Surf & Sand in Namibia

Good morning from Lusaka! I am down here in the city of dreams to say goodbye to Becky, one of my best friends here, who has decided to end her service early and will be flying back to the states for good on Friday :( I don't know if I would have made it through my first few months in Zambia without her. She is also a Minnesota soccer girl so we were pretty much instant friends from the beginning, and I am really sad to see her go. But I know she's happy with her decision and really relieved to be going back to a country where life just seems a bit easier at this point...



I , however, am still enjoying living here despite the constant craziness, ups and downs, stomach 'issues' (that's what we'll call them), weird infections, and 3-hour bike rides under the hot African sun. As I watch the sun go down while cooking dinner over hot coals every night and smell the sweet smoke from small fires burning throughout the village I realize that this place is going to be incredibly difficult to leave. I know that I'll be ready to return home to the states in April, but my village in Zambia has become a second home that will be hard to say goodbye to. I definitely anticipate experiencing a bit of homesickness for Chitumbi village following my peace corps service.



So my most recent adventure was to Namibia over Independence Day. It began with a 24-hour bus ride to Windhoek, the capital city, where the weather was at least 20 degrees cooler than in Zambia. I traveled with Becky and Jules, 2 other volunteers who live in Luapula Province, and immediately upon arrival we had to go shopping for warmer clothes. Lucky for us, Windhoek could easily be mistaken for a European city with its beautiful architecture as well as its amenities and offerings. The more I travel, the more I realize that I live in the 'ghetto' of Southern Africa...and by that I mean the country that has probably experienced the least amount of developmental changes and improvements since their independence. The roads are terrible, solid infrastructure is almost nonexistent, and corruption runs rampant. But the truth remains that it has been my home for the past year and a half and I still feel a sense of comfort and relief when returning back to Zambia. At least here I expect every day to be a gong show, and if it isn't I find myself surprised if not a bit confused. My standards have been thrown out the window in almost every facet of life, and I am happy to say I will return to the states one of the most easily pleased persons in the world. As I've mentioned before, Zambians are beautiful people with so much strength both physically and spiritually...and that rare beauty is one of the only consistencies I have come to rely on every day that I wake up in Zambia.



So back to Namibia...we froze our butts off for 2 days in Windhoek before heading to Swakopmund, a small coastal town closely resembling the gulf coast of Florida. We stayed at a lodge for a few days, went running in the mornings on the beach, enjoyed cute little coffee shops with delicious breakfasts, rode ATVs through the desert dunes and even tried our hand at sandboarding. We rented a 4x4 truck for 6 days, fully-equipped with a tent on top and all the camping equipment we could ever wish for. They should post peace corps volunteers with one of these trucks! We camped on the beach a few nights and also drove to Sussusvlei, where watching the sun rise over the highest dunes in Namibia is known throughout the world as a life-changing experience. We camped right outside the national park and woke at 4:30 a.m. to drive to one of the highest dunes, hike to the top, and sit overlooking the desert to watch the sun rise. The bold contrasting colors of the sand and sky are themselves indescribable, and it is an experience I could never forget.

Yet my favorite part of the trip was camping right along the beach. We found ourselves on the 4th of July looking out over the atlantic ocean, watching dolphins swimming and jumping right off the coast, sipping on wine around a campfire in the sand while the sun set. What better way to celebrate freedom? :)

We stopped in Livingstone en route to Lusaka on our return back up north, spending a day rafting on the Zambezi followed by a sunset booze cruise. Rafting was pretty hardcore, beginning with a long steep hike down the gorge. Becky, myself, and one other man were the only Americans, and thus the only ones in our group of about 50 people to jump into the icy cold rapids multiple times. There was one time when our guide told us we could jump in and 'float' feet forward down a particular rapid. Of course I jumped right in, immediately regretting that decision. The water was icy, I could barely breathe because the waves kept splashing over me, and I got caught on the wrong side of the river in a whirlpool spinning around to what I thought might just be my death...until from out of nowhere my guide appeared like an angel and pulled me back into the raft. Needless to say, after about 4 hours of paddling through rapids I was looking forward to an ice cold beer (or 2) while watching the african sunset from a slow-moving boat cruise. We ended up seeing an entire herd of elephants drinking water on the bank of the river, giraffes, and hippos during the 3-hour cruise. Once I returned to my site I had some of the most amazing nights of sleep I've had in awhile. I had a great time on my trip, as always when traveling through southern Africa, but it always puts a smile on my face to finally cycle into my village after being away, arriving home again. :)

Upon my return to Zambia I learned that I would be hosting new volunteers at my site for 3 nights. The newest intake of volunteers (new volunteers come every 6 months) arrived in my village the evening of July 26th and returned to Lusaka to begin training on July 29th. The first visit to a volunteer's site is a way for the newbies to see what life in the village is all about before they begin training. They can defecate in a hole, help draw water, take a bucket bath, and cook over a fire. I recently built a fire pit in my yard so for two nights we sat around a blazing fire and talked into the night. They had so many questions, as I did when i first arrived, and it was a bit overwhelming with 6 of them but my friend Claire traveled up to my site to help out with hosting. We showed them how to cook delicious meals while lacking a variety of foods, how to greet people in Bemba, and even went in search of elephants one day. We never saw the elephants, but did manage to see their destructive path through a neighboring village as well as the big loads of elephant poop they left behind. I also took them to my rural clinic one morning, where my counterpart, Mr. Chikwaba, spoke with them about the challenges faced by the clinic as well as the successes they have experienced.

We spent the third night of their visit camping at the hotsprings about 60km from my site. During the cold season in mountainous Northern Zambia, there is nothing like soaking in a natural jacuzzi at night while gazing up at the stars through the palm trees. I had a great time talking with them about what's new in the states, what they are excited and nervous about in Zambia, and just getting to know each of them. The funniest thing was how clean they were. Their bags were still spotless, and I still noticed them washing their hands every 5 minutes. After being here for a year and a half, I manage to wash my hands very sporadically, usually in my dirty dish water that I'll use consistently for an average of 3 days before tossing out... wait a second, am I really a health volunteer? :) It was so nice to have visitors to my site, as I am so far out that it very rarely happens. It makes me even more excited for my family to come in less than 2 weeks!! I am meeting them in Livingstone on August 10th and the 2 weeks they will spend in Zambia promise to be both crazy and amazing. I can't wait for them to experience the daily gong show of my life here...hard to believe I haven't seem them in a year and a half. Time flies when you're having fun...I'll be finishing up my service in less than 8 months.

I hope everyone had a good 4th of July back stateside. It was hard to miss out on fireworks and parades...and as I sat on the beach in Namibia I thought of all the fun summertime celebrations going on along another coast of the atlantic. I am still loving life here, although it can be a nightmare at times. I miss my family, I miss my friends, and I miss the familiarity of my culture. I also miss ordering pizza, taking hot showers, and drinking good coffee...but I'm pretty sure I can stick it out until springtime. I know when I get back I'll miss carrying my water and squatting over a hole...oh wait... ;)

.peace&luv.

katie