It's nearly Christmas!

Well we’ve been here 5 months now – nearly a quarter of our total time here – and it feels strange.  In some ways it feels like a long time since we left home and we are missing friends and family, especially as it’s getting close to Christmas.  On the other hand the time has gone quickly, and I’m not sure from a work perspective what we’ve actually achieved.  The ‘settling in’ period has surely got to end some time soon?!

We’ve moved into our little clay house in Otjiwarongo with its long drop toilet and outdoor shower (proper African) and have made it look homely.  It’s set in an NGO compound where they make clay tiles and bricks amongst other things to build affordable and insulated housing for people on low incomes. We have a lovely outdoor garden area and are eating outdoors most evenings when there’s not a thunderstorm - the lightening is absolutely amazing!  It’s pretty hot, ranging from 35-40 degrees most days – can’t believe how much snow you’ve had at home. In the absence of such festive weather I’ve been baking Mince Pies to get myself in the mood.  They do have some Christmas lights up in town, but I’m not convinced the locals even know what a snowman or holly are!!

As Ant mentioned before, although we are in Otjiwarongo we don’t have an office or anywhere to base ourselves yet.  However, we have managed to attend our first regional management team meeting, the purpose of which was for members to feedback highlights in their activities in the past month and communicate their plans for the following month.  It was quite enlightening as several activities could have involved us, however, as per usual, poor communication meant that nobody had thought to tell us!  The meeting was helpful to find out where transport can be shared and we have volunteered ourselves to contribute to some management training on basic communication, leadership and team working skills in one of the districts so hopefully that might materialise early next year. 

I stayed out in one of the settlements, Coblenz, last week to help facilitate the International Day of People with Disabilities.  It was last minute planning by the CBR committee who were writing the agenda the night before the event.  Surprisingly the event only started an hour late, which isn’t bad by Namibian standards and there was a reasonable turnout of about 70 people including many with disabilities.  The purpose was awareness raising in the community, ensuring people are aware of their rights and what support is available.  I had wanted to do a training session with the committee, but this could not take place as I was reliant on a lift from a colleague who instead of getting us to Coblenz by lunchtime, made several social stops on the way, stopped for food, gave various people lifts and generally faffed around so got us there by 4.30pm…grr

We went up to Epupa Falls and Opuwo a couple of weekends ago which was our first trip to ‘Himba Land’.  For those of you not familiar with Himbas, I will upload some photos.  The Himbas continue to wear their traditional dress amongst others in the town wearing western clothes.  They have spiritual beliefs based on contacting ancestors and a reliance on traditional medicine and witchcraft.  The hospital and most other public buildings are painted ochre up to head height as whenever a Himba comes in contact with the walls they deposit some of their colour!  Epupa falls was very pretty, set amongst mountain ranges on the border of Angola.  Not as dramatic as Victoria Falls, but worth a visit as we were in that neck of the woods.

Ant’s been down to Windhoek for a few netball sessions leading up to the big trip to Singapore.  He’s away until the 14^th December and then we go on our Christmas trip to Malawi and Mozambique on the 17^th – bearly worth going back to work!  I’m out all week in a district called Grootfontein with the Chief Social Worker and another colleague.  It should be a good opportunity to familiarise myself with the CBR committees there and make a plan for next year.  I’m taking some training material with me just in case I get the opportunity as who knows when I’ll be able to get transport to the district next.

I can’t wait for our trip away over Christmas.  The vague plan is to spend Christmas at Lake Malawi and then New Year on the northern coast of Mozambique, with a number of places in between.  I’ve been preparing the car for the adventure – spade, extra spare tyre, extra fuel can…the list goes on…don’t want to get stuck in the wilderness.  Expect some dramatic photography from our adventure in the next blog instalment!

So have a Very Happy Christmas! Enjoy all the celebrations and wishing you all the best for 2011.  Miss you all!  Julia xxxxxxxxxx

Bring on December

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 40^th 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 3^rd 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

Beard growing project update...

With it being my turn to make an addition to the blog I have decided to postpone my usual witty and intelligent observations on development and the world in general, and give a beard growth update. Current statistics are as follows

• Length: 10mm
• Density: generally good, patchy in places
• Style: Sadam Hussian meets the dad from Roald Dahl's 'The Twits'

During the past three months the project has had its ups and downs. The major barriers have included my genetic inability to grow a beard, the initial itchy phase, Julia not liking beards, the heat and Julia constantly likening me to Mr Twit. In summary, I like my beard and Julia doesn't.

Tomorrow will see a further setback to the project. I will be sculpting a 'tache for Movember - raising awareness of prostate cancer and proving that men will do anything they are challenged to do.

Il be back soon with more on our goings on and maybe a picture of my handlebar!

Ant x

Donor funding

We are looking into donor funding to support some projects we have identified with the key ones being acquisition of wheelchairs and community based rehabilitation training workshops. We would like contact details of any potential donors that may be interested in supporting projects in Namibia for people with disabilities, anyone from local rotary clubs to international NGOs! Your help and support is appreciated. Ant x

Walvis Bay

At the Lagoon....Flamingos

...Pelicans

...Dolphins

..and Seals

Ant and Mike enjoy lunch with a view

Pink water at the salt pans

Ant preparing for a hot hike up Dune 7 before gracefully boarding down

At last - the moment we got to see the car in the storage tent!

The car, the coast and creating work

It’s been a while since the last instalment but you’ll be pleased to hear that all is well, particularly as we now have our car – hurray!!  After a gruelling 2 weeks of dealing with customs and excise it was released incurring a substantial fee for storage that I’m sure went straight into the customs official’s pockets.  Having spent a week in Windhoek we managed to get a lift from our friend, Mike, down to Walvis Bay port and waited for another 5 days. 

Walvis Bay is an interesting place.  It’s next to the country’s main holiday resort, Swakopmund, and is located between huge expanses of sand dunes and the Atlantic Ocean.  The layout feels very American with a grid-system in place (albeit not well organised) and single-storey buildings.  It’s the main port for Namibia and there are huge containers, cranes and warehouses lining the harbour, along with about 6 or 7 Portuguese fishing companies.  There is no local fishing industry which seems a shame as the workforce is there– the Portuguese have the licenses and also have huge processing and canning factories right on the harbour so it’s a very slick process.  There is also a lagoon where huge numbers of flamingos gather in addition to pelicans and a massive seal colony.  On the edge of the lagoon there are large salt pans which are pretty impressive to look at as they are various shades of vivid pink and purple due to the algae present in the water (this is also what makes the flamingos pink!)

As we had time to kill we became tourists for the day and took a catamaran trip out into the harbour and lagoon to see the seals, dolphins and pelicans close up. The dolphins followed the boat and having taken about 50 photos of them I managed to get about 2 decent shots and the rest were just waves.  There were a couple of tame seals who got onto the catamaran deck to get fish – apparently this wasn’t just a trick for the tourists; the guides had lured them onto the boat bit by bit in order to cut off fishing nets that had got wrapped around them, cutting into their skin.  Now the seals are wise to the fact that there’s a free meal on board.

We also had our first experience of ‘couch surfing’ whilst in Walvis.  For those of you not familiar with this it is essentially a networking site that enables you to offer accommodation to people who are travelling around and in turn stay with others.  The advantages are that it’s free, it’s an opportunity to meet new people and make friends, and you get a personal account of the area in which you’re staying.  We stayed with a German Social Worker volunteer and his girlfriend.  They were really friendly and took us sand boarding on Dune 7…not for the feint-hearted as it’s very steep and the sand whips your face and gets everywhere…quite an adrenaline rush though.

Eventually we got our car, and despite our fears the only thing that got stolen was the in-car fridge - not the most essential item, but none the less a useful one.  At that point we were past caring though and just having the car (minus air-con – oh no) was a relief.

Work has been progressing very slowly still.  We both decided that in order to get anything done we needed to put our issues and some suggested solutions in writing as time is ticking on and, as patient as we’re trying to be, we need to see some action!  Result!...a couple of days later we were invited to meet with the Chief Medical Officer which turned out to be at the regional management team transport meeting.  Surprisingly we had been put at the top of the agenda with regards to our move to Otjiwarongo so that we have a better chance of being able to do our jobs.  We have now been promised that by the end of this week we will have confirmation of this move…watch this space.

We have identified a couple of potential projects with the local Community Based Rehab Committees and are going to put as much effort as possible into getting them off the ground, but there are a lot of potentially limiting factors.  One is developing a business plan and trying to source funding for a fisheries project in a settlement called Okondjatu.  This is an income generating project supported by the Ministry of Fisheries to enable people with disabilities to farm fish for their own consumption and to sell to the community.  If anyone has read the book ‘Salmon Fishing in the Yemen’ this project reminds me somewhat of the un-likeliness of that story…however, there have apparently been other similar projects that have been successful elsewhere so there is hope! 

Another income generating project is being led by a volunteer based in Windhoek.  This time it’s a gardening project on a plot of land at the back of our flat.  It was started a couple of years ago but the local community seem to have lost momentum and nothing is happening there now.  There is, however, some funding from VSO to build a nursery which will help the growing process and should help protect the plants from the guinea fowl who have freedom to roam.  We have suggested that the land be subdivided into smaller allotments so that individuals or groups can have a greater responsibility and ownership of their area of land and potentially there could be raised beds etc for some people with disabilities…it’s all early days but at least there may be something we can get involved in.

We continue to see patients in the department.  Ant has made his first wrist splint today – every OT should be proud - and we’ve become adept at making cardboard and papier mache adaptive furniture for children with Cerebral Palsy.  We are trying to involve our volunteer assistant as much as possible and develop her rehab skills as we go along whilst she is encouraging our attempts at Otjiherero (having now had 2 lessons we have a few more phrases in our repertoire although I think it’ll be a long process).

I think we are being accepted more within the hospital.  We were invited to our first infection control meeting last week.  Item 4 on the agenda was the issue of slaughtering livestock on the hospital grounds.  It was agreed that this should not take place due to the risk of spreading infection….and Ant thought that having soap on the hospital wards was a priority!

Last weekend we travelled back to Swakopmund on the coast as Ant was running a 10km race (in a respectable 46 mins) There were quite a few other volunteers there too so it was a sociable weekend.  Swakopmund is a very German resort - most people speak German and it looks very much like an attractive European holiday resort.  The beaches are beautiful and if you’re brave enough (we weren’t) there’s good surfing.

This week we’re doing the 4 day 50km hike at Waterberg with 3 friends.  We’re not quite sure what to expect.  The plateau looks pretty flat from a distance but I suspect there’s a few more boulders than meet the eye!  Our food rations comprise of carbs carbs and more carbs so we’ll either be falling asleep or fuelled to go.  Hope to see some rhinos and hopefully not any snakes.

Keep us posted as always with news from home.

Love Jules xxx

A tour around Okakarara

Would you fancy getting meat from this establishment?!

One of the smarter shabeens

Herero lady with potchi, used to cook meat and pap on an outdoor fire

Traders on Okakarara High Street do amongst other things a good business in UK premiership football gear

  It seems most people have a rusty and /or burnt out car carcass in their yard... they make good chicken coops!

The local kids are amazed by digital technology

North of the Red Line

I have just come back 'home' after spending three weeks at various conferences, workshops and chasing car importation paperwork. One of those weeks was spent in Oshakati at a Ministry of Health workshop. Oshakati is Namibia's second city, an urban sprawl in the north of the country. The drive from Okakarara is around six hours and once you get past the Red Line, a veterinary quarantine boundary controlling livestock movement, the country changes significantly. Most of the north is communal farming land as opposed to commercial farming south of the Red Line. Many families live through subsistance farming, rearing goats and cows for their own consumption on shared farmland. There are many more villages and towns too - 60% of the population live in the far north. The landscape becomes more green and even some riverbeds remain wet in the dry season. However the biggest difference was the heat, which was easily in the mid 30s and a bit of a struggle. Oshakati is in Ovamboland rendering my developing yet basic Ojtiherero useless.

The purpose of the workshop was to review and further develop a Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) volunteer training manual that had been piloted in some regions. It was attended by about 20 regional rehabilitation workers, occupational therapists and one physiotherapist in addition to me and another VSO volunteer. It soon became apparent that a group of the attendees were opposed to the CBR programme, which poses a greater barrier to the programme than transport or funding. Pilot regions have trained volunteers to identify and refer people with disabilities to rehabilitation workers but there has been little if any training on basic screening/assessment and clinical management skills. This would be fine if there weren't the human resources or transport challenges. In districts with no rehabilitation worker who are volunteers supposed to refer to?! There are about 80 rehabilitation professionals of varying competence servicing 2 million people in a country twice the size of France! There was a resistance to pass on skills and empower volunteers as the rehabilitation workers viewed this as a threat to their status. This is obviously ridiculous as they are needed to train and provide ongoing support to volunteers, there aren't enough of them and there are vacancies that can't be filled!

The week became a battle, although very good humoured, between this group and me and some like minded guys. We succeeded in keeping basic clinical skills core to the programme and it was actually a very enjoyable week. The programme covered chest infections and with me being the only person with respiratory experience I became the national advisor on community respiratory therapy - those 6 months on respiratory at QMC were not wasted!

At the end of the week I went to a Braai to celebrate South Africa heritage day hosted by a new Afrikaans friend I met on Coach Surfing - a social networking site for people traveling. Namibia is such a melting pot of culture due to colonial and tribal influences - languages spoke at the party included Afrikaans, German, Otjivambo, Portuguese, Norwegian and fortunately English! A late night added to the challenge of the 8 hour trip to Windhoek the following day.

Currently the car importation saga continues - I can't bear to recount the story so far. Fingers crossed it will be over soon.

Ant x

Conference, Cockroaches and Car

Hello all.  Sorry it’s been a while since our last instalment – I know you’re all hanging in there with baited breath.  When I last left off we were heading down to Windhoek for the week long VSO conference.  It was held in a slightly dilapidated lodge about 10km outside of Windhoek, but the views were amazing (anyway, I’m sure as UK tax payers you wouldn’t want to hear that your donations have been supporting volunteers to live in luxury!).  There were about 50 volunteers at the conference from all over Namibia, plus staff members, and the purpose was to re-look at VSO’s in-country strategy.  All well and good; lots of consultation went on, some subtle hinting and persuasion from management that we need to be focussing on climate change and gender issues – point noted.  There were lots of slightly too lengthy debates and far too many terrible power point presentations whereby the mission appeared to be to get as many words on a slide as possible, avoid any eye contact with the audience and try not to alter the tone of your voice throughout…..there are definitely some skills that could be shared in that area.

The conference did mean that we had the opportunity to meet all the other volunteers and now have people we can go and stay with in other areas of the country.  It was interesting to hear stories about others’ placements too – both re-assuring and worrying that lots of people seem to have the same frustrations as us, particularly where the government ministries are concerned.  Issues such as transport, lack of planning, poor communication and apathy seemed common themes.

The week after the conference Ant went straight up to Oshakati in the north of the country for a Ministry of Health workshop – he can tell you about that – so I headed back to Okakarara by myself to see if I could make any inroads into our placement.  I had a much busier week than previously.  I think in part because there was only me there, but also because Eben, a Community-Based Rehab (CBR) volunteer has suddenly shown more interest in developing her rehab skills and also brought more patients into the department.  Apparently some patients have been too scared to come and see us as we don’t speak fluent Otjiherero (yet).  Luckily this is Eben’s first language so she can translate – although I’m pretty sure there’s a lot that gets lost in both directions. 

Towards the end of the week one of the rehabilitation instructors who works across the region came to visit and held a couple of meetings with the Okakarara CBR committee.  These were in part to give them a motivational boost for them to do something, but also to raise the issue of families and carers who abuse disability grants and empower the committees to address some of these issues.  The second meeting to this effect was held in the community under the shade of a tree – this seems like quite a good place to hold meetings – relatively cool, plenty of space and everyone brings their own chair.  The chair that was lent to me was a plastic garden chair that was precariously wired together so I had to sit really still in case it caved in which would have been embarrassing  It was a good turn out with about 50 people there, some with disabilities and their carers.  However, it lasted for 3 ½ hours and was all in Otjiherero so I couldn’t understand a thing.  I don’t know what it is, but people in a position of relative power seem to like to preach and deliver lengthy speeches at the expense of the interest of all involved…there were definitely heads nodding after the first 2 hours.

I had a couple of real successes during the week.  The first was getting Okakarara’s version of Rentokil in to sort out our cockroach problem – she’s put some sort of toxic gunk in our cupboards and so far it seems to have done the trick – marvellous.  My second achievement was sourcing someone to do our washing for us for a mere £12 per month.  The novelty of hand washing has most definitely worn off!

This week we’re back down in Windhoek going through the painful process of importing our car.  Naively I thought it would be a bit more straight forward than it has been as we’ve appointed an agent to sort the port clearance processes and someone at VSO was sorting our tax and customs clearance.  However, as is the Namibian way, the Customs office (or rather one awkward woman in the customs office) has decided to change the VSO agreement so that I cannot import my car tax free and at the moment I’m only allowed to keep it in the country for 12 months until I apply for an extension.  All incredibly frustrating and we have spent the last 3 days going to and from various officials to try and get the numerous pieces of paper stamped in order to be able to collect our car from Walvis Bay.  In the mean time the car is sat in storage and I’m really hoping that as each day goes by more of our stuff isn’t being nicked out of the car, but it’s pretty likely.  Hopefully we’ll be able to collect it one day next week…fingers crossed.

On a more positive note, we’ve just booked a 4 day 50k unguided trek through Waterberg National Park with a couple of friends at the end of October.  It should be good fun – you take all your own food etc and camp in stone shelters along the way - a proper adventure.

Hope it’s not getting too chilly at home.  The temperature is ramping up here and everyone seems to be looking forward to the rains.  Keep us posted with news from home.

Julia xx

A prize winning specimen

Josef - recovering well after his Stroke

Rushed off his feet (nice haircut by the way!)

2 long weeks

Well we’ve had 2 weeks straight in Okakarara, with no weekend away and only 1 trip out to meet Ant’s boss…it’s been a long 2 weeks!

Now that the rehab worker has left, it’s just the 2 of us in the rehab department with enough work to fill about 2 hours of 1 person’s time. We’ve had a few patients pop in and there are 2 long-term patients on the ward who we’re treating, but other than that there’s not a lot going on. In terms of outreaching to the settlements, we are now waiting for the Community Based Rehab committees in the settlements to come back to us with an idea of what the needs are in their communities, and what support or training they would like from us. I suspect we may need to come up with a few ideas to get the ball rolling, but we want to find out what other volunteers have done before us so that we try to build on that rather than repeating efforts that haven’t worked…..patience, patience.

The meeting with Ant’s boss went well. He’s a Dr from Zimbabwe and is very down to earth and realistic about our posts – plus he knew we were coming. We spoke to him about the possibility of a job share across the region so that we can make the most of our time here. We also asked if we could move to Otjiwarongo which is the regional capital as transport links will be much better from there and we will be able to meet far more easily with the most relevant people to do our jobs. These decisions need to be considered by the Regional Management Team, but we’re hopeful and left our meeting feeling far more positive.

There’s a plot of land outside our flat which is fenced off from the goats. This was donated to an HIV and AIDS group in 2008 along with agricultural training and seeds. However, as the locals aren’t into veg (and probably because there was a degree of apathy) it has been abandoned. We are hoping to be able to somehow kick-start this project, widening the group to include those with disabilities, and are in the process of finding out who else could be involved locally. However, in the mean time we have helped the social worker dig over a bit of the plot and plant some cabbage-like plants for our own consumption. I’m hoping to pick up a few different vegetable seeds this weekend as cabbage will get a bit boring!

At the weekend we were invited out by a guy, Benson, who works at the hospital. We went to watch the England game at his Aunty’s house on a 40” flat screen with surround sound in a deceptively large but rustic village house! Benson and his cousin then took us out on the town. We’d been curious to know where the loud music that’s played every evening was coming from, and had the feeling we might be missing out on a great party. Not so. The first place we went into was aptly called the VIP bar; there were about 10 people in there including ourselves and at least 2 of them were some of the richest men in Namibia – apparently they come back to their farms at the weekends and hide out in the VIP bar in Okakarara – an odd choice. The second place we went to was a sports bar which had a few torn pool tables, a juke box, African House music and lots of young guys drinking half-pint glasses of whisky. As the only whites in the town we were mistaken as Africaans farmers when one of the guys asked us if we’d give him a job. Now that we’ve sussed it out we’re quite happy with scrabble and a glass of wine back at the flat!

I extended my creative skills this weekend and gave Ant a hair cut…he wasn’t brave enough to venture into one of the outdoor barber shacks in the town as he thought they probably have little experience with Caucasian hair (about as much experience as myself). We really know how to have fun!

The Okakarara trade fair (the highlight of the year for residents) is on this week and is held at the Cultural and Tourist Centre just outside of the town. We went along yesterday to see what was going on. There was a mix of government ministry stands, local people trading crafts and food and the showing of prize winning goats and cattle.

This weekend we’re back down to Windhoek for a week long VSO conference. It’ll be really good to see people and the lodge we’re staying in has a pool which will be great now that it’s getting hotter by the day. Plus we’ll have some people to celebrate with on Ant’s birthday - a restaurant, bars, civilisation - can’t believe I’m getting so excited! We’re also excited about getting the car – it’s due to arrive on 26th September and it’ll give us a new found freedom.

Angelina strikes

Herero ladies

Bottoms up

Lady Kudu

Elephant march

Victim of the gravel roads

Welcome to the great outdoors

RSI (Repetitive Safari Injury)

I’m currently suffering from what I have diagnosed as Photographer’s Neck – severe neck pain caused by excessive craning out of car windows through a view finder. It’s nothing that a good hot bath wouldn’t fix – it’s a pity we still do not have hot water.

Other than the lack of hot water, which is testing Julia particularly when it comes to hand washing laundry (fortunately I have been happy to help her out with her chores ), things are going well. We have had a very exciting couple of weeks and the work situation has improved as a result of some promising meetings and us adjusting to the pace of things. Furthermore, today I managed to speak to my manager and have arranged to meet him this week – only six weeks in!

We have continued with our induction taking advantage of transport opportunities whenever possible and meeting as many people in the region as possible. The region is 41 000 square miles, slightly smaller than England, so getting around takes some coordination and effort. Last week we went to the north of the region with a couple of friends, Mike and Sandra, who are volunteering with the Ministry of Education and were visiting some schools. This area is known as Bushmanland and is inhabited by San communities (supposedly one of the oldest civilisations in the world) living in villages separated by vast distances and gravel roads or sand tracks. Mike and Sandra visited one remote school which was a tent. They returned to the village along the sand tracks with 7 adults, 5 children, their belongings and a bag of elephant meat crammed into the Land Rover. We visited a couple of clinics and spoke to a few people including a social worker who has set up a soup kitchen and garden project for TB patients. As with everywhere else in the country the main concerns were HIV and AIDS, TB and Malaria. Disability wasn’t thought to be a major issue, or at least it isn’t high on the priority list. The more you see and learn about the impact of AIDS and TB the more you appreciate the difficulty that the Ministry of Health faces in releasing funds for anything else such as community based rehabilitation.

Despite car mishaps including a blown tyre and broken suspension we managed to get to Khaudum National Park for the weekend. The camp was ‘rustic’ with minimal facilities and a sign warning of the danger of elephant and lion in the camp at night. The wildlife was great, we got good use of our camera and were lucky enough to see a herd of fifty elephants.

This weekend was also a bank holiday for us so we took an extra day off and made a trip to Waterberg Plateau and Etosha National Park with some other volunteers. Waterberg is only 50km from us and is best seen by taking the 4 day hike – it’s on the list. This time we settled for an afternoon exploring some of the shorter trails. Etosha is probably Namibia’s main tourist attraction. The salt pan is approximately 150km by 70km and is surrounded by waterholes. We lucked out again and saw tons of wildlife, hence the Photographers Neck. It was good to spend time with the other vols and much alcohol was consumed, and a great weekend was rounded off on our way home with our first lion spotting.

We learnt today that the Medical Rehab Worker is leaving tomorrow. There is still far too much that we don’t know but I am doing much better at not getting frustrated.

Ant xxx

Some happy locals, desperate to get their photos taken!

The caged cheetah - looking forward to seeing them in the wild

The lodge at Mariental

A trip to Mariental and starting to explore

Well we’re back in Okakarara now having spent last week in Mariental, a small town about 3 hours south of Windhoek. This was our second lot of In-Country Training, and the idea was that we go to somewhere different in Namibia to learn about the culture and issues in the region as well as having some time to catch up with the other volunteers and share our placement experiences so far.

We stayed in a lodge which had 2600 hectares of ‘farm’ land. It was a bit of a strange place – the owner seemed drunk and manic all the time and her dog (half wolf, half German Shepherd), had an unhealthy fettish for the cats and had seemingly been trained to attack only black people – not good for some members of our group! We didn’t really think the stuffed lion and caged Cheetah were all that great either, but it seemed to be a popular spot for people passing though to do some game hunting….and the Oryx steaks were very good.

Unexpectedly it was a very cold week so luckily the tents in which we were staying had proper beds and we could huddle up underneath 2 duvets plus several layers of clothes – it’s much warmer up north where we are and spring is definitely here – signalled by increased bug activity. We’re not looking forward to the full sized cockroaches and dung beetles, so we’re working out how to make our flat suitably sealed and protected, starting off with mosquito netting and a draft excluder for the door.

We’ve had a slightly more productive day at work today. I went out to one of the settlements, about 70km from Okakarara and met with the very motivated Community Based Rehabilitation Committee who told me all about their plans to build a vocational training centre for people with disabilities as well as a gardening project. It all sounded very positive and well planned out, but they’re still awaiting donors to get the first bricks laid so I’m not sure how long the whole thing will take to get up and running – it’s a start though. Ant went along to the local police station with the Social Worker to run a sort of Alcoholics Anonymous session. The cells (supposed to be short term ‘holding’ cells, but there were inmates who had been there for 5 years) were about 12 foot x 12 foot concrete pens with only a mesh roof and housed 10 prisoners each. Despite the horrendous conditions there was quite a lot of interest and engagement with the programme – literally a captive audience I suppose.

The region in which we are working is twice the size of the UK, and we still haven’t managed to meet Ant’s boss yet to see if we can negotiate getting some sort of transport. This is definitely going to be key to being able to even start being effective in our jobs. However, we’ve become friends with another volunteer, Mike, who works for the Ministry of Education in our region, has a car and has invited us to go on a trip to Tsumkwe (another town in the north east of our region) from Thursday and then to camp at a game reserve at the weekend – binoculars and the new camera are at the ready so hopefully we’ll get some good shots to share with you all!

Ant’s just posted some pictures on Facebook too so feel free to have a look.

Keep us posted with the news from home!
xxx

Chickens in the back garden - just like home...except for the goats!

The school bus

Week 3

We have spent this week with Josephine, the district Medical Rehabilitation Worker. Despite adopting the communication approach of only sharing information in response to direct questioning that we have become accustomed to she seems to have slowly warmed to us. Josephine is actually very friendly and obviously very competent in her role which further raised our question about what we are doing here. We then learnt that she will be leaving soon to take up a post in a coastal district near her family leaving us as the only trained rehabilitation workers in the district, raising another question regarding sustainability after we leave. Things are far from clear regarding our roles and we must wait a couple more weeks before we meet my line manager to ask some more direct questions!

In the meantime we have found a role in supporting health promotion. Yesterday we found ourselves appointed to a committee planning a two day programme raising breastfeeding awareness. The two days turned out to be today and tomorrow – nothing like forward planning! Not the best utilisation of our skills but it was good to be doing something useful. And I have learnt a lot about breastfeeding! It also gave us a chance to be introduced to the community. Today’s event was held in an outdoor cattle auction arena with the presentations interspersed with prayer, songs and drama – we are certainly in Africa.

At the weekend we took the hour drive to Otjiwarongo to do some shopping and meet up with a couple Canadian volunteers. Genevieve is a physiotherapist placed in another region and it was reassuring to hear that her experiences so far had been similar to ours. I felt for her partner Simon, who is a non-volunteering partner or NVP, who seemed to have had a very long week and was craving internet access! I have also noticed how much time we seem to have here – we have already got through a whole season of Lost. When not watching Jack, Hurley and our other friends going crazy on their island we have been passing the time playing Scrabble, at which I continue to get worse.

Ant x

National press

First week at work

We’ve been at work for 3 days now and it’s been an enlightening experience to say the least. At 8am Monday morning we were met by the Social Worker, Clever, who gave us some brief information about the hospital – having fired lots of questions at him and receiving minimal useful information we hoped that there might be some sort of induction planned for us. However, we then found out that the Medical Rehab Worker, Josephine, who runs the rehab department and will be able to fill us in on the basics of what goes on is away on a workshop about 400km away all week…and there’s no phone coverage so we were unable to contact her…marvellous.

There’s a weekly Monday morning ward round where pretty much all the hospital staff trawl around the patients (we were introduced to 16 staff all together on the round), so patient confidentiality and bedside manner left a lot to be desired – it’s how we imagine it to have been 50 years ago in the UK, but with less of a grasp on basic hygiene. Some of the wards are pretty shabby – the ward marked ‘isolation’ has the door open and allows anyone in, and there’s a lack of water in the taps and no soap in sight! Despite all this the staff are really friendly and laid back - probably because they have a lot of time on their hands as the ratio of staff to patients is quite high. I think at the moment there are about 20 patients in the whole hospital so it gives you an idea of how small the town is.

For the rest of the day on Monday we had a number of frustrating conversations with various members of staff whereby people would give us information on a strictly need to know basis – i.e. unless we asked a very specific direct question we would get nothing, and even then it was hit and miss. We had several random patients just turn up in the department including a few children, a guy needing ferrell replacements on his ancient crutches, a woman with severe leg contractures due to being bed bound for 6 months in hospital….none of which we knew were coming, had any information on or spoke much English. As you can imagine, we went home that night feeling a bit deflated and wondering what on earth we are supposed to be doing here.


On Tuesday we took it upon ourselves to go on one of the outreach clinic visits to a settlement called Okondjatu, about 100km from Okakarara. It was an ideal opportunity to suss out the region properly. Initially the understanding of the Dr, HIV counsellor and pharmacist who we travelled with was that we would provide massage to people when we arrived. So we had to explain, in a diplomatic way, that 1 – we don’t really do a lot of massage, 2 – if we did then doing a one-off session once a month to people in the settlement would be a total waste of time, and 3 – it would take all day for the Herero ladies to remove their 10 layers of clothes anyway (we’ll post some photos soon – amazing outfits, they look like a cross between Victorian dress and a hammerhead shark!). We went along to observe (in the back of the pick up truck) and when we arrived all the patients were sat on the floor, spilling out of the clinic door. The Dr saw 87 patients in 6 hours – pretty impressive! – mostly heart problems, diabetes and OA, put down to the fact that they eat a diet of strictly no veg, meat, meat a bit more meat and soured milk. It really made us realise how little people have here, we saw donkeys pulling people along in carts, and again, lots of goats.

Wednesday was a better day. We were recognised by people at the hospital and our Otjiherero greetings are coming along well. We spoke on the telephone to another Physio volunteer working in the region who has given us some helpful information, putting us slightly more at ease, and we’re meeting up with her next week to find out more. We also met with the Principal Medical Officer who seems very down to earth and flexible which bodes well. It’s all a lot to adjust to, and as much as we keep telling ourselves that it’ll take a while to settle in, it’s strange not being busy and not knowing what to do….we’ll be learning a lot about patience!

Erwin, our friend and Otjiherero language teacher

Local fine dining

Okakarara main street at rush hour

View from our flat

Our flat at the hospital

Orientation

Kora (Otjiherero for Hi!)

We ended orientation week with a couple of impromptu visits to the Ministry of Health and state hospitals. In our short meeting with the Head of Division of Rehabilitation we were explained the Ministry management structure, and what seemed most important, the procedure for formal communication. It appears all communication is done by letter, which must gain approval from four tiers of management right through to the Division Director (gone are the days of email!). We were given hospital and physiotherapy department tours. The state hospital physiotherapy facilities here are surprisingly equal to, if not better than, facilities in the UK. We met two of the three state physiotherapists working in Windhoek who cover everything including ICU, a spinal unit, a cardiac unit and paediatrics. There are only another half dozen or so physiotherapists working in the regions, meaning we make up a significant proportion of Namibia’s physiotherapy workforce! There are no physiotherapists other than us in Otjizondjupa region. There is also only one Medical Rehabilitation Worker in the region. There is no physiotherapy or occupational therapy training in Namibia and the MRW training programme has recently been stopped. Therefore we have many questions regarding the sustainability of what we do here. Hopefully we will get some answers over the coming weeks!

We arrived at our ‘home’ on Friday. Okakarara is a small town/large village a short distance from Waterberg Plateau National Park. The plateau makes for an awesome sight as you drive along the road to the town. Other roadside attractions include warthog, ostrich, kudu and many friendly goats! Okakarara appears to have more bars than shops lined along the dusty main street. However we are yet to brave the local watering holes! There doesn’t appear to be much going on in the town, although we did catch a local football match today, so hopefully we will make some friends. We can see ourselves having many weekends away exploring.

Our one bedroom flat is situated on the hospital grounds next door to Ernest, the Principle Medical Officer, and Clever, a Zimbabwean social worker. The accommodation is very new, boasting a TV (although with one channel) and a shower (however currently lacking hot water!). No washing machine though – we have just hung out our first load of hand washed clothes! The flies that lay eggs on drying clothes which then burrow and hatch under your skin are apparently not an issue here – fingers crossed!

The adventure begins!

Well, day 3 in Windhoek and all’s good so far. We got collected from the airport by Barney, a very friendly VSO employee who took us on a tour of the city before depositing us off to our home for the week during our in country induction programme. We’re staying with a couple of other volunteers, one of whom, Rashmi, has been here for 6 months so has all the local knowledge including how to make the most of the $8 (75p) taxis around town – there’s no bus service so this seems to be the way to travel! It’s all very civilised in the city. It’s clean, everyone stops at traffic lights, no hassle, friendly and reasonably safe (although we’ve been advised not to go out after dark alone, and all the houses have gates and electric fences and bars on the windows…other than that all ok).

On Sunday evening we met up with the other 7 volunteers who are starting at the same time as us; 4 of them are from Canada and the others from the UK doing a mixture of placements including education, IT, developing girls involvement in football and audiology. We were taken to a pretty cool bar called Joes (a definite must for those who are visiting) and sampled the local cuisine of Springbok kebab and Kudu steak and excellent local beer. This is a taste of things to come as we’ve learnt today that we’ll be eating a diet of Maize and meat for 2 years in Okakarara – they’re not really into veg!

This week’s going to be quite relaxed, learning practical tips such as opening bank accounts, child protection issues, a bit of Herero language training and network building with other volunteers. On Friday we get collected by someone from the Ministry of Health and taken to Okakarara where we have a 1 bedroom flat at the hospital – watch this space as we don’t really know what to expect. We do have a shower and electricity though so it sounds promising!

A big shock has been how cold it gets at night. Literally within half an hour between 5.30 and 6pm it gets dark and goes from being 20 something degrees to about 5 degrees – good job we brought our thermals!

There’s been a lot going on and there’ll be photos for the next update once we’ve sussed out the internet options in our new home. Hope all’s well back in the UK. xxxx

Welcome to Namibia - Part 3

Welcome to Namibia - Part 2

Welcome to Namibia - Part 1