With the car providing us with new found freedom we have been away every weekend exploring more of Namibia. A few weekends ago we embarked on the Waterberg Plateau hike with some volunteer friends, managing it in 3 days. Apparently the plateau is home to rhino and leopard, although we only had run ins with wasps and baboons. However we did come across a very fresh looking paw print in the sand track we were following one morning! It was great practice for when we do the Fish River Canyon hike next year and we’ll definitely be investing in some lighter backpacks and will be packing as sparsely as possible – every ounce definitely does count! Things were even tougher for Pollard after she sprained her ankle on the second day but she soldiered on commendably. Her ‘cankle’ is still swollen as she has proven to be the worst patient ignoring all basic advice!
We have also been to Oshakati, Julia’s first trip north, for our friend Matt’s 40th birthday. He put on a great party where there were plenty of moustached VSO and Peace Corps volunteers and, in true Namibian style, lots and lots of meat. On the way we took a route via Etosha for some more wildlife spotting and our friend Mike ensured we were at the park gates before they opened to give us the best chance of catching some lions having a morning drink. This paid off and made our 4am start worthwhile. We also managed to catch the England v New Zealand rugby match – I think Matt, a Kiwi, enjoyed it rather more than me. I’m looking for an Afrikaner bar to watch the game against the Springboks in a couple weeks and will be hoping for a better performance from our boys.
Work is ticking along and the good news is that we are moving to Otjiwarongo this week. We are not naive enough to think our move will be the solution to all our frustrations but it will give us the opportunity to get around the region by piggy backing on other peoples transport and to attend the regional management team meeting and get our fingers into some more pies. Our new home is quite small and basic, made of clay and with some kind of eco non flushing toilet – should be interesting. I’m sure no planning has gone into where we are going to actually work from and there is no sign of a desk let alone an office for us. So between now and Christmas we have set ourselves a work plan of inducting ourselves properly into the region, meeting people and visiting places. We are also going to fund our own transport to come back to Okakarara two days a week to continue the work we have developed with the volunteers here until Christmas. Julia has been busy (busy is actually probably not the correct word to use) working with volunteers planning (again debatable) an event to commemorate the International Day of People with Disabilities on 3rd December. As nobody plans anything more than a couple of days in advance she will be travelling out to one of the district settlements with the regional rehabilitation officer to put together an event for 150 people the day before the event.
We are now planning our first big trip as we have decided to join some other volunteers on a Christmas and New Year road trip to Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique. Apparently everything shuts down with most people taking December off as holiday so we thought we would join them. Plans are in the early stages but its looking very exciting.
And I am now the Namibian national netball team physiotherapist! I have been looking for some extra work to keep me occupied and went down to Windhoek last weekend to meet the squad. All went well and I have been asked to join them at the Nations Cup in Singapore in a few weeks. December is now looking very exciting!
This weekend we are joining some friends for a trip to the north west to see the Himba people. We will be camping at Epupa Falls which are supposed to be beautiful. We should have some good photos to upload next week.
Ant x
