Wika

Wika is a German festival that goes on here in Namibia in April, celebrating the coming of “winter”. This is the largest German-Namibian event of the year. They have lots of parties, events, dances, etc. They held their big parade last Saturday, and we all went to the show on Saturday morning at 11:11. We were expecting floats, perhaps with people dressed in lederhausen and knee socks, dancing to polka music. We were shocked that the parade consisted of big mac trucks pulling loads of drunks down the street, throwing a variety of things into the crowd, such as glass beer bottles. There were few costumes, and virtually no decorations. The decorations and/or costumes that were in the parade were generally not appropriate for children to view for a variety of reasons (lewd, racist, etc.). The kids didn’t seem to notice any of it though, as the one saving grace is that the partiers on the floats did throw lots of candy, so all the kids there were happy. We had a cultural experience, but it was a different culture than we expected!