I’m soooo sorry, this is so late! I’m already back from South Africa but I ran out of internet minutes and just got some more. I’ll catch up soon and post on South Africa before we get to India. I’ll have to cut back on pictures because that counts against me for my minutes. Anyway…

Namibia: The Wyoming of Africa

Facts
- Least densely populated country in the world
- Home of the oldest desert in the world: Namib Desert
- Only became independent in 1990
- Was colonized by the Germans
- The only constitution in the world that includes the environment

WOW. I don’t even know where to start. If you can imagine, a huge desert meets the ocean and made way for a few beach towns. On our way in, it was soooo foggy we couldn’t see the city at all. In fact, there is an area called skeleton coast because ships are known to get lost in the fog and end up washed up on the shore. We learned that there is a lot of upwelling which results in nutrient rich water…which allows for a lot of marine wild life. We ate a lot of fantastic, fresh seafood, but there lots of people saw tons of seals, flamingos, and dolphins right on the coast. We ported in Walvis Bay…within a day we had explored pretty much all it had to offer. We discovered some grocery stores because we had all been anxious to stock up on snacks and things we were running out of. For some reason in Salvador, no one was able to find an actual grocery store. Stepping off the ship one of the first things to surprise me was the temperature. I figured that Africa is always hot…not true. I was wearing jeans and a wind breaker pretty much the entire trip. The first night in town we went to this bar in Walvis Bay on the water on stilts. It was super crowded and very understaffed. I don’t think they realized that so many Americans would be arriving and overwhelming the place. By the last night in port, this popular spot for us Americans learned to have at least 7 bar tenders haha. This is the first time that Semester at Sea has visited Namibia so it was very important to make a good impression so that they will allow us to come back on future voyages. I guess some girls were so disrespectful in one the hotels that they got kicked out and the owner called the ship to tell them that they will never let Americans stay in their hotel ever again. Yikes!

The second night I went on a camping trip in the desert. On the way over, our driver stopped to let us climb their famous Dune 7. We took off our shoes but the sand was so hot that we couldn’t make it that far. Oh well. The desert camping experience was not what I expected. Instead of being in a flat area like you might picture a desert, our campsite was tucked in between large rock formations. Our tents had actual beds and a back compartment to change and wash up if we wanted. We were not really roughin’ it. When we got there, we had time to climb around and I bouldered with a couple girl friends. It was really fun to be climbing and the views were awesome. We had to be careful though because there was a lot of loose rock everywhere.

This is our campsite in the desert. The tents were so nice!

After a nice dinner, we hung out around campfires and had some surprise visitors. This African singing group came to perform for us! I kept looking around like I couldn’t believe that I was in the middle of the desert in Africa listening to traditional African songs being performed right in front of me. Being out in the middle of nowhere, the stars were incredible. Unfortunately our group didn’t get to meet with the star gazing expert (I even brought the compass Justin sent with me) because we were watching the show. But we ended up pulling our beds out of the tents to sleep outside under the stars. It gets really really cold in the desert at night but we were all cozy in our beds! The best way to describe the view at night is like a Disney ride: The stars looked super close like the sky does in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and the rocks looked fake like in Indiana Jones or Thunder Mountain Railroad. It was unreal.

After breakfast and some more climbing in the morning, we headed back out of the desert to Walvis Bay. I was really impressed with the way that the vans were able to drive through the desert with no paved roads.

Right after I got back and had a quick lunch on the ship, I met up with my friends and we went up to a popular city called Swakopmund. We rented ATVs and went on a tour through the dunes. It was soooooooo fun!!!!!

We would go super fast up the sides of dunes and then turn and go straight back down and all around the desert. At one point we stopped for a view of the city of Swakopmund, the dunes, the ocean, and a shipwreck on Skeleton Coast.

What a sight! Sara and I ended up staying the night with our friends who had already booked a little bungalow with 6 beds. Unfortunately we didn’t plan for it so we ended up looking nasty when we went out, slept in our clothes, and wore the same thing the next day! Haha! We did stop by a grocery store to buy toothbrushes but didn’t realize that no one brought toothpaste! That night when we were walking to dinner on the beach and Sara and I got to walk through a movie set! This TV show (Prisoner something) was being filmed in Swakopmund. Dinner was awesome as we watched the sunset on the beach. The cuisine was pretty American and had a lot of seafood. They’re known for their excellent oysters but I didn’t try them. I trust that they’re as good as they say they are. We went out to pretty much the only bar open on a Sunday night and found a bunch of other Semester at Sea students there. It’s always a bummer to be surrounded by all Americans in a foreign country. But luckily Sara and I met some locals and a friend visiting from South Africa. They were very friendly and fun to talk to. After the bar closed a group of people went to the beach for a bonfire! At that moment, I couldn’t believe that I was in Africa sitting by a bonfire on the beach…it was perfect!

Sara and I found this super cute coffee shop we had heard about in the morning. We had decent coffee for a change (the coffee, and food for that matter, is awful on the ship) and homemade bread and muffins. We went to the wood market, which is where a bunch of vendors lay out things made of wood and other trinkets. They would say things like “Hello, welcome to my shop. Come look around. I give you good price.” But I’m pretty sure we got ripped off because we’re American. It was a challenge bartering and finding what exactly we wanted and how much we were willing to pay for it. Some people were nicer than others and made the experience more enjoyable. It was so hard to convert the prices because they would say something like 100 rand and I’d be like “YA RIGHT” but then I realize that’s only like $12 American.

Bartering really wore us out, we had a delicious seafood lunch and headed back to Walvis Bay in a sketchy cab. Because there are usually not 700 American students visiting at one time (we definitely made the front page of their newspaper!) not many cabs operate all the time. So this guy stopped to ask if we needed a ride to Walvis Bay and we asked if he was a cab…his friend pulled out this dinky little cab sign from the glove compartment! Haha! As we drove back, we talked a lot with the friend. Like pretty much all Namibians we had met, he was very friendly and interested in talking to us. He explained that he’s working with foreign investors and gave us his email just in case we know anyone that would like to invest in Namibia. Since Namibia is still a young country, they have incentives like no business taxes for international companies to operate in Namibia. I was surprised by the strong infrastructure that is already in place. With the wealth that the newly advancing uranium mine (although currently owned by the French), they have potential to have a strong economy in the future.

Unfortunately because they were under apartheid before their independence in 1990 there is still a considerable amount of racism. And it is very obvious. Store owners are white, other hired workers are black. There are certain places that you will only see whites and I’m sure other places that you will only see blacks. Here’s an interesting story that I heard: A student in the post office was waiting in line and the next person in line was a black woman and behind her was a white woman. When a window opened and someone called “next,” she looked behind her and asked the white woman if she would like to go first. The white woman did not, but I think that illustrates a lack of progression of the racial segregation in Namibia.

Anyway, the rest of the trip was pretty uneventful besides more good meals not on the ship and time to grocery shop a bit. Because Namibia still includes remnants of colonization, it was difficult to see any sort of identity. That is why I think this country is hard to describe in words. The people were so kind and their country is beautiful. I hope to go back some day!