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Ont eh 26th of October we went to Mwandi; a village between Sesheke and Livingstone. Paula and her husband Dan has a mud hut project there that we wanted to visit. Paula picked us up in Livingstone and of we went to the camp. We stayed 2 nights there in a big tent with beds inside. We went to see the elderly home, the orphanage, hospital etc in the village together with Matt, Calvin and Bobby who works for the project /volunteering. As the sun set we were rather bored as it was pitch dark and nothing to do but reading. So we went to the pub with Matt and Calvin. They were fobidden to go, but this was an emergency (and it was Friday), so we went anyway. It was a typical local pub; a bar and a pool table. 2 girls had a catfight on the sort of dance floor and the beer bottles contained 750ml! I played 3 rounds of pool and won the first two. Don´t know how that was possible, as I played like s***. Not at all as awesome as I used to be.
The morning after we went to the forest to work. They had just finished a mud hut, so this was the first day of a new hut and we had to prune branches that would stabilize the hut. We grabbed our machetes and started chopping. After 2 min I had blisters on my hands and 10 min later I thought I would die. It was so hot and I had cramp in my arms. I really don't have any arm muscles! We had fun though and sang "dig, dig, dig" from Snow white; but changed the lyrics to "chop, chop, chop".
We only worked for 2 hours luckily; then it was too hot. We got back and had lunch. We took a round in the village and it was so cute to see how they had a sort of street systen between the huts; but the bushes worked as fences and the roads were sand. We went to the Zambezi river where the kids were swimming and the fishermen were busy taking care of their nets. Well not all; most men chilled in the shadow.
The morning after we came with Paula to the church. Even though I'm not very religious, I quite enjoyed it. The choir sang beautifully and the priest was talking with such passion that it was almost impossible not ot listen. we sang along in the psalms in Lozi (the local language) and it wasn't that difficult as psalms are extremely slow and lozi is quite simple to pronounce. No click sounds or anything.
The priest read from the bible and then then translated it into understandable English; so now I know that the reason why we are so fortunate is because Jesus lowered himself from being a king to a slave. We all got his fortune. How a b****** kid had the opportunity to be a king was not mentioned in the text… Oh well, not everyone knows how to walk on water, so maybe that made him special. In the middle of the service they welcomed us to their church and we had to stand up and wave. Everyone clapped their hands 3 times; as that's how you greet someone in Lozi.
After the service it was time for us to leave Mwandi and Zambia. Intercape (bus company) picked us up by the main road and we headed west for WHK (Windhoek - Capital of Namibia). It took us nearly 4 hours to cross the border even if no visa was required. This due to immigration forms and because 1 person had to check all our luggage, Twice, by taking out everything and search every plastic bag. You can imagine how efficient that was for a bus with 50 passengers.
One French speaking family from Congo was on the bus and neither of them understood any English except Yes/No. They asked if I could help them with the immigration form and although I don't speak any French, of course I wanted to help them. I remembered from when we entered Kenya that the form was in English and French so I knew how to say most of the things they had to fill in; like "nom de famille" etc. And with a lot of body language and with my broken French we managed to complete the form. After that they asked me to translate everything the guide said along the way, but that was far too complicated for my tourist French. I couldn't help looking after them though, because it reminded me of being a tour guide. I walked around with my note book when the bus stopped and smiled, nodding at everyone as if it was my tour and it felt nice to pretend it was.
The bus ride took 23 h, but it wasn't too bad. They showed some movies and during the night they turned off all the lights and it was actually quiet. The only bad thing was that Manchester United played against Chelsea when we were on the bus, so we missed it and on top of that we didn't have any reception on any of our SIM cards so we could call dad and ask for the live score. Then we heard a man in the seat in front of us say something, something Chelsea and I asked him straight away if he had heard any news. Then it was 2-2 and 30 min left. We all stared at his computer to see any updates and were so happy when man U scored and won 2-3.
Since we came straight from Mwandi we didn't have any Namibian cash on us. We thought that we would get something to eat at the bus, but realized that that wasn't the case and we would have to withdrawal money asap. Of course the ATM didn't work at the stop, but the bus driver was so sweet and lent us money to buy some snacks.
On the bus we met Miguel from Spain who was going to the same backpackers hotel as us so we shared a cab. The cabs in WHK are so cheap. It costs 9 N$ which is about 1€ p.p. if you're traveling within the center. At Cardboard Box backpackers we heard from the receptionist (who speaks a language with click sounds) that there were no beds available in the dorm for our first night and nearly freaked out before Miguel; our life savior, lent us his tent as he had booked a bed in advance. Some people plan their trips apparently. So we camped that night in the backyard. The very first thing we did in WHK was to go to the center and buy a computer and a SIM card to call dad for a more detailed match report. WHK is a very developed city and it felt like we were in Europe because of the clean roads, footpaths and of course the German street names. The look on our faces were priceless though when we saw it; a shopping mall. Hallelujah! We hadn't seen a proper mall since Mombasa and I found it huge and surreal. I had gotten used to the markets. We got a computer and as we had wifi at the hotel we spent the whole evening doing nothing but checking stuff on Google that we had discussed earlier.We stayed in WHK for about a week and met up with Christine (a Swedish girl we met in L'stone) a couple of times. She lived 5 min away so it was very convenient to just take a beer in the hotel bar. Last weekend we went out with her, her friend and 3 other backpackers to London club; which was like any average European night club. It was a real fun night and it was nice to dance. Haven't danced since Mombasa either. We strolled around in the city and I understand why Christine likes it so much. WHK is beautiful and the people are so nice. No one hunt you down trying to sell you stuff! We went to the Owelo National museum and it was a very nice museum. For free, maybe that's why, but it was interesting. It was about the nature and culture of Namibia and I caught myself checking the birds even; and I hate birds. They had information about poaching and how the development and climate had changed the lives of many animals in Africa and how many species are about to disappear. They also focused on the different tribes of Namibia and about the colonization time. It was good that we went, because we got a better understanding of the culture of Namibia and I find that important to know.
Except for that we have chilled quite a lot in WHK. On Wednesday we're going to rent a car for 10 days. That's going to be really cool! The landscapes of Namibia are extraordinary.
- comments
Jamie M Loved it, as usual, apart from the manc scum utd bit!! :) they lost to Chelsea in the cup but I think you forgot to mention that :)) Take care Afrikkson, it sounds wicked!!
Mamsen Va förvånad man blir att du tog tag i guidandet, särskilt på franska!! kramisar