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September 19th
Last night our plan to attempt to sleep on the deck and be the first ones to greet the new port in the morning was shut down by the fact that it was 55 degrees at night. Instead, I got up at 6:45 for the sunrise. Not only could we not see the sunrise, but when the pilot boarded the ship at 7 am to bring it into port, the fog was so thick we still couldn't even see Walvis Bay. It was not until the ship was actually docked and the sun had a chance to burn through the clouds around 9:00am, that we got our first view of Africa!
Walvis Bay is home to just over 50,000 people, second only to Windoek in population. It was a tiny town no more than 10 blocks in any direction. Walvis Bay and Swakopmund, it's near by neighbor to the north, are basically the only two towns on the coast. The rest is guarded by huge sand dunes. Looking out from the ships observation deck above deck 7 at the front of the ship, you are able to see the desert guard Walvis Bay on all sides except the ocean. There are no tall buildings in town. All are under 3 stories.
Like I said before, I got up at 6:45am to see us in, but there was nothing except fog to see. I went back to my room, showered up, sent a few emails telling people I was here, and went and had some breakfast. After breakfast, everyone went back to their rooms to finalize their day plans and organize bags. We had an announcement saying our diplomatic meeting would begin at 9:15am.
Everyone piled into the union for the briefing; some were in other classrooms where they were able to watch it on the television because the union only can hold 400+ students. At the briefing, we had two members of the U.S. embassy located in Windhoek. Windhoek is the capital city located 4 hours inland from Walvis Bay. At the briefing they went over basic economic and security concerns with us and fielded questions. The security man was telling us how crime in Namibia was very high, but mostly petty theft. Last night a man tried to break into his bed and breakfast room, and he ended up being stabbed by a screw driver. Hmm, a very comforting story coming from the guy telling us how to be safe. All in all, these two were very helpful from giving us hints on taxis to health concerns about drinking tap water (it is ok to drink the tap water).
After the briefing was over, we played the waiting game. All of the passports needed to be stamped with a "road pass" in order to travel outside of the Walvis Bay port area. This slowed down the process. An announcement was made at 10:30 am that all those students staying in the Walvis Bay area only needed a copy of their passport and could disembark. Lacey and I decided to wait to get our passports. Ari and a small group we were supposed to hang around with "tried" to call us and tell us they were leaving. Finally at 11:15am I called Lacey and asked if we should just go and not wait and we decided to get off after we couldn't find anyone from our group. I had a FDP at 1pm to take a tour of a salt mine so this left little time to walk around.
The dock area itself seems to be a cargo station with huge boxes, crates, and railroad cars everywhere. This area is all fenced in. In order to exit the area you must take a taxi to town, or walk the mile of road into town. We decided to walk. We got into "town", which is basically anything outside of the dock area, and walked into a travel place to try and get some information. They were not much help and did not have any brochures or anything so we moved on. The line for the ATM at the bank was very very long with students wanting to withdrawal money. I did not have any Namibian currency, but I did have South African currency. It is interesting to note that South African currency can be used in Namibia but not vise versa. Namibia was under South African control until 14 years ago.
Lacey and I explored a little bit but had to turn back before too long so that I could make it back to the ship in time for my FDP. We met on the pier in front of the ship before departing to the salt mine. The driver of the van I was in was from Swakopmund and was very nice in giving us tips for neat things to do here in Namibia. The salt mine was only a 15 minute drive away, and was about a mile inland off the coast, surrounded by nothing but desert. We had a little tour of the facilities and saw all the ponds the seawater is pumped into to make the salt. The water sits in the ponds and evaporates for a few months before the salt begins to form on top of the water. There are other processes that go into it but basically, they separate the water from the salt to get the finished product. There is a long underground tunnel that takes the salt to the pier right next to our boat and can load it directly onto ships. After our little tour, we had a power point presentation of the operations and that was it. I was very disappointed with the trip especially because it cost me $65. So it was a very expensive power point presentation. We had a tour of the grounds in the vans as we were leaving to see all the different ponds. Usually the area is mobbed with thousands of flamingos, but of course, they migrated already.
I met Lacey back at the ship after my trip around 3:00pm and we went back out into town for more exploration. We visited a few travel agencies to get information of things to do in the area but a lot of it was beyond our budgets. We went to an Italian restaurant for dinner and met some fellow SAS students and we all split pizzas. Dinner cost everyone a little less than $5, not too shabby for pizza and drinks. After dinner, we went back to the ship in hopes of finding our group that left without us earlier in the day.
Most all of the students that did not go to Swakopmund today went to a bar/restaurant to hang out and drink. It was fun but basically overrun by SAS people. We did get a chance to meet some of the locals. Most were from South Africa surprisingly.
September 20th
We woke up around 8am this morning to get breakfast before heading into town. We did not have anything really planned for the day, though we had plenty of ideas. In town, we stopped by the post office and an internet café. Ari and her friend Sam looked us bus schedules on the internet to try and organize a trip to Windhoek, the capital city. They were unsuccessful because the buses did not run on Tuesday when they would need to come back to the ship. So, Ar, Sam, Lacey, Steph, and I all planned on going to Dune 7 after lunch. Dune 7 is one of the biggest dunes in the area and convienently located just outside of Walvis Bay. We shopped around a little bit before heading back to the ship for lunch. Food on the ship seems to always be better in port when most students choose to eat out.
After lunch we got organized and bargained with a taxi driver to take us out to Dune 7 and wait for us there while we messed around for only $50 Namibian (about $6 USD). We got out to the dune and were surprised with how big it actually was! It was very steep too! We all climbed to the top barefoot. The sand was really hot in some spots, more so at the top. It took us about 20 minutes to climb all the way up. What a workout! You would take a few steps and the sand would fall down and you would sink in half way up to your knees. It was a lot of fun.
Once we got to the top you could see for miles! We had a little photo shoot of us jumping off the top of the dune, running part way down the dune, and other stupid things we could think of. We walked out along the top of the dune for a little bit. The sand was blowing around from the wind so we had to be very careful about not letting the sand get in our cameras. (Later in the trip we heard a lot of people's cameras got ruined from the sand, Slap Shot especially). Another kid, Andy, who came to the dune with us, and I ran down the back side of Dune 7 and started up another dune. We made it down into the valley between the two and the sand was so hot we had to sit down and put our feet up in the air to keep them from burning. We aborted our mission to climb the next dune and started back up the backside of dune 7. We would make it 10 yards at a time and have to stop and get our feet out of the sand. I had my teva's that I could have put on but he only had sneakers so I didn't want him to have to bear the pain by himself. We saw a lot of spiders running across the top of the sand, but you couldn't get close enough to take a picture because they would scatter. Once we made it back to the top of Dune 7, it was time to meet the taxi driver to take us back. Running down the dunes was the best part. You get going so fast that it takes you a while to stop and you sink down pretty far into the sand.
We made it back to the ship after our little adventure and had dinner on the ship to save some money. Because everyone was so tired, we all took short naps before getting ready to go out.
We went out the the same restaurant/bar as the night before. A lot more SAS kids went to Swakopmund today so it was not nearly as crowded. We met more locals who were really cool to talk to. One guy I met was a mechanical engineer who just moved to Namibia from South Africa. He was going into the desert the next day and offered to take Ari and I. I know how sketchy that sounds but he was legitament. He was going to take two kids that day, but they stood him up. He was doing some mining type work in the National Park that is right outside of Walvis Bay and it would have been really cool to see because you need permits to get in. It also gave us the chance to see jackels and ostriches! Andy and I ended up leaving the bar before the girls because we were pretty tried.
Sunday September 21st
Ari and I were the only ones who woke up early this morning. Everyone else was too tired from our first two days and wanted to sleep in. We woke up at 7:30am to get some breakfast before going to meet our local friend to take us on our desert adventure. We got to the gate of the port, our meeting place, at 8:00 and he wasn't there. We waited around a little bit before deciding that he wasn't going to come. This may have been our fault for leaving the night before without reconfirming our plans and he may have just thought we were going to stand him up like the other kids did, who knows? It is a shame though because it would have been a highlight of the trip for sure. We went back to the ship, still tired, and went back to bed.
Everyone met up for lunch on the ship. A few of the people in our group had SAS trips this morning and got back at lunch time. We were going to go to Swakopmund today. We heard Swakopmund, though a little bit smaller than Walvis Bay, was more touristy and had more fun things to do. We all met up around 1:30pm to get a cab and go. We bargained with the taxi driver to take us for $20 Namibian, which was really good considering they start their offers at $150 Namibian and some kids were paying as much as $70 Namibian dollars to go. There were six of us total, the same group that went to Dune 7 yesterday. It was only a half hour ride to Swakopmund. The drive was very pretty because it was right along the coast. On one side of use was the ocean; on the other side were huge dunes. My favorite sign that we saw looked like a yield sign with an exclamation mark in the center, and under the yield triangle it read "SAND!" As if it wasn't obvious there was sand around.
We got into Swakopmund and our first goal was to find a place to stay the night. On the ship before we docked at Walvis Bay, the rumor was that all the hotels and hostels were booked full. We were lucky and found a hostel for only $120 Namibian per night. They split us up, 4 in one room and 2 in a larger room that already had SAS students in it, so it wasn't a big deal. We drew straws to see who would sleep in the larger room with the other kids, and Ari and Andy lost. The hostel looked like a one story house from the front but had a courtyard surrounded by rooms in the back. It was very cool. One building in the courtyard had a pool and bar in it, and attached to that building was a room with a TV and pool table.
After getting settled and dropping our stuff off, we went to meet up with my group of guy friends. We met them at their hotel and we all went out to eat. We ate at a place right on the beach and I got a huge burger that had two patties and a piece of grilled pineapple on it. It was very good and when they brought it out to me, it was 6 inches tall. It only cost $5 US dollars for such a big meal. After dinner we shopped around and explored for a little bit before heading back to our hostel. Because it was Sunday, not too many places were open.
All the SAS kids in Swakopmund went out that night to a local bar. These places that we were going to every night never saw so much business! We didn't stay very long again because we were so tired from being on the go all day long and went back and hung out at the hostel instead.
Monday September 22nd
We woke up for breakfast at the hostel that ended at 9:30am. It was included in the price and we got to have custom omelets made for us! Ari, Steph, Andy and Sam talked to office at the hostel about setting up 4x4 in the desert. Lacey and I wanted to save our money for cage diving with sharks in South Africa. The 4x4 adventure place was booked to pick us up at 11 am, Lacey and I would go with and walk through the desert and make our own fun. We had a little time to kill so we walked around town a little bit. Some of us exchanged money and we made our way back to the hostel to be picked up. The price for the 4x4 was $395 Namibian dollars, about $50 US.
Down at the starting point, Lacey and I walked out to the beach while the others got their instructions and such for the 4x4. They were set to do it for 2 hrs and we planned to meet them back in town at 2:30 for lunch.
Lacey and I walked up the beach a ways and found a ship wreck. Well, a ship that went too far into the shallow waters and was "beached". From there we cut across and headed into the desert. We climbed the highest dune we could see and got some great pictures of Swakopmund and the ocean. What a great view! We were about 2 miles outside of town so we decided to turn back. We walked through the desert to get back rather than going back out to the beach.
We met the gang at a small place called the village café for lunch. It was very good and very filling! Afterwards we went to a market in town and bought some souvenirs. After we were satisfied with shopping around, we decided to call it quits and head back to Walvis Bay. Getting a taxi back to Walvis Bay was difficult because nobody wanted to take us for as cheap as we got here for, but we eventually found someone. We made it back for dinner on the ship. Everyone else went out tonight but Lacey and I did not. We were too tired from walking so much in the desert, its really hard walking in all that sand! We stayed in and wrote postcards and in our journals instead.
Tuesday September 23rd
I woke up this morning to get breakfast and go into town to use the internet café. A few others joined me. We got into town around 9:30 but the café didn't open until 10 so we walked around a little bit to kill time. When we got back to the café there were other SAS people there waiting. Inside, there were only 6 computers. Because other SAS kids were there, all the computers were being used and the internet was so slow you could barely do anything. I was frustrated that I couldn't even attach pictures to email home. I went back to the ship with Steph for our FDP to the "Walvis Bay Multipurpose Trust Centre" at 12:00pm.
Though this was a SAS sponsored trip, it was very unorganized and we had to pay for our own taxis to get to and from the center. It was a very popular trip because the Multipurpose Centre was basically a HIV center for Walvis Bay. The teacher leading the rip did not bargain for taxi prices at all and it ended up costing us $50 Namibian dollars to get to and from the Center.
It was only a short distance away located in an all black township. We got a small tour of the area on our way in. When we got there, the director of the center was not there so we hung out and talked/played with the kids there. Kids come and go all day long and just hang out for something to do. The center is composed of three different buildings with a small courtyard in the center that is all sand/dirt.
When the director for the center finally got there we all gathered under a pavilion and she gave us an overview of everything that happens there. Mostly know for its HIV program to the SAS students, we quickly found out it was so much more than that. It is really like a YMCA and offers night classes, computer classes, after school homework help for kids and much more. It is also a HIV testing and counseling center for anyone who needs it. It gets its funding from donations and the classes it offers. We got a small tour of the facilities after our introduction. We also walked around the neighborhood just outside the center. It receives U.S. funding for its HIV program and branches out in the community and offers information on HIV through lectures and activities. It seems like a really good establishment that benefits a lot of people, not just HIV patients.
After our tour of the Multipurpose Center and short walk in the neighborhood, we headed back to the ship. On ship time was at 6pm so we just had a short time until then so most all of us just hung out on the ship until then. They had a "special" dinner for everyone planned for that night to entice people to make it back on time. It was an Italian dinner, and they served all different types of pasta. We have pasta everyday at sea, couldn't they think of anything better, like a BBQ or something??
Overall, Namibia was a lot of fun. Most of my traveling was independent, which made it that much better in my opinion. It was great to see the desert and climb the huge dunes. Other people did things like 4x4, sand boarding and skydiving. It did not seem like I was in Africa until the last day when we went to the township and Multipurpose Center, basically because it was an all black community. The towns are still split between blacks and whites from the apartheid that ended not too long ago. Most people spoke a little bit, if not a lot of English so it was not difficult to communicate. Restaurant menus and everything else was written in English, so we were spoiled in that respect. The towns did not have any tall buildings and were painted in bright colors. People begged for money, but you could easily tell that the poverty was not as severe as Brazil. Western nations have a huge impact on Namibia, and everyone is very focused on the upcoming election; all rooting for Obama. But like I said, everyone had a great time and enjoyed Namibia very much, and I wouldn't doubt that SAS will be returning there in the future.
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