Namibia is FREEZING in the winter

Winter is in full force in Namibia, and is much colder than any of us expected. None of us have anything more than a fleece jacket, and we don't have a single sweater in the house. While it is still warm and sunny every day - usually in the low 70s, the temperature goes down dramatically at night. A few weeks ago, it went down to 25 and we had frost on the car window, but it has generally been in the 30s at night for the past month. Our house, as most houses here, has no heat and no insulation. So we sit around every evening under blankets and sleeping bags on the couches. I bought a tiny space heater a few weeks ago, and we now all crowd around that at night. My office at UNAM is also quite cold, and I have to sit leaning against the window to warm up by the sun. Last night was the first night it only went down to 50 at night, so we are hoping the worst is over.

The kids are still swimming in the pool though, but only for 10 minutes at a time. Bill discovered a solar panel on our roof which "heats" the swimming pool. He now has an obsessive routine involving opening and closing the pool cover and turning on the pump at exactly the right time of day to gradually heat the pool. After two weeks, he has now got the water temperature up to 72 degrees. I'm waiting for 80.

Girl Guides

Maxine and Alice have joined a Girl Guides troupe here in Namibia. It took me awhile to figure out what was equivalent to Girl Scouts. We hard about the regular “Scouts” program, which was a co-ed program that seemed to be mostly white Namibians. We didn’t want to do that one. After some searching, I finally found the Girl Guides of Namibia. The Girl Guides of Namibia used to be part of the South Africa Girl Guides, but broke off a few years ago to be independent. They have a tiny little office that is opened one hour per week and staffed by three lovely older volunteers. They have written their own Girl Guides manual (which is photocopied), and the uniforms and badges are all hand-sown! I’ll post photos when our camera is back from the shop, as the uniforms are very cute (this is our second camera to break since we’ve been here!). The group that our girls have joined meets every Saturday morning. They do some of the regular types of things, playing games and working on badges, but there is a definite Namibian flair. For example, a few weeks ago the girls worked on their “Making Tea” badge. Tea is important in Namibia, and there are two types. “Five Roses”, which is regular tea – referred to by its brand name, and “Rooibos”, which is southern African decaffeinated tea. The girls learned how appropriately to brew tea, and to serve it appropriately on a tray with the right accompaniments. They also have a “fingernail clean” check and expect the uniforms to be ironed! I think they will be doing some rallies and maybe even going on a trip later on. The leader of the group is very nice, and Maxine and Alice enjoy all the girls in the group. This has been a great complement to the girls’ experiences at Windhoek International School.

Oranjemund

I had the opportunity to go with some of my colleagues in early June to the far southwest corner of Namibia on the border of South Africa at the Orange River to work on a consultancy about substance use in this town. Oranjemund is a very unique town! It is a closed company town that is essentially run by a diamond mining company. I needed a special permit and police clearance just to enter the town, and you get a badge when you arrive that you must keep with you at all times. When flying into Oranjemund, which entails flying on a small plane with layovers in the coastal towns of Walvish Bay and Luderitz, you fly over a closed area called the Sperrgebiedt (which means forbidden zone). About 200 or so miles of the southern coast is closed off to all people, and you can see various “ghost towns” in the middle of the desert – middle of nowhere. This area has been one of the richest diamond fields in the world. It used to be that you could find diamonds laying in the sand, but now they are doing heavy excavation and apparently getting less returns for their work. Diamonds are still a huge part of Namibia’s GDP.

The town itself was very interesting. Because all the people in town are there because of the diamonds, this is one of the wealthiest towns in the whole country, maybe even in Africa. The town was a little oasis in the desert, with grass lawns, wooden fences and palm trees – it looks a little bit like Central California. The town is still owned by the company, and while there now are some private businesses, the company still owns all of the houses (workers are assigned a house or hostel room/dorm room based on their job classification), provides free water and electricity, and provides free health and social services (it runs a hospital, a private school for the kids, etc.). The town is still very, very safe – kids walking around at night, no burglar bars, people leave their keys in the car, no one locks their doors, etc. It has the lowest crime rate in Namibia, because the criminals can't get out of town! The town has about a dozen sports clubs, most of them that aren't appealing to the majority of Namibians (squash club, lawn bowling club, etc.). Many of the workers are bussed down here from the far north, returning only several times a year to visit their family. One of the neatest parts of the town is that because it is green oasis in the middle of the desert, there are wildlife in the town. Gemsbok, my favorite antelope, wander around the streets of town! it was so surprising to see them grazing on the schoolyard and walking in front of the Spar grocery store. The company is planning on helping to “proclaim” a municipality there sometime soon, which will change the nature of the town drastically – making it an open town. I’m happy I got to see it beforehand! We had a busy, exhausting week, interviewing about 75 people – from miners in the mines to top management to school learners. We're busy working on the report, and will return in August to deliver it.

The research team by the town entrance