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.