October 26, 2011
It’s crazy but I’m almost half way through this adventure. I have lost all sense of time, yesterday feels like months ago, I am definitely on Africa time. I honestly don’t know what I last wrote about so I’m just going to blabber on for a bit, sorry if I repeat things that I’ve already said. I think that the last time I wrote was when we were finishing up work with Ehirovipuka conservancy. Since that time we have conducted research in Torra conservancy and are currently in Anabeb conservancy about half way through of time working here.
Since there is no way that I could possibly summarize everything that I have done I will hit you up with some highlights and themes. First off, the group that I am with is incredibly active and adventurous, sometimes even putting me out of my comfort zone which is great since that was one of my big reasons for coming here. We love to climb things. Since we camp near some sort of elevated barrier when we are not camping in dry riverbeds we have been climbing a lot. While we were working with Torra we spent about three nights camping in the Huab riverbed. Along one side of the river were sand dunes which turned into rocky striated ridges. We no joke ran up the sand dunes because that was the only way to keep from sliding down with the eroding sand. Ultimate stairmaster. We then did some baby bouldering to reach the top. Our efforts were certainly rewarded as at the tops of these ridges we were able to look out over the entire river valley, no joke it took my breath away. I was speechless, we all sat on top of this ridge not talking for over half an hour just taking in the beauty of our surroundings. This is really a beautiful place. The valley was a sea foam green which ran into the golden sand dunes that extended into an almost rainbow colored rocky ridge. I wish I could do this place justice with my descriptions, even a picture doesn’t accurately capture how stunning it is here. And it may be hard to believe but I get these ‘wow’ moments multiple times a day. I’m sorry to say but we just don’t have this in the States. I think these epic experiences may also have something to do with the fact that there are so few people around. Most of the time the only people I see during the day are those who I am living with (all of whom I have grown to love dearly, I am going to have some serious separation issues leaving them all when this ends.
So another neat thing that I have done here apart from researching and seeing beautiful places is that I am experiencing some very neat cultures and traditions. One example of this was when we visited a Himba village a few days ago as a special surprise. If you all have two minutes to spare I suggest searching google images for some photos of himba people since my description will not do them justice nor will it accurately describe the pride that these people have for their culture. As my parents will attest to I have had some issues with visiting “traditional” villages because I feel like it’s a show put on for tourists. Not only do I dislike fakeness but I also get sad thinking about how the introduction of Western culture has destroyed this culture that these ‘villages’ are trying to reenact for tourists. However, I did not feel these sentiments at all while at the Himba village. I could feel that pride that these people had for their culture as they showed us how they lived. I have also seem them dressed in their traditional attire in modern cities so I have proof that this lifestyle is not a show put on for western tourists. This attire that I am referring to is pretty neat. The women are bare chested, wear a loin cloth around their waste and have covered their bodies from head to toe in oaker(?) which colors their skin red. Cattle are very important to them and so they incorporate characteristic and part of cattle into their clothing. Before they have their first menstruation, girls braid their hair in two braid beginning at the napes of their necks and extending to over their foreheads to look like horns. Everything that they put on their bodies has some sort of meaning to it including marital status and how many children a women has. Also on a complete side note their children are super cute. It is a universal fact that children love to be thrown in the air. I definitely got an arm workout tossing these kids around. They were so cute, giggling the whole time and wearing the biggest smiles on their faces. Very cool experience. As we were leaving Vehi told us how one group of tourists that he took to this village actually stripped down and became a himba for the day, living as the himba do. I think it was a good thing that he told us about this after we left the village or he would have had eight half naked students with red bodies for the day. Now that really would have been neat.
I do have to say that although I am constantly learning and working hard here it is not at all like doing work for Midd. I think we were all thrown off when Bekah assigned an ‘in class essay’ of sorts two days ago. I must admit that I really struggled to write it. I do not missing writing essays one bit. I am definitely going to be in for a rude awakening on that front when I get home. Plus the heat did not help at all. Trying to write an essay in over 100 degree heat is just not possible for me, my brain literally melts.
I wish I could attach a picture of myself to this blog entry, I think you would all be surprised to see me, I know I sure was. Since we have been camping for the most part and even when we are at Wereldsend we don’t have mirrors I really don’t know what I look like. And since I wear basically the same clothes each day and shower maybe every three day I really don’t think about how I look. Therefore I was really surprised to see the reflection that greeted me when I looked in a mirror for the first time in five weeks, I literally did not recognize myself. First off I am very tan, you wouldn’t believe me when I say that I have been putting 70 spf sunscreen on every day. Also my hair has gotten very blond which makes my tan look even darker.
One last neat thing on the research/Namibia oriented side of things. Since we are working with conservancies we have been allowed to attend their meetings. So far we have gone to three meetings, one which I think I already talked about in my last entry which we got politely kicked out of. Our second meeting was Torra’s Annual General Meeting which didn’t end up happening since so that was two attempts at sitting in on meetings that failed. But the Torra meeting actually turned out to be pretty interesting. The reason why it didn’t end up happening was because a previous chair person went around the morning before the meeting and told people not to attend it so that the meeting could not be held. And it worked, only 130 of the necessary 150 conservancy members were present. This means that the conservancy cannot plan for next year which is a big issue, drama. The third meeting that we attend was the quarterly meeting for Anabeb conservancy which was only partially a fail on our part since we made half of the meeting. The coolest thing in my mind about the meeting was that AID education was an issue that the conservancy was working to establish. I guess I forget that conservancy are more than conservation oriented and in fact are really more like communities with a strong environmental focus. Neat to hear that AIDs education is an important issue that they are trying to address.
Well I could go on forever but my computer battery is dying. I hope you all are doing well and I will try not to go so long between entries next time. Happy almost Halloween!
All my love,
Jess
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