Weddings and Final Farewells

My last few days in the village were a whirlwind of packing, goodbyes, and mixed emotions. Saying goodbye to the people and the places in Onamutai was one of the hardest things I've ever done. On Friday the learners came to pick up their reports. Seeing the joy in the faces of those select few lucky (and hard-working) enough to earn the requisite points to be promoted to the next grade made every stressful day this year worth it. Yet looking into their faces as we said goodbye, knowing full well that it would likely be the last time I would do so, simply broke my heart.

After school, Kristy and I took one last walk through the village, visiting our favorite market and shebeen and taking pictures. Most of the learners were gathered at the church for some event, and as they came up to hug me goodbye one by one, I wanted nothing more than to spend a few hours hanging out at the church with them. Instead, we went out to Omupanda with the guys for one more night out, one more bakkie ride, some hugs goodbye and promises for an August reunion in Boston. 

Saturday morning I woke up early and went to a wedding with Kristy and TK. We arrived at the homestead where people were milling about, busy with wedding preparations. As TK headed out to attend the ceremony, the women in the family stayed behind to do all the cooking. Never in my life had I seen so much food in one place. Imagine the largest amount of meat you can picture in one place and then quadruple it, and that's just the meat. There were also 3 huge washing basins full of pasta, the largest plastic storage container filled with potatoes, bowls and bowls and bowls of vegetables, 40 kilograms of mayonnaise, and enough Tafel Lager to satisfy and army. Amid the chaos, I managed to find some jobs to keep me busy and helped out by chopping veggies, assembling beef kabobs, and making green salad (because only an American could be in charge of making a non-mayonnaise based salad...). By the time the wedding party returned, the food was ready and the music was bumpin. I spent the night dancing, eating, and talking with new friends. I was even distracted enough to forget for a few hours that I was leaving the next day. But, the end the night came and we returned to the house, driving into the thunderstorm rolling in across the desert. 

In the morning, we woke up, finished packing up my things and piled into TK's truck to drive into town. I said a tearful goodbye to Kristy, TK, and the north, and was one my way to Windhoek.

I think I am still in a bit of denial about the fact that I am leaving tomorrow. As excited as I am to see everyone back home, I can't say that I am ready to go. Namibia has truly become my home over the last year and I will definitely be leaving a large piece of my heart behind. I hope that someday I will be fortunate enough to return for a visit, but until then, I will have to be satisfied with facebook contact, a million happy memories, and pictures of my learners' smiling faces looking down at me from my classroom wall. 

Looking forward to seeing you all soon. Until then, enjoy a few photos from my last days in Namibia.

Last braai at my farewell party.

Two of my favorite grade 9s that came to visit.

Schoolyard.

View from my stoop.

The market.

Fresh Ideas Bar-- a favorite shebeen.

I'm going to miss these African sunsets.

Last visit to Omupanda.

Just a fraction of the meat at the wedding.

Gift line for the happy couple.

TK and I at the wedding. Doesn't he look sharp
in that yellow jacket?

Driving Namibia: Three women, two weeks, one country

Once again, I'm a few weeks late with the updates. Sorry. That being said, I have no idea what format this is going to come out in. Certainly it won't be a detailed, descriptive narrative. More likely a stream of consciousness, story-telling style. Let's see where this goes. Ready? Ok, deep breath:

Wake up super early on a Saturday, hike into Ondangwa. Find a taxi to Tsumeb, wait three hours for it to leave. Get to Tsumeb, Rachel is running late. Wait for her in a cafe, drink iced coffee (iced coffee here=coffee+ice cream+chocolate sauce). Meet Rachel, get car, drive, pick up hikers, drive, meet Jenn in Omaruru, drive. Night at Jenn's place in Omajete. Dinner and playlist making, sleep. Up early, drive. Brandberg-Namibia's highest mountain. Hike to the famous "White Lady" rock painting. Lunch at the base (apples/carrots/peanut butter/crackers/cheese: our staples for this trip, also known as "delectables"). Drive. Spitzkoppe for the night. Hot shower. Climbing on rocks, watching the sunset with a bottle of wine. Bed. Wind so strong it literally blows our tent away when we get out of it. Breakfast, more climbing. Pictures. Drive. Swakopmund. Water. In the air. (My hair was not happy). Mexican, Margaritas, and dark beer. (My tummy was very happy). Drive. Drive. Drive. Terrible, long, washboard-y gravel road. Cross the Tropic of Capricorn. Stop in Solitare for some pie at a bakery. Almost passed the campground (luckily the American flag alerted us!) Swim in the pool (cold). Simultaneous sunset/moon rise from the deck. Breathtaking. Dinner, shower, bed. Up early. Drive to Soussevlei. Climb some dunes. Take a million photos. Explore the vleis. Ice cream treat on the way back, more dark beer. Wake up, happy birthday to me. Drive. Breakfast pie at the bakery again (called Moose McGregors, very fitting). Drive. Drive. Drive. Lunch in Walvis Bay. Jelly fish the size of a hubcap. Flamingos. More coffee/desserts (we dubbed my birthday the "day of desserts", but it's ok, because we had real salads with lettuces for lunch, so clearly it balances out, right?). Walk back to the car. Dead battery. Lucky for us a Botswanan middle school cricket team was in the parking lot and gave us a push. Drive to Swakop. Rare sunset on the surreal road with ocean on side and dunes on the other. Food shop, get some treats (pesto, gnocchi, and chocolate covered almonds!) Also Amarula. And ice cream. Crash on our GIANT bed. Decide we're too tired to cook and fully embrace the day of desserts by eating ice cream with Amarula while snuggling in bed and watching Stardust. Birthday=success. Lazy next morning. Drive to Henties Bay for the fish festival, which in true Namibian fashion had more meat than fish. More iced coffee. Browsed the vendors. Bought hummus! And more pesto. Back to Swakop. Pizza and more dark beer. Early(ish) bed. Wake up at 3:30, drive. Drive. Drive. Oh, did I say drive? 12 hours to Luderitz. (Bravo, Rachel, bravo). Arrive at the same time as Mariella, Taylor, Kristin and Emily. Check into the hostel. Search for dinner. We heard Luderitz is dead after the sun goes down but we're determined to find a dance party. Dinner at a quiet cafe, then we search for the Yacht Club which we heard was a popular hangout for the "young folks". Can't find it. Wait, guys, might it be that building that's shaped like a boat and has a Heineken sign out front? Yup. Drinks, meet some really cool locals who invite us to a braai the next night. More drinks, random pizza, dancing (yes, we managed to find dancing. Only us). Bed. Kolmanskope Ghost Town, lots of sand. In the houses. Like filling the houses. So cool. Back to the hostel. Braai is starting now, so we still have a few hours to nap first. Braai with new friends, more drinks, more dancing. Good times. Learned the "Cups" thing. Out till wee hours. Sleep. Till 1. Yeah..."Breakfast" at a cafe, more iced coffee (So. Much. Iced Coffee. I'll seriously miss this.) Drive to Diaz Point, aka "Imperialist Point". Ocean, catch on the beach with a crazy dog and my tennis ball (and they laughed at me for bringing it...), exploring the awesome campsite, where you can actually sleep in an old boat (really, Lonely Planet, you're not going to include this?!). Snacks at the cafe. Amazing sunset (and the dubbing of me as the photomonger in addition to being the keymonger, and the gatemonger). Early bed. More driving. Drive to Windhoek. Meet up with Bret for Indian food. Crash on his floor. Jenn and I run errands in Windhoek while Rachel picks up her friend from the airport. Drama. Where's Hannah? We don't know. Cancelled flight. Will we miss Etosha? Finally get Hannah, decided to try to make it to the gate before sunset. Perfect timing, 30 mins to spare. Lady at Etosha remembers me. Gnocci and pesto for dinner.  Meet up with Abby and co. Wine and watering hole. Lions! And rhinos! Bed. Drive through Etosha. So many animals. WE SAW A LEOPARD! And an adorable elephant family. And got THIS close to a rhino One more night. Early bed. One more watering hole. Narrating the lives of some animals. Drive to 'Kati. Zebros for lunch (duh!) Urbock (rare winter-only beer). Up to Onamutai. Home at last, but this vaca isn't over yet! Homemade hummus and some Dr. Who. Crash for the night. Off the the trade fair with Kristy! Busy, but fun. Lots of things to buy, but I manage to exercise some serious self control (until December at least...). Back home, then out for the night to Paulson's. So. Many. Men. Paulson let us stay behind the bar. (Thanks, dude!) Home, bed. The trio leave early the next morning and I attempt to prepare for school the following day.

Phew. It was a crazy, adventure-filled two weeks that I will never forget. Thanks for a fabulous time L^3 feat. Hannah Montana =) 

Here, enjoy some pics! To see the the full facebook album (even if you don't have facebook), click here.

"White Lady" whose actually a man...

Spitzkoppe

I swear I actually took this

Hanging out under the rock bridge.

An dessert oasis in the desert

Sunset on the deck.

Moonrise

Deadveli

Kolmanskope-- inside an abandoned house

Sunset over Diaz Point

LEOPARD!!

We were THAT close! And this boy was huge!

So may squees.

Peace out

Whirlwind

Dear reader,

My travel companions!

How are you? It's been awhile, huh? Whoops, sorry 'bout that. I fully intended on giving you the blow-by-blow of my month long trek around south western Africa, but it was a long time ago, the details are getting fuzzy, and the thought of sitting down to write six more posts has kept me from doing just that. So instead I'm going write one more highlights-only posts of my trip. I'm sure you'll hear more of the details later. So here goes nothing.

Poling on the Delta

Day 3: Maun- mokoro trip. Peaceful, beautiful, nice to be on water again. Went on a game walk and saw a heard of zebras. After lunch, I tried my hand at poling and actually wasn't terrible (Ben-- I think I could take you on at paddle boarding!). Oh, and we almost hit a hippo on the way back. Note to self: hippos are really big. Like *really* big.

Sunset cruise on the Zambezi River

Day 4: To Livingstone- super lucky travel day. Hardly had to wait for anything, and we also managed to negotiate the exact right price for a taxi, despite not knowing the exchange rate. Score one for the Americans.

Day 5: Vic Falls- Zambian side. Words can't describe how gorgeous it is, you'll just have to wait for pictures (and even those don't do it justice. You should probably just book your trip and see for yourself...) We got drenched, but it was totally worth it.








Day 6: Vic Falls- Zimbabwe side. is it possible for the falls to be even more spectacular? Yes, yes it is. Also, got to handle American money again, it was weird. Got photographed for a Zimbabwe tourism website at lunch, and I ate crocodile skewers (all for you, Sean).





(I now take a break from the highlights-only post to go into detail about the craziest thing I did all trip: jump into the Batoka Gorge.)The restaurant was in a lodge, and the lodge (like most in the area) had a booking center where you can book all sorts of adventures and outings. I had wanted to try a zipline sort of thing, so we went over to check it out. I must have been feeling pretty brave, because I ended up signing up for the gorge swing...hey, once in a lifetime, right? Basically, they drove us out to the gorge right below the falls, strapped me into a harness (actually two), brought me out to the edge of the platform and told me to jump. Ok, it was a little more organized than that, but that was the gist. The guy who was on the platform with me told me that after I jumped, I would free fall 70m in 3 seconds, then drop into a pendulum swing. He had heard me say earlier that I was a math teacher and right before nudging me off, he said "quick, what speed will you fall at?" Uh, what?! Sorry sir, I'm slightly preoccupied by the 200m jump I'm about to take, can you repeat that? He told me to think about on the way down and report back. Yeah, ok. Then he gave me a nudge. I had a split second of "oh shit. what did I just do?" before the rush took over and all I could do was grin the rest of the way down. There I was, swinging in a harness with the roaring waters of the Zambezi river swirling 3 meters below me, and what did I do? Start thinking about that math problem of course! Well it was much easier to think about at the bottom of the gorge than it was at the top, and I quickly calculated an average speed of 23.333... m/s (this, of course, is based off of 70m in 3 seconds, which isn't entirely accurate if you actually calculate the acceleration due to gravity, which I did as I was being pulled up...yes, I'm a nerd, I know). When I was safely back on the ground, I was greeted by the impressed looking faces of Matt and Jenn, who handed me a Hunter's. They know me well.

So this happened. (Major photo props to Matt!)

On the crossing back into Zambia, we encountered the worst negotiator in all of Africa. When hyperinflation had reached it's peak in 2009, you could find Zimbabwean bank notes in hilariously high amounts, such as 500 million dollars. Now, they've scraped the Zimbabwean dollar, and are using American currency, but you people still sell the old (now worthless) bank notes as souvenirs. After I refused to pay $10 for 5 worthless pieces of paper, this man tried to haggle with me, but I kept refusing. Finally he said he would just give me one if I wished him luck. Uh, ok! Then another guy on the bridge offered to trade me a one billion dollar note for my shirt. Um, no thanks.

Breakfast view of "the Smoke that Thunders"
from the deck at the lodge.

Day 7: to Ngepi Camp. Took the Intercape Bus back into Namibia. Lots of religious/super melodramatic, awful acted movies blaring right above my head. Awesome. Got to the camp pretty late, but the staff re-opened the bar for us, then we all sat around a campfire while a hippie in dreads played the guitar. Reminded me of my theatre days...

Day 8: Ngepi- basically we relaxed all day and just hung around the camp. It was exactly what we needed.

Day 9: More travel. We were hoping to make it to Grootfontein, but we got a slow start and had to wait awhile for a hike out of Divundu. We finally found one in the back of an open bakki, and the guy was booking it. My ears hurt a little... When we got to Rundu, we discovered it was too late in the day to get anything out, so we decided to stay the night. Makeshift dinner of cold focaccia bread from Spar and milkshakes from the bar for desert while we finally figured out what we all owed each other for money. Early bed.

Day 10: Back to Windhoek. I awoke early in the morning on our last day to the sound of birds chirping. I realized that I wasn't cold for the first night of the whole trip, and closed my eyes to sleep for another hour before we had to get up. As I started to fall back asleep, I hear a rustling noise in my tent. Uhhhh. I look down, and see a swarm of fire ants right under my sleeping bag. Yup. I had slept on an acacia thorn that had poked holes in the bottom of my tent, which provided the perfect doorway for a couple hundred fire ants to make their way in. Needless to say, I leaped out of my tent, trying (and failing) to make as little noise as possible. Pulled all my belongings out, spent a half hour brushing everything off, threw out the tent, and took a shower.

Combi to Windhoek. Back to Chameleon. Dinner at Joe's Beer Garden (too kitschy for my taste, super unimpressed with the beer selection), then early bed. Up at 4am for my 7am flight to Cape Town.

So that pretty much sums up the first half of my trip. Sorry for the super abridged version, but I promise to share the full version with everyone when I see you again. I'll post again soon about Cape Town and Etosha with mom.

Till then,
Jamie

From the Snow to the Sand

What did you do this Easter? I went sandboarding-- or put another way, I strapped a snowboard on my feet and went down a sand dune. Yup.

We woke up early on Sunday excited for the day's adventure and hopeful that the still dreary weather was not going to put a damper on the activity that I for one was most looking forward to. It was still drizzling outside so I called the lady at Alter-Action, but she told me it was supposed to clear up, and that the damp sand would not interfere with the boarding. Since she's the expert, we decided to trust her and at 9:30 we met her outside our hostel along with two other girls from our hostel that happened to be coming too! We drove out to the dunes and Beth, the guide, explain that while normally when the sand is dry, they use snowboards that they have refinished the bottoms of, when the sand is wet, it turns out that normal snowboards work really well because  you know, snow is wet too. We would just need lots and lots of wax.

The one to the left of the girls is the dune we boarded down.
Or, attempted to board down.

 We pulled up to the dunes and I'm pretty sure we were all speechless. It was absolutely gorgeous out there-- we were back on Mars. After taking copious pictures, we were gathered and fitted for our boots and boards, then we began the long trek up the dune. Lucky for us, the wet sand made for a bit of easier hike up than the dry sand would have. We got to the top and broke into our groups, the lay-down boarders, and those of us crazy enough to try standing up. The lay-down group was given large pieces of plywood that they would be sliding down on their bellies. We would be joining them for a few runs later on, but for now, the stand-up group hiked up one more hill to the top of our dune where we were given a super brief introduction of what we were supposed to do. I made the mistake of mentioning that I had snowboarded before which meant that my and Erika's introduction was even shorter than the rest. I strapped on my board, gathered my courage, stood up, and went.

View from the top.

Needless to say, the trip down was pretty disastrous  but hilarious to watch. I wobbly started going down the hill, bending over and touching the sand every three seconds or so, when I finally thought I had the hang of it, it stood up a little straighter and started up picking up speed. Then more. Then even more. Pretty soon I was going what felt like way to fast down this sand hill and I had no idea how to slow down. I lost my balance and ended up tumbling into the sand. Well that's one way to stop. (Actually that's the only way I managed to stop all day...) By the time I reached the bottom, I had spent most of the trip down the hill rolling in the sand, but it was the coolest thing I had ever done. I unstrapped by feet, picked up my board and began the long hike back up the dune to try it again.

Pro-nasty.

 I wish I could say I became an expert sandboarder by the end of the day, but alas, I improved only marginally. I guess I'm just a girl that likes to have two boards strapped to her feet rather than one. I did get a little more confident though and even tried going off the jump! We took a brief break from stand up boarding to join the other group on the fastest lay-down run, which we got to try twice. It's basically like tobogganing on snow, and I managed to get up to 72km/h on both runs! When we had tried our couple of runs, I strapped my board back on my feet, and prepared for one more run. I went off the jump again and sort of landed on my feet-ish before immediately falling and rolling in the sand. I got back up and finished the run with a decent amount of success. I was able to make it almost to the bottom without falling again! By the time I reached the bottom I was bumped, bruised, exhausted, and COVERED in sand from head to toe but I was beaming from ear to ear. We walked back to the vans where Beth had started setting up the tables for the lunch they provided us. Fixings for sandwiches  soda, and beer. Awesome. We scarfed the food, took a couple more group shots, and then piled back into the vans to head back. Definitely a wicked awesome way to spend Easter.

After a quick pit stop at the grocery store for snacks for the ride home and food for the week back in our villages we went back to the hostel to de-sand ourselves. We took another walk along the beach and then had to go back to the Alter-Action office for a screening of our video. Oh, yeah, the whole thing was filmed/photographed and we each got a free copy of the DVD, and could purchase still shots for N$20 (about USD$2.50) each. We had a great time laughing at each of our wipe outs and picking out shots we wanted to buy, then we walked down the street to the restaurant where we met Ashley and Mailin and their friends for dinner. We enjoyed another fantastic meal at a little German pub and then headed back to the hostel since many of us had Easter Skype dates with our families.


On Monday, we spent the whole day traveling, but as usual in Namibia, even that provides a story. We had gotten the numeber of the combi driver that drove us to Swakop and had called to ask him if he would be going back to Oshakati Monday morning. He was, and we arranged to meet him at the service station at 7:30AM. Elizabeth, the manager of the hostel was gracious enough to offer to drive us there, but we couldn't all fit in her car, so we had to take two trips. I was waiting with the second group when the first came back, got out of the car, and announced that all taxi and combi drivers were going on strike and there would be no rides out of Swakop until the next day. Uh what?! APRIL FOOLS! Good one guys, you really had us for a minute (although I think we were more upset to find out it was a joke and we didn't have a legit reason to stay in Swakop another day.) Nope, the reason they were back is that the driver had called us and said he was running a few minutes late but would pick us up at the hostel. Ok, great. Well an hour later, he still wasn't there-- despite telling us he was pulling in, he actually hadn't left Walvis Bay yet. So we again piled into the car and went to the hike point to find another ride. We got another combi that was supposedly leaving shortly, but of course, it was another hour before we finally left. At 9:30, we pulled out of Swakop and were on the road. It was nice getting to see the scenery on the way back, since it had been dark most of the ride in, we hadn't seen any. A few hours into the ride, we even saw a giraffe on the side of the road!! But  I didn't have my camera out, so no pics, sorry. I'm pretty sure we scared the other riders though when we all shouted and jumped up at once...whoops. The ride back was much more comfortable that the ride there; the seats were a bit wider and the music wasn't up quite as high. We were treated to an African remix of Gangnam Style (even worse than the original) and a remix of N*Sync's "This I Promise You". The seven of us performed a full on sing-along in the combi and at this point everyone else on the ride was convinced we were crazy. Whatevs, they're just jealous. We got back into town around 8:30, and luckily for me, TK had been in town and because he is the best housemate ever, he waited for me to drive me back home since there is no way I would have gotten a hike that late. Note to self: make sure you get back earlier next time.

Well folks, that's all for the Swakop adventures! I'll probably have another post soon about the craziness that is End of Term Exams. Till then,
Jamie

For the full Swakop album, click here.

Camping on the Kunene

Ok, it's been another busy couple of weeks so I'll post a few blogs about them, starting with two weekends ago when we went camping along the Kunene River on the Angolan boarder. So here goes:

View from the pool. How cool is that?!

A friend of the one of the volunteers has a house on the Kunene River up near Ruacana Falls, so on Friday, we all met in Ongwediva at their house there, packed up all our gear into their bakkies and headed out for the two hour drive to the river. It was a nice ride (we were in the king cab of the roomy, air conditioned truck-- luxury!) and the landscapes were beautiful. There was one moment where you go up a hill and on the other side, instantly, the entire landscape changes from mostly flat with the occasional tree to hills and hills of greenery. It was really quite spectacular.

Anyway, we got to Jan's house on the river and then drove up a very steep hill (making your driveway look like a bunny slope Christina!) the ridge of the mountain where we were able to enjoy the amazing view from the POOL! On the ledge. Wicked awesome. When it started to get cooler (and our stomachs started to grumble) we went back down to the house to start the braai. Of course, braaiing takes about 4 hours, so we didn't actually eat until almost midnight, but it was well worth the way because it was, as usual, delicious. We passed the time while the guys cooked by playing a travel version of Apples to Apples where you actually have to come up with the nouns/adjectives that start with the letter of the die that you rolled instead of getting them on cards. It was a lot harder than it sounds. We did help with dinner a little-- if you were ever wondering how many Americans it takes to make a Greek salad, the answer is 6. When dinner was over, we set up out mattresses out on the huge porch which overhangs the river, hunted for crocs in the water with a giant spotlight (we could see their eyes shining on the opposite bank, but no actually sightings) and then fell asleep under the stars.

I've decided to transport this
bathroom back home with me

The next morning, we had a nice breakfast, again cooked for us by the guys (they really do spoil us) and then we began to pack up our things and drive a little ways up the river to Johnny's camp where we would drop off some things, and pack up others for our hike. The camp was beautiful, and as odd as this sounds, I fell in love with the bathrooms. They had a really cool outdoor-shower-y feel (probably because they were...) and I took a picture because I sort of want the bathroom in my future home to look like it. There was also a really cool bar area made out of really large tree trunks. The area around the camp was a striking mix between desert and jungle.

Lots of tall trees with twisting branches and vines hosted a handful of monkeys that were swinging around the campsite, doing their best to hide from our view, yet the dry sand and thorny brambles were a vivid reminder of just how dry this country is. We relaxed for a bit at the camp, killing time until the hottest part of the day had passed. After divvying up the supplies, we hoisted our packs on our backs, were handed homemade walking sticks from Johnny's crew, and we embarked on our 4 hour hike along the river.


At first we were walking through lots of open fields in the hot sun, but eventually this gave way to more of a rocky gorge along the river. It was scorching hot, and the footing was a little precarious  but it felt sooo nice to be getting some exercise and enjoying the views that we didn't mind at all. Pretty soon our water bottles were empty, so we stopped at a place a long the river with some swift moving water to fill our bottles and take a dip without worrying about the crocodiles. We had to anchor ourselves on some rocks so as not to be swept away by the current, but the water was nice and refreshing, and I was reminded of swimming up at Livermore.

Our camp site.

We eventually had to get out, dry off, and move on so that we could make it to our camp site before sunset. After another couple of hours hiking, we found a little beach-y area along the river that we thought would make a perfect resting place. We filled up our water bottles again and began to gather firewood and set up our sleeping gear.

Mosquito nets + rope = perfect sleeping
under the stars

Instead of bringing tents, we each brought our mosquito nets and we tied a long piece of rope between two trees to hang them from. We cooked another delicious braai over the fire and then spent another night sleeping under the stars and listening to the rushing of the water over the rocks.



It was so cool to wake up the next morning, on a beach, looking out over river to the Angolan mountains on the other side.

This is what I woke up to.

After a nice breakfast of fruit, coffee, and left over meat, we packed up the campsite and headed out for the last (short) leg of the hike to where we would meet one of Johnny's workers who was bringing the truck to drive us back to the camp site.

Oh hai there little guy!

As much as we enjoyed the hike, we were all thankful not to have to hike back in the midday sun. We arrived back and Johnny's camp and explored a little while the guys cooked lunch. I got to snap some photos of the monkeys and Kristin decided to be adventurous and take the little kayak (with a broken rake as a paddle) into the croc infested waters.
After another amazing meal, we packed up the trucks one last time and drove back to Oshakati to prepare for the week ahead. Luckily, it was going to be a short week due to the long Easter weekend and we all had our Swakop adventure to look forward to. That's all for this post. Check back soon for "Swakopmund-- aka: "Is this still Africa""

Love from Namibz,
Jamie

Also, for more pictures, check out the whole album here.