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| Homestead |
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| Just cows living a cow life |
This was my first holiday season away from home, and it was interesting. On December 22 my site mate Brittany and I left for the farm (owned by Brittany's host family). It was 5 km away from Otjinene but because of how sandy and bad the road was it took us around 1 hour to get there. When I woke up the next day I took the time to wander around and see what the farm life here looked like. The family that we stayed with is big so multiple houses were arranged in a semi circle with an outdoor kitchen at the center. Most of the houses,except the one we stayed in, consisted of a bed and light. There was a communal bathroom next to one of the houses. Surrounding the homestead were fenced in pastures for the goats and cows. Everything was green and there was a lot of space for the live stock to roam. A few cacti in the middle of one ring made it a little more surreal. Waking up to the braying of a donkey brought me back home and during my time on the farm I felt really peaceful. The family is really large and soon there were people everywhere. Everyone I met was really nice, except for the one guy who was perpetually drunk and never said anything understandable to me. Every meal was cooked as a group and the days were spent sitting around and enjoying everyone's company.
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| Peeling onions and trying not to cry |
One of the daughters recently graduated from Med school so they threw a big party on Christmas Eve to celebrate. This of course meant cooking all day and eating at 10 at night. All of the food was fresh, especially the meat. Since the family has multiple farms and butcheries the meat was slaughtered that day and promptly cooked. The party was done in a tent behind the homestead and a whopping 170 people came to celebrate.
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| Beautiful grass and sky |
Christmas Day was nothing special. We woke up, ate breakfast and spent the day talking to each other just like the previous days. This was the hardest to deal with. I kept thinking about what I would've been doing at the time if I was home. Thankfully I had some awesome conversations with people and that kept me distracted. In Namibia the day after Christmas, Dec 26, is another national holiday. That day is Family day. The way it was celebrated on the homestead was by doing a secret santa with everyone (not the 170 people, just the immediate family). We had given Brittany's host family a large travel thermos. Since Brittany and I were going to Opuwo for New Years we left that day for Windhoek. However we didn't leave before Brittany's host mom gave us each a gift. I received a wood chicken that was made by the host mom's mother. It is currently sitting on my desk providing some color to my room. Brittany received a homemade jar full of cow fat.
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| A group of us chilling |
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| Brittany and I at the lodge in Opuwo |
You would not have believed that we were driving through the national capitol by the amount of cars that were on the street, which was zero. Since getting a ride to Opuwo that day was going to be impossible Brittany and I spent the night in the Peace Corps. office. The lounge has air conditioning, a kitchen, bathroom with a shower, and bookshelves with books we can take. The next morning we began our long journey to Opuwo. Opuwo is in the Northwest and although Namibia is a small country the journey was more than just a little tedious. The combi we were in left at 10 am. We were taking the long way there since the cars that left straight for Opuwo left really early in the morning. We got to Otjakati (might be mispelled) at 6 pm and then after another 1 1/2 hours we made it to Opuwo.
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| Sketchy bridge |
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| putting the life straw to the test! |
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| monkey!! |
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| enjoying a back massage |
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| View from our campsite |
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| The falls |
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| palm trees and desert |
Opuwo is drier, and hotter than anywhere I've been. We spent the next few days at the volunteer's house there and getting used to seeing Himbas walking around. Himba traditional attire consists of skirts and headdresses, and no shirts. So I had to adjust to seeing a shirtless woman walking through a grocery store. We spent the 27th to the 30 hanging out with friends and playing a ton of card games. On the 30th we left for Epupa falls which was 250+ km north of Opuwo. Again due to sandy, bumpy roads it took us more than 4 hours to get there. Driving through desert like hills and dead trees I got really nervous about where we were going. But as we drove down a mountain palm trees greeted us. Our campsite was right on the river and the palm trees provided nice shade and there was a nice cool breeze. We had to cross a little river to get from the main lounge to our campsite or take a very sketchy Indian Jones bridge. I opted for the river most of the times, and only did the bridge once. Upon arrival we found out that the tap water wasn't drinkable. Unfortunately most of us only brought one bottle of drinkable water, and there were only 6 tablets of iodine. So we were sparse with our water. I, however, found a life straw in the free box at the peace corps office, so I got a chance to try it out. For those of you wondering what a life straw is, it is a straw that purifies the water as you suck on it. On New Years we went to the actual Epupa Falls. While the view of the falls was not the best, sitting in the Jacuzzi like tubs made up for it. We had a lot of fun there. The campsite was beautiful. An outside bathroom meant that you could take a hot shower while looking up at the stars. Monkeys stole food from our unfortunate neighbors, and the sunsets turned the sky into beautiful paintings.
