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