Next stop? The next blog.

If you just want to read about the Peace Corps, stay on this blog. If you want to read about our trip after the Peace Corps, please go to:

www.habchronicles.blogspot.com or watch the trip video here.

Before life back in America really begins, I will attempt to write several posts over the next few weeks about our trip, so please check in whenever you have time. First up is Indonesia. I hope you guys enjoy.

-Tim

The Real Peace Corps

I hope you guys enjoy it.

-Timo

Reflections On The Peace Corps

The Peace Corps - A life changing experience right?

By far, this is the most common thing we hear from people back home - “Ohhhh the Peace Corps. What a life changing experience for the two of you.” While I certainly agree that the Peace Corps is life changing, what exactly does that statement mean? How is it life changing? What have we learned? Well, these are some rather broad and difficult questions that I am going to attempt to articulate answers to in an orderly fashion. Brace yourself, there will probably be a significant amount of cheesiness, a touch of ranting, and hopefully a somewhat enlightened ending. I guess we will see where my rambling takes us.... Also, most of the pictures are random pictures from throughout our service here.

The inside of our kitchen hut. We have about 2000 sq ft of floor space as you can see.

Don’t Worry. Be Happy

We are so much more relaxed than we used to be. Without a doubt, Lindsey and I both agree that this is an area in which we have changed the most. 

Americans in general are obsessed with time (I’m not saying it is a bad thing, but it is definitely true). You probably don’t even realize it because almost everyone back home is, but if you come to a third world or developing country, you will immediately notice that most people simply don’t care about time like you do. It often seems that for no reason at all, you are forced to wait for hours on end. Things take a long time to get done. People walk at a pace that is comparable to a babies crawl (interesting fact - the world’s slowest walking pace was awarded to one of the villages that we stayed at on our kayaking trip in Malawi). Things in general just move much, much slower on this side of the world, especially in the villages - village chillage as we call it. For volunteers in general, accepting this fact is probably the hardest thing we have to do in two years. You can try to fight it all you want, but you will only end up frustrated and let down if you refuse to embrace the slowness of things.

Our village threw a going away party for us and afterwards everyone wanted to shake our hands.

Hence, as it is not practical to expect timeliness in any shape or form here, we have gotten used to waiting for things. Waiting no longer “kills” me as it used to when I would get so worked up about lines or traffic. I certainly still don’t like it, but I accept it as something I can’t control and don’t get angry about it anymore. Living in a village absolutely teaches you, whether you like it or not, to go with the flow.

Being Disconnected Is Awesome

My daily round of soccer.

Have you ever said, “Man, I need a vacation to get away from things” or “I need to unplug” as a vision of a secluded beach with a pina colada in your hand floats through your head? No emails. No news. No worries. It seems like a nice thought right? Well, imagine being disconnected for two years. Now, we are not exactly on a beach, although there is plenty of sand, and we don’t exactly have any pina coladas, although we could probably make one, but we are certainly disconnected. Lindsey and I literally never hear the news and more or less we have no idea what is going on in the world. We don’t have a TV, don’t have a radio, and have very slow and limited access to the internet and social media.

At first, it was incredibly difficult for me. I was used to having automatic email notifications on my phone and instant access to lightening fast internet from anywhere. It takes time, but you get used to not having “a connection” and actually begin to enjoy being away from the hustle and bustle of the internet, news, TV, and the ridiculous amount of time filler activities that we used to feel the compulsive need to do. 

Humbleness, Humbleness, Humbleness

Experiencing poverty and living (not just visiting) with the people embedded in it is a truly humbling experience. You begin to feel for the people you know, and begin to understand why things are they way they are in their lives.

Americans in general have no idea how good they have it - and believe me, I was no exception to that. You might think you do, but unless you live in poverty (and by that I mean that you live on less that $1 a day), you simply don’t. In America, we take so many things for granted that people here can only dream of - an excellent education system, a car, a house, electricity, a toilet, running water, food, shoes, loving parents, an honest spouse. When you become part of a society where the majority of the people are lacking those things, it changes you. You become so much more aware and thankful to be born into a society that strives to produce a hard work ethic and leadership in its people. You become thankful for all of things you had growing up that none of these kids have and probably never will. You learn to appreciate hot showers, washing machines, and air conditioning on a whole new level, but also realize how easy it is to live without them.

Lindsey and I attempting to pound Mahangu - their staple food made of corn.

The bottom line is - we as Americans have so much. We have so, so much to be thankful for. After being here for two years, it would be impossible to ever forget that. Which leads me into the next topic.....

Complaining 

Imagine that you are a kid whose parents both died of AIDS, your sister and brother were killed by malaria, you are living with your cousin’s uncle’s friend, you get one meal a day if you are lucky, and you go to a school where you don’t understand the language that is a 5 mile walk away from your mud hut where you sleep on the ground at night in the dirt. Whew....  sounds like a rough life right? Well, we have a few students who fit that description perfectly and parts of that description apply to nearly everyone in Namibia. 

Lindsey getting bombarded by kids before her run around the village.

Do you think these kids complain? Never. And that is the amazing thing - people here don’t complain. When I find myself wanting to scream while waiting in a ridiculous line or while there are 50 people crammed into a 12 person van with me, I always calm myself down by looking around at the people. They are just chillin. No one is stressing. No one is worried. No one is complaining - ever. 

Overall, the lives of villagers are 100x harder than my life was growing up. My life was so easy in America. I had every advantage, every privilege that one could think of. What right do I have to complain about anything? Lindsey and I both have learned that in most cases complaining serves no purpose and does nothing positive for anyone. You might read that and say “Well, DUH Tim.”, but getting over the need to complain when you don’t get what you want is not as easy as it sounds. It takes times. 

The elders of our village, right before they cut the string to officially open the playground.

For us, complaining is one of the most annoying things for us to be around now. When we meet a newbie volunteer who still complains about waiting, Lindsey and I just laugh at their perilous attempts to speed things up. I can’t hold it against them though, they still have yet to be “pounded into submission” by the speed of things here. As I said, it takes time. But once you get over your own need to complain, you realize how stupid it is and actually begin to despise it when you hear it from other people.

I am now finished complaining about complaining.

Top 5 Things We Will Miss Most About Namibia

1. Adventures 

We have a very adventurous lifestyle at the moment. Living in the village and simply being in the Peace Corps makes everyday an adventure in one way or another. You never really know what might happen. Things sometimes go smoothly but they never happen as planned and stuff goes wrong - a lot. But hey, that is what makes it an adventure in the first place. If you buy me a few beers at home, I might tell you some of the real crazy stuff that happened :)

2. Greetings and a sense of community

Greetings are so important here. Every morning, we greet, shake hands, and exchange in a short dialog with every single person on the staff at our school. The importance of personal relationships and being involved in people’s lives is so deeply ingrained in Namibian culture that people are actually offended if you don’t greet them and speak with them. Overall, it really is a welcoming culture that we will definitely miss being a part of.

3. Being a celebrity

Lindsey and I both have a love/hate relationship with this. Every single person within a 100 mile radius of our village knows exactly who we are. I am, “Timo, the white one that plays soccer in Mayara” and Lindsey is “Mrs. Timo, the fit one that runs far.” Whenever we go to Rundu, people often come up to us and ask us about our lives in Mayara and speak to us as if we are best friends, though we have never seen or met them before. Whenever we walk around the village or go for a run, everyone completely stops what they are doing and stares - like we are going to do a magic trick or something. If I didn’t yell at them to go play somewhere else, little kids would literally stand in the entrance to our homestead and stare at us for hours (which is exactly what they did when we first arrived before I knew how to yell at them in Thimbukushu!). While it makes us feel “cool” to be so well known and liked, it is also rather awkward to be stared at everywhere you go. So as I said, it is a love/hate relationship.

4. The relaxed lifestyle

As I have said before, things here move at a slow, relaxed pace. It has been good to be able to relax along with everyone else for awhile.

5. Friendships

While this kind of goes along with number 2, I thought it deserved its own spot in the top 5. Between other volunteers, teachers, and students, we have made a lot of good friends here. We will definitely miss you guys.

A group of students from Texas A&M visited us a couple of weeks ago on their study abroad trip.

What We Will Take Away

Being in the Peace Corps and serving in Namibia was the best decision that Lindsey and I have ever made. Every aspect of our lives has been enriched and our marriage was certainly made stronger these past two years. We have learned to appreciate the things we never even noticed before, learned to adapt to difficult situations, and have become very comfortable with the little that we have here. We will never forget the friendships that we made, the amazing travels and adventures we went through, and the trials that sometimes seemed to test our sanity.

The Peace Corps is certainly not for everyone. You do have to be a bit crazy and you must be willing to adapt to whatever environment, both social and physical, that you live in. If you have found this blog and are tempted to apply, think really hard about it first. Out of the 36 people that came in our group, only 22 made it through the whole two years. It is not easy. Honestly, it will probably be the most challenging and frustrating two years of your life. But if you want to test yourself and embrace a new way of living and learn to serve, then maybe it will be the most rewarding two years of your life as well. 

With a humble heart, teach me some lessons. Show me to do my part, in the place you have me standing. 

When we first arrived, I used to sing those lines from one of my favorite songs over and over again when the thought of living in a hut in a village for two years seemed frighteningly impossible. Those lyrics helped remind me of why we even came to Africa in the first place. And after being here for two years, I couldn’t think of a more perfect (and possibly more cheesy?) way to summarize what we learned in how the lyrics of that song have now changed for me.

With a humble heart, we learned so many lessons. We found our part, in the place you had us standing.

I Guess This Is.... Goodbye?

Thanks to all of you for your constant prayers and support since we first arrived back in July of 2012. It is almost overwhelming to think about hundreds of people that were praying for us when we were here. Neither of us died, so God certainly heard my mom’s prayers to keep those snakes away! But honestly, to all of you who even said a single prayer for us - thank you.

Lindsey and I when we first stepped off the plane in Namibia after two days of traveling back in 2012.

The two of us and our cat in front of one of our huts.

Lindsey and I leave for Indonesia on September 3rd, where will continue on to Thailand, India, Cambodia, and end at Mount Everest in Nepal. If all goes according as planned, we should be back in the motherland on December 11th. So to those of you that are praying, please continue. We still have a long way to go before we make it back safely and as we tend to do rather crazy things, we will continue that pattern on this trip. 

So, I guess this is goodbye. Weird. I certainly hope that all of you have enjoyed reading the blog, as I know that I certainly enjoyed writing it and keeping all of you up to date with our lives here. It has been an adventure.

For the last time

Peace,

Tim & Lindsey

If you build it, they will come...

I nearly bit off more than I could chew with this project. It took much longer and was much more time consuming than I originally planned. But alas - I am finished. Estoy terminado. Na mana.

The whole idea started when our principal asked me to build a playground for the students out of the tires they had acquired. I asked how many tires they had and do you know what she said? Four. Four tires? I explained it would be a bit difficult to build a playground with four tires. This led me to dive into the project head first with the hopes of making the biggest and best playground in Namibia. Is it actually the biggest and best? I certainly think so and most likely is. Very, very few school actually have playgrounds, and I have yet to see one that is even close to being as big or as nice as the one I built. So easily, it could be the biggest playground in the entire country! Either way, the students absolutely love it and now the kids of Mayara will be able to play and swing their little hearts out for years to come.

The students waiting to take their turn on the monkey bars.

Swinging like that freaked me out. Luckily the top bar has proven to be strong!

The scene that ensued once we unleashed the kids on the playground for the first time.

No Place To Play

The noise of the saw cutting the metal echoed throughout the village, so whenever I would work there was usually a crowd of kids/adults watching - probably thinking that I was crazy for spending so much time building something for kids to “play” on. It was very difficult to convey the idea of what I was even doing. Most of them had never seen a playground like this, certainly not with a bridge or monkey bars, so painting the picture in their heads of the finished product was no easy task. When I tried to explain what I was doing, I was often met with a blank stare of confusion. “Ohhhhhhhh”, they would reply. But no, they didn’t really know what I was talking about. And how could they? Playgrounds are not a thing here. 

A panoramic view of the main part of the playground

The first part we got in the ground before we left for Malawi back in April.

I have read from several different sources that more or less, playgrounds in Africa do not exist. Adults here often see playing as a silly or frivolous activity that exists solely to pass the time. However, a playground gives children a place to (I know it sounds cheesy) “have fun, relax, socialize, create, explore, and is vital to the metal health and social development of a young mind.” It makes sense though. In America, I have never seen a school without a playground, so our society obviously believes in the importance of play. Maybe this playground will start a new trend here?

The construction crew.

Also, school is over for the elementary kids about 2 hours before the rest of the school. So, when they are released from the classroom, they run around the schoolyard like banshees - screaming, chasing each other, throwing rocks, looking through windows and yelling at the other students still in class...... Ahhhhh it was incredibly distracting for everyone! I don’t blame the kids for being crazy, I certainly was too at that age, but they needed a place to contain their craziness away from the rest of the classrooms. Hence, I built the playground back behind the school, far away from the rest of the classes to help keep the noise down and the distractions off in the distance. So now when the kids are released from school, they bolt straight for the monkey bars and away from the classrooms.

Some kids helping me carry tires

Challenges 

I have never worked with metal before, never welded, and certainly never built or designed anything of this size. I figured if I could put a set of Legos together, then I could certainly build a massive playground right? Well, there were several factors that made this task very difficult. The first was transportation. How do you get nearly fifty 6 meter metal beams, 10 bags of concrete, and 15 planks of wood out to the village? I talked to the owner of Buildit (kind of like The Home Depot in Namibia) and after a bit of convincing, she agreed to bring all of the materials out in a semi-truck for free. Luckily she really likes Peace Corps Volunteers. The shipping cost of that alone would have broke my budget. 

I also had absolutely no tools. Luckily again, a super cool teacher at another school let me borrow all of his, including the all important saw and welder. He never once asked for them back and just told me to let him know when I was finished. There was a few times when I ran out of welding rods or the saw blade broke, which would bring all work to a halt until our next venture into Rundu to buy more.

The absolute hardest thing though was actually cutting the metal. I had an electric hand saw and was cutting on the ground, so every single cut was just a “little” off. Whether I cut pieces a little short, a little long, or slightly slanted when they were supposed to be straight, nothing was perfect on the first cut. This meant I had to shave down nearly every piece with the saw to get things to fit. It took forever, especially the 45 degree angles on the larger beams.

I had also never welded before or even touched a welding machine before for that matter. When the teacher dropped off the welding machine, I literally laughed out loud at the ridiculousness of the fact that I didn’t know a single thing about welding, and that I had designed and already purchased all of the materials for a playground where hundreds of welds were needed. I figured it out, but it was really frustrating at first considering the only instruction I was given was - “Melt it in the cracks.” My first few welds were absolutely terrible and incredibly frustrating, but I slowly got better and better and now I am confident the playground won’t come crashing down one day. 

Some acrobatic welding.

I want to give a huge shout out to my former employer, Gorrondona & Associates, who donated some money which went a long way in buying the materials. Also, Nathan Murray, another volunteer, who helped me get the ridiculous amount of tires we ended up with (we got all of the big tractor tires from a prison in Divundu - weird right?) Lastly, I want to thank Geri Kemper, another volunteer again, for helping out so much with everything and Dongo for letting me borrow all of his tools. I couldn’t have done it without you guys!

This is from an English assignment that Lindsey gave. I guess I am a builder of official places!

I am certainly proud of this playground and am incredibly relieved to finally be done. I haven’t even cracked a book in the last three months, but now that my afternoons are free, it will be nice to relax again.

COS Conference

Lindsey and I giving our speech.

Two weeks ago our entire group went down for our week long close of service conference in Windhoek, and it was honestly amazing. The Peace Corps put us all up in a lodge called Roof of Africa, I suppose as a final treat before we leave, complete with all you can eat buffets for breakfast and dinner. Each morning I probably ate around 8 scrambled eggs and each night feasted on 3-5 steaks (not joking) which included oryx, kudu, and eland - all delicious game meat. I don’t think I have ever eaten so much food. 

Besides the ridiculous amounts of food consumed by our group, we had medical checkups and several sessions about adjusting to life back in the US. This might be hard for you to believe, but it is usually much harder for volunteers to make the transition to life back home than it is to adjust to life here in Namibia. Being here for two years certainly changes you, and a lot of volunteers find it very difficult to “fit in” back at home. I don’t think Lindsey or I will have to big of a problem - as long as I remember that I can’t pee anywhere I want to....... 

The two of us posing with our Peace Corps "diplomas".

Overall, Lindsey and I are both completely healthy and ready for our next big trip. I weighed in at 17 pounds less than I did when I arrived, so I am about the same weight that I was when I was 15 years old. Interesting. Most of the guys lost at least 10 pounds, but some lost between 50-70 pounds! I guess a combination of constant sweat and hardly any protein has definitely taken a toll on us physically.

Our entire group after the ceremony.

We had a closing ceremony the last evening, where we all got “Peace Corps Diplomas” and posed for pictures with the Peace Corps Namibia Country Director. Lindsey and I were elected to give the thank you/goodbye speech, which we actually turned into a clever little poem. Anyway, it was great to see everyone in our group for one last time and we wish you all the best in the future if you happen to read this.

Also, Lindsey and I leave Namibia on September 3rd for Indonesia. It still blows me away how fast these two years went by.

Until next time.

Peace,

Tim

The End Is Near

Oh hey guys. It has been a while. I have been waiting to upload a new post because I was hoping to be finished with the playground and include that story, but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen for another few weeks. Delays, delays..... but for now, here is what has been going on!

Culture

Every year, each region around Namibia holds a cultural competition where schools put together a group of students to sing, dance, and drum in their traditional attire. This year and for the first time in Mayara history, our school got first place! The cultural group has been practicing everyday for hours on end for the past month, so Lindsey and I have become very accustomed to the constant pounding of drums late into the evening (they practice about 50 yards from our hut). Since they got first place, they qualified for the next round of competitions and have already resumed their drum beating in preparation.  I hope their hard work pays off.

Some of the student in their traditional attire.

The younger guys need desks to help hold up the bongo drums.

The celebration that ensued when Mayara found out they won!

Camp GLOW

Lindsey has been super busy trying to plan and organize Camp GLOW for this coming August. She is a co-chair with another volunteer, Steph, and they are splitting the workload between themselves. Without a doubt, it is much harder and more frustrating than they originally thought it would be. They have been emailing, calling, and faxing companies to try to get information regarding quotes, donations, etc., however, many people do not respond, despite the constant reminders from Lindsey and Steph. Emails go ignored, phone calls unreturned, and faxes are thrown away. There are certainly some people and organizations that have been more than willing to help, but it has still been frustrating and sometimes painstakingly slow getting things done. Everything is progressing, it just takes a lot of work and consistent reminders on behalf of Lindsey and Steph. The camp itself is going to be amazing, but I know that Lindsey will be very relieved when the organizing and planning is finished.

A couple of weeks ago all of the counselors for Camp GLOW, which are 12 Peace Corps Volunteers and 16 Namibians, went down to Windhoek for a training/bonding weekend to help prepare for camp. Lindsey and Steph were in charge of buying food for the 3 days that we were there. Little did any of us know, that the place we were staying did not have a stove..... So after we arrived with all the food, we realized we had no way to cook any of it unless we did it over a fire, which of course we did not have wood for. Lindsey and I rode along with another guy (who owns a car and is part of GLOW) and drove around a pretty shady area of Windhoek after dark in search of mysterious firewood. We finally found an incredibly inebriated man that gave us a great deal after stopping at five different places. For some reason the other four places did not want to sell us their wood....

The entire GLOW team.

Shoe Eating Dogs

During the conference, all of the guys camped outside in tents (which was actually freezing because it is winter here and Windhoek has a higher elevation than Denver - you just learned something new) and a stupid dog came and stole my sandals and both pairs of my shoes. Incase you are wondering, I left them all outside the tent because I washed them that day in a real life washing machine and they were still wet. Well, I woke up in the morning and just like that, all of my footwear that I have here was gone.

This story does have a happy ending. We found my sandals and I was able to have all the chewed up straps sewn back together, so they are basically as good as new. My other two pairs of shoes were found on the morning when we were packing up. Apparently (and I still have no idea why) someone took those two pairs of shoes the first night and moved them back inside a room and never told me, despite the fact that our entire group went out search the destroyed, dog-eaten shoes. So just when I thought all was lost, all appears to be well in the shoe department.

COS

Lindsey and I have already been in Namibia for two years, and next week we have our COS (close of service) conference with the Peace Corps in Windhoek. How time flies...... I seriously cannot believe that our time here is nearly done and we actually have to think about what we are going to do in the future. At the conference we will go over all of the closing procedures, have medical checkups that basically test us for any and everything (which I have been told includes many poo samples over a course of several days. yum.), and find out the specific date that we will leave Namibia - which for Lindsey and I will most likely be the beginning of September, but we will find out for sure this coming week. Sadly, it is also the last time we will see most of the other volunteers from our group, unless we happen to run into them before we all leave.

Although we will be leaving Namibia in September, we won’t actually fly back to America until December. We are going on a pretty massive trip around Southeast Asia, India, and Nepal. We anticipate being on the go for around 4 months, but we haven’t booked any flights yet because we have to find out when we are leaving Namibia first before we can pull the trigger on anything.

The End Of Teaching

When we get back from Windhoek after our week long COS conference, there will only be one more week of teaching until the students start taking their exams. So basically, we are completely done with teaching in Namibia. Sure, we will do some revision with our students before they take their exams but overall, it is smooth sailing with teaching from here on. 

A parents meeting held under some trees. This should be the last one we have to attend.

Hopefully sometime in the next 2-3 weeks I will be be 100% finished with the playground, so expect a post about that sometime in the near future. Until next time...

Peace,

Tim

Lake Malawi, Kayaking, and Big Foot

If you look at a map, Malawi is just a little sliver of land that is wedged between Zambia and Lake Malawi. Surprisingly, the population of Malawi is greater than Namibia, Botswana, and Zambia combined, making it one of the most densely populated countries in Africa. It was beautiful once we got there, but getting around in that part of the world using local transport is no easy/enjoyable task.

The Bus

The bus ride to get to Nkhata Bay was an adventure in itself. In Lilongwe, which is the capital of Malawi, we got on bus that was “scheduled to leave” for Nkhata Bay at 7 AM. We had also just travelled for 2 days just to get to Lilongwe, so we were already tired and sick of buses. Before we got on the bus, this was the dialogue between me and the driver:

Me:         How long does it take to get there?

Driver: 5 hours.

Me:         Just 5 hours?

Driver:    Yes.

Me:         So from here to Nkhata Bay, it only takes 5 hours?

Driver: Yes.

Me:         Ok cool. That’s not too bad. And when does the bus leave?

Driver: When its full.

If I had only known I was just lied to 4 times...... The bus did not leave when it was full as we know it, it left when it was jam packed. After the seats were full, they started letting people on to fill up the aisle. One by one, people continued to cram in with their bags, buckets of fish, and screaming babies until there was probably about 120 people (not exaggerating) on this one bus. Street vendors were continually yelling from the outside, holding up cans of Coke and cookies to the windows for the passengers to buy, and all the while we were merely observing the utter chaos in what was now a smoking hot bus from the intense Malawi sun. Now, being in the Peace Corps, Lindsey and I have gotten very used to being uncomfortable, but this was a whole new level. But rather than getting mad, the group of us just started laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation. Eventually we left after a few hours of waiting, once the bus was “full”, and in 5 hours we thought we were close. Oh my, we were not close.

It is important to know that the distance between Lilongwe and Nkhata Bay is only 230 miles, so 5 hours is a pretty long drive considering the distance is not that far. How long did it actually take us to get there? Nearly 11 hours. Ridiculous right? I have not idea how that is even possible. That was 11 hours with no water, one bathroom break, and a few crackers we brought before we left. Again, the best solution in ridiculous situations that you can’t control is to laugh - so we laughed. We had no other choice. But finally, we arrived and chugged some serious water.

Mayoka Village

Our private bungalow.

The name of the backpackers we stayed at in Nkhata Bay was Mayoka Village. It was beautiful and cheap, which makes it a paradise for budget backpackers. Lindsey and I got a private bungalow that was about 10 feet away from the water for just $14 a night per person. We fell asleep to the sounds of the rolling waves breaking on the rocks, and woke up to an amazing view of the turquoise blue water with the mountains of Mozambique and Tanzania rising in the distance. Local fishermen were everywhere to be seen, floating in their dugout canoes made from carving out giant tree trunks. Surprisingly, 20% of the population in Malawi is Muslim, so the 5 daily calls to prayer could always be heard echoing throughout the bay. We bought avocados the size of football (again, not exaggerating) for the equivalent of $0.25 and feasted everyday on insane amounts of guacamole. 

The view from our balcony.

Snorkeling and Scuba

Lake Malawi is known as one of the best spots in the world for fresh water snorkeling and scuba diving. A crew from Planet Earth actually stayed in Nkhata Bay for about three months shooting the colorful cichlids in the water and the clouds of lake flies that are always rising in the distance. If you watch the fresh water episode, there is about a 5 minute clip in there all about Lake Malawi. 

We went snorkeling nearly everyday in the waters just around Mayoka and saw thousands of colorful fish. I also went scuba diving which was a good experience as I have never been on a fresh water dive. Are there hippos and crocs in Lake Malawi? Yes there are, but they are only in the southern part of the lake where there are beaches and the water is much shallower. The northern part of the lake, which is where we were, drops off to about 50 feet deep within 20 feet of the shore, so crocs and hippos do not hang around in those types of conditions.

I mentioned lake flies earlier - what are those you ask? Earlier European explorers saw giant, brownish grey clouds rising hundreds of feet into the sky and assumed the lake was smoking. From a long distance off, it certainly looks like smoke. Actually, those clouds are massive swarms of little flies (smaller than mosquitoes) that hatch at the surface of the lake, fly into the sky in a towering cloud, mate, and then fall back down to the surface where they lay their eggs and die. They have a very short lifespan. If you watch that Planet Earth episode, you will see them in action.

Kayaking

This was by far the best part of our trip. If you readers out there ever happen to visit Nkhata Bay, find the company called Monkey Business Kayaking and go on a 4 day kayak trip with them - you won’t regret it. 

The sunrise from one of our campsites.

There was a group of 5 of us that went, three volunteers and two guides, on a 4 day, 4 night kayaking trip along the northern shore of the lake. We kayaked along the mountainous coast, passing all of the villages along the way where hundreds of kids would rush out of their homes yelling, “Muzungu!” (white person) and wave hysterically as if we were celebrities. 

We camped on the beaches at night and our two guides, Kumbu and Anderson, would cook all of our food on the fire. They also set up our tents, made tea and coffee every morning and night, and packed the kayaks after every stop. We kept asking if we could help, but they insisted that we just relax and enjoy ourselves. I was expecting to be hungry on our little expedition, but I was actually completely full the entire time.

The villages we passed along the way have no roads leading to them at all, so the people that live there rely 100% on the lake for transportation and most of their food. Since there are no roads, the only way for a tourist to see that part of Malawi up close is by kayaking there, and Lindsey and I were so happy that we decided to go on the trip despite my foot.

The usual kayaking view.

Lindsey and I at one of our stops.

One of our campsites after a long day.

Our entire kayaking group.

One of the many, many rock jumps along the way.

Do you see the lake flies in the background?

Andre and I with some of the local kids.

Big Foot

Wait..... Big Foot was seen on Lake Malawi? Yes, and it was me. My foot got really, really infected in Malawi and hence, the guides of our kayaking trip started calling me Big Foot. It swelled up like I had just sprained my ankle (but I hadn’t which was why the swelling was no bueno) and severely limited my movement for about 10 days since I was trying to stay off of it and keep it elevated. It was certainly the biggest downer of the trip for me because it kept me from being active. Yes, I went to the clinic at Nkhata Bay and got some antibiotics, but the first two rounds of antibiotics the doctor gave me did absolutely nothing. When I went back a third time about 10 days later when I ran out of the other antibiotics the doctor asked me, “Well, what do you think you should take?” To which I replied, “What do I think I should take? What do YOU think I should take? You are the doctor!” We debated for a long time about this issue and after a self diagnosis I luckily picked the right antibiotics that cleared up the infection after a few days.

It all started with a small blister from my sandal on my foot. Apparently, the lake has some kind of crazy bacteria in it that you absolutely do not want in open wounds. Lindsey had a small cut (the size of a pin prick that took over 3 weeks to heal!) on her knee that got infected and another volunteer cut his foot on a rock which also swelled up a few days later, so I was not the other one effected but my foot was certainly the worst. So while Lake Malawi was certainly beautiful with crystal clear waters, Africa always seems to have a trick up its sleeve. If you ever visit Lake Malawi, don’t swim with a cut or you will surely end up like Big Foot. We have some gnarly pictures of my foot, but I would like to save you the trouble from looking at them. If you really want to see them and are somehow excited by gross things, send Lindsey’s phone a Whatsapp and she will send you a picture. 

Coming Home

The trip home was actually much more stressful than the trip there. Our bus broke down for 6 hours on the side of the road, bribes had to be paid at borders, my wallet was stollen which of course made it difficult to pay the bribes, we slept in a bus station, and again we ate and drank almost nothing for 3 days. When we finally arrived back in Mayara, I don’t think I have ever been happier to see our mud huts.

Overall, being in Malawi was great. Getting there and back was terrible. 

The Last School Term

We are already on our last term as teachers in Namibia. We are done with the Peace Corps in just 4 months and time has absolutely flown by. I still have a significant amount of work to do on the playground, so that will be taking up most of my afternoons for the foreseeable future. Lindsey is in charge of Camp GLOW (don’t forget to donate to Camp GLOW if you haven’t yet at http://www.backabuddy.co.za/camp-glow-2014), so she will be very busy with that in the coming months.

Peace,

Tim 

The Himba Tribe and Epupa Falls

The Himba Tribe 

Namibia celebrated 24 years of independence on March 21st, which means we had a long weekend - which also means, travel. One of the last places in Namibia that we had yet to visit was a town called Opuwo, located in the northwest and is arguably the most isolated part of the country. It is also home to the amazing Himba tribe, whose lives have remained more or less unchanged for at least the last 400 years in one of the most extreme environments on earth. Because the northwest part of the country is naturally isolated, it has helped them cling to their traditional ways even when other parts of Namibia are quickly developing. Not to sound cheesy, but seeing these people was like stepping back in time to a different world. If you have ever seen the movie Babies, then you have already seen the Himba.

The Himba women have some of the most interesting and intricate style of dress (or lack there of) I have ever seen. They crush a rock called ochre, which is deep red, into a fine powder and mix it with animal fat and then proceed to rub it all over their bodies, multiple times a day. It helps protect them from being out in the sun all day and gives their skin a very unique red color. They also put the same mixture into their hair, leaving little “poofs” of their natural hair sticking out of the bottom. They wear leather skin loin clothes and a rich assortment of handmade jewelry over their whole body. Most of the buildings in the town are painted red from about 8 feet down on the outside walls to keep them from looking dirty if the Himba happen to lean up against them. 

A Himba woman that we took some pictures with.

*Interesting fact: the Himba women bathe one day in their entire lives - the day before they get married. 

I will admit, I was a bit of a creeper in Opuwo. Since my camera has such a big zoom, I would stand behind trees or inside of doorways to take pictures of Himba from 100 feet away without them knowing. It felt a bit creepy, but eventually our entire group would yell out, “Tim! Sneak attack!” when they saw a Himba they wanted me to snag a picture of. We also approached a few groups of women and asked (basically through sign language as they don’t speak a word of English) to take pictures of them and with them. Few things feel more awkward than asking if you can take a picture of someone you don’t know. 

So, the traditional Himba people don’t actually live in Opuwo, but rather in villages in the surrounding area. They do come in to buy food from time to time at the grocery store and they stay in tents outside the houses of their relatives or friends. They don’t stay inside the houses because they would cover the entire inside of the house with red dirt. Needless to say, it is weird to go into a grocery store and see a traditional Himba with a grocery cart reaching into the freezer to grab some butter. Not your everyday sight. So obviously, they are not completely “untouched” from civilization, but there are still thousands and thousands of Himba that are living in their secluded, traditional villages with round huts made of cow dung. We really enjoyed the fact that we got to see and interact with some of them.

A group of Himba women that we stopped to take pictures with.

Epupa Falls

A panoramic shot of the falls.

A few hours away from Opuwo, on the border between Namibia and Angola, lies Epupa Falls on the Kunene River. A few of us went out there and camped for the night (but no one actually slept in tents due to continuous, torrential downpours) and did a little bit of hiking and even swimming near the falls. Epupa is certainly not very big, especially compared to the giants like Victoria Falls, but it was certainly beautiful. For whatever reason, there are giant baobab trees scattered all around the waterfall which made it feel that much more “exotic”. It has been raining a lot in the area, so the flow of water over the falls was very powerful. Epupa is also right in the middle of a Himba village, so there were lots of kids running around in their little loin clothes and even a few men bathing in the river with their donkeys nearby.

Lindsey and I, being careful not to slip!

Some of the many Himba kids running around.

How often do you see a donkey at the edge of a waterfall?

Sunrise at the falls with some giant Baobab trees.

Spelling Bee

Lindsey and another teacher helped organize a spelling bee competition within the school. The students were given a word list corresponding to their grade level and had about a week to prepare and try to memorize the words. 3 boys and 3 girls were selected from grades 5 - 10 to compete against their classmates. For the event, the entire school (about 520 students and 21 teachers) came out and sat in chairs under a tree as the students competed. I was one of the listening judges, attempting to judge their correctness, and it was actually really hard! They pronounce their L’s and R’s almost the exact same, so we had to gather around and decide as a group if they spelled the words correct after some of the students went. Overall, it was a fun event and the students had a great time competing.

Camp Glow

If you remember from last year (crazy that it has already been a year since then) I wrote a little blurb about an event called Camp GLOW that Lindsey and I were both counselors in. GLOW stands for Guys and Girls Leading Our World and is a week long leadership conference that is held yearly in Windhoek. This year’s camp will be held during the August break, and 80 students and about 25 counselors from all over Namibia will come together for a week of fun, games, and learning. Lindsey is actually one of the co-chairs of the camp and business for her will probably get pretty hectic in the next few months trying to get things together. 

Camp GLOW is run nearly entirely through donations, so it is important to start raising funds early. Food, lodging, transportation and materials to be used during the camp must be provided for over 100 people for an entire week. As you can imagine, it is no cheap event to host a project of this magnitude. Hence, here is our humble request:

If you would like to donate or have friends that you think would be interested, please visit the secure page: 

http://www.backabuddy.co.za/camp-glow-2014

Any donations will help and remember that your money will directly help make this year’s camp a success. AND, remember that the conversation rate from USD to Namibian dollars is (last I checked) 1 USD = 10.59 Namibian Dollars. The exchange rate is certainly in our favor so please, don’t be shy!

If you would like to see the actual Camp GLOW website for more information, please visit:

http://campglownamibia.weebly.com

Traveling Yet Again

Believe it or not, this April-May break will be our last big break before we leave Namibia for good. My... how time flies. The students are currently taking their exams, and will have a month long break after their last exam of Term 1 on April 11th. We are headed out to Malawi with a few friends where we will spend our days relaxing on the beautiful beaches of Lake Malawi and snorkeling with the most colorful freshwater fish in existence. If you don’t believe me that a lake can be pretty (the lakes around me growing up certainly weren’t), just Google “lake malawi”. It looks like a mix between the Caribbean and heaven. I will let you know more about it when we get back, but that is where we are headed.

In The Meantime

I have been working a project, a rather big one actually - I started building a playground for our school. And not just any playground, I wanted to build the best playground in the entire Kavango Region (which, most likely will be entirely true when I am done). I have been spending all my afternoons cutting and welding steal bars that are slowly beginning to take shape. With only one saw and one welding machine, the work progress is a bit slow, so I still have a long way to go. I will let you know more about it when I am done.

I keep telling the kids not to look at the spark, but they refuse to listen.

Until next time

Peace,

Tim