First Day in Namibia

Saturday, June 6th, 2009

I think I’m already falling in love with Namibia! If I had too, I could live here! Especially in Windhoek! 8D

My first day went extremely well. My luggage arrived almost all in one piece. My roll-a-round is now missing a support leg and wants to tip over, but I’m just thrilled everything made the nearly 10,000 mile trip along with no problems from customs anywhere along the way. Chris Weaver [WWF Namibia Director, new boss] met me at the airport and we were off to see my new place. We briefly talked about my projects and I will have more details Monday or Tuesday about my specific objectives, but a new staffer and I will be working together on some surveys and models. I’m incredibly excited about my research! Its going to allow me to travel around many parts of Namibia.

We saw two wild baboons wandering around on the road as we were leaving the airport. My first Africa wildlife experience only took three minutes! One see’s a variety of wildlife warning signs like we see deer warning signs here in the states.

These critters can be a problem and I can’t fathom the strength a baboon posses. Chris told me about one who wandered into a house and locked himself in and ripped the newly placed cabinet doors off, single handedly smashed thick marbled counter tops with his own fists, and managed to rip off a freezer door. Just a total freak out. The authorities had to shoot it through a window. They even have 3 inch fangs! Usually, when the weather is dry making food scarce, they wander in closer to the cities and if people start feeding them, they become imprinted and situations like this can occur.

What I’ve seen so far in Windhoek is pretty impressive. The city is SO clean compared to Joberg for example. There is no trash anywhere to be seen. Chris told me some group determined Windhoek to be the third cleanest city in the world behind two European countries. The buildings are interesting to look at and nearly all are outfitted with an electric or barb-wire fence around the borders of properties. One reason is to keep wildlife out and the other is to deter theft. Sadly, petty theft is a huge problem and something I’ll have to be extremely paranoid about. The stories I’ve heard stress how quickly it can happen, but there are precautions that greatly reduce your chances.

The natural light and colors here is just jaw dropping. Beautiful mountains surround Windhoek and clouds pick up the most brilliant earth tones. And the red dirt roads add an accent that ties everything together and I can’t wait to start letting the camera roll!

I love the grocery stores! Some of the local food perks include amazing German influenced meats, bread, cheese, and beer! Amazing coffee is to be found here in Namibia. HUGE relief. The tea is also quite good and the Roobious red herbal tea is much more crisp and fresher in the flavor profile vs. the states. The stores are so clean too! Food is fairly reasonable. Lots of meat production occurs in Namibia, but they’re also dependent on Germany and South Africa for many other food imports.

The weather here is just beautiful. Imagine a nice cool breeze and 70 and 80 degree F temperatures. Namibia is in their Winter months and I’m not complaining at all. There are large cactus and palm trees in many places for decoration. Someone could garden year round here.
A beautiful range of mountains laced with various grasses and shrubs surrounds Windhoek. Hardly anyone has air conditioning and my four season sleeping bag should take care of the freezing nights if need be. One can comfortably walk around in jeans or outdoor pants, a t-shirt, ect. during the day and you might need a light sweater in the evening.

My senses are on new plant and animal overload. Everything is adapted to extreme desert conditions. I’ve noticed many of the plants are waxy, have small leaves, and seem to grow close to the ground. A must for me, is to purchase wildlife and plant books.

My new apartment exceeded any and all expectations I had coming into this trip. First of all, its located in a hilly, nice part of Windhoek. My landlord is a 3rd generation Namibian who helps sell all the Namibia beers internationally! He told me about the beer and how the ingredients are simple, take a little longer to ferment because there is less sugar, and how the German Purity Constitution still lives on in the beer making process in Namibia. Africa does brew good beer. So a sweet luxury flat and a landlord who knows his Namibian beer! YES! Total score.

Also, my landlord is a tall guy like myself and understands shower heads and such need to be much higher to ease daily tasks. We also had to perform surgery on my power strip and were somewhat successful. He’s going to fit it with the huge three prong system and have his electrical friend figure it out of us.

I have two roommates. They’re both from Germany and have internships here in Windhoek working for various companies. Part of me wishes I had brushed up on German before I came over, but after 6 months, I’m sure I’ll be surprised with how much I can pick up. The set up is basically like a hostel inside my landlords house. We have one main kitchen area with a little stove, fridge, and a washing machine. Everyone has their own room and bathroom, and our rooms are located below our land lord’s house.

My room has a beautiful wood cabinet that holds all my things, three windows that overlook the pool and yard, and the sliding door is sweet too. Its equipped with a high tech security system with motion sensors connected to please headquarters and my landlords cell phone. I have an emergency button, but this all sounds way more dramatic than what’s really going on here for my safety. There has never been any issues in this house, so that’s a huge relief for me.
We over look a beautiful pool and stone floors outside our rooms. My tan will be greatly improved before I arrive in the states again. Pictures are definitely needed to show how lucky I am presently. It’s seriously nice!

Sadly, I’ll probably only be here for three weeks until a new person moves in. But there is a chance he’ll find a place closer to where he’ll be working thus can rent the room till I leave. I sure hope so, because I’m only a couple of blocks away from the WWF office where I’m living now.
Day one is literally finding me starting my Africa experiences with a “bang,” Chris is a manager of a shooting range just outside of Windhoek. After I unpacked my luggage, met the roommates, and settled in, he invited me to go shoot with his buddies outside of town. I had a great time. All of his friends speak German and good English. I shot one round with two of them. A round consists of 25 shots and rotating turns and 5 rotating stations.

I’ve been around guns, mainly rifles -not 12 gauge shot guns. The shooting style is a little different, but I picked up on a few things I need to work on to improve my shot. It was nice to observe shooting range rules, and I have a whole new respect for professional shooters. Both a traditional and American style ranges are located on the property and the main differences are the number of shots one can take [1 or 2] and the angle and speed of the clay bird. If one thinks the price of shells are going up in the States, it’s a little bit worse here.

The guns everyone had I imagine would bring high dollar here in the states. The metal and woodwork on some of them were amazing!

The range is impressive and has machines that are either voice or button activated to pitch out “birds” or orange clay disks into the air for us to shoot at. I’ve never done this before, but I managed to hit 9 out of 25, which is not a bad start at all! I started from scratch with technique and everything. I’m going to be a well-tuned outdoorsmen before I leave Africa!

Chris said there is a hunt he’s going on in the next month or so and I’m welcome to tag along. We’re also going to see if I can go on a hunt myself. I’d love to bag a wart hog and mount it for the Gracie Creek Ranch tact room. There might be some great hunting opportunities opening up for me shortly! It might work out where I can hunt for the meat and have my whole meat supply for the coming months be the product of my own hunt.

A few funny things I’ve noticed. One, the cars and driving around town. Everything is so weird to me when the driver is on the right hand side. I wanted to jump in the right hand side of the car, but I’m going to have to become accustomed to sitting on the left hand side. You also drive on the left hand side of the road. My Nebraska license will work here in Namibia, but it will be awhile till I’m comfortable enough to drive around. The cities are not built on any grid system and either follow rivers or canyons, which makes the roads and drives more interesting.
One sees many check points around various spots in the city. Sometimes they stop you and make sure the vehicle is good to go with permits and ect. and another purpose is to stop people from stealing cars and heading off other matters.

Also, this might be a useless piece of information, but if you find yourself buying a compass from the States and traveling to the southern hemisphere, buy one that is set for the southern hemisphere. The south pole has a greater influence, thus causes my current compass to go hay wire. I’m sure the toilet flush works the other way.

Nebraska is a land abundant with water and we treat it like its nearly infinite. One see’s many rain barrel collectors that are connected to the toilet systems here. I have a two button toilet depending on the job to help save water.

That’s all for now. I’m starting to crash and need to shake off my last bit of jet lag. Hope all is well with everyone!

A.E. PRICE