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