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.
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| 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.
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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.
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| A group of Himba women that we stopped to take pictures with. |
Epupa Falls
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| 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.
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| Lindsey and I, being careful not to slip! |
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| Some of the many Himba kids running around. |
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| How often do you see a donkey at the edge of a waterfall? |
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| 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:
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:
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.
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| I keep telling the kids not to look at the spark, but they refuse to listen. |
Until next time
Peace,
Tim
Wow ! what an amazing experience you guys had ! Fantastic !
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