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I can feel my trip winding down and I'm so excited to be coming home, yet I'm sad to think about leaving what has been an absolutely amazing experience for me. As of today, I only have 26 days left in Namibia. But its probably something like 21, due to the fact that I'll have to bus myself to Jo'berg, South Africa to catch my flight home. All my roommates and friends who are leaving in December are all planning their last minute trips and thinking about going away parties too.
This weekend I'm going to be celebrating Thanksgiving with the Sproul family, my colleague Keith's family who traveled to Namibia to be with him during his 2 years at WWF-Namibia. The weather, new location, and different cultures has thrown me into a time warp and it doesn't feel like Thanksgiving or Christmas should be around the corner.
The feeling of transition and all the uncertainties is in the air. Yet there are a few things I want to literally squeeze in before I leave including shooting an oryx with a colleague, Swing through Cape Town before Jo'berg to see The KILLERS play, and one last research field trip to Outjo.
These feelings really hit me during my last day in Katutura with Uapii and his family, along with the Fullbright Family, The Powells, from Lincoln, Nebraska. Many of you might know about my connection with Larkin and Uapii, but here is Larkin's Namibia blog I want to invite everyone to check out too. Larkin has had equal crazy/unique/interesting experiences in Namibia like myself: http://namibiafulbright.blogspot.com/
Uapii gave the Powells a full tour of Katutura, which they were not foreign too, but I was lucky enough to tag along, because, Larkin has a car and Uapii and I both knew that meant there was a good chance we could go visit the "informal settlements" outside of Katutura. I hear so much about these settlements from Uapii and my roommates who also work in development work.
The election buzz is live and well and during the tour we stopped at a market where meat is grilled and sold. This woman is making a scarf of the SWAPO political party colors.
This picture was taken just to the right of the woman making the scarf. I like it because of all the strong blue colors and face expressions.
Many of the places we took the Powell's I've been before, but it was nice to think about taking the shots you missed the last time and experiment with the ultra wide lens. These are two lion heads located in a restaurant we visited.
Single Market Butchery/Take A Way
After driving around Katutura for awhile and making a pit stop at Upaii's house, we piled into the car again and drove off toward the informal settlements. There is a point where the roads are no longer paved and the only way I can describe it is you feel like you've entered into a different world/reality.
"Welcome to the real Africa," Uapii said. "My friend, few in a hundred people traveling to Namibia see what you see here -right now."
This area of Windhoek has many people who travel from the northern communal lands looking for work in Windhoek and don't have the means to rent or buy houses. There are only a few cars in this area and you see lots of taxis. The smell of urine and human wastes fill the air around the communal toilets.
A shot from a hill:
The houses are small little tin shacks that have numbers spray painted by some Namibia authority that is keeping track of the rent payments of that family to live on the land. After a certain period of time, the family is then allowed to own the plot. Everyone still manages to carry a cell phone here in Namibia and you see cell phone towers surrounding this area. I'm not a fan of MTC and the other cell phone companies here in Namibia, because I feel they charge too much, the service sucks, and intermittent -but they do reach areas many areas in Namibia I would never have though by looking at population densities would be fortunate enough to have.
The houses are office size and well below the average size of many college apartments I've lived in. But the people here were welcoming and very friendly. I think they were as shocked to see 4 white people with Uapii like we were shocked to see this side of Windhoek. We tasted the local brew at a sheebean, an illegal bar. Tasted like apple cider.
What was interesting to me was the water system. Its one of the few things municipalities have been able to provide these homes. Its tough to get funding when the homes are not officially recognized, but people need water. For 20 Rand or about 3 USD, your blue chip is credited so you can fill your buckets with water for one month.
Most the people who live here work the countless security, gardener, maid jobs in Windhoek and are paid in my eyes poorly. The average pay for services listed is around 10-30 rand a day. Therefore, essentially one day is spent just working for your water that month.
Basic water quality and quantity is a huge issue for many parts of Africa. I definitely experienced an area that could easily be stressed of its supply. There wasn't time to go into details with the locals in Katutura about their water supply, but consider these facts from National Geographics Blue Water Project:
"30,000 people—including about 4,000 children—die each day as a result of contaminated water and poor sanitation.
About 1.1 billion people, or 18 percent of the world’s population, can’t get safe drinking water. At any given time, half of the hospital beds in developing countries are occupied by patients suffering from a water-related disease."
After our time in the "informal settlements" we drove to Uapii's house to have a wonderful meal with his family. Upaii gave a heart felt blessing for everyone who has come to his farm/house this year and it about made me cry. It was our last Namibia meal together, but I don't think it will be the last. A few years will pass but I expect the Powells and myself will be back.
Uapii left for his farm in Kunene yesterday and I wish you safe travels my friend! You've done so much for me here in Namibia and showed me so much. This isn't good-bye my friend. I'll be back.
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This week I'm going to continue writing up the reports on the conservancies I interviewed, start figuring out the packing/busing situation, and figuring out what I can cook for Thanksgiving this weekend! I'm so excited to come home to the welcoming party my Aunt Leslie is throwing me! Everyone attending can expect a selection of the best photos and the stories behind each one, and a recap of the research and conservancy system.
Gotta run.
Thanks for reading!
Cheers,
A.E. Price
