Swakopmund, Namibia

2-14-09

Walvis Bay/Swakopmund, Namibia

Hello from Namibia!! It is a great country! I am having such a great time. I did my first Semester At Sea trips here, and I loved them. We arrived in Walvis Bay at 8 a.m. and were welcomed by a singing and dancing troupe of girls. It takes awhile to clear all of our passports, so these girls gave us a concert. They were between 6 and 12 or 13 years old, and were mostly orphans. They performed for about an hour on the dock, a combination of singing, drumming, clapping, and dancing. Afterward, they got a tour of our ship, but I was long gone by then. I had a city orientation of Swakopmund. It is a 20 minute drive from Walvis Bay to Swakopmund. There were 3 busses that were doing the city orientation, and somehow my good friend Isaiah and I were the only two students who managed to get on the professor/lifelong learner bus. It was interesting, their adult jokes were kind of strange… but they thought they were funny! Isaiah and I had a really good time though. The road is a two lane stretch that hugs the coastline. Going north, if you look left you see the ocean and beautiful beaches, then looking right you see an ocean of sand. It is amazing to see the dichotomy between an ocean filled with waves of water being infringed upon by waves of desert sand.

The town of Swakopmund is a small town of about 30,000 founded by the Germans in 1892. Namibia was a German colony until the end of WWI, and then came under South African rule. Namibia gained independence from South Africa in 1990, shortly after Nelson Mandela was released from prison and became president. You can still see the German influence on the town, especially in the architecture. The buildings are beautiful. Swakopmund was the port town for the Germans because Walvis Bay was British. When the British relinquished control, the economy of Swakopmund briefly crashed because the port closed; however, it is now a bustling city again. My city orientation began at 10 am, and we went to a number of destinations in Swakopmund learning about the history and culture. Our first stop was the Karakulia Weaving Center, where we saw Namibians making tapestries and rugs. The entire process was done by hand; first spinning and dying wool into colored yarn, then drawing and weaving a design. The designs were very intricate, and often reflected African designs or wild animals. The tapestries are made by hand weaving sections of wool and then tying them off. After a tour of the facilities, we went to a crystal shop. Mining is the main industry in Namibia, from diamonds to copper to uranium. There I saw the world’s largest single quartz crystal – it was about 15 feet wide by 10 feet tall. Huge! We were then granted free time to wander around Swakopmund. After that we went to the harbor, where our guide told us more of the history of Swakopmund. Our tour was mostly over after that, and we returned to the ship by a back road which took us by Dune 7. Dune 7 is the most famous of the dunes, it is over 300 meters tall… which is almost 1000 feet! The “dune sea” is beautiful. There are so many varying shades of orange, brown, and yellow. We stopped at Dune 7 and got out. Isaiah and I climbed the dune, but the sand was soooooo hot. I unfortunately was wearing sandals, and got little blisters on my feet. As you climbed, the dune got steeper; each step I took I would be sent halfway back as the sand would mini-landslide and pile on top of my foot. It was a lot of fun though, and the view was worth it.

After the return trip to the ship, Isaiah and I dusted ourselves off and headed on foot into the town of Walvis Bay (pronounced Val-fish Bay). It was early evening, and there wasn’t much going on in town. It was nice to walk around though. We came back to the ship and got ready to go out to dinner. I met up with friends and we decided to walk to The Raft restaurant, located on the lagoon. It was a beautiful restaurant built on stilts over the water. It was about an hours walk with a group, but its hard to get 12 people to stay on track. It was crowded when we got there, but we found a table big enough to fit all of us. The tables were picnic-style benches. The Raft is famous for having African food, stuff I would never get to try in the United States. I split a meal with Andrew, and we had warthog for appetizer, and two steaks for our main course. The steaks were ostrich and oryx (also known as gemsbok). It was awesome!! The warthog came in a salad, and was delicious. There was a lot of other stuff mixed in, so I’m not exactly sure what just warthog tastes like. The ostrich was delicious; it is a red meat but had a consistency of chicken. It was very tender. The oryx was my favorite though, its one of the best steaks I have had. It tastes pretty much like a steak, but very tender and it was served in a tangy sauce. I shared with all my friends, and in return got bites of crocodile, springbok, and Namibian prawns. Being a former German colony, Namibia is the “country of Jagermeister” and the girls of the table were treated to shots by some local Namibian boys at the next table over. We became friends with them, and had great conversations. They all speak English, which makes it much easier to communicate. It was interesting to hear some of the stereotypes they had of Americans. I was surprised by how racist they were, there is a big difference between the white and black communities in Africa. They are separated by where they live, where they work, and income levels. However, Namibia is still a young country, and I have faith that over time things will become more equal. We had a lot of fun with the Namibians, and too soon it came time to go back to the ship. I love to meet new people in other countries! So far I love everything about Namibia, and I have only been here one day. Instead of quenching my thirst for travel, this trip is making me want to keep traveling forever…