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!