Where to begin...

On the road back to Windhoek.

It's only week 2, but I'm exploding with stuff to share. No clue where to begin. I've been inundated with so much interesting information in the past few weeks, that I realize how ignorant I am of Southern African culture/history/etc. My brain is overflowing with stuff to share with you, so I'm going to break this down:

1) seeing lions and tigers and leopards oh my!
2) my first week working in Development
3) more stuff I didn't know...

1)Lions and Tigers and Leopards oh my!

Last weekend we headed up to the N/a'ankuse Lodge - a conservation reserve that cares for mostly orphaned and injured animals that cannot be released back into the wild. The lodge is stunning, all made from eco-friendly materials, and all its profits go back to their efforts for wildlife conservation. It's about an hour outside of Windhoek, and they give you a very up close and personal view of Baboons, Caracals (bigger and meaner version of a house-cat), Wild Dogs, Leopards, Cheetahs, and Lions...The Lions were the craziest, SO big...and menacing.

We get there, and the guide was like, so, if they growl at you, don't run, it'll just provoke them. So i thought, yea, they'll be kinda far back, behind a steel iron gate or something, no worries. Oh no. It's this thin little wire thing (of course it's all ridden with high-voltage electricity, so there's isn't any risk for us, and little harm to them...unless there's a power failure...). So we raise our camera to take a photo, and the lion lets out this menacing growl..and the guide is like, oh yea, i forgot to tell you, they don't like it when you point at them..so keep it close to your body. but dude, when you're standing less than 5 feet away from a massive lion, and he's so not trained, and growling at you, and kinda ready to leap at your throat, you kinda want to pee in your pants a little. just a little.

The leopards were beautiful, and the cheetahs, hah..well we saw two brothers that were very angry at each other for some reason. But when they growl at each other (very menacing) they don't look at each other head on - if they did, that means they're challenging each other to a fight - so you think they're growling at you. but as soon as they got food they stopped provoking each other. kinda like my nephews.

Oh yea, and the baboons were actually kinda cute. We saw the baby ones, and they were adorable playing around. Apparently, anyone can volunteer there and help care for the baboons and other animals. With the orphaned baby baboons, the volunteers need to give them 24hr care, holding them, feeding them, changing their nappies - because that's the kind of care their mother would have given them (minus the nappy changing), and its instrumental in their development. See...everyone needs love. (let's hear a collective, aawwwww).


2) Working in Development - my 101

So I don't want to disclose which non-profit I'm working with here (I want to be honest with what I say, and not give you a skewed positive/negative image of the organization), but it deals with HIV/AIDS services and coordination. Its a small organization, but is quite well developed. It amazes me to see the types of constraints they have to deal with- and these I'm sure, are applicable to most, if not all organizations in development) - like access to strong resources, funding, ethnic tribal conflicts, historical context that affects how things are run...it's all eye-opening for me. And, I've been fortunate enough to meet with people across development here, from UN and WHO physicians, to teachers in schools in slums, to social workers, to...the list goes on. There's a definite benefit, I think of using folks from the corporate world to work in development, but there's a sharp learning curve and a sensitivity to the context that applies in development.

It's only been a week, but I hear certain terms thrown around incessantly - sustainability and capacity building. And I think its easy for volunteers, expats, foreigners to wax poetic at a high level on how things can be improved, but its another thing entirely, to eloquently detail the specific steps to become more sustainable, and build capacity in an environment that is limited in resources, and still affected by it's somewhat recent unfortunate history. It's certainly a challenge, and I have to say, I'm really enjoying trying to figure out ways to make those steps. I know I'm bright-eyed and optimistic now in week 1, so stay tuned for a while down the road, to see how I'm feeling then.

This might not be eloquent, but whatever, I'll edit later.

All this ties in to my third topic:

3) Things I didn't know before...

I wasn't really aware of Namibia's history/culture/current events. Basically, I was/am ignorant. Some interesting things I've learned that are of note, and some stuff I knew, but figure would be good background information:

• Namibia was a German colony - as a result, Namibian laws/constitution are very well structured and organized (ahh..the Germans)
• Within this time frame, they conducted what is said to be the first genocide in the 20th century - against the Herero people. It was apparently the 'test run' with concentration camps and 'experiments that Nazis would later conduct in death camps in Auschwitz, etc
  
• Segregation seems to still affect today, as there are definite distinctions between Afrikaners, Blacks, and Coloureds (people of mixed European and Sub-Saharan background).
  
• Apparently, there's at least one store in Namibia that's very old school German - ie: still selling Third Reich paraphernalia
  
• Namibia was just classified as a High-Middle-Income country by the World Bank...but has a ~37% unemployment rate, with a really high poverty rate (apparently one of the highest gaps between rich/poor because of the natural resource mining..)

On a side note - I just finished a book called 'Blue Clay People' by William Powers about an Aid worker's experience in Liberia. Really interesting read. Nothing to do with Southern Africa, but good insight on development work, and on Liberia. I had no idea that Liberia was basically 'reclaimed' by Americans, where a colonization group supported the return of formerly enslaved African Americans to Africa. Apparently there was a lot of class cultural divide with this oddly American colonial presence in Liberia..but not..I'm not explaining it that well - but just read it. :D

oh one last thing. today i met a girl (maybe 7 or 8) with my name! I was visiting a school that is located in the 'Informal Settlement' (the slum area) for orphaned kids, or kids who's parents are disadvantaged, and it was so surreal to meet this young girl with my name. She thought it was so neat as well..such a cutie. And apparently there's this other girl, who's 13 who was adopted by one of my sister's colleagues, with my name as well. I'd like to think they were all named after me, but there' some former Miss Universe with my name that might have had something to do with it.

okay - that's all for now.

Week 1: Windhoek 101

In an effort to keep in touch with the world 'back home' I've succumbed to the masses, and have created a blog. Here is my contribution to this newfangled contraption called the world wide web. Oh Al Gore, look what you've done.

It's my first week in Windhoek, Namibia. The journey from the Windy City to Windhoek was a long one. Over the course of the 2 day trip (Chicago-DC-Jo'burg-Windhoek) I wished 3 things: that I had not mocked Dana for purchasing a snuggie for her trip, that the 10 year-old South African girl sitting next to me for the 17hr flight wasn't so talkative and in love with Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers, and that the "Proposal" wasn't such a bad movie. Ah Sandra Bullock, look what you've done.

Upon finally arriving in Windhoek, I was utterly shocked to see that all 3 bags that I had checked were waiting patiently for me on the conveyer belt. The 2 overweight bags and akwardly long box I checked were filled with hockey gear, bottles of body lotion, stacks of notebooks, children's books, and a hammock. But lugging all that gear was very much worth it, because I got the best hugs from my nephews who were waiting patiently for my arrival.

The first thing that struck me when flying over Windhoek, is how sparse it is...just massive spanses of land, with trees spottted around for a chang of colour. The roads from the airport had a few 'baboon' crossing signs which was great, especially when we came across a clan of 7 or 8 baboons crossing the road. My sister's place is great - such a nice home, and it reminds me so much of Saudi. There's a night guard in front of the house, walls and gates surrounding the house, with electric fencing around the top, etc. In fact, I didn't even notice it at first when I walked because I felt so at home (Saudi style).

There's a swimming pool and a great terrace, so its wonderful to sit out there for morning tea and meals. The boys are loving it, swimming two, sometimes three times a day. It's still too cold for me, but it should heat up soon.

This week I'm taking it easy, adjusting to the time zone, and trying to 'relax'. Of course, Day 3 hit and I found myself writing up a list of things I want to accomplish in my trip here. Go figure. Next week I start volunteering with NANASO, so I'm excited to start getting into the city.

Anyways - this weekend will probably hit up a safari lodge, so will hopefully have interesting things to say and photos to share. Tonight we're going to a portuguese/angolan restaurant - can't wait!

ciao ciao kids!