Day 9: July 2, Namibia

3:00pm:
We arrived in Namibia today, at our lodge near Mudumu National Park
We had to take a few tiny planes, and here I'm taking a photo from the last row towards the front of the plane:
It was a nice smooth ride, and we saw some game while we were leaving, but I didn't get any good photos (and mostly they were elephant butts running away from the sound of the planes.)
The transfer to the lodge was by boat, and we enjoyed a very serene ride on the Kwando River into Namibia. The papyrus and reeds on the river edge is beautiful.Priscilla told us that we wouldn't be seeing as many animals as we saw in Chobe, but that Namibia was more of a cultural experience. We did, however, get a quick glimpse of a hippo peeking out at us through the reeds at one point:

Later, we spied an adorable hippo "family" on the shoreline - the baby was so adorable! They didn't stick around very long after we spotted them, but it was just enough time to snap a photo. As we were pulling up to the dock, I looked down into the crystal clear waters of the river, and a hippo walked right under the boat! It scared the crap out of me, I'll be honest, and it was too quick for a photo... but it was a magical experience to see how gracefully these huge creatures move underwater.

Our lodge - the Lianshulu Lodge - is fairly simple, and doesn't have much light... but since we don't spend a lot of time in the lodges, it doesn't matter. More later...8:30pm:

Yay Hippos!!!! We found a pod of at least 9 hippos as we cruised the river this evening... one even yawned for us! Cool!!!

We also found the mosquitoes. I've been wondering every day why I've been taking malaria pills, since I had yet to see a bug of any sort (except flies and bees.) But now that I have two whopper mosquito bites on my knuckes (the only skin exposed except for my eyelids), I understand. Since we're situated on the banks of the Kwando River, I think all of Africa's bugs have migrated here for the winter. Bugs were literally smacking us in the face as we motored back to the lodge after sunset:Dinner tonight was ostrich again. It was OK. No, I take that back... I think I can unequivocally say that I don't care for ostrich that much. It tastes like a bad cut of beef. But still, it's part of the culture, so I can't complain... especially since so many people in this part of the world are starving.

Tomorrow, we go to the village and visit a school... I am very much looking forward to experiencing and seeing some of the local culture...

Day 10: July 3, Ngweze, Namibia

Early morning photo of the fire pit at our lodge: We drove to a nearby village today - Ngweze - which was really not much more than a few homesteads and huts, cows, goats and dogs. The homes are built with termite mound clay, and topped with roofs made with thatched reeds. Each of the family homesteads are surrounded by a "wall" of thatched reeds.

The villagers had put together an "authentic" village for us to tour, which was - contrary to its name - quite contrived. But it was still an interesting education nevertheless. (I especially love the traditional boxer shorts.)The Namibian people in general seem far more reserved and less gregarious than the Botswana people, but they are still warm and friendly to us. One thing I have noticed is that singing, clapping, humming and rhythm are all pivotal to their way of life, and it seems that everywhere we go, we're greeted with a song. Even the grinding of maize is done with a rhythm and a song. I thought I had a photo of myself attempting to shuck maize, but I can't find it...

The women routinely carry heavy loads on their heads - anything from water from the river (which she's demonstrating below) to packages from town to bundles of reeds or vegetables for the market. They can walk for miles carrying these things on their heads perfectly.

In the interest of maintaining my perfectly dorky reputation, I gave it a shot. I unfortunately failed miserably, and let's just say that if my family was relying on my success to get their ration of water, they would quickly die of dehydration.

Dancing and music, in the special-occasion costumes. Keep in mind, it's about 50 degrees out...

We then went to a real home of a real family. Two women were watching their grandchildren, and making mats out of reeds when we arrived. (Women in the culture don't sit on chairs, they sit on mats on the floor.) I knew that we would see poverty, but it still doesn't prepare you for just how simple life is here. There were flies everywhere, and everything is coated with dust from the arid landscape. We met a grandmother and her sister, and three grandchildren - ages probably seven, three and one. The guide told us that they had never seen a white person up close before, and that when we left, they would use it as a threat to make the kids behave: "Don't do that or I'll call back the white people and have them kill you." I don't know if he was being sarcastic or not... I hope so.

Apparently it is only in Namibia's recent past that non-soldiers came to visit, so they are only used to seeing white people as military personnel. Not too long ago, they said, the children would run away and hide when white people came through the village. Now, they run to see us, wave and dance.

AIDS and HIV is a prevalent thing here, with something like 25-30% of the population afflicted. It's stunning, really, to see so much of the culture revolve around it (even at the immigration point in Zimbabwe, there was a free condom dispenser on the wall.) But that is the way of life here, and the only way to reduce the spread of the disease is through education.

We also visited a school, which was also lacking in so many resources. The primary school we visited was opened in 1974.

In the class, the children sang us a welcome song, and then we had a chance to hang out with them for a while. I met Memory (in orange) and Henri, two beautiful girls who lived nearby. I looked through their sparse workbooks, covered with protective paper and decorated with a page ripped from a New Zealand clothing catalog and stuck on the front page with pieces of chewing gum.The kids were gregarious and friendly, after they warmed up to us. I don't know why, but they smiled the whole time, but whenever a camera snapped, they seemed so solemn and serious! I wish I could have let you hear the laughter and giggling in the room.

As with everyone we've met so far, they loved the digital cameras we brought. They had never used a camera before, so I let Memory and Henri snap a few photos. Here, Memory took a photo of me with Kathryn, one of my traveling companions:

Then Henri wanted to take a few photos:And thus the group hanging out to get their photos taken grew:

When we left, we noticed a bunch of children sitting outside... apparently this was a 5th grade class that had to sit outside due to lack of rooms at the school. There was a general lack of everything at the school, and it is in desperate need of - well - everything, from paper and pens to water and chalkboards. It makes me want to return to the US, shop for a box of stuff at Staples, and send it all back to them... or bring it back myself and teach English for a while.

On the way out of the village, I took more photos of some of the homesteads:

Here is a view from my tent of Kathryn and Mary Anne walking at the lodge:

I did buy a few key chains from the local market at Ngweze, made from palm nuts. I would have bought more, but I can't shop for much since our 26-pound-luggage-limit flight is coming up soon.

Another token dorky shot of me holding a fruit from the sausage tree... There was also a brush fire burning as we returned to the lodge...

...burning fields is a common practice for farmers in the area, but this one was set probably by a cigarette and was burning out of control. Thankfully, they had been fighting it all day, and it was beginning to burn itself out. (By fighting, I mean they were beating it out with blankets and branches.... proximity to the water of the river doesn't mean that they have the technology to use water to put out fires...

The sunset was spectacular, again:

We did stop on the drive for a break and a beverage (they bring beer and wine on the safaris! Cool!) We stopped near a tree which was literally filled with baboons. They were watching us, playing, and swinging through the trees... it was magical.

Continuing the dorky-photos-of-Beth theme, here's me on the night drive, trying to keep warm and trying to keep the bugs out of my eyes. I know you can't tell, but I'm smiling:Here's my photo of our spotlighting in the evening. Think of it like modern dance... if you squint or take heavy drugs, you might be able to make some sense out of it. The orange on the left is the spotlight, and the twigs on the right are - well - twigs. (I told you night photos were terrible. Now you see for yourself!)

Day 11: July 4, Namibia safari

I've mentioned that we're touring around Mudumu National Park: But within the parks, and the surrounding areas, there are what's called "communities." These communities are responsible for the wildlife management of their areas of the parks, and most of them are arrangements between the government and the local tribes who were (usually) kicked off their lands. When they are looking to create a park, usually there are several villages that are displaced. In return for moving off the property, the villagers are offered perks (like solar panels for electricity, etc.) and are at times, given the professional responsibility of maintaining the areas as wildlife rangers and keeping them safe as animal sanctuaries, or whatever.
I say "whatever" because not all of the allocated land areas are necessarily for wildlife viewing only. Some are for touring, safaris, and research (like the areas we're visiting) and some are set aside for hunting. You can hunt many things in Southern Africa, including elephants, lions, zebras, any of the various antelopes, etc etc. There are several factors regulating hunting and they are required to follow the rules and regulations of the countries they are in, which include adhering to hunting seasons and hours (i.e. no "spotlight" hunting is allowed), using certain caliber weapons, etc.

Hunting is also quite expensive: A permit to hunt an elephant, for example, costs at least $15,000, and requires a minimal stay at a hunting lodge of 18-21 days, costing usually $1,000-$1,200 per night (and even if they kill your prey on day #2, they are required to pay for the entire bulk of those 18-21 days.) Hunters are also required to hire a professional hunting guide who will accompany them on your hunting excursions (they help track the animal they are hunting, and make sure they're following the rules. They'll also save their butts if they are a bad shot and the animal is about to kill you.)

While animal activists are up in arms about the hunting, the countries of southern Africa see it as a multi-level blessing. First, it brings in much-needed income to these poor countries, and the funding usually filtered into wildlife management areas. Second, by controlling the hunting, it avoids the need to cull overpopulation by simply going out and shooting masses of them. Third, when a hunter is successful, the trophy (usually the head or the pelt) is given to the hunter, but the meat and other parts are given to the local people to help feed them. Needless to say, the hunting areas are clearly marked, and no tourists are allowed in those areas.

Anyway, back to our non-homicidal journey... This morning was freezing cold - the coldest it's been since Pafuri - and we looked like a bunch of Eskimos all bundled up on our truck. The drive, however, was beautiful, and we saw a herd of roan antelope: Our guide, Victor, and Priscilla were very excited about spotting these animals. They are extremely rare and apparently quite shy, usually running from vehicles before they're even spotted. They are rarely found in groups as big as the one we saw, so once again, our reputation as a lucky group is holding. These roan seemed quite relaxed around us, surprisingly. I have to admit, though, for all the awe I was supposed to be feeling about seeing these magnificent animals, I personally think they look absolutely ridiculous.
I mean really - was it a joke to stick donkey ears on such a regal animal as this? And couldn't they have at least gotten some decent-sized horns so they could kick the butts of other antelopes that are undoubtedly laughing at their donkey ears? Okay, okay... in the interest of giving them a fair shake, here's a perfectly gorgeous pose that one of them struck for us... right in the middle of the main road:
We also stopped at the wildlife management office, where we played "name that skull" with our guide, Victor. Here, he's holding a zebra skull:
More buffalo:
We also saw:
- Double-banded Sandgrouse
- Zebra
- Warthogs
- Slender Mongoose
- Blacksmith Plover (gorgeous birds - one of my favorites)
- Wattled Plover
- Coppery-tailed Coucal
- Impala (of course)

The evening boat cruise was wonderful... as you can see below, the reeds on the riverbank can grow up to about 20 feet high, so there were times that it seemed that we were completely encased in foliage. Pretty cool. Baboons playing in trees again:
Ever feel like you're being watched?
Here's a better show of some hippo teeth... Wow. All I can say is thank goodness these guys are vegetarians.
We also saw elephants, and another Coppery-tailed Coucal.

The sunset was - once again - totally gorgeous. We stopped to watch it alongside some baboons who were trying to soak up some of the last of the sun's warmth:
It made for quite a nice little photo:
The sunset... I couldn't figure out which photo I liked best, so I'll put both of them up:
Here is the other boat, as we dash home after the sun sets.
And here is the last photo I took that night because I went blind about two minutes later.

You see, the reason we dash home after the sun sets is because that's when all the bugs come out. And when I say "all", I mean plagues of them... billions of them. The mosquitoes are nothing compared to the little gnat guys that suddenly appeared everywhere. I felt them in my hair, on my neck, on my cheeks, and started at one point feeling them crawl into my ears and breathing them up my nose. At one point, I looked down at my bag on my lap, and the surface looked as though it was alive - it was literally crawling with millions of them. I got a few in my eye, even though I was wearing my sunglasses, and eventually wrapped my scarf around my whole face to keep more out of my eyes and nose. (Thank goodness for contact-lens-wearing travel mates, who gave me some saline to wash out the bugs that night - thank you Pam!!!) Later, I even found several had flown down into my bra. Ew. I can't imagine how bad it is during the "heavy bug" season!!! I took a long shower before I went to bed.

Dinner was - as usual - fabulous, and the staff at the lodge sang "Happy Birthday to America" for us and gave us champagne to celebrate Independence Day. Cool.