Sunday, April 15, 2012
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Rural homestay & Etosha National Park
The past three weeks have been unforgettable, to say the least. First, our group drove to the Omusati region in the north for our week-long rural home stay. We were each placed with families living on farms just outside of the city of Otapi. When we met our families, we were greeted with huge smiles and warm hugs. My first impression of them was that they were genuinely happy people, and extremely welcoming. My meme (mother in Oshiwambo) was a short, aged woman wearing a traditional green dress that I soon learned I would see her wearing everyday. She gave me a big, alternating shoulder hug, and we laughed together as we exchanged greetings in Oshiwambo. As we stood together waiting for everyone else to get matched, I discovered that she did not speak a lick of English...I remember thinking, wow, this is going to be an interesting week. My friends tried to reassure me that the homestay coordinators placed me in that family on purpose since I had gotten pretty good at Oshiwambo, but I was still not convinced. When we were about to head home, one of my host sisters arrived and started talking to me in English- what a relief! So we all clamored into the back of a big white pick up truck and were off to our families' compounds.
I arrived to the gate of my family's compound and was greeted by a few farm animals grazing on their expansive farm. Then as I walked down the path towards the compound, I saw a bunch of young boys running around through the tall grass- they were so shy! Whenever I would look at them or try to greet them, they would try to hide behind each other. I soon learned they were my brothers Mathew, Samuel, Naftal, and Iita. They led me inside the compound...it was so different from anything I had seen before! I was led to my own hut (monduda in Oshiwambo)...I'll try to upload some pictures later, but my camera was dead for most of the trip to the north unfortunately.
The first few days were fairly uneventful since we got home so late each evening that we would just eat dinner and then go to bed. All week, our group would travel around the northern region during the day. We did yoga at the King's palace, visited Export Processing Zones, a Fish Harvesting farm, Baobob trees (which are these HUGE trees that are ~ 1000 years old that had been hollowed out and used for hiding places during the Bush War during the liberation struggle), and we had a picnic at Rucuna Waterfall on the Angolan border (yes, we crawled under the fence to get to the Angolan side, it was incredible!).
I, like most of the others in my group, was nervous about the weekend since we would be with our families full time. But I had the most amazing experience of my life. Friday when we were dropped off, I went back to my compound to sit and hang out with my family. I was playing in the dirt with a couple of the babies when a 16-year old boy came running in, grabbed my hands with a huge smile on his face, and started greeting me. It wasn't until later that I discovered he was one of my homestay brothers that lived in Otapi for school. But it was great to spend the weekend hanging out with him and my sister Horte. He had so much energy, spoke English really well (thank goodness!), and knew more about American pop culture than I did. But the weekend was fantastic. They taught me to juice amarula fruits, cultivate the fields, pound mahongu, kill a chicken, and perform traditional dances. My absolute favorite experience so far on this trip- on both Friday and Saturday night, we invited the neighbors over to our compound after dinner to hang out. The whole family came out, and by light of candlelight and by the light of the moon, they taught me a ton of traditional dances. It was absolutely incredible! They kept dragging me up to dance, and we all just laughed constantly because I definitely was NOT good at it. So I would keep running and sitting down in the dirt and just watch my siblings have these really intense dance battles. Then I had probably the most memorable experience so far in Namibia. I was sitting on the ground, drawing in the dirt when all my brothers crowded around me and started copying what I was drawing by candlelight. So as I looked up, I was completely surrounded by the eager, smiling faces of my brothers, and then my sisters and their neighbors were all singing traditional songs in Oshiwambo. Then I looked up to see a completely clear sky with more stars than I'd ever seen before- I could even see the Milky Way with the naked eye. It was in that moment that I truly realized where I was and how incredible an experience I was having- this was the real Africa. And I had never felt more at home.
After those two nights, the rest of my homestay became drastically better; I felt so much closer to my family even though communication was still difficult at times. Laughter really did become our means of communication, especially between my Meme and me. It truly was one of the most valuable and unforgettable experiences of my life. When it came time to say goodbye to our families, we were all dreading it. I never wanted to leave- my family was so kind, so genuine, and so welcoming. But we agreed to try to stay in touch, and I promised to write them a letter with photos from the trip.
So we all climbed back into the CGE van with Uncle Passat, our trusty driver. And we were off to Etosha, the big wildlife national park of Namibia. Pretty soon after we entered the park, we started seeing animals all over. We saw two elephants taking a bath at the watering hole! I guess it's pretty rare to see them (as we didn't see any more on our other safaris the next day). I made sure to bring my binoculars for the safari, and I'm so glad I did! I could see the elephants so clearly, along with giraffes, zebra, springbok, dikdiks, wildebeest, and so much more.
That night, I helped Passat with the braai (BBQ), and then went stargazing again after dinner. I think one of the best things I will take away from my trip to Namibia is the memories of the clear night sky. Namibia is one of the least populated countries in the world, and because of that, has INCREDIBLE views of stars outside of the city area. Again, I could see a strip of the Milky Way with bare eyes. But the clearest objects in the sky were the bright lights from Venus and Jupiter. I had never seen them so bright! And actually at the time, I didn't know what they were, but I looked it up later and found out people have been posting pictures of Venus & Jupiter all over the world (including someone from Minneapolis!). Outside of them, I could see so many constellations and star clusters...unfortunately I forgot to bring a star map to figure out which ones were which. Hopefully I'll remember to bring one on our camping trip to Southern Namibia.
The next day, we went on two safaris, one in the morning and one around sunset. We saw so many animals! It got to the point where if we saw a giraffe or zebra next to our car, no one even took out their cameras because we had seen so many. I still don't know how Passat did it, but he always spotted animals from so far away (I usually couldn't even beat him to it with my binoculars!). But he found a lion pride for us (9 lions) which again is really rare to stumble across. We probably spent about 3 hours taking pictures of them, it was incredible! He also found a rhino at the very end of our safari just as we had lost hope of seeing one. Passat is the man! After our safari, we settled in for the last night in Etosha, then packed up in the morning and headed back to the homestead. It was time to get ready for Spring Break 2012 in Zambia!
I arrived to the gate of my family's compound and was greeted by a few farm animals grazing on their expansive farm. Then as I walked down the path towards the compound, I saw a bunch of young boys running around through the tall grass- they were so shy! Whenever I would look at them or try to greet them, they would try to hide behind each other. I soon learned they were my brothers Mathew, Samuel, Naftal, and Iita. They led me inside the compound...it was so different from anything I had seen before! I was led to my own hut (monduda in Oshiwambo)...I'll try to upload some pictures later, but my camera was dead for most of the trip to the north unfortunately.
The first few days were fairly uneventful since we got home so late each evening that we would just eat dinner and then go to bed. All week, our group would travel around the northern region during the day. We did yoga at the King's palace, visited Export Processing Zones, a Fish Harvesting farm, Baobob trees (which are these HUGE trees that are ~ 1000 years old that had been hollowed out and used for hiding places during the Bush War during the liberation struggle), and we had a picnic at Rucuna Waterfall on the Angolan border (yes, we crawled under the fence to get to the Angolan side, it was incredible!).
I, like most of the others in my group, was nervous about the weekend since we would be with our families full time. But I had the most amazing experience of my life. Friday when we were dropped off, I went back to my compound to sit and hang out with my family. I was playing in the dirt with a couple of the babies when a 16-year old boy came running in, grabbed my hands with a huge smile on his face, and started greeting me. It wasn't until later that I discovered he was one of my homestay brothers that lived in Otapi for school. But it was great to spend the weekend hanging out with him and my sister Horte. He had so much energy, spoke English really well (thank goodness!), and knew more about American pop culture than I did. But the weekend was fantastic. They taught me to juice amarula fruits, cultivate the fields, pound mahongu, kill a chicken, and perform traditional dances. My absolute favorite experience so far on this trip- on both Friday and Saturday night, we invited the neighbors over to our compound after dinner to hang out. The whole family came out, and by light of candlelight and by the light of the moon, they taught me a ton of traditional dances. It was absolutely incredible! They kept dragging me up to dance, and we all just laughed constantly because I definitely was NOT good at it. So I would keep running and sitting down in the dirt and just watch my siblings have these really intense dance battles. Then I had probably the most memorable experience so far in Namibia. I was sitting on the ground, drawing in the dirt when all my brothers crowded around me and started copying what I was drawing by candlelight. So as I looked up, I was completely surrounded by the eager, smiling faces of my brothers, and then my sisters and their neighbors were all singing traditional songs in Oshiwambo. Then I looked up to see a completely clear sky with more stars than I'd ever seen before- I could even see the Milky Way with the naked eye. It was in that moment that I truly realized where I was and how incredible an experience I was having- this was the real Africa. And I had never felt more at home.
After those two nights, the rest of my homestay became drastically better; I felt so much closer to my family even though communication was still difficult at times. Laughter really did become our means of communication, especially between my Meme and me. It truly was one of the most valuable and unforgettable experiences of my life. When it came time to say goodbye to our families, we were all dreading it. I never wanted to leave- my family was so kind, so genuine, and so welcoming. But we agreed to try to stay in touch, and I promised to write them a letter with photos from the trip.
So we all climbed back into the CGE van with Uncle Passat, our trusty driver. And we were off to Etosha, the big wildlife national park of Namibia. Pretty soon after we entered the park, we started seeing animals all over. We saw two elephants taking a bath at the watering hole! I guess it's pretty rare to see them (as we didn't see any more on our other safaris the next day). I made sure to bring my binoculars for the safari, and I'm so glad I did! I could see the elephants so clearly, along with giraffes, zebra, springbok, dikdiks, wildebeest, and so much more.
That night, I helped Passat with the braai (BBQ), and then went stargazing again after dinner. I think one of the best things I will take away from my trip to Namibia is the memories of the clear night sky. Namibia is one of the least populated countries in the world, and because of that, has INCREDIBLE views of stars outside of the city area. Again, I could see a strip of the Milky Way with bare eyes. But the clearest objects in the sky were the bright lights from Venus and Jupiter. I had never seen them so bright! And actually at the time, I didn't know what they were, but I looked it up later and found out people have been posting pictures of Venus & Jupiter all over the world (including someone from Minneapolis!). Outside of them, I could see so many constellations and star clusters...unfortunately I forgot to bring a star map to figure out which ones were which. Hopefully I'll remember to bring one on our camping trip to Southern Namibia.
The next day, we went on two safaris, one in the morning and one around sunset. We saw so many animals! It got to the point where if we saw a giraffe or zebra next to our car, no one even took out their cameras because we had seen so many. I still don't know how Passat did it, but he always spotted animals from so far away (I usually couldn't even beat him to it with my binoculars!). But he found a lion pride for us (9 lions) which again is really rare to stumble across. We probably spent about 3 hours taking pictures of them, it was incredible! He also found a rhino at the very end of our safari just as we had lost hope of seeing one. Passat is the man! After our safari, we settled in for the last night in Etosha, then packed up in the morning and headed back to the homestead. It was time to get ready for Spring Break 2012 in Zambia!
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