Floods in the North

I know that we described Namibia as a dry country to people before we left, but it has been nothing but wet for the past several months. In Windhoek it rains almost daily, but only for short periods of the day. However, in the north, it has been pouring. Last week I flew up to the Owambo region for a few days in the north to do a workshop with the Centers for Disease Control. This northern part of Namibia borders on Angola. The largest ethnic group in Namibia is based here, and this is where the independence/resistance movement in the 1980s was located (it is/was called South West Africa People’s Organisation – SWAPO, and now the ruling party of Namibia). The Owambo area is also known as the four Os, as the four regions of Owamboland are called Omusati, Oshana, Ohangwena and Otijoto. I flew into Ondangwa, and then drove 30 km north through Ongwediva to where I was staying in Oshakati. It’s easy to get confused here with all of these Os, though I have it straight now that I’ve visited. This main highway was quite a site. On both sides of the road the waters were flooding all the fields, the houses and the shops & shabeens (informal bars). People were fishing off the side of the road; some using treated mosquito nets as fishing nets. From the airplane, I could see many settlements that were completely cut-off. A small settlement with an extended family would be on high ground, but the dirt roads leading from the settlement would all be under an oshana (lake). There would be no way in or out. I saw hundreds of these, and hoped that people had made it out before the floods came. Many people have been displaced, and there are great worries of malaria and cholera.


The workshop itself was interesting – a workshop for health care workers in the north interested in supporting people with HIV related disabilities. Most of the health care workers were from other African countries (most notably Zimbabwe), as Namibia doesn’t have degree programs in medicine, public health, or any sort of rehabilitation (physical therapy, occupational therapy, etc.). Namibians who want to be health care professionals have to study abroad, usually in South Africa, and many don’t return home to work. Namibia is lucky to have a social work program, and many students from other countries come to the University of Namibia to study social work. I enjoyed meeting people working in the disability field in this region, and we are working out some projects that we can do together over the next 9 months.

Here's a tiny aerial shot