In America we have some crazy stuff, but in Namibia there's even crazier stuff. :)
These are a few of the random things that I always think of while walking around and want to share with you all but can never think of once I'm actually in front of the computer.
Frogs. Did you know frogs hibernate? I didn't. So we have what is called a rainy season. This rainy season can begin as early as December and go until as late as May. Rainy season pretty much means flood season. It rained a little in December and then it stopped and dried up, but with that first rain I began to notice frog cakes everywhere... that is the nice way of saying flat, ran over, dead frogs. :) I asked my friend why I didn't notice them before and he said they hibernate under ground and once the rains come they are EVERYWHERE! He wasn't joking, they are EVERYWHERE! Quite often I find my self singing the little green frog song as I walk through my village and notice all the little tiny frogs EVERYWHERE. One morning I was walking and saw a guy carrying a string with about 25 big frogs on it... They actually looked like the singing frog guy from WB (I know, old school).
Prickly branches. All the trees and bushes here have these insane spikes all over them! They are on everything and when you step on them they really hurt! Trust me, I know from experience. I think its so weird how everything has these thorny long spikes and still the goats and cows gnaw away at they branches eating the leaves. So weird.
Russian Hawks. So one day I was hanging out at my friend Daryl's house when he yelled for me to hurry and run outside. He pointed up at the sky and there flying above us were hundreds of these hawk like birds flying all over the place. It was seriously cool and creepy at the same time. He explained to me that every year around this time these hawks migrate from Russia or somewhere around there to Namibia. I thought it was pretty interesting. Then last week, I was sitting in my room reading when I looked out the window and saw the very same Russian hawks swarming around my house and in the fields surrounding my homestead. It was crazy! I wanted to go outside but couldn't help but think of the movie 'the birds' and freaked out a little. :)
Flies. Holy cow. They are always here but with the rain they have gotten worse and multiplied like no other. When I walk to town I walk for about 20 minutes or about 2 km through my village. I start at my house and as soon as I leave the homestead a fly decides to join me on my walk and fly circles around me occasionally flying into my face but then continues to fly circles around me the whole 2km!!! It's really annoying but kind of funny at the same time. Do they get dizzy? We'll never know.
Cows. Most Namibian people judge their wealth by the amount of cattle they own. My family has about 20-30, we also have three baby cows that are super cute... but they have to stay on our homestead during the day because they are too little to go grazing with all the big kids because they might wander off or get lost. Toward the end of the day the babies really miss their mom so they start mooing and then the moms come and start mooing back. If there are people outside the mom will even growl at them... I didn't know cows growled, I do now. So walking around the village, usually toward town, there are cows everywhere. They stare you down when you walk by and I can't help but wonder if a person has even been attacked by a cow just from walking by? I should google it. Anyway, with lots of cows comes lots of cow poop. I used to not mind it so much because it gets so hot here the poop dries up and wont stick to your foot. With rainy season here, it doesn't dry out as fast or it stays very very wet... it makes walking around that much harder, I now have to watch every step I take and hope not to slip in cow poo.
I have more random facts for you all but I will save those for another day.... maybe a rainy day... since the rainy season is officially here!
School has started and the first two weeks were dreadfully boring, but today I got to team teach with my counterpart. I helped her teach 8 classes of Entrepreneurship and it was actually fun! The kids get involved and actually like to participate, it was awesome. I am loving it here more and more every day. I really am enjoying myself and learning a lot about others as well as myself.
I miss you and love you all dearly! (that was to my family and friends...)
So, to the strangers out there who might happen to stumble upon my blog, thanks for reading! :) Peace out!
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Monday, January 9, 2012
Happy Nam-olidays!
Oh my goodness, where to start?
First, let me start by saying Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
This holiday season did not feel like a holiday season one bit, but it was still spent with great friends. I spent both holidays at "the rest camp" with Rick and some of our Afrikaaner friends. They had private parties and we were invited. :) Christmas was more of a birthday party for one of the owners and his twin brother and new years eve was... well, new years eve. :)
I spent the days in between lounging around at my friends house watching TV and sleeping in an air conditioned room... I am truly spoiled. :) Plus, he cooked for me.
Now, for the true Peace Corps travel experience.
This past Tuesday my friend, Rick, and I traveled from Ondangwa to Rundu. Rundu is about 6-7 hours away and is located in the North East part of Namibia. You must travel south from Ondangwa for about 2.5 hours and then north east for about 3.5-4 hours. With my being a lady, we were able to travel the entire way free... well, mostly free. We hitch-hiked and were picked up by some very nice people. Our last ride was in a flat bed tow truck and the guy let us only pay $20 each instead of $100+ he charged the other passengers. We arrived around 6:30pm to find our friend Gio's, who was supposed to come pick us up, phone had turned off and we didn't know where he lived. Luckily our friend Alice had arrived in town that afternoon and came and got us before the sun went down. Phew. That night we hung out at Gio's house and ate burgers they made us for dinner. The following day we decided to venture around town and stop in to see one of Gio's new friends about taking us on a sunset river cruise. We arranged for the cruise and all was set for that evening, we were even invited to stop by early to swim in their pool before the cruise.
Fast forward to 6pm when we are heading over to the river lodge for our cruise. The owner/friend gave us directions via a map he drew telling us where to go. Gio's taxi driver friend and neighbor both drove all of us to the river lodge/rest camp to go on this cruise. Well somehow we got lost. We made a lot of wrong turns and were off roading through the Rundu bush. Imagine an OLD tiny car driving through tons of weeds and grass on the faintest "road" aka tire tracks. Well, it got to the point where the driver said he knew where we were trying to go but there were these big 'puddles' we couldn't drive through. So we decided to foot it (walk there). We started walking through the first puddle... it went about mid calf. We walked through a couple more 'puddles' some of which went to our knees and were so murky and slimy is was disgusting but we kept walking because we were told that we were very close. Mind you, our driver had never been there, he was just assuming. Arg. After about half an hour of footing it through they ponds/puddles we climbed a fence because Gio swore this was his friends property, little did we know it was not and we were trespassing on someone elses land. Oh goodness. Thankfully the owners were very friendly and told us to keep walking about 200m down the road. We walked a little ways more and decided to try another property. The lady at this property told us to keep walking another 200m to the right house. We had lost sight of our car long ago, the sun was setting, we had no clue where we were going, the landscape was similar to a jungle/plain (if that makes sense), we were LOST. We stopped at another property and discovered our destination was next door. We arrived as the sun set and were lucky enough to see the beautiful sky as the sun set reflect off of the Kavango River, it was absolutely beautiful! Afterwards we decided to have a few beers with the owner at his bar, a few turned into a handful and around midnight our taxi driver friend told us he must get home. The owner was nice enough to have someone drive us to our car since it was so far away. What an adventure, right?
It's not even the end of our night/adventure. We started driving to find our car and we are in the bush so there is no light other then the car headlights and what little light the moon was providing us. We drove down a road the taxi driver thought was the right way. Wrong. We drove around for a good 20 minutes when the driver suggested we all just stay the night at the rest camp and he will help us find our car the next morning. All of us volunteers were a little tipsy and super giggly... well, I was super giggly, whats new? :) It was around then that our taxi driver, who is now sitting outside the window spots the reflection of our license plates!!! It was like finding a needle in a hay stack, but we found it. We found our way to the main road eventually and headed back to Gio's house. It was a night for the books for sure.
The next morning we headed back toward Ondangwa with Ryan and Gio to come see our neck of the woods. It took us a while to get a hike out of Rundu but we were all persistent and got our free hike. All four of us crammed into a tiny space in the back of a truck... I would guess that it was approximately 4x4 ft. We all fit and road in the most awkward positions at time but were good sports about it. It was nice traveling with these guys because no one complained once as we travelled. Except for Gio... He almost had an accident in the back and we had to flag down the drivers as fast as we could to pull over... we had a GREAT laugh at Gio's expense. We arrived home safely that afternoon. Hiking with three guys is challenging, I like to wait and work my charm for a free hike, the boys just wanted to get home... meaning we paid. It was a fun trip and I have truly enjoyed my month off for the Holidays. Tomorrow I start work and am not that excited about it but know I have to start eventually. I must admit I am a little nervous but all will be fine, I just need to find my feet. :)
Love you all! Happy New Year!
First, let me start by saying Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
This holiday season did not feel like a holiday season one bit, but it was still spent with great friends. I spent both holidays at "the rest camp" with Rick and some of our Afrikaaner friends. They had private parties and we were invited. :) Christmas was more of a birthday party for one of the owners and his twin brother and new years eve was... well, new years eve. :)
I spent the days in between lounging around at my friends house watching TV and sleeping in an air conditioned room... I am truly spoiled. :) Plus, he cooked for me.
Now, for the true Peace Corps travel experience.
This past Tuesday my friend, Rick, and I traveled from Ondangwa to Rundu. Rundu is about 6-7 hours away and is located in the North East part of Namibia. You must travel south from Ondangwa for about 2.5 hours and then north east for about 3.5-4 hours. With my being a lady, we were able to travel the entire way free... well, mostly free. We hitch-hiked and were picked up by some very nice people. Our last ride was in a flat bed tow truck and the guy let us only pay $20 each instead of $100+ he charged the other passengers. We arrived around 6:30pm to find our friend Gio's, who was supposed to come pick us up, phone had turned off and we didn't know where he lived. Luckily our friend Alice had arrived in town that afternoon and came and got us before the sun went down. Phew. That night we hung out at Gio's house and ate burgers they made us for dinner. The following day we decided to venture around town and stop in to see one of Gio's new friends about taking us on a sunset river cruise. We arranged for the cruise and all was set for that evening, we were even invited to stop by early to swim in their pool before the cruise.
Fast forward to 6pm when we are heading over to the river lodge for our cruise. The owner/friend gave us directions via a map he drew telling us where to go. Gio's taxi driver friend and neighbor both drove all of us to the river lodge/rest camp to go on this cruise. Well somehow we got lost. We made a lot of wrong turns and were off roading through the Rundu bush. Imagine an OLD tiny car driving through tons of weeds and grass on the faintest "road" aka tire tracks. Well, it got to the point where the driver said he knew where we were trying to go but there were these big 'puddles' we couldn't drive through. So we decided to foot it (walk there). We started walking through the first puddle... it went about mid calf. We walked through a couple more 'puddles' some of which went to our knees and were so murky and slimy is was disgusting but we kept walking because we were told that we were very close. Mind you, our driver had never been there, he was just assuming. Arg. After about half an hour of footing it through they ponds/puddles we climbed a fence because Gio swore this was his friends property, little did we know it was not and we were trespassing on someone elses land. Oh goodness. Thankfully the owners were very friendly and told us to keep walking about 200m down the road. We walked a little ways more and decided to try another property. The lady at this property told us to keep walking another 200m to the right house. We had lost sight of our car long ago, the sun was setting, we had no clue where we were going, the landscape was similar to a jungle/plain (if that makes sense), we were LOST. We stopped at another property and discovered our destination was next door. We arrived as the sun set and were lucky enough to see the beautiful sky as the sun set reflect off of the Kavango River, it was absolutely beautiful! Afterwards we decided to have a few beers with the owner at his bar, a few turned into a handful and around midnight our taxi driver friend told us he must get home. The owner was nice enough to have someone drive us to our car since it was so far away. What an adventure, right?
It's not even the end of our night/adventure. We started driving to find our car and we are in the bush so there is no light other then the car headlights and what little light the moon was providing us. We drove down a road the taxi driver thought was the right way. Wrong. We drove around for a good 20 minutes when the driver suggested we all just stay the night at the rest camp and he will help us find our car the next morning. All of us volunteers were a little tipsy and super giggly... well, I was super giggly, whats new? :) It was around then that our taxi driver, who is now sitting outside the window spots the reflection of our license plates!!! It was like finding a needle in a hay stack, but we found it. We found our way to the main road eventually and headed back to Gio's house. It was a night for the books for sure.
The next morning we headed back toward Ondangwa with Ryan and Gio to come see our neck of the woods. It took us a while to get a hike out of Rundu but we were all persistent and got our free hike. All four of us crammed into a tiny space in the back of a truck... I would guess that it was approximately 4x4 ft. We all fit and road in the most awkward positions at time but were good sports about it. It was nice traveling with these guys because no one complained once as we travelled. Except for Gio... He almost had an accident in the back and we had to flag down the drivers as fast as we could to pull over... we had a GREAT laugh at Gio's expense. We arrived home safely that afternoon. Hiking with three guys is challenging, I like to wait and work my charm for a free hike, the boys just wanted to get home... meaning we paid. It was a fun trip and I have truly enjoyed my month off for the Holidays. Tomorrow I start work and am not that excited about it but know I have to start eventually. I must admit I am a little nervous but all will be fine, I just need to find my feet. :)
Love you all! Happy New Year!
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