March and some of April

First of all, I spent almost the entire month of March traveling outside Windhoek. It was great to get out of the city and see the rest of this beautiful country. We started off with the entire group leaving our house on a Monday afternoon to head to the coast. We stayed in Swakopmund (a coastal city) for two days in a guest house which was a two minute walk from the ocean. Swakop was a very touristy area- it actually looked like Germany and the tourists were mainly German- very odd actually. We hung out on the beach, had fires and braais (bbq) and shopped. We also went to Walvis Bay for a day- this is the major port in Namibia- and heard from local authorities there about the shipping industry. We also got to hike up Dune 7. Instead of taking the easy way up the dune, we all decided that we should run straight up. I don’t know how many of you have ever run up hot sand in your bare feet in the middle of the afternoon, when the sun is highest and hottest, you don’t have water or sunglasses, and the sand is moving down faster at times than you are climbing, but its not as easy as it sounds. But, as soon as we got there our driver started running up, so we had to too. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever done/seen. You could see so far from the top and running down was sooo much fun. There is no chance of falling down, even though the dune is steep at times, since its sand, but your mind doesn’t really understand that for awhile. It was so cool to run a bit and then jump into the air, falling down into the sand.
We left the coast to drive north-east to the town of Khorixas (Cory-haus) for our rural home-stays. I stayed on a farm with three others from my group. We stayed on a farm west of the town. There were five houses on the farm, everyone was related. I stayed with the great-grandmother and her grandson, Desmond. We did a lot of cool farm stuff- searching for lost goats/donkeys, riding on a donkey cart (oww), collecting firewood and carrying it back on our heads, seeing a horse getting shoed, seeing a cow being slaughtered and cut apart, riding horses, milking cows and goats. They do not have electricity on the farm, or any water. I stayed in a big (by farm standards) room by myself, slept under a mosquito net, woke up every morning with the sun and went to bed shortly after sunset. We also had a lot of time to just relax with our families and especially on the weekends when the kids all came back to the farm (they live in school hostels in town) we had fun dancing and just playing. We had a fire one night and taught them how to make s'mores. It was a very relaxing way to live for a week and one of the best parts of my trip here so far.
After about a week of experiencing rural Namibian life, we joined back up with the group and went to Etosha National Game Park. Driving through the park I saw giraffes, two lions circling a pack wildebeest, a herd of elephants, warthogs, ostrich, zebras, and many kinds of antelopes and birds. Giraffes are some of the most amazing animals I have ever seen. I seriously felt like I was in Jurassic Park- they are huge and graceful and just really cool. I was also so happy to see some elephants- my favorite animal!
After this wonderful experience we began the best part- spring break! The combi (van) dropped me and three of my friends- Emily, Ilana, and Jessica- off in a town nearby and we waited for our driver- Shorty- to come pick us up. Since none of us know how to drive stick, didn’t feel comfortable driving on unfamiliar roads in an unfamiliar country and Namibians drive on the left side of the road/car, we decided to hire a driver and a car. We decided to spend every night, minus two, camping. The first night we went to a campground called Abu-Huab. This campground is run by local people (many actually are either run by the government or foreigners) and is located near an area rife with rock paintings and carvings that are thousands of years old, “petrified forests” millions of years old, the highest mountain in Namibia, and other really cool geographic places. We saw all these things, climbed the mountain, got to finally cook our own food, and got to get woken up by a donkey (?) fight one morning. We left the campsite after 2 nights there and drove through the desert to the coast. The area is called the Skeleton Coast because there are a bunch of shipwrecks along it. We didn’t actually get to see any because they are further north than we could go (due to flooding) but it was still really cool. It was nice to be out of the desert- it was so much cooler by the sea. We slept right on the beach- it was awesome. We had a feast that night, drank some red wine, and finally slept comfortably since it was not insanely hot and buggy. Emily and I went swimming- it was very cold but a lot of fun. We were staying in for a long time even though we were so cold and the current was very strong. The only reason I got out was because, after being pulled out by a particularly strong wave, I saw a seal quite close to me, and I freaked out a bit because I know sharks really like to eat seals- irrational maybe, but we were done swimming for the day. Driving out of the campsite was amazing- sand dunes/desert on one side of the road, ocean on the other side.
After so many nights of camping, we decided to go back to Swakop to stay in the youth hostel for two nights. This was very refreshing and we could actually shower. We went out to a nice dinner, swam in the ocean, met up with some other kids from our group, and relaxed. After this we went south to Soussesvlei- the biggest dunes in Namibia. The campground (only one for hundreds of kilometers around) was very expensive- it would have used up the rest of our budget just for one night. We decided to try out the lodge instead; this ended up being just as expensive as camping. Luckily Shorty knew one of the guys who worked at the bar at the lodge- he told us that it was perfectly safe to camp on the side of the road- which is what we decided to do. We had to wait until sunset, though, to set up our tents, so we hung out at the bar for a few hours, eating free peanuts and pretzels and watching the rich people swim. We then drove a few kilos down the road to a turn-off with a table to eat peanut butter sandwiches and set up camp. As we were eating two other cars drove up- one with 3 Israelis and one with 2 Germans, all around our age and traveling around Southern Africa for a few months. They could not afford to camp or lodge either, so we all hung out, played guitar, and talked. This was one of my favorite nights- it was beautiful (especially the sunset) and so cool to talk with the German guys. After a few short hours of restless sleep, we got up (at 6) to get ready to climb the dunes. You have to try and get up before the sun becomes too hot or it gets impossible. We hiked up (1.5 hours) starting around 8:00 in our bare feet. It was so funny- there was a large group of old French people basically hiking with us- they had hiking gear- boots, poles, canteens, hats, etc- we didn’t have shoes on, had on t-shirts and shorts, and carried only a disposable camera. I got asked about 5 times about how it was to not be wearing shoes. Instead of climbing straight up like we did before we decided to go around. It was awesome! These dunes also had a really cool phenomenon- when you go down it, it sounds as if the dunes are “singing” because of the movement of the sand. They are thus called the “Singing Dunes.” Luckily the sun was mostly behind the clouds and it didn’t get too hot until we were down. Another reason this was so cool was that there was a film crew making a movie! I might be an extra in a Namibian film coming out soon!
After this week decided to drive all the way back to Windhoek because it was raining and the campsite we were going to stay at for another night sucked and was too expensive. We went back to the house and then we went the next day to a craft place on the other side of the city. It is a woman’s cooperative where they make the crafts and sell them. Many of the women have HIV/Aids and some of the others were disabled in some way. We actually got to see and learn about how all the crafts are made. We then went to a dam nearby to have another braai and dance. It was a great ending to our awesome trip!