The Code of Honour Ceremony is an important day at the Social Work Section at the University of Namibia. The second year students, who have just finished their first term of their second year, had a big ceremony where they took an oath to uphold social work ethics, as they are about to begin to do work in the community. These are the students that I just finished teaching, so I know quite a few of them very well. While the Social Work section usually has very little funds for events, this year, due to an accounting error, there was money to hold this event off-campus. We had it at a little lodge on the edge of town. The students came dressed to the nines. While the students generally can’t afford to buy books, they can afford to buy shoes! It was worth the whole event to watch them teeter about in their leopard print or polka dot heels, or their knee high, shiny boots.
The event consisted of two separate singings of the national anthem (which is a beautiful song that makes me cry almost every time I hear it -- (you can hear a version of it on youtube at this link, though wish there was a better one!), a scripture reading, three singer/songwriters, some raunchy dancing to gangsta music, a point where we all got up and danced, a speech by the deputy Minister, and lots of protocol. I gave the “keynote” speech, which was a pleasure because I really enjoy these students and know that they are going to make such a difference in their countries. The main part of the event was when each of the student was called forward, signed the oath, and lit a candle. After all the candles were lit, they read the oath out loud together. It was very touching. After the event, thousands of photos were taken. I only took a few, but will try to get some more from some of the students.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
An Africa Day Trip to the Dinosaur Footprints
Memorial Day week-end in the US was the Africa Day long week-end in Africa. Africa Day is celebrated sort of like Labor Day or Memorial Day in the United States. There are a few events, but most people just think of it as a long holiday weekend. On Africa Day week-end, we took a trip up a few hundred kilometers north to Otjihaenamaparero farm . The farm is about 200 kilometers up on the paved highway, and then a long, bumpy drive on a gravel road for 80 or so kilometers. This farm is famous in Namibia for having several long dinosaur footprint tracks. The footprints are supposedly those of a Ceratosaurus (a horn billed dinosaur). The tracks are about two inches deep into sandstone, and you can follow the footprints for over 100 feet. The owner of the farm gave us a detailed history of the geology of the area, which was quite interesting. What was strange about the whole thing, is that the tracks were out in the open, with white paint drawn around the tracks so that it would be easy to find. You can see evidence where someone had tried to steal one of the tracks by cutting it out of the sandstone – but they didn’t succeed. Maxine, who as younger kid was very interested in dinosaurs, was quite thrilled to see these footprints. Our camping sport was about ¼ miles away from the footprints, so we got to go over several times to take a look at them. It was a very beautiful spot. Alice also had an especially good time because we brought Tadiwa, her friend of UNAM village, along. All the girls also had fun playing in a creek and in the interesting rock formations, tending the fire, and telling stories late at night in the tents. Another excellent weekend in Namibia.
May Day Trip to Naukluft and the Red Desert
I've been too busy lately to post anything, but have written some notes about the last month that I'll share now. We had a lovely trip over the May Day holidays to the Namib-Naukluft National Park and the Sussevlei sand dunes. Since we just moved, we only went for a few days, but it was a wonderful trip. The first day we drove down to the Namib-Naukluft Park, which encompasses a huge area that is the boundary between the red deserts of the Namib with the interior of Namibia. The drive was essentially a 4 ½ drive southwest from Windhoek on well-groomed gravel roads. There are hardly any towns, and very few people living in this region. The scenery was simply breathtaking. We camped at a little campground in the park along the river, and the only campers in the entire park were our party and another group. Every time we go camping, we think the stargazing was the best possible ever. Well, at Naukluft it was even better than that. There is no light pollution whatsoever here, and I’ve never seen the stars anywhere like this before. Across the stream from our campground was a big limestone cliff, which as the home to a large troupe of noisy baboons who kept an eye on us. We camped with another family, and had a very nice time out in the wilderness. At night, our friend heard a noise, and a Genet was about two meters from our campfire. Later we saw these nocturnal creatures in the trees.
The next morning we planned to go on a hike to a series of pools in the river. But unfortunately, we got too close to a red wasp’s nest, and the mother wasp chased after us, stinging Alice, Ruby (twice) and me. These were nasty, painful bites, so we abandoned our hike. Instead, we drove off ahead to our next campsite only 100 or so kilometers away. Bill’s GPS listed a site in the middle of nowhere (only 10 Km off the road) that said Neuras Winery. Since we were early, we thought, why not? We found this beautiful oasis in the middle of the desert, with no one around. Bill searched around, and finally found one of the owners, who was a wonderful German woman who had retired from Windhoek 10 years ago. Although they are in the middle of a very dry desert, they are able to have a winery because of a few natural springs. Beautiful, high palms and reeds line the springs, which create the nutrients for the pools. This couple irrigates the way the Ancient Egyptians did, flooding their one-hectare vineyard with a series of irrigation canals, and the wine is organic. The woman gave us a complete tour of her vineyard, gave us onions to rub on our wasp bite, and we bought a few bottles to save for later. It was the neatest winery we’ve been to.
That night, we met up with our friends again and stayed in a campground by a lodge. The only thing memorable about this place was the millions and millions armored ground crickets which were everywhere. These are huge bugs that I found particularly gross. There were probably 1,000 of them at our campsite, and you had to watch the ground constantly when you walked so that you wouldn’t squish one (even more gross).
The next morning we woke up and went to the red desert of Sossouvlei. Many people associate these huge, red sand dunes with Namibia. We didn’t have a lot of time there, but we did climb up to Dune 45 (Maxine and I made it all the way to the top) and ran down. It really did feel like climbing a mountain it was so high. We are already planning our next trip down there, where we will camp right in the national park and stay a few days.
The next morning we planned to go on a hike to a series of pools in the river. But unfortunately, we got too close to a red wasp’s nest, and the mother wasp chased after us, stinging Alice, Ruby (twice) and me. These were nasty, painful bites, so we abandoned our hike. Instead, we drove off ahead to our next campsite only 100 or so kilometers away. Bill’s GPS listed a site in the middle of nowhere (only 10 Km off the road) that said Neuras Winery. Since we were early, we thought, why not? We found this beautiful oasis in the middle of the desert, with no one around. Bill searched around, and finally found one of the owners, who was a wonderful German woman who had retired from Windhoek 10 years ago. Although they are in the middle of a very dry desert, they are able to have a winery because of a few natural springs. Beautiful, high palms and reeds line the springs, which create the nutrients for the pools. This couple irrigates the way the Ancient Egyptians did, flooding their one-hectare vineyard with a series of irrigation canals, and the wine is organic. The woman gave us a complete tour of her vineyard, gave us onions to rub on our wasp bite, and we bought a few bottles to save for later. It was the neatest winery we’ve been to.
That night, we met up with our friends again and stayed in a campground by a lodge. The only thing memorable about this place was the millions and millions armored ground crickets which were everywhere. These are huge bugs that I found particularly gross. There were probably 1,000 of them at our campsite, and you had to watch the ground constantly when you walked so that you wouldn’t squish one (even more gross).
The next morning we woke up and went to the red desert of Sossouvlei. Many people associate these huge, red sand dunes with Namibia. We didn’t have a lot of time there, but we did climb up to Dune 45 (Maxine and I made it all the way to the top) and ran down. It really did feel like climbing a mountain it was so high. We are already planning our next trip down there, where we will camp right in the national park and stay a few days.
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