An adventurous week

Hello everyone!

I have already been in Namibia for one month! Can you believe it!?! Time has flown by so quickly, which I suppose means that things are going well and that I have adjusted well to my new job and life in Namibia.

There is so much to share. So many impressions. So many stories. So much happening. I do not know how to start, so I will just start.

This past weekend, I was part of the supervision of the boarder students as they are provided with direct contact and support during weekends. My fellow volunteer and I were looking forward to listening to all the childrens‘ stories and participating in all the games they play over a weekend. After an eventful and exhausting day on Saturday including a long good night to the children, I was settling into the flat starting to prepare some dinner when a child knocked on the door. She spoke about someone having hurt herself and the word ambulance featured somewhere in her speech marked by panic, care, nervousness and a good level of urgency. Mirroring her state of panic, I raced downstairs trying to find the hurt child. An intial sign by some students that everything was okay almost sent me back upstairs, but just as I reached the stairway, someone pointed out an injuired girl. I quickly ran over to her and she indicated to me that she had dislocated her shoulder. After my initial ˋOMG what do I do moment‘, I rembered that in our family medical emergencies were usually met with calm and rationale decision-making – and we had a good share of those calm and rationale moments over the years! Having put myself in that state, I still did not know what to do right away, so first chatted calmly with her about what had occured. She did not seem in severe pain, but a quick assessment of her upper body clearly showed the dislocation. I called the supervisor of the boarding house as well as consulted with other volunteers. It seemed that a hospital trip was inevitable, although getting an ambulance is not as easy as one thinks and on top of that would be the whole insurance issue of who pays for what, In addition to the supervisor, we tried to reach a parent of the girl eventually succeeding in having the father come to the school. In a very pragmatic way, he managed, based on his own medical experience, to pop the shoulder right back into its socket avoiding a trip to the hospital and a series of bills. I left the family to themselves heading back upstairs calming down from all that just happened thinking how lucky I was once in Berlin when I needed an ambulance and within 5 minutes one showed up at our house, took me with them and all was sorted out at the hospital within a few hours with the only thing I needed to show being my national insurance card. Always good to be reminded how different things are in the world and how much we often take for granted. I still ended up cooking something that night, but it was a rather unusual evening.

That same week, we had a visit with a teacher of another school in Windhoek, who took us on an orientation to parts of Windhoek, which are usually not featured in travel guides or are part of the hop-on hop-off tours in town. The teacher drove with us into various neighbourhoods taking a trip back in time how things looked like during the racial segregation years when Namibia was part of the South African Apartheid system. It was in many ways similar to what I had observed in Durban, Nairobi and Maputo, but each one still has its own characteristics, history and stories. What never seizes to amaze me is that the circumstances of the people in the townships has not changed all that much since gaining freedom and independence. The economic situation does not change just because democracy replaces a system of oppression. Certain people and tribes were disadvantaged then; those very same people and tribes are still disadvantaged today. There is mostly no running water and no or only non-reliable electricity. These moments help to ground oneself and recognise one’s own rather privileged life prompting gratefulness for having a solid roof over our heads, running water and electricity, safety and protection and access to education.

Last week, I finally connected with my roots as a competitive swimmer and visited one of the swim clubs in Windhoek. I spoke with the head coach and completed a quick performance assessment in the pool to see at which level I would fit in. It was really nice to be in the water again and I am looking forward to swimming in Africa once again. I have always loved to swim in open pools with the sun burning down and a light breeze sweeping across the starting block. It is were I started swimming and discovered my love and passion for it all. I look forward to continuing my African swim story adding a chapter in Namibia.

Now and then, I still have difficulty getting all the children to listen to me during sports class, but which teacher does not have that problem. It may also be attributed to the fact that occassionally, I have up to 60 children in class! It has been great fun to be a sports teacher and especially to work with the children in the pool teaching swimming. I enjoyed a choir performance a few days ago at another school, which a number of other volunteers are part pf. We also hosted a volunteer from Swakopmund at our school for a few days as an observer. Listening to that choir made me think though whether I should follow another passion of mine and also join a choir. I love singing, but have mainly done so on my own. Who knows? One never knows, if one not tries. What do you all think?

To conclude a number of really exciting weeks, a bunch of us went to a nearby dam to watch a Dragon Boat Race in which the secondary levels of our school participated. It was a very fun afternoon and it was great to see how passionate the children were about their teams and participating in the race. Afterwards there was just about enough energy left to play a round of Wizard. If you have not heard of the game, I recommend you quickly google it to spark your interest.

This past weekend was dedicated to cleaning our flat and a visit to Osheto Community Market, which more commonly is called the Kappana Market in Windhoek. Kappana comes from a traditional way of preparing raw meat into very thin slices, typically beef, and grilling it on an open fire. For us vegetarians, we had Fat Cakes, which are fried doughballs accompanied by thinly cut onions and tomatoes with vinager to make a sort of salsa. After feasting at the market, we waved good-bye to voluneers from other places in Windhoek and throughout Namibia and ran a few errands to ensure that we had all we needed for another week of cooking at our place.

I am feeling very lucky to be here and appreciate every day I can meet new people, work with the children, get to know Windhoek and other parts of Namibia and listen to the sounds of Africa and take in all the smells that come with it. I am home.

Love from Namiba,

Zoë