Spring Break: Orange River Canoe Trip

So after extensive travelling in the North we stopped back at the house for day before we headed out on our various spring breaks. Some of us went to Victoria Falls, others stayed up north and 12 of us ( 2 groups of 6) went to the Southern border of Namibia to canoe down the Orange river for a few days. Our group got there 2 days before we left and chilled at the base camp. It was beautiful and grassy there and we spent our days relaxing and grilling veggies at night. It was really good to just chill out after running around for 2 weeks. The other group arrived the day before we were supposed to leave. The other members of our entire canoe group consisted of 4 older South Africans in their 60's, a girl named Leo (19), from Denmark who lived has lived in Namibia sin she was 2, and a British couple now living in Cape Town with their two boys James(11) and John(9).

The trip was great. And the food was out of this world. The guides were very accomodating for anything that was needed. The first day was mainly canoeing with some stops for bathrooms and lunch. The first night we found a sandy bank on the river to rest. We didnt need tents and we were able to sleep under the stars which was absolutely incredible. Some people were a bit unsettled the first night because before going to bed we found 3 scorpions near the camp. Our guide caught one and put it in a bucket. He also caught this crazy huge spider and put in the bucket to fight the scorpion. Needless to say the scorpion won without too much of a fight.

The next day was more canoeing with a midday hike up mountain to collect a certain type of rock that makes "bushmen fireworks". At camp that night we put the rocks on the coals of the fire and let them heat up. They then pop showering the fire area with beautiful blue rock pieces that does literally look like a mini firework. It was really cool.

The third day was more of the same. We rafted the boats together and took a long dip in the river which was a lot of fun. On the last and biggest rapid that we faced Ky and I capsized our boat for the first and only time. It was totally worth it. The rapid was huge and we had a blast taking a dunk. Then we camped for our last night. The next morning we canoed to our pick up spot and headed back to base camp where we had lunch one last time as group before we headed our different ways. After that it was an 8 hour kombi (van) ride back to Windhoek where we got home and collapsed. It was a fantastic spring break and im sorry I dont have an pictures but im sure some will show up on facebook soon.

Thats about all for now. The blog is officially updated. We are heard back down to the South this Thursday and after that we start gearing up for finishing the semester. Its amazing how fast things have been going. Thanks for reading and there's more to come soon. Peace.

More Pictures from Etosha

From Top to Bottom

1: An Oryx
2: An Elephant
3: A lion from very far away
4: A Dik-Dik (the smallest hooved animal)
5: Giraffe with rainbow

These are some of the last pictures from Etosha. Sad to report that from here on out the number of pictures isgoing to be a lot more slim. Unfortunately while in Etosha my beloved camera which has been on its last leg for a while kicked the bucket. I believe that one of thebattery connectors has been wornout/blown. As a solution for the blog posts from now on, I am going to download facebook pictures and post them on the blog when appropriate. Sorry folks.

Etosha! and more of the North

From Top to Bottom:

1: Zebra with rainbow in the background.
2: More Zebies
3: Giraffes
4: Wildebeasts
5: Springbok

After our homestay we headed to Etosha, Namibia's national game park and largest tourist attraction. We did several game drives and saw lots and lots of animals of which I will post pictures. We saw Giraffes, a Lion, Zebras, Elephants, Oryx, Springbok, Impala, Jackals, Wildebeasts and Mongoose. Etosaha is a huge place and it was really fun to be there. Although it was great it was just the perfect amount of time. If i had spent any more time in a car on a game drive I may have lost my mind.

The rest of the time in the north was spent going around to different development operations and activites. We saw another school, some bricklaying iniatives and other stuff. The most notable things were the following...

The Ruacana Dam and Waterfalls. This was awesome. This dam provides most of the power for the entire country of Namibia. It was like James Bond Set. We saw where the water comes in and the huge generators that make the power. It was very hard to hear the man speak so I didnt completely get to understand the workings of the dam but it was cool. The dam was only second to the falls which were amazing. They were the biggest waterfalls ive ever seen. Apparently we were lucky that its been raining so much because the falls can often be dry. I say the word lucky very carefully because although the rain provided us with a picturesque seen it has also caused massive flooding in the north creating all sorts of issues for the local people.

The Edufano Women's Coopeartive a was another cool visit. Here the work with women to harvest oil from Marula trees on their property. The work is voluntary and the women earn a proportion equal to the amount of seeds they provide. It seems like a good system where people are treated fairly. The problem I see with it is that i wonder if economically is it really worth the money for the women to spend their time and effort harvesting the fruit for the money they make? The money helps but its not a great deal. Would they be better off doing something else where they could be possibly making more? And if so what? 33% of the country is not employed.

The last interesting visit we had was to the Ongwediva Rural Development Center. The lady showed around to the different projects they provide training for so people can sustain themselves. Things like hydroponic tables which are quite cool. From these tables the people who are trained can make a number of different things with the plants etc they grow. They can make jams, dyes, soups, and on and on. They can then use what they make and sell. These things all looked and sounded really great but I had soem issues here as well. Is it efficient for farmers and people who live in rural areas to use these tables. Is it efficient for the time and effort they put in? Is it worth the start up cost (which can be a lot) for the people to start these tables? Will they be able to cover the start-up costs? Is there a demandfor the products they will produce? How willl they get the products to the market? These were all things I was wondering. I often think that my western capitalist influenced mindset leads me to find ways to make everything efficient (economically and timewise). But the real question is does everything need to be efficient? We does the western way of doing thing need to be implemented in a non-western world?

So that about finishes up the north. Spring break is coming soon.

More Pictures from the North

Here are some more pictures. As a warning if you are schemish there is a picture of a goat being dressed after slaughtering at the end.


Top to Bottom

1: My room at the homsestay.
2: My family's house.
3. Me and one of the local kids messing around.
4. Goat being dressed for the farewell party.

The North! - Rural Homestay

Pictures from top to bottom ( I think? The formatting is very strange)

1 and 2: Images from atop the hill that we climbed at sunset. The black and white one has the rainbow (yes i know that doesnt make sense but its a good picture).

3: Anatomically correct horse toy made by my host father.

4: Yedidya and Maggie with my families puppies.

5. My host father playing with the horses with Bredlley and Queen.

After Swakop we had about a week to chill out at the house before we headed to the North for our rural homestay. We were all excited if not a bit nervous. It was going to be quite the experience living with a rural family on a farm for a week.

We arrived on monday after a six hour drive from Windhoek. I was in the last group to be dropped off. Although I was by myself with my own family there were three other families that were hosting CGE kids on the same plot of land. We were onthe Doro Nawas nature reserve. Thats where our families farms were. I was with Yedidya, Eli and Maggie. The Land was beautiful. We were in the base of valley surround by these amazing rolling hills.

I did a number of new things while on the farm and I did a number of things that I hadnt done in years. I milked a cow, which is quite and experience. I milked a goat as well (bastard almost pooped on me). I rode a horse a couple of times which was really cool since I hadnt done that in about ten years. I drove a donkey cart. I shot a rifle at a target with Yedidya and I did pretty well. I went swimming in the local river. We also climbed this huge hill near the farm at around around sundown. On our way we a got a bit of rain which resulted in a double rainbow and a beautiful sunset. It was fantastic. We played a lot of dominoes and frisbee and had generally a great time with the families. The kids at my homestay were great. There was Breddley (7), Omene (4), and Queen (1) and the other three were at school in town most of the time so i didnt see too much of them.

The food was very interesting. I had a lot of fat cakes (basically fried bread) with peanut butter. They were delicious. I also had some very interesting milky kind of noodles. They were very very rich. I also drank the cows milk. It was the first time i had unpasteurized milk and i was fine. It too is very rich.

My host father was also a very interesting man. He fought in the war for independence but he fought for SA (South Africa) and against Namibia. The reason this is so is because there was a kind of draft back then. So despite the side he fought for he really like Nujoma ( Namib's first president and the man he was fighting against). He doesnt like the current president, Pohumba, because he feels that "there is apartheid within him". My host dad was kind of like the god father in certain respects. He was the one who owned the cows on the farm and he took care of everyone else. All the other families he made sure were ok. He also took in kids of friends and made sure that they were going to school if their own families couldnt provide for them. He was cool.

During the week we made visits to local institutions of the town of Khorixas which is the town that all of the farms were situated around. We visited a school where we talked to the students and heard their choir sing (unbelievable). We met with the mayor and heard a group that raising aids awareness in the region. We also got a tour of the informal settlements as well. After this week we said by to our families and headed for Etosha.

Pictues of Swakopmund

Here are some pictures of my time in Swakopmund.

From Top Left to Bottom Right

1. Dunes in Swakopmund and Walvis Bay
2. The group after sandboarding. A dusty bunch.
3. A water point in the informal settlements of Swakop.
4. A Uranium mine. 3 km long, 1 km wide, 900 meters deep. BIG.

The following are the links to the sandboarding video...

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEZGSgNsgwA

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLnapBdz6LA

Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQsppyrWc54

Sorry Its Been Awhile - Swakopmund

Hey Folks...

I know its been awhile since my last post but things have been quite busy. The rest of February was pretty regular. Classes, internships, etc. The past few weeks have been the really interesting ones. Swakopmund and Walvis Bay are a good place to start.

One of our trips was to Swakopmund with a day trip to Walvis Bay. Swakopmund and Walvis Bay are both coast towns in Namibia. They are very different from the rest of the country. There is a lot of wealth in these places. Coinsiding with this fact is the easy observation that most these towns are very, very German. These towns are like wealthy European outpost in the middle of a LDC (Less Developed Country which is the politically correct way of saying Third World woohoo). Its very interesting.

Anyway we did a number of really cool things. We got a tour of the informal settlements which was very informative. The government is giving loans for people to build there own houses. The person in need or want of a house must first apply. Once the proper criteria has been met they governemtn gives them the first part of the loan to start the house. Once the government has made sure that the house has been started they give the rest of the loan to the applicant. The loan is then paid off over a very long term. It seems to be an efficient, local system completely dealt with by Namibia. As such it seems to be working. Houses are being built and plans for more are on the way. The streets are already laid. The informal settlements are similar to many others. Shacks and shanytowns. The interesting thing about Swakop's settlements are the water points where people must put money on a card in order to get water every day. It makes one realize how easily we forget how important a water is.

We also met an elder woman who was the Chief of the Damara tribe for Swakop. She was very cool. Some other things that we visited were a school for displaced communities and Mandeza Youth Opportunities. The school for the displaced person was interesting but I was wondering about its effectiveness because a lot of the kids didnt speak English which is fine but its also the only the communicable language that the volunteer spoke. This made me wonder about the effectiveness of the program. Mandeza Youth Opportunities (MYO) was another school like organization. They take the best kids from schools in the surrounding areas and provide them with supplementary education with the aim to make them go further and hopefully go to University. The organization was clearly doing a lot of good but the the problem that I had with this place was its stance that it would only take kids that were are at the top of the class. To me this is a problem because shouldnt everyone have an equal chance to succeed as idealistic as that sounds? At the same time this can be counter argued by saying that if they best and brightest are the most the most likely to give back to the community then they should be the ones who get picked. It is hoped that their contributions which they will make later to the community will be a benefit.

For our free day we went sandboarding which was fantastic. It was hot as hell but pretty sweet none less. Climbing a dune about 6 times is quite an exercise. We also did the lying down sandboarding and i got up to 68 kilometers an hour. It was whicked fast. We also spent the last night with pizza on the beach. It couldnt have ended better.

Before we left we climbed Dune 7 which is one of the tallest in Namibia. 100 meters. I was the first to the top but i regretted it soon after. I felt like absolute crap and both of my feet cramped really badly. Owe Owe Owe. And thats about it for Swakop. We're headed to dinner now so I will post some Swakop pictures when I get back. See ya.