reflections

Katie, Podge and I at the top of a windy Dune 7 on our trip.

It’s New Year’s Eve and I find myself back in Kimberley after a whirlwind adventure that took me across Botswana and Namibia, through deltas and deserts, over dunes and volcanoes with three of the best travel companions I could ever desire. It was a one of a kind trip that I will never forget (to read all about it, check out my past blog entries).

Rob, the Cofer's and I outside of Fenway Park.

One of my favorite parts of this trip was the “pillow talk” sessions that my travel companions and I shared. On most nights throughout the trip, there were four of us sharing a snug three-person tent. So, we ended each night with a little “pillow talk” in which we talked about everything from most embarrassing moments to whether or not a broken heart is the most painful type of injury. Last night’s topic was; “what are some of your favorite memories from last year?”

My D3E hall mates and I wringing the Wren
Bell on the last day of classes. May 2011.

As I continue to think about last night’s question, I just keep remembering more and more of my ‘favorite’ memories. There was the time when my D3E hall mates and I completed the William and Mary triathlon in one night. There was the time when Joe and I ran around the streets of Williamsburg in the pouring rain because we were participating in Audio Adventure. There was the time when Kyle and I rode around in the back of a pick up truck because “the mountains weren’t blue!” There was the time when Tim and I sat on the hood of his truck ‘til five in the morning just talking because "spontaneity is a virtue". There was the time when my grandfather, aunt, cousin, mom and I climbed to the top of an active volcano. There was the time when my parents and I stopped somewhere in New Jersey to order the biggest deli sandwiches we’d ever seen. There was a time… there were so many times…

Janelle, Laurel and I caught in a blizzard.

There really are no words to describe how amazing this past year has been. I finished a 220-page thesis; graduated from a fantastic university that I absolutely love; I traveled the world (in ten months I have been to twelve countries); I joined Grassroot Soccer and moved to South Africa; and through it all, my friends and family have given me so much love and support, without which I would not be the person I am today.

Three of my best guy friends accompanying me to formal.

So thank you. To everyone reading this (and any of my blog posts), thank you. To my D3E roomies who send the best email updates, thank you. To my Delta Gamma sisters who check in on me every now and then, thank you. To my geo crew for making me laugh out loud even when you are thousands of miles away, thank you. To Laura (mcl), Laurel (l+n), Janelle and Meghan for mentoring me (even if you didn’t know you were doing it), thank you. To my Big for always thinking about me, thank you. To my Right Arm for always g-chatting me (and for being just as sarcastic and bitter as ever), thank you. To K-Conn for keeping me in the loop, thank you. And to Kyle, Tim, Will, Quinn, Hobbes, Daniel, Blair, Matt, Darren, Katie, Chris, Richard, JB, and a few others for being part of my William and Mary family, thank you.

My 'Right Arm' and I.

And to my ‘real’ family, thank you. To all of my family members for sharing holidays with me, thank you. To all of my aunts, uncles and grandparents for taking me to Red Sox games, to Cape Cod, and even halfway around the world, thank you. To my cousin, Katherine, for acting like a sister, thank you. To my brothers, for making fun of me, for wrestling with me, for picking on me and for always being there at the end of the day to make me stronger, thank you. And last but not least, to my mom and dad for guiding me and helping me find my own path in life, thank you.

My younger brother jumping on me... 

I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful New Year!

Graduation day with my Grandparents.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Head's Up: I am planning to write a blog entry about almost every day of my holiday trip so keep checking in for those blogs (if you are interested) and best of all, for some pictures! I return to work on 3 January and once I know what I'll be spending my time on this year I'll be sure to write about that as well. 

Joe, David, Kevin and I. Joe and David, there are hardly any
acceptable pictures of us together... we should change this.

all good things must come to an end...

I can’t help but feel like we’ve rally got this whole spontaneous traveling thing down. The day after Christmas we had a much-needed sleeping-in day followed by one last mini bus ride back to Windhoek where we found ourselves at the Cardboard Box Backpackers again.

The last few days of our trip we rented a car and made our way south towards the border. These days were semi-lazy but not without moments of, “what is my life?!”

Our first stop on the way south was at Brukkaros, an extinct volcano. This volcano formed 80 million years ago when a magma pipe encountered ground water about 1km below the earth’s surface and caused a series of volcanic explosions.

Brukkaros.

The travel book we had been using, Lonely Planet (which I am never using again – half of the contact information in the book is incorrect and that’s just one of the many problems), told us that there was a hiking trail that would take us to the crater of the volcano. This trail was basically non-existent but we decided climb the volcano anyway.

Scrambling down rocks.

This was probably not the most intelligent move we could’ve made, but we figured that you only live once and wanted to do something we were pretty sure very few people have ever done. There were moments when we were literally rock climbing without any sort of gear or safety equipment. It. Was. Awesome.

At the top! The crater is to the left.

After making it down from the crater right as the sun was setting we continued south, hoping to find Fish River Canyon. For the first time on our entier trip we got lost and ended up camping behind a Shell Gas Station. This ended up being a surprisingly nice campsite.

Our Shell campsite - it had it's own bathroom and everything!

Wednesday morning we got up, asked for directions to Fish River Canyon and arrived safe and sound just in time to have our breath taken away. Fish River Canyon is the second largest canyon in the world. It is 160km long, 27km wide and up to 550km deep.

Day hikers aren’t allowed in the canyon – the heat is considered too dangerous – but we spent a good amount of walking around the canyon’s edge.

We then headed east towards the South African border. Driving through Namibia has been amazing. The landscape is constantly evolving and there are hardly any people anywhere. Unlike in South Africa, the highways don’t pass the townships; instead the only way to get to the townships is to turn off of the highway onto dirt and gravel roads and drive 80km or so before seeing any signs of civilization. All towns are small.

People that we meet continue to be very friendly, though. Everyone is always willing to give us tips or direct us towards a place where we could camp. We spent our last night in Namibia camping in an older gentleman’s backyard (he runs a B&B, so this arrangement wasn’t totally random).

Thursday, December 29 we drove to the border. We were all a little nervous that Trevor might not be allowed back into the country (his work permit still hasn’t come in yet and his tourist visa expired at the end of November). But a very friendly immigration officer listened to Trevor’s story and issued him a three-month temporary residency permit.

To celebrate safe entry into South Africa, we decided to visit Augrabies Falls National park in order to the thundering falls. The falls derive their name from the Khoi word meaning “place of great noise,’ and they definitely lived up to their name. The falls were cool but my favorite part of the park was driving/ hiking to different points that over looked the Orange River as it cut through the granite ravine.

Now some of you had to have known that this was coming - the geology fascinated me and I was so glad that I was able to spend some time in a bedrock river canyon (Joe, Matt and Greg - this is the next place where we should collect data).

We spent one last night camping before finally completing our journey. When we arrived in Kimberley both of the intern cars had flat tires… Yep, nothing had changed while we were away, but it did feel good to be back.

Our beloved Condor. What made this situation even more amusing was
the fact that we were missing the tool that was needed to release the spare
tire from the bottom of the car. We have since found the tool and I am
now a pro at changing tires.

a quad biking Christmas

I don’t really know how to say this… and I almost feel guilty saying it… but this might have been the best Christmas ever!

Trevor surprised us with balloons in the morning!

Today, Trevor, Katie, Podge and I went quad biking through the dunes of the Namib Desert. And I know I overuse this word, but I can’t help it; quad biking was sick!

Driving up and down the dunes I caught myself saying things – out loud – such as, “Woaaahhh!” and, “this is so cool!” I felt like a little kid again. Now I’ve done some pretty cool things in my life, but quad biking through the Namib Desert may have taken the cake.

And if quad biking doesn’t do it for you, then the Namib Desert definitely would. These dunes were absolutely breathtaking.

Half way through our quad biking adventure we stopped to do sand boarding – but we were lying down this time.

My favorite part about sand boarding was that it reminded me a lot of sledding and I can’t remember the last time I’ve gone sledding on Christmas.

Me sand boarding.

We each completed four pretty sweet runs down the dunes before hopping back on our quad bikes and returning to nature’s playground. Quad biking was awesome and one day when I’m employed for a company where I actually make money, I’m going to have to buy one of my own.

After quad biking, we enjoyed a Christmas Lunch of PB&J, swapped some good stories, and then set out on our last Swakopmund adventure: Dune 7. Dune 7 is 600 to 700 meters tall (depending on how the wind has moved the peak) and is the tallest dune in Namibia.

Podge is only about 5 meters ahead of me, but she
was about 12 above me.

We scrambled to the top, which was no easy feat in itself and was only made more difficult by the strong wind that was pummeling sand against us. But the climb was fun. The slope of the dune was so steep that each step we took caused sand to cascade in torrents down the dune.

On top of Dune 7, looking out over the ridge.

The wind only increased once we reached the top and within minutes we all had sand in almost every conceivable place.

Check out that wind!

To escape the sand attacks, we ran down the backside of the dune and took refuge in a sand bowl. It was here that we enjoyed a Christmas dinner of leftover soup and hard-boiled eggs. We also opened our Secret Santa presents!

Katie, Podge and I.

Everyone seemed to really enjoy participating in Secret Santa and all of the presents were so thoughtful and fun. My Secret Santa was Podge. She got me a bag full of bottle caps (she actually asked a bartender at a restaurant to root through the garbage in order to collect some) and a hat that said “Sand Lover”. This was hilarious because minutes before opening my presents I had been playing with the sand and educating my travel buddies about it’s possible mineral content. I also filled a water bottle with sand as souvenir. Try as I may, I can’t help but geek out in any geologic setting (and in all honesty I don’t really try not to geek out). Then, right before 8, we made a mad dash to the top of the dune in order to watch the sunset. It was beautiful.

We then used an assortment of means – running, jumping and rolling to name a few – in order to get back down the dune and into the shelter of our taxi. When we got back to our lodge we ended up in a tired heap on the floor, sharing hot chocolate, sweets and Christmas stories.

As great as this Christmas was though, I definitely missed home. I missed my Aunt’s annual Christmas party. I missed the cookie exchange that I usually have with my D3E hall mates. I missed William and Mary’s Yule Log celebration. I missed baking Christmas cookies. And I missed being with my family and maybe, just maybe, I was missed as well.

To my friends and family, I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and I want you to know that I was thinking of you.

one concussed entry

This morning I woke up feeling funny… I wasn’t smashed next to Podge in a tent, I wasn’t lying on hard ground and I wasn’t sweating like a monkey. For a minute I was incredibly disoriented. But then it all came back to me – it was Christmas Eve and I was in Swakopmund lying in my very own bed! My own bed... that in itself was a lovely early Christmas present, but it’s nothing compared to the rest of the day.

Today we went sand boarding. After breakfast, Michelle (an American), the owner of the sand boarding company we were using, picked us up and took us out to the dunes. When we got to the dunes we learned that we were going to be spending the day sand boarding with Michelle and her Rastafarian husband’s entire extended family. And as the day progressed, there were moments when I even felt like a part of the family.

Trevor. This is how you are supposed to sand board. Observe the
awed crowds in the background.

The dunes were breathtaking. I’ve never seen anything like them before and as I’m sure you can imagine, I was in geology heaven.

Trevor, Katie, Podge and I collected our gear and then hit the slopes.

Sand boarding is very similar to snow boarding. Except that it’s on sand… duh. Oh and there are no lifts anywhere near the slopes so after each ride down, you get to walk back up.

And before each run, you have to wax the bottom of your board so that the iron minerals in the sand don’t stick to the board and slow you down.

Now, I’ve been snowboarding before, but boy was I rusty. And I kept running into the same problem that I have when I snowboard; I can keep my balance just fine, but I can’t turn for the life of me.

I fell.

Sand boarding was a ton of fun! Even though I wasn’t anywhere near as good as Trevor and Katie, I still had a few brief spells of brilliance.

But then it happened… on my last run I ended up on my heels, the board dug into the sand and I went flying. I whacked my head pretty hard and ended up with a concussion. I actually don’t even remember that last run. I only know what happened because Trevor took a video of it (a video that I have prohibited him from posting anywhere on the web). I now fully sympathize with every person who has appeared in a falling clip on America’s Funniest Home Videos.

Luckily, after just a few very disoriented minutes I pulled myself together and was fine. And I'm 100% okay today. I still know that W&M is the greatest university on the face of the planet. We ended sand boarding by using our boards to sled down the backside of the dune. At the end of our ride, lunch and a soccer ball were waiting for us. We ended up playing keep-away with most of our guides and their family until it was time to leave. But it was pretty cool that even in the middle of the desert, soccer helped two very different cultures come together and feel more comfortable around each other. After our game we were even invited to play in a tournament the day after Christmas!

T and I sledding down the slope!

I spent the rest of the afternoon lying in bed nursing a pretty awful headache, but my fantastic travel buddies kept a watchful eye on me. They also whipped up a delicious Christmas Eve dinner of lentil soup, kudu, springbok, broccoli and potatoes. It wasn’t quite my mom’s broccoli casserole and pork tenderloin, but it was very tasty and we were definitely getting envious looks from those sitting around us.

To end the night, we went to a Christmas Eve service at a German church that was right down the road from our guesthouse (oddly enough, going to the service was my idea). We thought it would be a nice way to experience a bit of home and a bit of the local culture, but we quickly realized that listening to a church service in a foreign language is… tough. We all may or may not have dozed off at one point or another.

When we arrived back to our guesthouse after the service, there was one last Christmas Eve surprise waiting for us – Podge had made us all Santa hats that could double as stockings! We promptly hung them up and crawled into bed, hoping Saint Nick would be able to fit all of our presents inside them.

Good 'ol Podge!

earth, wind & fire

No pictures for this entry... Sorry. So I stuck this on here. It's one of the
items that was on Parliament's agenda when we visited in Windhoek.

Today was another one of those days where 1. everything worked out despite our complete lack of planning, 2. we made new friends, and, 3. we had an absolute blast!

This morning we woke up, had another delicious breakfast (European pancakes with butter and sugar), packed up our camp and taxied over to the Rhino Star Service Station (a petrol station), where we had been told that we could, “do what the locals do” in order to get to Swakopmund.  See, because we hadn’t planned anything, when we tried to book bus tickets to Swakopmund we discovered that they were all sold out… That is why Trevor, Katie, Podge and I found ourselves at a petrol station with a bunch of “locals” trying to get to Swakopmund. And we did it! Within ten minutes of arriving at Rhino Star we had purchased a ride on a taxi/mini bus and were on our way.

The drive was pretty entertaining. Trevor, Katie, Podge and I were crammed into the backseat sweating like crazy, but I didn’t mind because I got to take in so much about our immediate surroundings. Driving in our mini bus I got the feeling that we were just a step away from traveling in a party bus. At least three people in our taxi were drinking (at 11 a.m. mind you) – and these people were not college students. Our mini bus was decked out with an awesome sound system that pumped everything from Justin Timberlake’s Apologize to House music throughout the vehicle. And our driver was the most friendly “DJ” I’ve ever encountered.

Things outside of our mini bus were also pretty interesting. We passed though our first two immigration checkpoints on our way to Swakopmund. At each checkpoint the driver was asked to show his license and all passengers were asked to show their IDs or passports to the immigration officials. A lot of countries in Africa have checkpoints like this and I find it interesting that the U.S. does not have similar checkpoints.

But my favorite thing about our ride to Swakopmund was getting to watch the landscape transform. What started as green, highly vegetated rolling hillsides morphed into a flat, yellow, grassy savannah. Vegetation gradually began to thin out until there were just sand dunes and rocks in its place. We had entered the Namib Desert.

Swakopmund is a coastal city surrounded by desert on all sides. Historically a German port, it still attracts lots of German travellers, especially during the holidays. Our friendly mini bus driver dropped us off in the city center and we set off to find our guesthouse. Between the smell of the beach, the side streets filled with shops and my own excitement, I couldn’t help but think of Cape Cod.

We arrived at our guesthouse and checked into our room where we were all thrilled to see that we would have our own beds for the first time all trip! Within twenty minutes of arriving we had planned adrenaline-rushing activities for both Christmas Eve and Christmas (which I’ll talk about in future blogs). I could tell then that Christmas this year would be far from conventional, but it would definitely be one to remember.

My favorite part of today though, was walking the streets of Swakopmund in search of the beach. Swakopmund had decorated for Christmas! While it was nothing like the decorations back home (flamingos mixed in with Christmas wreaths), it was nice to see some Christmas lights. Once we reached the beach, we spread out our towels, popped a squat, poured ourselves some Amarillo and spent the rest of the night enjoying the sand, the breeze and the water. It was a perfect way to end to the day and an even better welcome to Swakopmund.

Flashback to Botswana. Blogs just look so gross without pictures...

the land of the brave

Trevor, Katie, Podge and I arrived in Windhoek at one this morning. Our hospitable driver dropped us off at The Cardboard Box Backpackers where we quickly set up our tent and went to bed. We didn’t wake up until 9h30, which is the latest we have slept in during this whole trip!

Windhoek! The view from the steps of Parliament. Windhoek is the
capital of Namibia, the Land of the Brave!

After eating a free breakfast of European pancakes (eating them reminded me of the time Anne, Jill, Maisha and I made Norwegian pancake), we decided to go explore Windhoek. Today was a bit of an odd day… Not only because it was the first time we had been in a city all trip, but also because I couldn’t really place what it felt like to be in Windhoek.

To an extent, it reminded me of Kimberley. I think mostly because Afrikaans is the primary language spoken in Namibia and the observable culture also seemed comparable to that in Kim. But it is definitely a much bigger city than Kim, has a much different geographic setting (Windhoek is surrounded by hills – we did go on a short hike and I took lots of time looking at rocks and identifying the quartz, feldspar, micas and garnets that were present), has a strong German influence and is more attractive than Kimberley.

One of my favorite things that we did in Windhoek was visit the Natural History Museum. Namibia has a fascinating history. Like every other country in Africa (except for Liberia and Ethiopia), Namibia (then called South West Africa) was annexed by Germany during Europe’s ‘Scramble for Africa’. Germany exploited the natural wealth of the country (lots of diamonds in the south) and forcibly removed – and in some cases deracinated the populations of – the San, the Herero, the Khoikhoi, the Owambo and the Nama that were living within these diamond-rich areas.

In 1914, with the onset of World War I, Britain pressured South Africa into invading Namibia and within a year, Germany retreated from their colony. Throughout the 1920s, 30s and 40s, South Africa strengthened its hold in the region and the affects of apartheid (forced labor, ID books – I got to see some of these and they are incredible; there are pages within these books about employment, to see whether the person has paid taxes or not and the area where that person is required to live) spread throughout Namibia. In 1949, South Africa granted the white population of Namibia parliamentary representation in Pretoria (the capital of South Africa). The bulk of Namibia’s viable farmland was parceled into some 6000 farms for white settlers while other ethnic groups were relegated to newly demarcated ‘tribal homelands.’ This arrangement lasted until the country won independence in 1990.

The forced labor systems that South Africa implemented in Namibia eventually led to mass demonstrations and increasingly nationalist sentiments in the late 1950s. By 1960, the South-West African People’s Organization (SWAPO) had gained the support of many blacks living in Namibia and began appealing to both the United Nations and the International Court of Justice on the issue of South African occupation. The ICJ did vote to terminate South Africa’s mandate, but instead of creating a free republic they wanted to administer the territory through an international council.

In response, on 26 August 1966, SWAPO launched its campaign of guerilla warfare in northern Namibia that would last for 22 years. In 1972 the United Nations finally declared South Africa’s occupation of Namibia illegal and demanded a withdrawal. Surprisingly, South Africa did not comply and fighting continued between South Africa, Namibia and even the Cuban-backed government of Angola (who supported SWAPO).

Lots of factors brought about the end of the war. Increasing international pressures were being levied against South Africa’s apartheid regime. The war was growing more and more costly. By 1985 most soldiers fighting in Namibia were there due to conscription. And South Africa’s economy was suffering badly. In December 1988 Cuba, Angola, South Africa and SWAPO finally struck a deal; all foreign troops were to be withdrawn from each country and it stipulated that the transition to Namibian independence would begin on 1 April 1989, and would be followed by UN-monitored elections held in November 1989 on the basis of universal suffrage.

Elections in November were pronounced free and fair by the UN. In the elections, SWAPO garnered two-thirds of the vote but the results of the vote did not give the party the sole mandate to write a constitution. As such, SWAPO, several minority parties and some international advisors all worked together to draft a new constitution that called for a multiparty system and an impressive bill of rights. The new constitution was adopted in February 1990 and independence was granted a month later. I am older than Namibia.

That is where I will leave my history lesson for now and I have to apologize to any history enthusiasts reading this – I know I did not tell the tale justly. But I wanted to try and give everyone a sense of;1. how tumultuous Namibia’s history has been, 2. how young the country is, and, 3. how there is still a lot that the country is trying to do in order to reconcile the past.

A display at the history museum.

In order to celebrate making it to Windhoek in one day, we decided to go out to dinner. We ended up at Joe’s, a place that specialized in great beer (I has a Helle Lager) and even better meat. The menu offered crocodile, zebra, springbok, onyx, ostrich, kudu and a few other game animals. Katie and I shared a platter that had grilled ostrich, onyx and springbok. It was all so tender and so delicious! Unfortunately I didn’t know whit meat was what on the plate, but I think the springbok was my favorite.

The group at Joe's!

After dinner we walked back to the Cardboard Box Backpackers (we walked because the one taxi that offered us a ride wanted to charge us double what it should have cost) where we continued the festivities. We pulled out a deck of cards and made our own ‘Get to Know Each Other’ game. We each took turns drawing a card and depending on what we drew we would either get to ask (if we drew and odd) or be asked (if we drew and even) a certain type of question. The suit you drew determined what type of question was asked. If you drew a heart, a relationship/ dating question would be asked. If you drew a club, a going out/ clubbing question would be asked. If you drew a spade, a childhood question would be asked. And if you drew a diamond, a question about the last four months would be asked. It ended up being a really fun game and we only stopped playing because I was falling asleep at the table where we were playing.

The cardboard box backpackers and our tent.

shot shot wena

Have you ever woken up one morning and climbed out of bed without having a clue as to where you would next fall asleep? That’s what passed through my mind this morning as I emerged from our tent at five in the morning. We were in Maun, Botswana and through smarts, grit, luck and money, we were hoping to be in Windhoek, Namibia by the end of the day. 

We all groggily packed up camp at the Old Bridge Backpackers, woke up our taxi driver who had been sleeping in his car and headed to the ‘hitching point’ (the hitchhiking point) just outside of Maun. Hitchhiking, or ‘hiking,’ is definitely something you can do – relatively safely – throughout all of Africa. One reason for this is that very few people own cars and public transportation, although cheap, can often take a very long time. Most public transport vehicles will sit at the bus station or taxi stand until they are completely full. So to save time, and sometimes money, people hike.

But hiking in Africa has a different connotation; you are not going to get a free ride anywhere. Whenever someone stops and offers you a ride, they are expecting to be paid for their services. As such, it is wise to negotiate a price before hoping in the car. Most drivers in Botswana and Namibia are very fare though; they will usually ask for a fee that is comparable to what the cost of public transportation would have been (but as a tourist it is always wise to know what the standard fare rate is, just to make sure you don’t get ripped off).

The first hiking point! Also, in most cases it was harder to accommodate all
our gear than it was to accommodate us!

During our first leg, I took the lead in signaling and negotiating a ride (I think the only reason this happened was because I’ve hiked before, in Malawi). It was kind of cool to feel like the “leader” during this leg of the journey. Especially because so much was unknown and my travel buddies simply trusted that I would make something happen.

After just thirty minutes, I had secured us a ride to Ghanzi in an air conditioned SUV for P40 less than what the bus would have cost us! At this point, we were all in pretty high spirits. When we got to Ghanzi though, things slowed down a bit. Again, we got ourselves to the ‘hitching point’ and spent two hours standing in the hot sun trying to snag a ride to the border crossing at Mamuno.

Despite the growing heat and our seemingly futile efforts, we all remained in good spirits. I enjoyed just surveying the scene – laughing at the kids playing across the street, talking to a few curious passers-by and watching animals milling about on the road. Throughout Botswana we have seen countless herds of cattle, goats and donkeys roaming freely. These animals often congregate near or on roads. When this happens, all passing vehicles have to slow down and ride the horn until they have passed the animals. If you steal or kill one of these animals, you could end up spending the rest of your life in prison. 

The one rough part about hiking across Botswana is the sun; it burns. All of us kept reapplying sunscreen, but within minutes it just seemed to melt off. Luckily relief came! A little after noon a bus that was heading to the border pulled over and informed us that even though there was only standing room available, we could climb on board (all buses have signs that read “Sitting Capcity: #” and then “Standing Capacity: #). We eagerly accepted and became excited at the prospect of entering Namibia in a few hours.

The bus ride reminded me a lot of the bus ride that I had taken with Matt, Mel, Bryan, Katie and Bilas in Malawi; it was hot and crowded, but the music that was playing was fantastic. I wish I knew what had been playing and I definitely thought about asking the bus driver if I could buy the CD that was playing.

During the last hour of our trip the bus finally started to clear
out and we got seats. We all promptly passed out...

I also had an interesting thought on the bus… as I looked around at my fellow passengers and their luggage I realized that the packs that each of us were carrying probably contained more things than most people in southern Africa own. I’m also willing to be that our packs, their contents and our gear cost more than most people earn in a year. This was definitely a bit of an “hmmm…” moment for me. But one thing that continues to act as a testament to many Africans that I have encountered is that even though people do not have money, even though people do not have many belongings, and even though people do not have the best living conditions, they have all made the best of their life and are happy.

Four hours after we boarded the bus, it arrived at Mamuno (which isn’t even a town – it is just the name of the border crossing) and we climbed off. We strapped on our packs and did something I have never done before: we crossed a border on foot. It was kind of funny actually; after crossing through Botswana immigration, we had to walk 500 meters to the Namibian border. We all started joking that we were in no man’s land and wondered what would happen to us if we committed a crime in this no man’s land.

Crossing the border.

On our walk between the two countries, a gentleman in a pick-up truck pulled over and offered us a ride all the way to Windhoek! After a quick conference together, we jumped at the idea. We had done it! We had secured the last leg of our journey to Windhoek.

We all squeezed into the back of his covered truck along with a mom and her two children and reflected on our journey. Most people in Maun had recommended that we travel to Windhoek over two days, but we were successfully completing the journey in just one day!

Podge and I!

Our group made one final stop before arriving in Windhoek. The gentleman that picked us up was from Gobabis and he had to do a few errands in town before heading on to Windhoek. But while he was doing his errands he let us stay in his one bedroom guesthouse, which was pretty sweet.

He told us that he would only need an hour or so, but two-and-a-half hours later we were still in his little guesthouse thing. None of us were worried though. We were all so cracked out from the lack of sleep, too much sun and pure happiness that we didn’t really care. And as we had done for most of our trip, we spent our time talking to and learning about each other. And during this time we came up with our team name. A word that we had all been using throughout our trip up to this point was, “wena,” which means friend/ pal in Tswana. When making fun of each other we would say, “ah ah wena.” When saying thank you it was always, “thanks wena.” And just for fun we had, “sharp sharp wena.” After a particularly ludacris story from Trevor, followed by the creation of a monster on my end (Trevor, Katie and Podge, we still have to make the DOJ), we stumbled upon what would become our team name: Team Shot Shot Wena.

When our hospitable driver finally did return, we climbed back into the pick up truck and settled in for the last leg of our journey.  We shared a victory moment together (a group hug and a GRS handshake) and entered Windhoek in style.

An exhausted T and I sleeping during the last leg of our journey.