“Contrasting, beautiful Namibia”

I don’t think I’ve touched very much on Namibia in general. Some background will be helpful going forward, so when I reference events and holidays and stereotypes/perceptions, they have a little more context. I’ll start with geographic features, saving the brief history for another time.

If you open your Google Maps and zoom over to the southern and eastern hemisphere, find the country (use your imagination) that looks like someone’s right hand, pointed down with the pointer finger bent. Stumped? Find South Africa. Then go up. Or Angola. Then go south. Or even find Zambia, Botswana, or Zimbabwe (ok, Namibia technically doesn’t border Zimbabwe; their closest border is around 200m apart. But, if I consider it a border, then I can say I live near the “4 corners” in America and Africa! So I’m counting it.) And you’re there! Now can you imagine the right hand? That’s why you’ll see me and other PCVs and HCNs (host country nationals) flashing this symbol in pictures.

Because of map distortions (all maps have it; an artifact of squishing a 3D object, the world, into a 2D plane–not perfect) it’s hard to tell how big Namibia is.

Any guesses?

Namibia is about 300,000 sq mi*, about 3x the size of Colorado.

For all that land, the population of Namibia is around 2.6 million*. Comparing back to CO, with its population of 5.6 million*, that’s quite the difference. In fact, Namibia is the second least densely populated country in the world (behind Mongolia).

This makes a little more sense in the context of the climate and environment (just like how it makes sense in Mongolia, with its Gobi Desert and taiga). While Namibia’s climate does very, most of it is dry and arid. There are 3 deserts: the Kalahari, which also crosses over into Botswana; the Coastal Desert, which is where the Skeleton Coast is located and which contains the highest sand dunes in the world; and the Namib desert, the oldest desert in the world. Between these deserts you find mostly savannah. Until you get to my region, the Zambezi (renamed from the Caprivi strip), named after the river, the one that eventually becomes Victoria Falls. The region’s unofficial “start” is when you cross over the Kavango river, which later becomes the Okavango Delta. So if you’ve heard of those 2 big tourist attractions, know that I’m lucky enough to live near both of these unique places! Once I can travel, they’ll definitely be explored. [I’ll talk more about why Namibia has this “thumb”, this thin stretch of land, in the historical summary.]

My region receives the most rainfall in Namibia, 15-24 in/year, compared to 2 in/year near the coast and other areas. Before moving to my region, other Namibians would tell me, “Oh, that’s the paradise of Namibia” or, “That’s not even Namibia–it’s so different.” And while I haven’t seen much of Namibia yet, I see what they mean. Trees, water, elephants/hippos/crocodiles, mangos, rivers, humidity… it’s definitely a change from my training town, near the capital (a 10-hour drive away). There are also five national parks located in this little region. Now that I’m here, my colleagues keep reminding me, “Wait until it rains. It will be so green” and “The mangos will be everywhere.” It already feels like it’s so green (Colorado is a pretty dry, brown place in its own right) and that there are so many mangos (given that I’d never picked one straight from a tree before). I’m eagerly awaiting this evasive rainy season and all the extra greenness and fruit. Every time I hear thunder or see lightning in the distance, I feel the excitement of a little kid. I love the few nights I’ve fallen asleep to the rain; one night the lightning was so bright in my room it kept waking me up. But the rain is being finicky, and it likes to tease. Apparently, it’s arrival is late this year. When it comes I’ll be jumping in the puddles (really because I don’t think I’ll be able to avoid them).

So while the majority of Namibia is dry, arid, and deserty, I live in a very different reality. Contrasting beautiful Namibia is an apt description from the national anthem. After all, I live 4x closer to the mighty Victoria Falls and fertile Okavango Delta than the capital city of Windhoek. I also live about the same distance (travel time wise) to the capitals of Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. I’m definitely in a unique hub. Which makes me feel a little stir crazy not being able to go anywhere during the December holiday! Silver lining: I’m saving my vacation days for when my family comes!

I’m also loving the heat, I’m not gonna lie. I’ve spent 23 years being cold. Namibia (again, like Colorado–so many similarities!) has over 300 days of sunshine. So my first two months at site have averaged 95-100 degrees in the day, cooling down to 68-72 at night, making my morning and evening runs perfect. This may be too much information, but I was dripping sweat for the first time while doing a workout yesterday. Like that’s never happened in my life. Either in my 10 years of track I never tried hard enough and my 20-minute core workout really did me in, or for once in my life I was actually overheating. I was the closest I’ve ever been to understanding why people hate being hot (I’ll try to be more empathetic in the future). But beyond that, I still drink hot tea or coffee or cocoa every afternoon, in the hottest time of the day. Believe it or not, it cools me off. And just a warm cup of anything… it soothes my soul. (It also puts me in a more “bloggy” mood). Coming from a life of always needing layers and a jacket and a warm drink just to keep my body temperature up, it is such a new–and wonderful–concept to know I’ll be warm and not have to worry about bringing layers.

I hope you can picture and imagine my environment a little bit more now! I’m off to make my afternoon chai and maybe make some lemon bars using fruit I plucked myself… life is nice.

*thanks, wikipedia

Merry Christmas! Talk to you all soon.

Was walking over to Jessi’s (the health volunteer in my village) and saw that these 3 baby goats got themselves into this big hole

After nonchalantly telling Jessi about it, she jumped straight into action back to where they were. She hopped in, wrangled them, and put them back on the ledge. Then they wanted to be back with their siblings and tried to go back in the hole. Finally they saw their moms and remembered milk. When you picked them up (I “rescued” one too) they would splay out their legs and scream like, well, a kid. It was too funny. Just another Tuesday night in the village!

I’ve been baking up a storm during the holiday weeks. These were mango bars (from a mango I picked myself!) and a roasted garlic wheat boule. Mm.

Last week was our end of year staff party in Katima

Some of my favorite ladies!

Need to work on my modeling poses

The clouds are teasing me! I don’t think it rained this day.

Spent another day on the mango farm. This time we were helping mud a hut!

Me and Usone (the other education volunteer in my village) learning new things!

During some R&R at the farm, we didn’t see Bob the hippo but got to see this camera shy crocodile! (The ripple on the left)

It’s so calm and so peaceful at the farm. I’ll have to go back and camp! (If I didn’t do too bad of a job adding mud)

Made bagels!

This is a new one! (They are everywhere here)

I’ve seen this donkey on my morning walks for the last three days. Naming him Waldo because he just hides in plain site.

There he is. (This morning he was even at the field, where I normally never go at that time. He read my mind)