We reflect all the time, now that we are out of time. What is our Namibia? There is far too much ground to cover, but here are a few lists for easy viewing.
6 FAVORITE PLACES
1. Kunene Nomadic Himba Villages (Former Fellow Special Selection)
During a measles immunization program, the former fellow (then still a fellow) drove 8 hours to seemingly nowhere, crossed a rising river and saw a lone giraffe suddenly in its slow motion walk. A little further and she arrived at a village. Had she taken a GPS coordinate and tried to return today, she would likely not find it again since Himba are nomadic. That day though, she watched boys throw rocks with uncanny precision, rattling the horns of the cows to move them. She saw ochre babies crawling from mama to inspect the strange new thing that had visited. It was nowhere rocky Kunene bush. It was surreal. It was scented. It was beautiful.
2. Hakos Guest Farm (engineer Special Selection)
The Hakos Guest Farm is about 2 hours from Windhoek on the C26, just before the drop into the Gamsberg Pass. The campsite stares over the folded foothills with the Gamsberg Plateau anchored on the horizon. The Hakos Range swells above the maze of riverbeds alive with baboons and mountain zebra. It is a telescope farm with strangely wonderful hosts. It watches the amazing Gamsberg that shades to purple at sunset and burns orange at sunrise. It is where the mountains begin their erosion to the sea. It is a show of thunderstorms, brush fires, and horses in the moonlight. It is lush. It is dry. It is a place to get lost in riverbeds, float above in turbulence; a place to work it all out; to be alone but not lonely. Perhaps there is a place more beautiful. Perhaps. No place is more personal.
3. Brukkaros Crater
Have you ever sat in some pointless meeting where people use words like “synergy” and “underwhelmed” or ask questions like “what is the buy for this project” and wish to yourself that you could be on a volcano all by yourself with a panorama of a timeless empty delta of dried rivers by day and the greatest view of stars in your entire life by night? Stand right up from the table and drive 4.5 hours south of Windhoek. You can almost smell the dinosaurs.
4. Klein Aus
Along the route of the dead train line to Luderitz, the track veers from the gravel into golden grass. On one side of the ghost track, the grasses swell to the toe of dry red mountains. On the other, this gold turns to sand. At the edge of this desert, relics of some strange past live on as wild horses. With a keen eye, World War I defensive ramparts can be spotted in the low rocky hills. Somewhere close by, soldiers from the turn of the century rest in a rocky graveyard of iron crosses, taken by the flu during their stay in a concentration camp. Further towards the sea, a diamond mine ghost town is taken back by the sands. The beauty and the secrets are equally haunting.
5. Etosha
We have been to Etosha 4 times, spending about 40 total hours driving in search of animals or sitting at waterholes watching them cluster. While in the park, we have probably seen 1000 animals. That averages out to seeing 1 wild animal every 2 minutes and 24 seconds. These animals include antelopes (red hartebeest, steenbok, dik dik, impala, kudu, springbok, eland, zebra and the most beautiful animal in the world . . . the oryx), predators (lion, leopard, cheetah), snakes, birds, about 50 elephants, about 100 giraffes, a honey badger, and a black friggin rhino that charged our car.
6. Sossusvlei
This place is pure science fiction. Dead black trees on a dried white pan in an amphitheatre of rust red dunes below sharp blue skies. Living scenes include ostrich parades, a lone oryx on the dunes, and 20 Chinese men in suits. The landward dunes are scattered with brittle grasses leaching moisture from the air, speckled with fairy circles. All of our visitors from the USA peg this as their favourite stop.
5 THINGS WE WILL MISS
1. The Simple Life
After a 5 minute commute, a Friday night starts by pulling a lemon from the tree on the way into the flat, cutting a wedge and dropping it into a Windhoek Lager. It carries on, listening to music and talking to each other about the people we miss, the work we love, and the places we want to go. We bake bread. We braii on the patio. We listen to the palms blow in the warm breeze. We watch our daughter laugh and explore. We walk the neighbourhood at the edge of the mountains. We visit with friends. We talk to home. Because there is little else to do when not at work or in the great empty, we simply fill the hours with one another.
2. The Great Work
Specifically, the former fellow worked both as a fellow for the CDC and as a Program Manager for an American University. As a fellow, the fellow worked on a formative assessment related to HIV and the Namibian prison population, a measles outbreak response, immunization campaigns, an alcohol study, and TB qualitative research. As a Program Manager, the former fellow managed an HIV bio-behavioural survey among key populations. Specifically, the engineer worked on water. From the ground, from the rivers, from the tap, from the toilet. You could not imagine how excited each one gets talking about their work and how bored the wrong audience gets listening. You could not imagine how difficult it is to leave behind.
3. The Great Empty
Have you ever driven for an entire day and never seen another vehicle? Had an entire volcano to yourself for the weekend? Hiked all day with zebras as your only company? Flown over the coast line of half a country without seeing a single clue of a living thing? Felt fear, fascination and joy all at once at the thought of just how by yourself you are in a moment? This is Namibia. Nowhere is everywhere. When the sun sets and the fire rises, and jackal chirp fades into the moonlit hills, a person finds a perfect stillness in the empty.
4. The Great Encounters
Both Strange:
The engineer was electrocuted by a German inn-keeper at a South African version of a Bates Motel. A racist boat guide kidnapped the former fellow to the island where his dad lived with monkeys and parrots. Three travellers ate dinner in near darkness in a remote mountain guest farm, candle lights revolving on the lazy susan for momentary glowing faces, bats in the room next to a pool of mosquitos, a brush fire throbbing in the distant dark hills, startled shouts of conversation by the German host.
And Personal:
Dozens of dedicated men and women striving to make an impact on the mostly disregarded. Two women pouring their hearts out to the education of brave children. A midwife who became an angel. A woman who loved our daughter. The Muchachos. A poet. The companions. The lifelong friends from all over the world. Shared bottles of wine, Windhoek lagers, fishing trips, camping trips, fellowship over long meals. Beautiful, wonderful, unique, passionate, funny, warm, interesting people.
5. The Great Beer, Wine and Meat
Windhoek Lager is brewed by choice according to the Reinheitsgebot Standards of 1516. Water, barley, hops. Literally, our household has probably consumed at least 1,000 bottles. It is beer perfection.
Being neighbours with South Africa, the wine from the Cape Winelands is abundant in Windhoek . . . and cheap. Imagine the greatest red wine of your memory at $15 a bottle. Most of our winery visits in South Africa were in the Franschhoek Valley north east of Cape Town. We visited this area 4 times in 4 years. It should be on everyone’s life list.
Since Namibia has one of smallest population densities of all countries in the world and is a country full of free range livestock farmers, the access to and quality of the meat here is unbelievable. Ground beef fries up like Wisconsin venison, lean and almost watery until long in the pan. The lamb in the south ranks as one of the engineer’s favourite meals of all time. An oryx loin rivals any $50 fillet in Chicago’s finest steak houses. Oh yeah, there is also a legacy of trained German butchers who are preparing the cuts, salami, and sausages.
5 THINGS WE WON’T
1. The Fear of Becoming Ill
When the fellow went into labour, her doctor was unreachable due to the late hour and the nurses suggested they deliver the baby themselves as the stubbed their toes with bare feet. Orders with huge impacts that were given from doctor’s were ignored, but at least overheard so we could intervene. We never heard from the doctor. Without an amazing midwife, it would have been a disaster. When Omeya got ill, it took 5 days to get a contingent 15 minute appointment pending the cancellation of an existing patient. For the last month, we have treaded lightly.
2. The Dangerous Roads
We know of half a dozen tragic deaths on the roads in Namibia. Without a rail system, and only a small network of flights, the only true mode of travel is the roads. People will drive 8 hours for a 1 hour meeting, or commute 75 miles to work. This means high speeds, impatient drivers, and cluttered arterial roads at the wrong time of day. As careful as you may be, there is always a chance there is an asshole passing a line of cars on the opposite side of the hill you are climbing. We have seen it many times. Once in an accident, an ambulance is likely at least 2 hours away. It will not be missed.
3. The 6-8 Hour Time Difference with Home
Calling T-Mobile on Skype with a bad internet connection to dispute a phone charge on a suspended phone is not fun at 10:00 PM (although I imagine it’s like going to the circus when that conversation takes place at noon). Watching the Green Bay Packers win the Super Bowl at 5 in the morning is not ideal, especially when the announcers are busy explaining the rules of American Football (but we won’t really complain about this so much). Shaving again in the evening for a Skype interview is kind of annoying, but at least the pants were optional. Planning 3 days ahead for a chat with the family is not something someone should have to get used to.
4. The Early Close
You better have a plan on a Saturday morning because the city basically shuts down around noon. Get your lazy butt out of bed or better yet, embrace the early close since it is this mindset that breeds the No. 1 item you will miss. Just make sure you buy enough Windhoek Lager on Friday on you 5 minute commute home.
5. The Dogs
Every dog in Windhoek hates you. Bred for security alone, if a dog came up to you wagging its tail, you would think it had a disability. Sometimes they get loose and run at you with crazy anger. Two Rottweilers we know begin barking and crying when they hear footsteps from a distance. We are certain they cry for blood.
FAREWELL
In the simplest terms, Namibia has been one of the great blessings of our lives. Just married, it was a wonderland to explore and a jumping off point to the continent. We craved the weekends to climb in a sketchy car, risking a failed return trip home, to get pummelled by the wind, stare at the stars, find new views and make new memories. As time wore on, the tenuous feeling of whether or not it was all just a glorified vacation . . . faded. The work got its claws in us, and pulled us all around the country, creating more substantial and emotional grips, ever pushing the return trip back to the Midwest. We missed major milestones back home, the passing of beloved family, and thousands of unspectacular moments that tie us to the people we love. To compensate, we had thousands conversations about the people we missed together with discussions on why we carried on in Namibia.
We are all from somewhere, some more substantially than others. Our somewhere has never changed, but now we have a daughter who is from somewhere else. For that alone, Namibia will always be a part of our family. But that is not the strongest reason. The experiences are what made us love this country. Moments in the great empty under impossible night; silently watching hundreds of sunsets; awestruck by the invented landscapes. Struggles and triumphs in fascinating jobs that allowed us to make small marks on the future of the country. Encounters with beautiful, sincere, and passionate people that we can never forget.
Namibia. Thank you for it all.
May the rains fall heavy.
Keep the lemons ready.
What a beautiful memoir!
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