Conquering Dune 7

Friday morning we headed to Walvis Bay, which is about a 30 minute drive south of Swakopmund. It is the largest port in Namibia, and serves much of the southern Africa interior. We met with a representative from the Walvis Bay Export Zone, and then from a labor representative, who has a very opposite view of the export zone policies. Basically, the export zone provides incentives to foreign countries, in an attempt to attract foreign investment. All sorts of incentives are provided, and in return the companies employ Namibians, which eventually should help the economy. However, there are lots of issues raised with this policy, because it hasn’t always worked out well for the Namibian government.

We picnicked at Walvis Bay, where we saw lots and lots of flamingos! It was so exciting! I’d never seen flamingos in the wild before, and there were hundreds feeding in the lagoon. Due to their diet, the flamingos at Walvis Bay are very pink. They are a pale pinkish-white, but when they spread their wings you can see a darker pink.

Flamingos at Walvis Bay

After lunch and a short meeting at the Walvis Bay Wellness Center, we headed into the Namib Desert to climb Dune 7!! Dune 7 is one of the tallest dunes in Namibia, which makes it one of the tallest in the world (according to the Namibia tourist center, one of the dunes in the Namib is the tallest in the world). To reach the top, you have to climb almost straight up 1200 feet in burning hot sand. It was probably the most intense thing I’ve ever done. I couldn’t make it more than about 10 or 15 steps at a time before I needed to stop and catch my breath, but the breaks weren’t that great either because the sand was so hot, it was painful to stop and have your feet sink into the sand until you were buried halfway up your shin. Once I finally reached the top I was out of breath, needed water (which of course was at the bottom), and my legs were cramping up. But once I recovered slightly, it was so amazing!

View from the top of Dune 7. Look at how steep it is, and how small the cars are!

We are strong women: we reached the top!

It was so surreal to be standing at the top of a sand dune in the middle of the Namib Desert. In one direction all you could see were miles and miles of desert. In the other direction, you could see over the sand dunes to miles and miles of ocean. So beautiful! It was also liberating to stand at the top. We trekked over the top of the dune to a higher point. I can only imagine what it must have been like to live in the desert long ago, and go for long treks over the dunes. Looking down at the palm trees, I wouldn’t have been surprised if there had been a caravan of camels walking by. I was filled with so much joy, and wonder, and amazement. Such a great experience!

The way down was also a lot of fun. Some people somersaulted down, someone else cartwheeled part of the way, others log rolled down. I chose to bound down, leaping off the dune. It was awesome getting to see people full of energy, excited about being in the desert.

Katelyn, me, and Joel at the top of Dune 7

Saturday was a free day, so the group split up. Some people hung around Swakopmund, others went kayaking with lots of seals in Walvis Bay. There were 8 of us, though, who chose to go sandboarding! Half of our group did stand up sandboarding, which is just like snowboarding, except on a sand dune. The other half of us did the lying down option, which was a little like sledding. Every time we went down, we had to hike back up to the top of the dune. It was a whole lot easier than climbing Dune 7 – less steep, more compacted sand – but it was still difficult. We rode down on what was essentially a piece of plywood, but it was so fun! There was one run where they used a speed gun to see how fast we were going. I hit 70 km/hour! That’s so fast!! (it’s a little over 40mph). It was an exciting day. Then in the afternoon Linda, our development professor, led yoga on the beach.

It was such a fun trip. I just want to go back to Swakopmund! I feel like I left part of my heart there.

Dunes where we went sandboarding

Also, a HUGE thank you to Tamara Siburg! I didn't bring my camera to the top of Dune 7 because I was worried about sand ruining my camera, so the pictures from the top are all due to her marvelous camera!!

Welcome to Swakopmund!

On Wednesday afternoon we headed to Swakopmund, on the central coast of Namibia. It’s only a four hour drive, but so much changes on the drive. It was so fascinating to watch the scenery change from the green mountains outside of Windhoek to the flat plains to the brown desert to the red sand dunes and then finally the Atlantic Ocean. It was so beautiful. Also, lots of wildlife! We saw a family of baboons hanging out on a telephone pole, a bunch of antelope and springboks or gazelles, and then five giraffes! It was so exciting to finally see lots of African wildlife, and I’m definitely looking forward to going to some of the national parks to see more animals.

Swakopmund is a cute little beach town, and the whole trip felt like a little vacation. At first I was really surprised to see that Swakopmund was like every other beach town I’ve been in: quaint little shops, long strips of beach with walkways, a jetty and a pier, a lighthouse, lots of B&Bs and little guesthouses. After my initial surprise though, I realized that there is no reason why Namibia shouldn’t have a cute little beach town. Just because I wasn’t expecting to see a very European style beach town doesn’t mean Namibia doesn’t deserve to have one. This is just another example of how this trip has been challenging my perceptions of life in Africa.

Thursday morning we visited the Rossing Uranium Mine outside of Swakopmund. I’ve never visited a working mine before, so I had no idea of what to expect. We watched their promotional video about the production of the mine and its impact on the environment and the community. After the video and a question-and-answer session, we were driven to the pit. The Rossing Mine is an open pit low grade uranium mine. It’s the third largest producing uranium mine in the world, and it helps to make Namibia the fourth largest exporter of uranium. The pit itself was massive! Almost 4 km long, 1.5 km wide, and 400 m deep. I have always been convinced that, because of their hugely negative environmental impact, mines are terrible and we need to find an alternative to using their natural resources. While I still think that we need to explore alternative forms of energy, I can now see that the issue is far more complicated than I ever thought it was. Although the Rossing Mine does have an environmental impact, it has a very positive economic and social benefit on the communities of Swakopmund and Walvis Bay, as well as on Namibia as a whole. Rossing is the largest employer in the region of Erongo, and one of the largest in Namibia. Over 98% of the employees are Namibians, which says a lot considering that many companies in Namibia import skilled workers. This makes a huge difference in a society with a 50% unemployment rate.

However, due to the Export Processing Zone, Rio Tinto doesn't really pay taxes in Namibia, and the money from Namibia's natural resources doesn't stay within the country.  Namibia does not financially benefit from their own natural resources, except for the 5,000 or so people who are employed.  How is this a just system?

The mine has poured money into developing a town just outside of the mine, including a museum and an institute for training mine workers. Rossing has also financially supported many organizations in Swakopmund and Walvis Bay. We went to an after school program, and their computer lab was completely funded by uranium mine donations.

This information just complicates the issue for me. I need to find a way to reconcile the fact that the mine has an environmental impact, but also an economic impact in a country that needs all the help in this area that it can get. I can’t just sit here and hate mines any more, after I’ve seen the good they can do for the community. Maybe ignorance truly is bliss, but I know that being forced to come to terms with this reality will be good for me in the long run. It’s just difficult to deal with now.

Another interesting aspect of being in Swakopmund was seeing the very different racial population than I have been getting used to Windhoek. Swakopmund has a much larger European population (largely German, but also other Western European countries) than Windhoek does, and the white population dominated the stores and restaurants that were aimed at tourists. We went to Erich’s Restaurant for dinner on Thursday night. It was a German restaurant, and I’m pretty sure that every patron was white. The staff, on the other hand, was mostly black with the exception of the German bartender. Even though I could tell that there were racial issues that I needed to understand in Swakopmund, I didn’t really learn much about them. But I still had fun walking around! It was like a little European city in Africa, and it was really beautiful. Go, if you ever have the chance!

During my walk around Swakopmund I had some really good conversations with Katie, one of my new CGE friends (she goes to Valpo). It was nice to have a good conversation while walking along the beach, and reminded me of lots of similar nights spent walking along the beach in Edmonds. Later that night after dinner a bunch of us sat on the rocks at the jetty. The night was kind of stormy and windy, and the waves were huge. It was so mysterious, but it was really fun to sit on the rocks and just watch the waves crashing into the jetty.

A Forgotten Genocide and 'Good Hair'

Does anyone know about the first genocide of the 20th century? I’ll give you a hint. It was committed by Germany. No, it wasn’t the Holocaust. It was the genocide of the Herero people in Namibia, from 1904-1908. In just a few short years, the Herero population went from 80,000 to 15,000.

We talked about the Herero genocide in history today. We watched a documentary, had a guest speaker from the Herero tribe, and visited the Alte Feste Museum in downtown Windhoek. It was kind of a shocking experience to learn about this genocide that has been largely forgotten throughout history. I’d heard about this genocide before, but never really knew any details. According to the documentary we watched, the genocide has been “wiped from the official memory of Namibia.” It was a difficult event to try to process during class. This genocide is not included in the educational curriculum in Namibia and although is a monument in Germany, the only monuments related to this event in Namibia commemorate the German military. The agenda of ethnic cleansing against the Hereros led to terrible actions taken by the German military. Hereros were forced into concentration camps in Windhoek and Swakopmund where thousands of people were worked to death. Others were forced into the vast Kalahari, and the limited water sources were poisoned in an attempt to further eliminate the Hereros.

The Alte Feste Museum is on the site of the German fort that originally overlooked Windhoek, and the site of one of the concentration camps. However, at the museum there was only one small room that was related to the genocide and a statue of a German soldier is just outside. Other parts of the museum are dedicated to Robben Island, the Namibian independence movement and elections, and German colonial life. It’s so bizarre that this genocide has been mostly wiped out of the public memory and history of Namibia. In 2004 Germany made a public apology for the actions of one of the first German generals, but not for the genocidal actions that occurred after this general left. The Herero are still advocating for a German apology for all the genocidal actions, and for the term “genocide” to be applied to these events.

It was so frustrating to learn about this, because there is limited scholarly information on the Herero Genocide. For a brief time I considered what it would be like to study this genocide for a history capstone, but it’s just not possible to even thing about. I’m sure there’s not information about this genocide outside of Namibia and possible Germany, and there’s not even much within Namibia. How is this genocide ever going to be processed by the Herero people if there is no information about it? The documentary we watched showed videos of people riding quad bikes in Swakopmund over the place where the dead from the concentration camps were buried. There is no awareness about this genocide, it’s been just completely wiped out. I just can’t get over the fact that so many people died because the Germans wanted easier access to land, but there is such a serious lack of knowledge.


Tonight, several of us went to the American Cultural Center to watch the movie “Good Hair,” being shown as part of their series for Black History Month. It’s always kind of nice to go to the U.S. embassy, or in this case, the American Cultural Center, because I know that I’m going to be able to easily understand the speakers, and I know that things are going to operate on a time schedule I’m used to (instead of “African time”). It’s just kind of a nice break from the constant cultural differences I’m thrown into here. Anyways, the movie examines the black hair industry, from relaxers to weaves to the hair sacrifices in India. It was fascinating to learn about all these aspects of hair that I had never thought about before. After the movie, there was a discussion with the audience about what they thought. The discussion got very emotional for many of the women, as they expressed their feelings of being judged for if they chose to wear their “natural” or “unnatural” hair textures. It brought up all sorts of other issues about what women do to themselves to make themselves attractive or acceptable to their community. It was definitely a good discussion.

Don't Forget Your Jersey!

The urban homestay started on Thursday night, when my family picked me up. I’m staying in Rocky Crest, which is a little outside of Windhoek. My family is crazy! There are so many people who live in their house. Family members who live there:

-Dave and Amanda: the parents. I haven’t really spent time with Dave, he’s always at work when I’m at the house, and he spent all weekend at the village, about 8 hours away. Amanda’s great though. I’ve spent lots of time talking with her about everything, and helping her in the kitchen.

-Julian and Cecil: These are my brothers who are in their 20s. Cecil is amusing, but isn’t around very often. Julian is one of the two drivers in the family, so I talk to him a lot when he’s driving me places (because I’m always told to sit in the front, it actually has a seatbelt). He goes to the polytechnic and is studying to be an electrical engineer. We have some very interesting conversations, because we tend to disagree on pretty much everything.

-Uendjii: Uendjii is the oldest of my younger siblings. He’s in sixth grade (I think age 11) and is usually calm and mellow. Most afternoons I get home from school and he’s sitting at a table working on homework. However, he can also get a little crazy, and he likes to dance.

-Kuna: Kuna is six, and is in first grade. He is really energetic, but it took him several days to get used to me and be willing to interact with me. He also likes to dance crazily in the living room, and made the most ridiculous faces when I got out my camera to take pictures. For one of my homework assignments this week I was drawing some pictures, and Kuna stood behind me and was talking to himself about the pictures while I was drawing. Kuna and Uendjii are also really entertaining to listen to while they are getting driven to school. Kuna especially likes to talk to himself and sing songs as we’re driving, and it’s obvious he looks up to Uendjii because he copies all of his actions while they’re getting ready for school in the morning.

-Suko: Suko is my little sister. She’s not in school yet (I think she’s 4), and I think she finally appreciates having another girl in the house, since she only has brothers. She finally decided she liked me on Monday, and now every time I return home in the afternoon she runs to greet me. Suko is pretty quiet most of the time, although she does run around with her brothers a lot.

-Muye: Muye has so much energy all the time! He’s two, and can be cranky fairly often (like two year olds tend to be). There has been many a night where his crying and whining has almost driven me crazy. But that being said, Muye is a joy to be around most of the time. The only English he knows is “Hello,” so he’ll say that to me over and over again sometimes. He also smiles a lot, and will dance all the time, even if there is no music on. I am definitely impressed with the dancing abilities of these kids! Muye makes entertaining faces, and somehow managed to get chocolate all over his face yesterday.

The family itself is pretty low key most of the time. It’s nice because it means I’ve had lots of downtime, but it also means I’ve had a little too much time to reflect on my experiences, and it’s a lot easier to feel out of place when there’s nothing going on, compared to times that are very hectic. Most nights the family sits around and watches tv. This wouldn’t be an issue, except their television tastes are rather eclectic and not very similar to my tastes. In addition, the kids don’t know very much English and the parents get tired of speaking in English (which I totally understand, I know how exhausting it can be to constantly think and speak in another language), so most nights the conversations are in Herero. As a result, I usually sit on the couch and read a book. I force myself to stay with the family and try to interact until about 9, and then I go and read or journal until I go to sleep, usually around 10 because their family gets up so early.

Most mornings we left at 6:30 to drop everyone off for school and work. Kuna and Uendjii go to different schools, so we end up driving all over Windhoek to drop them off. It’s unfortunate to have to be up so early, but at least I’ve gotten to see some great sunrises!

Most of the time I’ve spent with my family has been over the weekends. The first weekend I was there I was woken up early on Saturday morning to go to Kuna’s school for Athletics Day. We got to the school by about 7:30, and of course it started late, so we were sitting there for a long time. But from what I observed, Athletics Day involves all the students at the primary school, and they all participate in some events just for fun. The different events were so entertaining! All of the kids were in the 60 m dash, and they all had matching uniforms. Another event was a sack race. The kids hopped down the field in a burlap sack, and then their parents were waiting at the other side. Once the kids got to the end, one of their parents took the sack and hopped back to the starting line! This also happened with a race where the kids were balancing a potato on a spoon and running down the field (like the egg on the spoon race, but with a potato so it wouldn’t break), and their parents were waiting to come back. It was so great to watch all the kids having fun and being active, and I liked that their families got involved too.

Saturday afternoon I went with Amanda and her sister Lucia, who works at CGE, to a salon to get their hair done. It took a long time because it takes about 3 hours to get their hair done, but we were waiting for their appointment for another couple hours. It was interesting to see the whole process, and I ended up getting a lot of reading done for class.

On Sunday I went to church with my host family. They go to a Baptist church in Rocky Crest, just up the hill from their house. I felt kind of awkward most of the time, but the service was in English and they had a powerpoint so I could actually follow what was going on in the service.

I spent my Super Bowl Sunday doing what every good American does: I watched a football game. But I watched the other football, the better football (aka soccer). Yes, I realize that my Sunday afternoon is not the actual time of the Super Bowl, but it was at the same time of day as the Super Bowl is for the west coast. It was a fun game. I went with Lucia and some of her other relatives and, of course, there was a small thunderstorm. The game was some sort of cup game, so it was loser out. My team is apparently the African Stars, and they won with a goal at the end of the game.

Every time I went anywhere this weekend, Amanda would tell me, “Don’t forget your jersey!” While this might seem to make sense for a soccer game, I was really confused because I don’t actually have any sort of jersey for a team. Turns out, jersey means jacket, so she was really just telling me to bring a jacket. But any time I went anywhere, that’s what I was told.

This past weekend was a little more low key. On Friday I went to another soccer game with Lucia, Julian, and some other relatives. When we got there, Julian informed me that the “die-hard fans” sat on the side of the field that wasn’t under cover. After 20 minutes of rain and a thunderstorm, Julian abandoned us for the covered stands. The rest of us toughed it out. It was cold and wet, but the game was fun. It was the African Stars again, but it was just a league game. The game ended in a 0-0 tie, but it was still fun to watch another soccer game.

Saturday I went on an interesting adventure, all due to the 7th birthday of a cousin. I went on lots of errands with another cousin (to multiple grocery stores, a cake store, someone’s apartment), and then we eventually ended up at a park by late afternoon. We had a braai, and hung out at this park for a long time. There was cake for the birthday, and lots of people hanging out. I think it would have been fun it I had known anyone there, but there was no one to talk to and I just kind of sat there for about 5 hours. It got cold, and I was tired, so I didn’t really enjoy it like I should have. But the park was beautiful!

Today was another experience. Amanda wanted to take me to a Lutheran church so I could see the differences between Lutheranism here and in the U.S. Her brother told her about an English service in Windhoek, so we rushed there (because she forgot it was at a different time). Well, it turned out that service was in Damara and Afrikaans, so neither of us could understand anything. However, neither of us wanted to say we didn’t want to stay, so we stayed for almost two hours before we finally left. It was really funny, when we got home and Amanda told everyone about our church, Kuna just came up and yelled, “Damaras!” like we shouldn’t have been there. It was amusing.

My family then took me out to lunch, but they made it very clear that it wasn’t “good bye,” but rather a “see you later.” They’ve already set a date for me to come over for dinner in April before we leave Namibia. I love this family! I’m glad I’m not living with them anymore (as welcome as I was, it’s hard to really feel at home in another house), but I’m hoping to stay in touch all the time and will gladly go visit them again! At lunch Amanda had everyone in the family go around and tell me how they felt with me this week, and it was really sweet. They then drove me around Windhoek and showed me some other sights, including a park with a reservoir thing.

This homestay was an intense experience. There were times I loved it, and times I hated it. I had a lot of down time, which meant a lot of time to think about hoe homesick I was (because that always happens when there’s nothing to distract me). But I definitely feel like I have a family to go visit in Windhoek now, so I think it was good. Lots of good stories!

(also, this post was written in several installments, which is why it's in different tenses. Part of it was written during the homestay, and part of it was written afterwards)

How many people can you have connected in a team legged race?

So far, Namibia has been full of lots of things I wasn’t expecting.
• Namibia isn’t flat. There are beautiful hills everywhere (I think they call them mountains, but to me they’re not really mountains).
• Windhoek isn’t brown. It’s actually really green right now! I think this is partially due to the fact that they’ve had a rainier rainy season than normal, but it’s still beautiful and green everywhere!
• Windhoek has a very different feel from Joburg and Soweto, which makes sense since the entire population of Namibia could fit into half of Soweto. It feels empty, but I think I’m more aware of the safety concerns here than I was in South Africa, probably because I’m not always walking around in such huge groups now.
• There is wildlife in Namibia, and not just in and around the national parks! I wasn’t expecting to see anything besides birds around Windhoek and thought all the animals would be near Etosha. But on the drive to Windhoek from the airport we saw a family of baboons by the side of the road, and some people saw a giraffe (unfortunately my entire car missed the giraffe).

Other random experiences I’ve had in my first week in Windhoek:
• We took a bus tour around Windhoek, including Klein Windhoek (mostly white, upper class), Katatura (the mostly black township), and downtown Windhoek. Even with the tour I was still really turned around in the city, but I’m starting to get a sense of it now. We saw a gorgeous German church on top of a hill, and it was just so funny because it was traditional German architecture, but it was surrounded by palm trees. We also drove by the president’s palace, which is the biggest compound I’ve ever seen for a head of state.
• A lot of the streets here are named after a random assortment of people, Namibian and non-Namibian. I’ve seen Sam Nujoma Street (first president of Namibia), Nelson Mandela Street, Fidel Castro Street, and Florence Nightingale Street. The German influence is also evident in the street names. I’ve seen Luther Strasse, Beethoven Straat, and Bach Straase. It’s an interesting experience.
• Katatura Quest: We were split up into small groups and sent with a UNAM (University of Namibia) student into Katatura to get a feel for the town, along with learn about part of society and find the cost of living. My group went to one of the Lutheran churches and talked to the female pastor about the church and its work in the community. I definitely found the process she had to go through to get to seminary interesting. When she talked to her church leaders to tell them she wanted to go, they told her she needed to get the approval of her husband, her parents, her in-laws, and a whole lot of other people before she could go to seminary. It just seems like such an intense process, to be required to get permission from your entire family, when you are an adult, married woman. Definitely a different experience. After all the groups got back we talked about the cost of living in Katatura. Although items are cheap for us, the average wages are so low here that the prices are extremely high, and I have no idea how people manage to survive.
• Trip to the U.S. embassy for a security briefing on Windhoek and the countryside. Second embassy in a week! Going to the embassy is nice because everyone we meet with is from the U.S., so they are easy to understand all the time!
• On Saturday afternoon we went to a soccer game at Sam Nujoma Stadium in Katatura. It was the Namibian women’s national team against Angola. It was a little crazy, because five minutes into the game a torrential downpour started, which resulted in puddles (aka lakes) in the field which made the ball come to a dead stop several times. I think the game would have been very different without these puddles! As it was, the game ended tied, 0-0, although I think the Namibians played a lot better. Definitely had a lot more chances on goal. It was interesting though, because the Angola team had more fans than the Namibians did. One of our friends said that Namibians don’t have a lot of national pride. Also, even though the game ended in a tie, the Namibians won the tiebreaker because they were the home team. Go Namibia!
• Sunday we had our first community event, and we walked to the gardens around the Parliament building and had a picnic.
• Monday was the first day of the internship, and it was so chaotic in the morning! We have to be ready to go by 7:45, which includes making lunch, and because it was the first day it was a little crazy. Passat drives all of us who are in Katatura, and it was a little disconcerting to be dropped off in front of an office building with no idea of what to do. I eventually found the right office and met my supervisor. I’m working with the Council of Churches in Namibia, in the health sector, and I’m going to be working on projects with the behavior change program. I met a lot of the people in the office and then was given a big stack of booklets to read so I could figure out what types of projects I wanted to work on this semester. I read until lunch time, which was kind of tiring. But we have tea time at 10 and they sell fatcakes in the courtyard! I think that’s going to save me. Because I have to leave so early and lunch isn’t until 1, I get hungry in the morning. But now I can just buy myself fatcakes every day! (I’ll explain fatcakes in a different post) After lunch I talked to the woman in charge of the behavior change program and we brainstormed things that the program needs and things I can work on. It was a really long day, but I’m hoping I can find a project I’m interested in!
• Today we had a team building retreat with all the students, professors, and staff of CGE. We drove out to a lodge outside Windhoek, and the road was washed out in a few places, so we got to drive through some rivers! (Not actually rivers, more like streams. But it sounds more exciting to call them rivers) Anyways, we played a lot of team building games and had the chance to really get to know the staff and the professors more. The food was delicious and we ate far too much. There were horses and some pet dogs running around. I think the most ridiculous activity was the three legged race. We started in pairs, then in groups of 4, then 8, and finally most of the program in one long line. I laughed a lot, but also fell down a couple times and bruised my foot and ankles. We learned that Passat gets really competitive (as in, he’ll grab hold of you or push you over if you get in his way in a race). A fun day!

Answer: 20 students, 2 professors, and 3 staff members!