Fall Break 2010: African Road Trip

Last week we had our fall break.  Actually, I keep calling it fall break and all Namibians look at me funny. It is spring here, and I keep forgetting!  Any who, on this break from classes, five of us decided to roadtrip across Southern Africa.  We packed up the truck-a 4X4 Toyota Hilux-with our tents, sleeping bags, water, cooler, food, and suitcases.  5 seats, 5 friends, and 8 burned CDs and we were ready to roll.  We headed east into Botswana.  The drive was hot, beautiful, and flat.  I thought of Grandma Peters as we drove into Botswana, wondering if we would run into the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.  Alas, I didn’t see a mystery solved, but I did see lots of animals and beautiful landscape.

After two long days of driving, we made it into Zimbabwe and stayed at the town of Victoria Falls right next to the falls.  Vic Falls is one of the seven natural wonders of the world-the first natural wonder I’ve seen in person!  The falls stem from the Zambezi River, which is the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe.  This river is the 4^th longest river in Africa after the Nile, Congo, and Niger Rivers.  We were there during the low season, so the falls weren’t roaring too much.  This was all right, though, because we got to see the length of the falls without mist covering any of our sight.  We spent about 5 hours looking at the falls, eating lunch, and hanging out.  One evening we ate out at a fun restaurant called Mama Africa’s Eating House.  They had live music and traditional dancers come.  One song the traditional dancers sang and danced to was a revised “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” from the Lion King.  I thought this was a little sad that it was part of their “traditional” repertoire, but also rather funny.  Overall, the food was delicious, the atmosphere wonderful, and the company great!

We decided while we were so close we should walk to Zambia.  On our way through “no man’s land” between the exit and entry border posts we ran into some of our friends staying on the Zambia side.  This was a fun surprise.  We spent the day with 2 of the girls who had stayed at the hostel, walking around the town of Livingstone for the afternoon.  We went to a craft market where I almost traded my hair tie for a bracelet.  Then the vendor wanted $2 as well and that was just too much J  We had a fun day and went back to Zimbabwe for a relaxing evening before our return trip.  I must thank Alissa, Jessica, Alison, and Kevin for a great road trip!

Now I am back at the house, re-entering school and city life.  It has been a bit challenging finding the motivation for homework, but then I am reminded that we only have 3 more full weeks of classes and then our end of the year projects.  Time is flying!  I am working on homework, as well as soaking up all the time I have left to spend with students in the house and people I’ve met here.  It is a funny emotional place to be at, where I simultaneously want to continue this Namibian adventure with all of these people here, while at the same time so looking forward to being in the States and sharing in face-to-face relationships with family and friends again.  I guess this emotional struggle is part of the deal! 

I hope and pray this blog finds you well, and I continue looking forward to seeing your faces soon.  

3-2-1 Go!

What a few crazy, packed couple of weeks of October.  From the first day of October life has been pushing me with experiences of African proportions.  The first weekend was filled with 120 elementary aged youth at a Christian camp just outside of Windhoek.  My friend Jessica has an internship with an organization called Scripture Union, which goes into schools to lead assemblies, help teachers start after school groups, and leads camps in order to spread Christianity.  Jess asked if I would help out at the camp, so of course I said “Yes, please!”  I’ve been a counselor before, but this was a whole other level of  craziness.  Children kept showing up to the camp, which meant that many children had to share beds for the weekend, which they did happily.  We staff were in charge of the entire camp: curriculum, games, worship, cabins, and kitchen.  I was ready for some good sleep after that weekend!

 

Sleep came on the van ride up to the North the day after camp.  We, as a CGE group, all took two weeks together  to learn about the rural areas in northern Namibia.  The first week we each stayed with individual homestay families.  This time around my mom’s name was Sarafina.  In Oshiwambo the word for mother is “Meme,” which you use for all women older than you.  Father is “Tate.”  My “tate” was in Swakopmound, but I did get to talk with him on the cell phone!  My brother Kristof is 14, and my sisters Kandali, Paloma, and Ndeshi are 4,4, and 3.  I learned a lot about hard work and simple joys from my family, who had no lived on a farm, raising chickens, goats, cattle, and mahangou-a type of grain.  We also had donkeys, dogs, and puppies.  There was no electricity or running water, and they cook all of their meals on the open fire.  This was a fun, stretching week for me!  The hut in this picture is one of many in their home enclosure, and is what I slept in all week.

From our homestays we continued our adventures, first camping next to a Himba village and then going to Etosha National Park.  The Hima people have maintained many of their traditions, but our speaker for the week believed that withing 30 years these traditions would disappear.  The men are herders, and dress with a small clothe around their waist.  It is a patriarchal society, where men are the leaders, set the norms for the society, and can have more than one wife.  The women also wear small clothe around their waists, and are bare chested.  In order to keep their skin soft from sun exposure, they cover themselves with a red okra rub.  They also put red clay in their hair.  At night the children would come around our campfire to sit, laugh, and eat.  It was fun interacting with them.  It was a struggle for me to find a balance between respecting and enjoying their traditions while also valuing things like women’s rights and freedoms.  This tension is good for me to wrestle with.

When we left the Himba village we went to Etosha National Park, where we saw lots and lots of animals!  It was exciting to see giraffes, rhinos, zebras, springbok, lions…We all kept singing Lion King songs. Haha! 

 One downer of the trip was that a lot of the students got pretty sick.  The sickness traveled around the group, with some still recovering.  Overall, the entire trip was incredible, with lots of trying moments, pushing each of us to think in different ways, try new things, and discover more about African peoples, as well as discover more about ourselves.  I pray discoveries and blessings for each of you today!