ground for a few seconds before diving back down to the dunes. The sensation of going up and down over and over was very similar to the sensation of riding a roller coaster, except you’re the one in control of the ride, which makes it so much better.
We took a short break on the top of a dune and the driver whipped out juice boxes, which we DESTROOYYYEED!! I say this because we looked really lame sitting on our bikes, with our huge helmets, sipping away at our juice boxes. By this point everyone was having an amazing time and we were already regaling each other with tales of speed, sand blowing in the wind, quick turns, amazing ups and downs and lots of cool helmet action.
The rest of the quad biking was amazing and as I got more comfortable on the bike I got much braver and made quicker turns, went faster (sorry mom) and definitely had an amazing time. I was going so fast, that I woke up with a sore thumb from pressing so hard on the accelerator. Like I said before, I want to go quad biking everywhere.
After we were finished, we were driven into town and we were just in time for brunch. We met up with the rest of the group and told them how much fun we had had on the dunes. Afterwards we all walked to the nearby market and I tried my luck at bartering. It turns out that knowing French and living in Ongwediva/Oshakati, worked in my favour. Most of the salesmen were either from that region of Namibia or could speak French, and when this was discovered, they were much easier on me in terms of prices. Therefore I got lots of goodies at the market (and souvenirs for everyone!). Dying for some ice cream, Alison and I made our way to the beach, just steps away from the market, and scarfed down some gelato. And after seeing how welcoming the water was, we taxied home, got into our bathing suits and went down to the beach. I thought the water was going to be freezing but it was actually really refreshing. I would have gone swimming, but the waves were so crazy, so I just played around in the knee-deep water, staying away from the rocks. The best was lying down on the sand and waiting for the waves to creep up on me and totally immerse me. It was so relaxing, I just lay there thinking, “I never want to leave!” But alas, I had an appointment with a horse and the sunset to get to.
After a quick shower I got ready to be picked up and driven 30km outside of Swakop. Michelle is an avid horseback rider, and had invited me to come join her horseback riding in the “countryside.” I think I’m being misleading. Michelle got to horseback ride. I got to mule-back ride. Just as fun I think. My mule was super cute, I secretly kept calling him Eyore when no one was listening. His actual name was Spock, and he was très adorable. He walked uber slow and the instructor and Michelle had to keep stopping to wait for me and Spock to catch up. We rode around in this desert-y place, that wasn’t like the dunes and had darker sand with shallower rises and dips. We rode around for a while and got to watch the sunset from way out in the bizarro dunes. It was really relaxing. I got to just listen to horses footsteps and feel the breeze on my face (and the instructor telling me how slow I was going—but I was totally satisfied with the speed at which Spock and I were moving.) The instructor, tired of the pace, told me that I should try trotting. (Alex: thank you for the lessons, they came in handy in a major way. I remembered to keep my heels down and I stayed on!!) I actually really enjoyed trotting, I’ve never been able to get the hang of the rhythm on other occasions, but this time I just went for it, and wasn’t nervous at all. By then end of the ride I asked the instructor if we could trot the rest of the way home! It was fantastic. Once we got back to the barn, Michelle and I poked around and saw bunnies, guinea pigs, turtles (all in the same pen), guinea fowls, puppies and horses galore. It was glorious, and I am now totally sure that I want to live on a farm for the rest of my life.
Michelle and I got dropped off at the Tiger Reef Café that lies just on the beach, and met up with the rest of the group to grab a bite to eat. I grabbed a drink at the bar (Appletiser and vodka- best thing ever) and joined the group in watching the waves role in, mere feet away from where we were sitting. Aside from the cold, it was really nice to just sit back and watch the sky turn dark, and feel the ocean spray. Dinner was fun because it was so casual and we all squished into the picnic style seating arrangement and dug in to our fish and chips/ burgers/ tiger dogs (which thankfully do not contain either animal). After eating, we went back to the beach house and started a bon fire. We tried to make s’mores, but were entirely unsuccessful because we couldn’t find graham crackers and used these baby cracker-like dealies instead and substituted Hershey’s chocolate for a thicker and lower quality chocolate and settled for strawberry-flavoured marshmallows instead of plain. Even though the s’mores were totally disgusting, I’ve decided that it’s more about whom you’re sharing the bonfire with, than what you’re eating at it (Aaaawwww!) and I had a really great time hanging with the other interns and replaying great moments of the weekend.
Alison and I dashed to the beach quickly and filled up an empty water bottle with some sand. We forgot to do this at the dunes (stupid) and tried to make up for it by using beach sand, which is totally not the same at all. The dune sand was super fine and soft, while the beach sand was coarse and really colourful. I don’t actually know why I’ve digressed so far and have begun talking about sand qualities, but I’ve come to terms with it and I’m not embarrassed to be such a nerd.
After the bonfire, we said our goodbyes to the Windhoek group, who didn’t have to get up at 6am the next morning to grab a bus back to Oshakati. Goodbyes are sad, and I got a taste of what the goodbyes will be like in August when the program is over. I am not excited.
Sleep came easy, even though I was really sad about the weekend ending. Alison and I had complained the entire time we spent packing up all our stuff randomly crying out, “If only we had one more day!” One more day indeed!
We woke up at 6am, but weren’t picked up till 730am, so we all stayed at the beach and walked up and down the shore. Although I had already said my goodbyes to the beach, I wasn’t sad to see it again. A text from Richard told us that we had to get back to the house because the bus had arrived, so we all turned our backs on the water and walked back up to the house.
I had one of the most amazing weekends of my life and can’t wait to show you all the photos I took and act out all of the things I did (I feel like my description of the quad biking really didn’t do it justice and Jon has a video of us biking up and down one of the dunes which I will watch on replay over and over until I feel like I’m there again.)
Anyway, I’m missing everyone lots and I can’t wait to see you in five/six/seven? Weeks!
Photos are of Swakopmund, Ruacana Falls and Cape Town (table mountain). They’re in random order, but you’re smart people and I'm sure you can probably figure out what's what.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
From DEEP
June 15th, 2009
DEEP, as I’ve said before, is located in an informal settlement called Oneshila. The people at DEEP work out of a container that stores the bikes and tools, but they do most of the repairs outside under the shade of a makeshift roof. When I go to work, I sit with them outside, and I’m able to see a lot of the goings on in the community. For instance, I can see the shebeen located just across the lane from DEEP, I can see women walking by with loads of grains and shopping items balanced on their heads, I can also see little kids on their way back from school. These sights I expected to see, but I wasn’t expecting to witness anything as heartbreaking, infuriating and upsetting as the boy that lives across the lane.
On my first day at DEEP, I sat with the group and watched them work on bikes that customers had dropped off in the morning. I was making small talk with Lavinia, who I’ve really grown fond of in the past week. We talked about where we’re from and what our families are like. While I chatted with Lavinia I looked around the neighborhood and started to familiarize myself with the area. I saw this cute little girl in a pink dress with a little boy sitting outside of a small house made of sheet metal. They were playing nicely, and seemed to just be playing together with some rocks. I couldn’t help but smile looking at them; they would have made a pretty adorable picture.
An hour or so later, still gazing around the neighborhood, I saw the little girl standing at the house, pushing with all her might against the closed door. At first she was just pressing against the door, but soon she began to cry, then wail, then scream. Normally the DEEP employees don’t really take notice to the kids in the neighborhood. The kids run around the group as they work on bikes, but there isn’t too much interaction between them, aside from the times when Michael or Moses will ask one of the kids to bring them a tool or rag just out of their reach. On this particular day, however, everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at the little girl as she pressed herself against the door while crying.
I sat watching the girl feeling like it wouldn’t be appropriate for me, on my first day in the neighborhood, to run over to a strangers house to let the girl into her house. What if she wasn’t allowed in at that time, or what if her mother wanted her outside for some reason? I decided to stay where I was, but I kept glancing around the surrounding area, looking for her mother, but I didn’t see anyone. About 15 minutes later, the DEEP employees back to work, I sat with Lavinia and watched the little girl struggle with the door. We saw a woman walk out of the adjacent shebeen and bring the girl a cup of something and let her drink out of it. I heard Lavinia beside me “tsk tsk-ing.” I turned to her and she said, “She shouldn’t be giving that to a child, it’s not good for her.” I ask Lavinia what was in the cup and she said, “ It’s a kind of alcohol.”
The little girl couldn’t have been older than two. She was barely walking, and still this woman gave her alcohol. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I knew from Lavinia’s statement that my feelings towards the situation weren’t an over reaction. Children should never be given alcohol. I consider what I saw to be a form of child abuse and a violation of the child’s human rights.
I was allowed to go home at around 12 because I didn’t really have any work to do. When I got home, the girls asked me how my day was, and when I tried to explain to them what I saw, I just burst into tears. I was furious, just so angry with the woman from the shebeen. The girls really sympathized with my reaction and because of that I felt justified for feeling the way I felt and empowered to do something about it.
During the next day or so, I watched the little girl and the boy play in the grass. On Wednesday, the little boy made his way onto DEEP property and kept glancing over at me. Lavinia explained that last year’s intern, Rukshan, used to play with the boy all the time. I could definitely see why. He was absolutely adorable, and really curious about the bikes, especially the wheels. I played with him for about half an hour before Lavinia told me he was deaf. I had noticed there was something different about him, but I hadn’t suspected that he was unable to hear.
For the rest of the week the little boy, Napenda, would waltz over to me from his house bringing with him an array of broken toys he handed over to me for repair. Even though there was no real way for us to communicate with words, we exchanged a lot of funny faces, stuck our tongues at each other, and played together with the toys he brought over.
On Thursday, Lavinia and I took the 15-minute walk to Telecom to inquire about Internet for DEEP. On our walk, I brought up the subject of Napenda. I asked her how old he was, “Five.” I asked her whether he went to school or not, “ No.” I asked her if he knew any sign language, and she said, “No.”
At Napenda’s age, he should be in Kindergarten. He should have begun in January. But he didn’t. The little girl’s mother is Napenda’s aunt. She cares for him, while his mother works and lives 8 hours away in Walvis Bay. Lavinia told me that Napenda is receiving a government grant that is supposed to help support him due to his disability. The grant should be used to fund his schooling at the nearby school for the deaf and blind. But since he’s not in school, his aunt is just taking the money. Lavinia also told me that last year, Rukshan bought Napenda clothes and toys, which his aunt took away from him and gave to her children. I’m sure Rukshan felt the same way I feel about the situation, because she spoke with the aunt and asked her directly why Napenda wasn’t in school, and begged her to enroll him in Eluwa, the school for the blind and deaf. When that didn’t work, employees at DEEP spoke with the director of DEEP and asked her to speak with the aunt, which she did, to no avail.
Everyday, Napenda walks over to DEEP, and we play together. He likes to point at things and pretend to talk. He just moves his mouth, without making noise. It’s heartbreaking, because he’s so young and obviously really wants to learn about the things around him, but with no way to communicate with his family, he can’t.
The kids in the neighborhood stay away from him. They also make fun of him. Napenda makes a sort of squeaking noise when he plays. Sometimes he makes the noise when he’s excited, or happy, and sometimes he makes it when he’s sad or angry. When kids see him, they sometimes imitate him. Of course Napenda can’t hear the noise their making, but I’m pretty sure he can figure out that their not being nice to him. Today I saw two women walking down the lane, and when one of them saw Napenda she made a loud squeaking noise. Napenda had his back to the woman, but I saw her do it, and I couldn’t help but glare at her. It’s one thing for children to bully a child with a disability, often it’s because they don’t really understand the disability, but it’s quite another for grown adults to openly ridicule a young boy who can’t stand up for himself.
Because none of the kids seem fond of Napenda, the only interaction he has with them are generally violent outbursts. When he does witness some of the kids imitating him or making fun of him, he just slaps them, or throws things at them. I’ve seen this happen many times. One time, after retaliating against a young boy, Napenda ran to me and hugged one of my legs. He wanted to hide from the boy, but I think he also wanted to be comforted.
Since that incident, Napenda will come to DEEP and just recline on my legs, or climb onto my lap. He doesn’t sit facing me, which I find interesting. Instead he faces away from me, and plays alone with a toy, or a stick, or a bicycle part. I get the feeling that he does this because he just likes the comfort of being next to some one. I think it’s kind of like cuddling for him. I don’t know how often he gets this kind of affection from his aunt, or other adult family members, but judging from the speed at which he grew so close to me, I feel like it can’t be that often.
Today, with Napenda on my lap, I looked over at the lady that serves the DEEP employees their lunch. She gets a kick out of me because I don’t buy my lunch from her, and she thinks it’s got something to do with me being scared of meat. She always laughs when I turn down lunch, and the speaks Oshiwambo to the DEEP employees and they look over at me and ask, “Do you eat chicken in Canada?” or “Do you eat dog in your country?” But today, she didn’t ask me if I wanted lunch, she asked me how I could stand to have Napenda sit on my lap when he smelled so bad. I couldn’t turn Napenda down today because he seemed so eager to sit with me. I was sitting on a tall table in the container that houses the bicycles and administrative files. Napenda could barely reach up to my knees, but he tried pulling himself up onto my lap anyway. I pulled him up onto my lap and he sat with me playing with a broken ball.
The lunch lady is right. Napenda does not smell good. His clothes are dirty, he smells like he hasn’t been bathed in a long time, and he’s always got food on his chin and cheeks. Even the amazingly tolerant and accepting people at DEEP keep their distance from Napenda for this reason. I can’t help but let Napenda sit on my lap, because I feel like that’s all I can really give him. I don’t feel comfortable giving him clothing and toys, because I know what will happen to them. I won’t give him money for the same reason. All I can do for him is repair his toys, or let him sit on my lap. When he points at things and pretends to talk, I nod at him because I want him to feel like someone is listening to him, even though he’s not talking.
It’s hard to watch the way Napenda is being treated, like his cousin he’s being abused. The fact that he doesn’t know any language, the fact that he can’t communicate beyond pointing at things and making facial expressions, means that his quality of life is unacceptably low. Not only does he not go to school, get enough to eat, or have a loving family environment, but also he has no real friends beyond his young cousin. I can’t help but imagine what his life will be like if this situation doesn’t change, that’s why I feel strongly about doing something for him. I’ve spoken with the girls and Richard and we’ve talked over some possible options. Michelle has said she’s going to set up a meeting with a social worker; Alison wants to meet with the principal at Eluwa. Judging from the past, I don’t expect his aunt is going to do anything positive for him in the near future, and that’s why I want to do something for him that will hopefully improve his situation. If he goes to Eluwa, he’ll be around people who understand him and care for him. He’ll also learn to sign language and be able to communicate with his friends and teachers. I feel like with all the resources at our fingertips, we can help Napenda. I can’t leave Namibia without doing something for him that will make him happier and healthier, and I really feel like school is what will do it for him.
I want to do this so that the intern at DEEP next year doesn’t have to experience the same frustration that I feel when Napenda visits me at DEEP. I’d rather the next intern see just how great a community can be towards people with disabilities. When customers walk by DEEP they shout out greetings to the employees, and there is a really remarkable sense of understanding and friendliness between DEEP and the neighborhood. Hopefully Napenda will soon be included in this atmosphere of open-mindedness. And hopefully, the intern next year will be able to witness this when he or she sits with the employees of DEEP and looks on as the community goes about their day-to-day activities.
[check the last post, I added two at the same time!]
DEEP, as I’ve said before, is located in an informal settlement called Oneshila. The people at DEEP work out of a container that stores the bikes and tools, but they do most of the repairs outside under the shade of a makeshift roof. When I go to work, I sit with them outside, and I’m able to see a lot of the goings on in the community. For instance, I can see the shebeen located just across the lane from DEEP, I can see women walking by with loads of grains and shopping items balanced on their heads, I can also see little kids on their way back from school. These sights I expected to see, but I wasn’t expecting to witness anything as heartbreaking, infuriating and upsetting as the boy that lives across the lane.
On my first day at DEEP, I sat with the group and watched them work on bikes that customers had dropped off in the morning. I was making small talk with Lavinia, who I’ve really grown fond of in the past week. We talked about where we’re from and what our families are like. While I chatted with Lavinia I looked around the neighborhood and started to familiarize myself with the area. I saw this cute little girl in a pink dress with a little boy sitting outside of a small house made of sheet metal. They were playing nicely, and seemed to just be playing together with some rocks. I couldn’t help but smile looking at them; they would have made a pretty adorable picture.
An hour or so later, still gazing around the neighborhood, I saw the little girl standing at the house, pushing with all her might against the closed door. At first she was just pressing against the door, but soon she began to cry, then wail, then scream. Normally the DEEP employees don’t really take notice to the kids in the neighborhood. The kids run around the group as they work on bikes, but there isn’t too much interaction between them, aside from the times when Michael or Moses will ask one of the kids to bring them a tool or rag just out of their reach. On this particular day, however, everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at the little girl as she pressed herself against the door while crying.
I sat watching the girl feeling like it wouldn’t be appropriate for me, on my first day in the neighborhood, to run over to a strangers house to let the girl into her house. What if she wasn’t allowed in at that time, or what if her mother wanted her outside for some reason? I decided to stay where I was, but I kept glancing around the surrounding area, looking for her mother, but I didn’t see anyone. About 15 minutes later, the DEEP employees back to work, I sat with Lavinia and watched the little girl struggle with the door. We saw a woman walk out of the adjacent shebeen and bring the girl a cup of something and let her drink out of it. I heard Lavinia beside me “tsk tsk-ing.” I turned to her and she said, “She shouldn’t be giving that to a child, it’s not good for her.” I ask Lavinia what was in the cup and she said, “ It’s a kind of alcohol.”
The little girl couldn’t have been older than two. She was barely walking, and still this woman gave her alcohol. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I knew from Lavinia’s statement that my feelings towards the situation weren’t an over reaction. Children should never be given alcohol. I consider what I saw to be a form of child abuse and a violation of the child’s human rights.
I was allowed to go home at around 12 because I didn’t really have any work to do. When I got home, the girls asked me how my day was, and when I tried to explain to them what I saw, I just burst into tears. I was furious, just so angry with the woman from the shebeen. The girls really sympathized with my reaction and because of that I felt justified for feeling the way I felt and empowered to do something about it.
During the next day or so, I watched the little girl and the boy play in the grass. On Wednesday, the little boy made his way onto DEEP property and kept glancing over at me. Lavinia explained that last year’s intern, Rukshan, used to play with the boy all the time. I could definitely see why. He was absolutely adorable, and really curious about the bikes, especially the wheels. I played with him for about half an hour before Lavinia told me he was deaf. I had noticed there was something different about him, but I hadn’t suspected that he was unable to hear.
For the rest of the week the little boy, Napenda, would waltz over to me from his house bringing with him an array of broken toys he handed over to me for repair. Even though there was no real way for us to communicate with words, we exchanged a lot of funny faces, stuck our tongues at each other, and played together with the toys he brought over.
On Thursday, Lavinia and I took the 15-minute walk to Telecom to inquire about Internet for DEEP. On our walk, I brought up the subject of Napenda. I asked her how old he was, “Five.” I asked her whether he went to school or not, “ No.” I asked her if he knew any sign language, and she said, “No.”
At Napenda’s age, he should be in Kindergarten. He should have begun in January. But he didn’t. The little girl’s mother is Napenda’s aunt. She cares for him, while his mother works and lives 8 hours away in Walvis Bay. Lavinia told me that Napenda is receiving a government grant that is supposed to help support him due to his disability. The grant should be used to fund his schooling at the nearby school for the deaf and blind. But since he’s not in school, his aunt is just taking the money. Lavinia also told me that last year, Rukshan bought Napenda clothes and toys, which his aunt took away from him and gave to her children. I’m sure Rukshan felt the same way I feel about the situation, because she spoke with the aunt and asked her directly why Napenda wasn’t in school, and begged her to enroll him in Eluwa, the school for the blind and deaf. When that didn’t work, employees at DEEP spoke with the director of DEEP and asked her to speak with the aunt, which she did, to no avail.
Everyday, Napenda walks over to DEEP, and we play together. He likes to point at things and pretend to talk. He just moves his mouth, without making noise. It’s heartbreaking, because he’s so young and obviously really wants to learn about the things around him, but with no way to communicate with his family, he can’t.
The kids in the neighborhood stay away from him. They also make fun of him. Napenda makes a sort of squeaking noise when he plays. Sometimes he makes the noise when he’s excited, or happy, and sometimes he makes it when he’s sad or angry. When kids see him, they sometimes imitate him. Of course Napenda can’t hear the noise their making, but I’m pretty sure he can figure out that their not being nice to him. Today I saw two women walking down the lane, and when one of them saw Napenda she made a loud squeaking noise. Napenda had his back to the woman, but I saw her do it, and I couldn’t help but glare at her. It’s one thing for children to bully a child with a disability, often it’s because they don’t really understand the disability, but it’s quite another for grown adults to openly ridicule a young boy who can’t stand up for himself.
Because none of the kids seem fond of Napenda, the only interaction he has with them are generally violent outbursts. When he does witness some of the kids imitating him or making fun of him, he just slaps them, or throws things at them. I’ve seen this happen many times. One time, after retaliating against a young boy, Napenda ran to me and hugged one of my legs. He wanted to hide from the boy, but I think he also wanted to be comforted.
Since that incident, Napenda will come to DEEP and just recline on my legs, or climb onto my lap. He doesn’t sit facing me, which I find interesting. Instead he faces away from me, and plays alone with a toy, or a stick, or a bicycle part. I get the feeling that he does this because he just likes the comfort of being next to some one. I think it’s kind of like cuddling for him. I don’t know how often he gets this kind of affection from his aunt, or other adult family members, but judging from the speed at which he grew so close to me, I feel like it can’t be that often.
Today, with Napenda on my lap, I looked over at the lady that serves the DEEP employees their lunch. She gets a kick out of me because I don’t buy my lunch from her, and she thinks it’s got something to do with me being scared of meat. She always laughs when I turn down lunch, and the speaks Oshiwambo to the DEEP employees and they look over at me and ask, “Do you eat chicken in Canada?” or “Do you eat dog in your country?” But today, she didn’t ask me if I wanted lunch, she asked me how I could stand to have Napenda sit on my lap when he smelled so bad. I couldn’t turn Napenda down today because he seemed so eager to sit with me. I was sitting on a tall table in the container that houses the bicycles and administrative files. Napenda could barely reach up to my knees, but he tried pulling himself up onto my lap anyway. I pulled him up onto my lap and he sat with me playing with a broken ball.
The lunch lady is right. Napenda does not smell good. His clothes are dirty, he smells like he hasn’t been bathed in a long time, and he’s always got food on his chin and cheeks. Even the amazingly tolerant and accepting people at DEEP keep their distance from Napenda for this reason. I can’t help but let Napenda sit on my lap, because I feel like that’s all I can really give him. I don’t feel comfortable giving him clothing and toys, because I know what will happen to them. I won’t give him money for the same reason. All I can do for him is repair his toys, or let him sit on my lap. When he points at things and pretends to talk, I nod at him because I want him to feel like someone is listening to him, even though he’s not talking.
It’s hard to watch the way Napenda is being treated, like his cousin he’s being abused. The fact that he doesn’t know any language, the fact that he can’t communicate beyond pointing at things and making facial expressions, means that his quality of life is unacceptably low. Not only does he not go to school, get enough to eat, or have a loving family environment, but also he has no real friends beyond his young cousin. I can’t help but imagine what his life will be like if this situation doesn’t change, that’s why I feel strongly about doing something for him. I’ve spoken with the girls and Richard and we’ve talked over some possible options. Michelle has said she’s going to set up a meeting with a social worker; Alison wants to meet with the principal at Eluwa. Judging from the past, I don’t expect his aunt is going to do anything positive for him in the near future, and that’s why I want to do something for him that will hopefully improve his situation. If he goes to Eluwa, he’ll be around people who understand him and care for him. He’ll also learn to sign language and be able to communicate with his friends and teachers. I feel like with all the resources at our fingertips, we can help Napenda. I can’t leave Namibia without doing something for him that will make him happier and healthier, and I really feel like school is what will do it for him.
I want to do this so that the intern at DEEP next year doesn’t have to experience the same frustration that I feel when Napenda visits me at DEEP. I’d rather the next intern see just how great a community can be towards people with disabilities. When customers walk by DEEP they shout out greetings to the employees, and there is a really remarkable sense of understanding and friendliness between DEEP and the neighborhood. Hopefully Napenda will soon be included in this atmosphere of open-mindedness. And hopefully, the intern next year will be able to witness this when he or she sits with the employees of DEEP and looks on as the community goes about their day-to-day activities.
[check the last post, I added two at the same time!]
Ruacana and Angola
June 13th 2009
On Saturday we went to Ruacana Falls. Paulina, a director at UNAM, offered to take us when we met her the week before last, so, we decided that this Saturday would be the best time to go visit the Falls and the hydro power plant.
It took 2 hours by car to get to the falls. Alison and I sat in the back of the van and listened to Harry Potter on audio book on her ipod. (And, yes, I am the coolest 20 year old you’ve ever met.) We arrived at the power station at around 11am and signed in at the front desk. Sadly, cameras are not aloud at the station, so I’ve got no pictures of it, which sucks because it was really, really cool. It looks like a really old school, science fiction-y, underground laboratory.
We walked down a paved road that led us directly to the mountain. Then, there was a huge tunnel drilled into the side of the mountain, which we entered. We walked down the tunnel to an underground atrium that housed lots of fancy machines, water tanks, pipes and dials. As we followed the tour guide I couldn’t help but feel like I was in an Austin Powers movie. When we turned the corner into a large hallway, I half expected to see a group of men, holding guns and wearing full-body uniforms, moving together in a slow jog.
The guide led us to what I can assume was a sort of control panel that overlooked the large atrium. Once I had a look around I could help but chuckle to myself because it all looked kind of fake. There was this main wall that had all these dials and scales on it, and there were painted-on arrows connecting all of them together. Even uncle Richard noticed this when he said, “sort of looks like the Nuclear Power Plant that Homer works at, huh?” And it did.
Unfortunately, there were three South Africans that were part of our tour group, and they proceeded to ask the tour guide and other employees all sorts questions that outlined their expertise in the field of hydropower. While they hovered over the guide and a computer learning about all the complex physics/engineering involved in hydropower, the girls and I practiced balancing water bottles on our heads. After practically mastering the skill, the SA’s finally finished their intellectual discussion with the guide, and he led us to another part of the plant. We got to see all the water flowing in from the dam into this under- mountain cavern and back out through a tunnel in the wall. Although this was a pretty cool part of the tour, after 15 minutes in the really loud and smelly crevasse, the girls and I started to get pretty antsy to get out of there. BUT NO, the SA’s decided that moving water was way too interesting, and moved from one part of the railing, to another, trying to get a better view of the moving water. Alison and I started to play the “guess what I’m drawing on your back” game, until FINALLY, the SA’s decided the tour could recommence.
The tour guide brought us back out of the mountainside tunnel and we got back into the van. We drove to the nearby river and had lunch. I dropped half of my sandwich in the sand and had to fill up on mini-apples instead, which wasn’t a good idea considering I was about to climb 500 steps and needed all the calories I could get.
After lunch we made our way to the Ruacana falls. Because it’s dry season here, there wasn’t a lot of water running from the dam to the plant, but we got to descend into the valley and scamper around on the rocks. Scampering, I just learned, is when you traipse around on rocks and boulders. It’s hard to describe with words, but Annie, Sol, Alison, Michelle and I all scampered down from the little cliff of rocks to the pools of water. It was super cool, and definitely not something I’m used to or good at. I couldn’t get all the way down because my runners have no traction, but meters from where I was perched on a rock the rest of the girls saw a bright blue freshwater crab. Apparently, Ruacana falls is the only place on earth that has fresh water crabs, and I almost saw one! Woo hoo!
After scampering back to Paulina, her husband and Richard. We made our way to an abandoned power station that was attacked during independence, (1990’s) which overlooks the falls. I got some amazing shots of the place, which is pretty haunting.
Next, we walked up the 500+ steps back to the van. It took about 15 minutes, but it was pretty horrible. I think I told Alison, who was right behind me, that I hated hiking about 10 times. Once I got to the top, though, I was pretty impressed with myself. Me, who is very unfit, and barely exercises, didn’t faint/puke/die during the hike up!! Impressed? Me too.
After about 10 minutes of recuperation, we got back in the van and stopped right at the Angolan/Namibian border. We were allowed to walk into Angola and visit the local neighborhood, which was really cool. You can pass the border without a passport as long as you stay within 60 km, or something like that, which is why we were able to casually cross the border by foot. We stumbled upon a shebeen and saw this beautiful Himba woman dressed in traditional clothing. I felt a bit uncomfortable about taking pictures of her, but the others took some amazing pictures, which I don’t feel too uncomfortable admiring. We stayed there for about 15 minutes, and crossed back into Namibia, making it the world’s fastest trip to Angola.
The car ride home was beautiful because we got to see northern Namibia during sunset, which I haven’t been able to see yet. Everything is really quite at dusk, which is real contrast from the hustle and bustle of Oshakati during the day. Just by looking out of the window I could really appreciate the Namibian landscape, trees and animals. Namibia really is a beautiful country!
The car ride home was also beautiful because Alison and I finished the Harry Potter audio book. What an amazing series.
On Saturday we went to Ruacana Falls. Paulina, a director at UNAM, offered to take us when we met her the week before last, so, we decided that this Saturday would be the best time to go visit the Falls and the hydro power plant.
It took 2 hours by car to get to the falls. Alison and I sat in the back of the van and listened to Harry Potter on audio book on her ipod. (And, yes, I am the coolest 20 year old you’ve ever met.) We arrived at the power station at around 11am and signed in at the front desk. Sadly, cameras are not aloud at the station, so I’ve got no pictures of it, which sucks because it was really, really cool. It looks like a really old school, science fiction-y, underground laboratory.
We walked down a paved road that led us directly to the mountain. Then, there was a huge tunnel drilled into the side of the mountain, which we entered. We walked down the tunnel to an underground atrium that housed lots of fancy machines, water tanks, pipes and dials. As we followed the tour guide I couldn’t help but feel like I was in an Austin Powers movie. When we turned the corner into a large hallway, I half expected to see a group of men, holding guns and wearing full-body uniforms, moving together in a slow jog.
The guide led us to what I can assume was a sort of control panel that overlooked the large atrium. Once I had a look around I could help but chuckle to myself because it all looked kind of fake. There was this main wall that had all these dials and scales on it, and there were painted-on arrows connecting all of them together. Even uncle Richard noticed this when he said, “sort of looks like the Nuclear Power Plant that Homer works at, huh?” And it did.
Unfortunately, there were three South Africans that were part of our tour group, and they proceeded to ask the tour guide and other employees all sorts questions that outlined their expertise in the field of hydropower. While they hovered over the guide and a computer learning about all the complex physics/engineering involved in hydropower, the girls and I practiced balancing water bottles on our heads. After practically mastering the skill, the SA’s finally finished their intellectual discussion with the guide, and he led us to another part of the plant. We got to see all the water flowing in from the dam into this under- mountain cavern and back out through a tunnel in the wall. Although this was a pretty cool part of the tour, after 15 minutes in the really loud and smelly crevasse, the girls and I started to get pretty antsy to get out of there. BUT NO, the SA’s decided that moving water was way too interesting, and moved from one part of the railing, to another, trying to get a better view of the moving water. Alison and I started to play the “guess what I’m drawing on your back” game, until FINALLY, the SA’s decided the tour could recommence.
The tour guide brought us back out of the mountainside tunnel and we got back into the van. We drove to the nearby river and had lunch. I dropped half of my sandwich in the sand and had to fill up on mini-apples instead, which wasn’t a good idea considering I was about to climb 500 steps and needed all the calories I could get.
After lunch we made our way to the Ruacana falls. Because it’s dry season here, there wasn’t a lot of water running from the dam to the plant, but we got to descend into the valley and scamper around on the rocks. Scampering, I just learned, is when you traipse around on rocks and boulders. It’s hard to describe with words, but Annie, Sol, Alison, Michelle and I all scampered down from the little cliff of rocks to the pools of water. It was super cool, and definitely not something I’m used to or good at. I couldn’t get all the way down because my runners have no traction, but meters from where I was perched on a rock the rest of the girls saw a bright blue freshwater crab. Apparently, Ruacana falls is the only place on earth that has fresh water crabs, and I almost saw one! Woo hoo!
After scampering back to Paulina, her husband and Richard. We made our way to an abandoned power station that was attacked during independence, (1990’s) which overlooks the falls. I got some amazing shots of the place, which is pretty haunting.
Next, we walked up the 500+ steps back to the van. It took about 15 minutes, but it was pretty horrible. I think I told Alison, who was right behind me, that I hated hiking about 10 times. Once I got to the top, though, I was pretty impressed with myself. Me, who is very unfit, and barely exercises, didn’t faint/puke/die during the hike up!! Impressed? Me too.
After about 10 minutes of recuperation, we got back in the van and stopped right at the Angolan/Namibian border. We were allowed to walk into Angola and visit the local neighborhood, which was really cool. You can pass the border without a passport as long as you stay within 60 km, or something like that, which is why we were able to casually cross the border by foot. We stumbled upon a shebeen and saw this beautiful Himba woman dressed in traditional clothing. I felt a bit uncomfortable about taking pictures of her, but the others took some amazing pictures, which I don’t feel too uncomfortable admiring. We stayed there for about 15 minutes, and crossed back into Namibia, making it the world’s fastest trip to Angola.
The car ride home was beautiful because we got to see northern Namibia during sunset, which I haven’t been able to see yet. Everything is really quite at dusk, which is real contrast from the hustle and bustle of Oshakati during the day. Just by looking out of the window I could really appreciate the Namibian landscape, trees and animals. Namibia really is a beautiful country!
The car ride home was also beautiful because Alison and I finished the Harry Potter audio book. What an amazing series.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Long time no blog. A lot has happened since the last time I posted but I haven’t been able to get to an Internet café for about a week.
Here’s some of things I’ve done:
The U of T interns and I visited the University of Namibia (UNAM) and met two women who run the HIV/AIDS unit at UNAM. Skolastika Iipinge is a former nurse turned HIV/AIDS professor who works at the university to help educate students about the virus. Dr. Iipinge along with Dr. Kavena run a program called ZAMANAWE (
Solome, Annie, Alison, Michelle and I are all going to be working in the north, but the rest of the Interns will be working in
Vincent and Jonathan are working at an ARV clinic. They are both pharmacy student and are really excited about their placement. In their first week of work they’ve actually gone and delivered ARVs to people outside of the city. Jonathan told Alison that one of the recipients of the medications was a four-year old boy. Needless say, their work, and the rest of the interns’ work, is going to be really tough.
The last
After everyone got placed in
Our compound in the north is really nice. There’s a one floor building that houses 4 bedrooms, each of which has a door that opens to outside. There’s a small courtyard on one side of the building, and an electric fence on the other. Across from the courtyard there’s an open structure that houses a small kitchen and a dining room. We spend most of our time here. It’s nice in the afternoon because you’re under the shade and you can stay cool, but you’re still outside. I’m really enjoying the outdoorsy aspect of this trip
There are five bedrooms. I'm sharing a bedroom with Alison. She's my age and we get along really well. I haven't ever really shared a room with anyone before, but so far it's working out well. Probably because we both like to watch Arrested Development or 30 rock before bed.
On our second day in Oshakati the group was invited to the police station where the commissioner of the entire Oshana region (which is like a province) came to welcome us to the area and to give us a run down of the safety situation in the area. He was accompanied by five other officers and they all seemed really interested in us, considering we're a bunch of Canadians coming to work FOR FREE!! Note to parents: There have been no safety issues for interns in the past.
There are a total of 4 placements in Oshakati. Annie and Solome are sharing a placement at the Multipurpose Centre which is like a community centre. They are working with OVCs and are having a really good time. Michelle is working at the hospital in the malnourishment ward with orphaned infants. Interestingly, most of the children have family, but they are placed there because the parent may not be able to feed the child, or the mother may not be alive. After 6 months, though, the parents have to come pick the children up. Alison is working with an AMAZING woman who teaches dance to children in the area. Some are students at the school for the blind and deaf and some are OVCs. So far I've joined Alison about 3 times to help with the classes. It's really fun to learn African dance. It's definitely out of my comfort level. The kids are brilliant and there are even some really young toddlers who come to the classes with their older siblings. And, although they can't actually perform any of the dance moves, they just stay with the group and bop along to the music. It is probably one of the cutest things to witness. Dance and babies are a perfect combination.
My internship is really interesting. It's located in an informal settlement that is one of the most impoverished in the area. It's been a challenge for me to feel completely comfortable in the area, but that's something I'm working on. The six DEEP employees that I'm working with are really nice to me. Moses and Lavinia speak English the best, so we've really connected so far. I'm working on getting to know the other four, but it's hard because they mostly speak Oshiwambo. The group has been teaching me how to speak Oshiwambo but I'm finding it really confusing. You have to say "Walalapo meme/tate" and then the other person says "Nawa" and then there's this back and forth dialogue that I really can't understand. But to return the favour I've begun teaching them some french words. So, in the morning I greet them in Oshiwambo and they greet me in French.
My main tasks this summer are going to be to write a constitution for DEEP and to write up profiles for each of the employees. I think it will be a great opportunity to learn about how disability has affected the group's lives and how they are able to access their rights as disabled citizens. I'm still learning the day to day routine at DEEP, which involves running errands and helping them out with some administrative tasks. It turns out that even though I can't fix any bicycles, I can provide them with some help when it comes to writing emails, sending faxes, taking inventory and other things like that.
I'm excited to see how this internship pans out and what kind of things I learn while working at DEEP. I'm also really excited to learn from the other girls and to help out with the dance classes.
I think this may be the most boring post ever but I'm sure I'll have some more interesting things to say soon.
In the mean time, here are some interesting Namibian facts:
1. In Namibia, they drive on the other side of the road.
2. Taxi drivers listen to soft christian rock.
3. I'm getting a tan
I can't seem to load any pictures for some reason, I'll try again soon.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
I'm finally in Namibia! It took a 21 hour bus ride to get here but I'm finally in Windhoek (pronounced "vindhook"), the capital of Namibia. I'll fill you in on the past few days first though.
On thursday, Alison, Sarah, Jonathan, Vincent and I went on a wine tour down the Cape Peninsula. We hired a driver named Charles and he took us to four vineyards in the Stallenbasch region. First he took us to some place that was incredibly boring, where didn't actually taste any wine. I have a feeling he made a commission off taking tourists to this area because he kept telling us how we should come back and eat at the restaurant at night for a fancy meal. Then he took us across the parking lot to a Cheetah sanctuary. We only got to see one cheetah that could be viewed without actually paying the admission fee. We stood there for about 30 minutes just watching it walk around. AND THEN!! his trainer came in and walked right up to it and embraced it for about 30 seconds. Needless to say, it was the cutest thing ever, and I got some quality photos of it. The cheetah even started purring! Cheetah purring sounds half like a cat purr and half like some weird bird chirp. Very cute. Then the trainer walked away and sat on the ground to tie his shoes and the cheetah walked over and lay in front him for some belly scratches. Basically, I'm totally over domestic house cats and want a cheetah. (Hannah: would you be willing to get rid of Caramel while I try and bring home a real cat?). The trainer told us we could pay 10 rand (around $1.50 canadian) to see the other cats and animals, but our driver told us, and I quote, "you've seen one cheetah, you've seen them all). I think the rest of the group agreed to get on with the wine tour so I reluctantly left the sanctuary to head back to the van and drive to the next vineyard.
Enough about the cheetah though. I'm sure It's pretty boring to hear about. Next, Charles drove us to three more vineyards and we got to taste a total of 13 wines. I learned how to taste wine properly, but I'm still not sure what I'm supposed to be noticing when I swirl the wine in the glass. However, it looked pretty fancy when I swirled the wine, so I kept on doing it. The wine was excellent and I felt pretty proud of myself when I noted to Alison that one wine tasted oaky, and we read the label and found that, indeed, there was an oaky flavour, or undertone, or something in the wine.
We shared a lunch together with Charles at the last winery, and got to try some fresh goat cheese. I have a pretty horrible story about goats that makes me not want to eat their cheese every again. But I'll save it for another time. Let me just say, animals that drink their own pee are gross.
The Stallenbosch is a pretty beautiful place but it is overwhelmingly a rich, white population. On the outskirts of the little towns in the areas, there would be a clustering of townships that just remined us how segregated SA still is. That kind of disparity is obvious in almost all the places I saw while in SA. In fact, Charles referred to the townships as housing "coloured people."
On a lighter note though, I had a really great time in Cape Town and I'm really looking forward to coming back in August after my internship ends.
After we got back to the hostel after the wine tour, we met up with the rest of the group and went for dinner at a nearby restaurant. We went back to the hostel and pakced our stuff, played some Big 2, drank some SA beer and went to bed.
The next day we took our 21 hour bus ride to Windhoek. The first 10 hours were fine, the bus was nice and cool and the seats were comfy and reclined really far back. We all had a chuckle when they started playing this safety video for the passengers on the overhead TV's and the video included a prayer to Jesus that he would guide us to safety and make our journey safe. And it went on for a good 5 minutes, while we all kind of sat there stunned by the outright religiousness. By night time, we had gone through border and our visas were approved. We all settled down for what we expected to be a nice sleep on the bus, however, they pumped up the heat really high and none of us could manage to fall asleep in the heat. So I guess that meant we got a really nice view of the Kalahari at sunrise. It's beautiful, but I think it would have been better with more than three hours sleep.
We got into Windhoek at 6:00am and met Richard and two guys that will stay with 6 student who have internships in the city. We got some breakfast and each of us bought a Namibian cell phone (yay!!). Then we moved the Windhoek interns into their compound and Richard brought us (the Oshikati interns) to a separate compound. In the afternoon the entire group met the two University of Namibia (UNAM) professor who worked with Richard to create this program. They talked to us about Namibia's demography and the impact of HIV/AIDS on the country. But, once the professors found out we had just gotten off of the long bus ride they cut the meeting shortly and told Richard that he should let us sleep for a full day before getting us to sit through a meeting with them. They were really sympathetic to our situation, and all of us were really thankful for that.
We went for dinner after the meeting and had a really good time. The group is really meshing well and everyone is very friendly and funny. (my two favourite characteristics).
We all headed home and pretty much passed out for 11 hours.
Today Richard gave the UNAM and Oshikati groups a short tour of Windhoek. The city is really cool. The houses here are really colourful and the architecture is so cool. Kind of reminds me of South American housing. We have another meeting later today, and then a group dinner.
SO far I'm having a really great time here, but I'm anxious to get to Oshikati (another 9 hour car ride) and settle in there. I wonder what it will be like up there and what our living quarters will look like.
So my phone number here is: 081.447.2234, but if you're calling me you have to put: 011.264.81.447.2234. I don't expect any calls from friends cause it's crazy expensive. But family members have to. If you skype me, its free for me and about $0.02 canadian dollars/minute for you. (Ar, maybe when you go home you can set that up for M and D?)
Miss you!
On thursday, Alison, Sarah, Jonathan, Vincent and I went on a wine tour down the Cape Peninsula. We hired a driver named Charles and he took us to four vineyards in the Stallenbasch region. First he took us to some place that was incredibly boring, where didn't actually taste any wine. I have a feeling he made a commission off taking tourists to this area because he kept telling us how we should come back and eat at the restaurant at night for a fancy meal. Then he took us across the parking lot to a Cheetah sanctuary. We only got to see one cheetah that could be viewed without actually paying the admission fee. We stood there for about 30 minutes just watching it walk around. AND THEN!! his trainer came in and walked right up to it and embraced it for about 30 seconds. Needless to say, it was the cutest thing ever, and I got some quality photos of it. The cheetah even started purring! Cheetah purring sounds half like a cat purr and half like some weird bird chirp. Very cute. Then the trainer walked away and sat on the ground to tie his shoes and the cheetah walked over and lay in front him for some belly scratches. Basically, I'm totally over domestic house cats and want a cheetah. (Hannah: would you be willing to get rid of Caramel while I try and bring home a real cat?). The trainer told us we could pay 10 rand (around $1.50 canadian) to see the other cats and animals, but our driver told us, and I quote, "you've seen one cheetah, you've seen them all). I think the rest of the group agreed to get on with the wine tour so I reluctantly left the sanctuary to head back to the van and drive to the next vineyard.
Enough about the cheetah though. I'm sure It's pretty boring to hear about. Next, Charles drove us to three more vineyards and we got to taste a total of 13 wines. I learned how to taste wine properly, but I'm still not sure what I'm supposed to be noticing when I swirl the wine in the glass. However, it looked pretty fancy when I swirled the wine, so I kept on doing it. The wine was excellent and I felt pretty proud of myself when I noted to Alison that one wine tasted oaky, and we read the label and found that, indeed, there was an oaky flavour, or undertone, or something in the wine.
We shared a lunch together with Charles at the last winery, and got to try some fresh goat cheese. I have a pretty horrible story about goats that makes me not want to eat their cheese every again. But I'll save it for another time. Let me just say, animals that drink their own pee are gross.
The Stallenbosch is a pretty beautiful place but it is overwhelmingly a rich, white population. On the outskirts of the little towns in the areas, there would be a clustering of townships that just remined us how segregated SA still is. That kind of disparity is obvious in almost all the places I saw while in SA. In fact, Charles referred to the townships as housing "coloured people."
On a lighter note though, I had a really great time in Cape Town and I'm really looking forward to coming back in August after my internship ends.
After we got back to the hostel after the wine tour, we met up with the rest of the group and went for dinner at a nearby restaurant. We went back to the hostel and pakced our stuff, played some Big 2, drank some SA beer and went to bed.
The next day we took our 21 hour bus ride to Windhoek. The first 10 hours were fine, the bus was nice and cool and the seats were comfy and reclined really far back. We all had a chuckle when they started playing this safety video for the passengers on the overhead TV's and the video included a prayer to Jesus that he would guide us to safety and make our journey safe. And it went on for a good 5 minutes, while we all kind of sat there stunned by the outright religiousness. By night time, we had gone through border and our visas were approved. We all settled down for what we expected to be a nice sleep on the bus, however, they pumped up the heat really high and none of us could manage to fall asleep in the heat. So I guess that meant we got a really nice view of the Kalahari at sunrise. It's beautiful, but I think it would have been better with more than three hours sleep.
We got into Windhoek at 6:00am and met Richard and two guys that will stay with 6 student who have internships in the city. We got some breakfast and each of us bought a Namibian cell phone (yay!!). Then we moved the Windhoek interns into their compound and Richard brought us (the Oshikati interns) to a separate compound. In the afternoon the entire group met the two University of Namibia (UNAM) professor who worked with Richard to create this program. They talked to us about Namibia's demography and the impact of HIV/AIDS on the country. But, once the professors found out we had just gotten off of the long bus ride they cut the meeting shortly and told Richard that he should let us sleep for a full day before getting us to sit through a meeting with them. They were really sympathetic to our situation, and all of us were really thankful for that.
We went for dinner after the meeting and had a really good time. The group is really meshing well and everyone is very friendly and funny. (my two favourite characteristics).
We all headed home and pretty much passed out for 11 hours.
Today Richard gave the UNAM and Oshikati groups a short tour of Windhoek. The city is really cool. The houses here are really colourful and the architecture is so cool. Kind of reminds me of South American housing. We have another meeting later today, and then a group dinner.
SO far I'm having a really great time here, but I'm anxious to get to Oshikati (another 9 hour car ride) and settle in there. I wonder what it will be like up there and what our living quarters will look like.
So my phone number here is: 081.447.2234, but if you're calling me you have to put: 011.264.81.447.2234. I don't expect any calls from friends cause it's crazy expensive. But family members have to. If you skype me, its free for me and about $0.02 canadian dollars/minute for you. (Ar, maybe when you go home you can set that up for M and D?)
Miss you!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
day 2
Today I hiked Table Mountain with the group (Sol and Meghan joined us at the Hostel today). It was rough. It was really hot and sunny for half of the trek up (mom, I promise I wore sunscreen and reapplied during the trek up. no burns today!). we took approximately 10 or 15 breaks in 2hours of hiking! such a steep incline. But when we made it to the top it was pretty gorgeous. Took lots of photos, but I'm too lazy to post them right now. I'll describe what I saw: some sky, some sea, some mountains, so city, some animals and some people. I know, that's pretty amazing. I think the photos will do it more justice though.
The view from the top is amazing. I saw Robben Island ( I don't know if you can tell yet but I'm totally infatuated with that place) and cape point and a bunch of mountains with names like "devil's peak" and "Lion's rump" (lol). We also got an amazing view of cape town and some other cities in the distance. It's breath taking up there.
Tomorrow I'll probably be taking a wine tour! I'm pretty excited and I feel pretty adult and mature just thinking about it.
So far Cape Town has been amazing, but there's so much left to see. And, since I'm leaving on friday, I think I'll try and spend a few days here before I come home in August. I absolutely love it here!!
So I guess that's all. I'm too pooped to write more. (need to rest up before dinner and a night out with the group!)
LOVE hannah
The view from the top is amazing. I saw Robben Island ( I don't know if you can tell yet but I'm totally infatuated with that place) and cape point and a bunch of mountains with names like "devil's peak" and "Lion's rump" (lol). We also got an amazing view of cape town and some other cities in the distance. It's breath taking up there.
Tomorrow I'll probably be taking a wine tour! I'm pretty excited and I feel pretty adult and mature just thinking about it.
So far Cape Town has been amazing, but there's so much left to see. And, since I'm leaving on friday, I think I'll try and spend a few days here before I come home in August. I absolutely love it here!!
So I guess that's all. I'm too pooped to write more. (need to rest up before dinner and a night out with the group!)
LOVE hannah
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
I'm heee-errrr!
Hello from Cape Town!
After traveling for around 24 hours straight all five of us (Michelle, Annie, Alison, Sarah and I) have arrived in Cape Town!! We're staying at a pretty awesome hostel and we're sharing out room with two other people, Garland and Fabrice (from Madagascar!!).
When we got in last night we dropped our stuff off at the hostel and headed straight to an Irish pub for a beer and nachos. The DJ was pretty excellent so we all got up to dance but then we realized how tired we were so we ended up heading back to the hostel. We hung out for a bit but I started getting really tired and headed upstairs to bed.
Today I went to Robben Island with Michelle, Allison, Sarah and Fabrice (Robben Island is where the South African government held political prisoners during the Apartheid. It's where Mandela was imprisoned for 17 years and where Sobukwe stayed for about 20). We took a 30 minute ferry ride from the mainland to the island and hopped on a bus for a tour of the island. We saw the prison and some of the other buildings on the island, like the church, a small schoolhouse, and a clinic etc. The quarry is were the prisoners were sent to do hard labour during the day. Because the stone is so bright in the sunlight, and the prisoners were not given sunglasses, most of the prisoners suffered (and still suffer) from eye problems. Apparently, Mandela's tear ducts don't even work. After the tour we got of the bus and met a former inmate who took us on a tour of the actual compounds that held the inmates. We saw Mandela's cell close up. It was about 6feet by 4feet.
Interesting things to note/ really boring things that only IDS/history students would care about: During the Apartheid, political prisoners on Robben Island were originally placed in the same compounds as the regular prisoners, but after noticing how the political prisoners were influencing the other prisoners, the guards ended up having to separate them. Also, the guards had to be regularly changed to prevent them from getting to close with the inmates. Also, since most of the political prisoners were highly educated, they each taught illiterate inmates how to read. Their motto was "each one teach one". In later years, prisoners were allowed to go to college via correspondence.
Today, some former inmates as well as guards still live on Robben Island, and there's even an elementary school on the island for their kids to go to.
Today was really awesome. The weather was nice (probably around 20 degrees and sunny) and it looks like it'll be the same tomorrow. I'm planning on hiking up table mountain (google it, it's intense) and then maybe go to cape point to see some seals and penguins. (Cape point is the southern most tip of the African continent)
Anyhoo, I'm having a really great time and I'll hopefully be posting some pictures soon.
Love hannah
After traveling for around 24 hours straight all five of us (Michelle, Annie, Alison, Sarah and I) have arrived in Cape Town!! We're staying at a pretty awesome hostel and we're sharing out room with two other people, Garland and Fabrice (from Madagascar!!).
When we got in last night we dropped our stuff off at the hostel and headed straight to an Irish pub for a beer and nachos. The DJ was pretty excellent so we all got up to dance but then we realized how tired we were so we ended up heading back to the hostel. We hung out for a bit but I started getting really tired and headed upstairs to bed.
Today I went to Robben Island with Michelle, Allison, Sarah and Fabrice (Robben Island is where the South African government held political prisoners during the Apartheid. It's where Mandela was imprisoned for 17 years and where Sobukwe stayed for about 20). We took a 30 minute ferry ride from the mainland to the island and hopped on a bus for a tour of the island. We saw the prison and some of the other buildings on the island, like the church, a small schoolhouse, and a clinic etc. The quarry is were the prisoners were sent to do hard labour during the day. Because the stone is so bright in the sunlight, and the prisoners were not given sunglasses, most of the prisoners suffered (and still suffer) from eye problems. Apparently, Mandela's tear ducts don't even work. After the tour we got of the bus and met a former inmate who took us on a tour of the actual compounds that held the inmates. We saw Mandela's cell close up. It was about 6feet by 4feet.
Interesting things to note/ really boring things that only IDS/history students would care about: During the Apartheid, political prisoners on Robben Island were originally placed in the same compounds as the regular prisoners, but after noticing how the political prisoners were influencing the other prisoners, the guards ended up having to separate them. Also, the guards had to be regularly changed to prevent them from getting to close with the inmates. Also, since most of the political prisoners were highly educated, they each taught illiterate inmates how to read. Their motto was "each one teach one". In later years, prisoners were allowed to go to college via correspondence.
Today, some former inmates as well as guards still live on Robben Island, and there's even an elementary school on the island for their kids to go to.
Today was really awesome. The weather was nice (probably around 20 degrees and sunny) and it looks like it'll be the same tomorrow. I'm planning on hiking up table mountain (google it, it's intense) and then maybe go to cape point to see some seals and penguins. (Cape point is the southern most tip of the African continent)
Anyhoo, I'm having a really great time and I'll hopefully be posting some pictures soon.
Love hannah
Saturday, May 16, 2009
don't ignore me doing this
I'm going to Africa in eight days! Next Sunday I'll be leaving for Cape Town where I'll be staying for a few days. Then I'll be taking a 20 hour bus ride to Windhoek (capital of Namibia) where I'll be chilling for a few days and running some errands before I take the 6 hour car ride to Oshikati where I'll be living and working for the next two months.
I'm getting pretty nervous/excited for the trip. And, because I don't really know what to expect I can't tell what I should be feeling. I really can't tell what I've gotten myself into but I hope that I really enjoy myself and have a learning/interesting/satisfying/happy experience.
I don't really know the Internet situation in Oshakati, but I hope that I can produce some pretty regular postings or emails. And maybe, if you're lucky, I'll get my act together and post pictures! We'll see though, I can be pretty lazy if I want to be...
To summarize: I am going to Namibia. I am leaving soon. I will have some sort of adventure. I am excited.
I'm getting pretty nervous/excited for the trip. And, because I don't really know what to expect I can't tell what I should be feeling. I really can't tell what I've gotten myself into but I hope that I really enjoy myself and have a learning/interesting/satisfying/happy experience.
I don't really know the Internet situation in Oshakati, but I hope that I can produce some pretty regular postings or emails. And maybe, if you're lucky, I'll get my act together and post pictures! We'll see though, I can be pretty lazy if I want to be...
To summarize: I am going to Namibia. I am leaving soon. I will have some sort of adventure. I am excited.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
This is weird
Dear databadger,
This is the only way I could begin following your blog.
I am not trying to copy you.
sincerely,
shamooroo
p.s. guess who it is?
This is the only way I could begin following your blog.
I am not trying to copy you.
sincerely,
shamooroo
p.s. guess who it is?
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