We Saw Giraffes!

The title is just an attention getter (can’t remember the official word/saying for that).  Even though it was the coolest part of my day there isn’t much to tell, but if you are anxious to find out about the giraffe sighting right away you can jump to paragraphs 1 and 6.

 

The official post will start here.  There is so much to share!

I woke up at 6 AM and got ready for the day.  We were picked up at the normal time to go to the town hall and hop on a big bus to go to Windhoek.  I sat in the window seat with Laurel and Sam was across the aisle.  I had to rewrite my SEED homework in my SEED notebook so I didn’t talk too much on the way there just enough to decide that I’ll be joining Laurel to hike Kilimanjaro at some point during our service.

On the ride there we went by a reserve.  It was really neat b/c we saw some animals!  A giraffe was about 200 feet from the road and a group (don’t know what a group of them are called) of baboons right by the road.  I, unfortunately, couldn’t get any pictures b/c we were going too fast and I didn’t spot them right away.  The trip to Windhoek was to see sights as well as get phones.  We started at Hero’s Acre.  It was built to honor those who died protecting the land from the foreigners and had a lot of steps.  We went to the top and had a great view over the city… that’s also where the group picture on Facebook was taken and we sang a song (I got a video… will see if I can post it on Fb or something sometime after I get caught up on my posts!).  After that we hopped back on the bus and went to the mall.  I wasn’t getting a phone since I came with one, so just walked around with people and got all their numbers right away as they got sim cards.  Sachi and I saw a sushi place on the way in and decided that’s where we were going for lunch.  Once a group of them got their phones we went down to the restaurant.  I ordered a roll with spicy salmon and avocado.  It was very expensive, but extremely good!  Apparently a bunch of current PCVs were in town, so we got to meet several, but only for like a 5 min introduction.  There was a married couple 2 girls and 2 guys.  There was a SEED volunteer among them (there aren’t many of us since the program is only about 2 yrs old in Nam) who will be presenting and participating in our SEED specific meetings during the week.  On the way back to the bus I got some chocolate fudge.  I had to splurge while I could… I don’t know when the next time will be for me to get sushi!

After the mall we went to a cemetery then a market.  The market was very interesting.  They told us not to take anything valuable b/c pickpocketing is very common.  They even told us to leave our camera’s on the bus, but some people took theirs… I think Elisabeth took a picture of me with one of the worms (I need to get that from her!).  A group of us went around with Angelina (one of the trainers).  We had some kind of drink that was beige in color and had wheat or something in it.  I have no idea what it was, but they paid for a cup, and by cup I mean the measuring cup that was used to ladle the stuff out of a cooler into other cups, but I don’t know if the lady had enough.  After that Angelina brought over the caterpillars!  There was a group of us that tried them all together… Lindsey, Tim, Sachi, Christina, Adam, Mariah, and Kelsey.  I had a hard time when the thing was put in my hand then I had a hard time when I ate it!  It did NOT taste good and is not worth another try for me.  I’m pretty sure we were all really grossed out by it.  Mayank got a bag, came over with it, and said who wants to try the caterpillars?!  We were all like “we did and we don’t want another” so he proceeded to try one and said “Oh it’s not that bad at all.” Also at this market was meat… HUGE pieces of meat… like the entire animal was there at the beginning of the day and when we got there there were only pieces left.  I guess the thing to do is to go to the market and gather around a grill and buy little bite sized pieces of meat cooked right there.  It was an experience for me and really an experience for the pre PC vegetarians (a lot of them gave it up to join PC b/c they knew it would be difficult to maintain that diet here…  Namibians eat a lot of meat).  The group had split up a little after the caterpillar tasting, but Sachi, Christina, and I were together… we saw another group over by the grills and Remsey (he’s a language trainer with PC).  His sister was at the market working with one of the guys on a grill so they got us some meat to try… it was amazing!... Oh!... before trying it on the way over to them I got totally grossed out!  The three of us were walking down the walkway and on our right were the tables with a ton of raw meat sitting on them and guys chopping it up with hatchets, so I was paying attention to that and not really what was on the ground… finally I looked ahead and saw something from the corner of my eye… it was the head and hooves of an animal!  I’m not sure which b/c I didn’t want to have that long of a look (and I don’t think I would have known) but it made me jump a couple feet away into Christina.  I just was NOT expecting to see that less than a foot from my foot!  All in all… the meat was delicious!

The next stop was another market… it wasn’t that interesting, but we met some boys who chatted with us for the whole time then right as we were leaving one of the boys said to Celme “Before you go can you give me your wallet?”

The last stop we got off at was a different kind of market… it’s very interesting… It consisted of a bunch of small shed like structures built from metal siding material.  These were pretty much all bars and car washing/repair places…  We had a great time there b/c we went into one of the bars (completely filled it with our 35 volunteers and I don’t know how many trainers) to dance.  I was impressed…  A lot of the PCTs actually danced :)

After that we piled back on to the bus and went to a not so good place… someone around me on the bus defined it as what she expected to see when coming to Africa.  Namibia has a lot of problems with alcohol and this was a good display of that.  It’s basically the worst part of the capital city.  The houses are the same as the bar I described above… only metal siding nailed together.  The houses have no sanitation, electricity, or running water… it’s very bad.  The streets are lined with bars (called Shebeens in Afrikaans) and are visited by people all the time.  You could see through the windows on the bus so the people knew there was a big bus going through town full of white people.  A lot of times they would wave but one guy in this area waved and when I waved back he flicked me off.  There were mixed reactions from the people there.  It was very sad to see hundreds of little homes with dogs and children running around.

To get back to a lighter subject… that was the end of our day, so we headed back to Okahandja… and we saw a lot more giraffes!  It was so cool.  Even though we were going way to fast to really see them it was still really really cool.  We saw them in two groups.  Total I think we saw 8 or 9 just having some dinner.  Then I saw a wild boar.  A group of us decided to walk back so Ruth, Lindsey, Tim, Laurel, Luke, and I all walked back together.  We were totally walking in the dark b/c once it starts to get dark it gets dark really fast.  I wasn’t worried with such a big group but will not be making that a common occurrence.  We missed a turn and I think added about a third of the trip to our walk.  It took us 45 mins to get home.  That was pretty much the day… I had some dinner with my family when I got back but don’t remember what it was… b/c I was really tired and my mom told me to read my book instead of helping her prepare.  I have had a lot of homework so it was nice to have the night to do my own thing before and after dinner even if it was homework.