Fish, Fish...and rolled newspaper on my head?

1/13/2011

                Since we were given an allowance to find our own meals in Swakopmund; so Alyssa and I went for a walk early this morning to find a grocery store. After wandering for a bit the wrong way, we eventually got turned around in the right direction.  Swakopmund is very nice in the fact that we felt perfectly safe wandering around in just a group of two. It reminded me a lot of when Kaitlyn and I backpacked through NZ. 

                After breakfast we drove to Walvis Bay to visit the Export Processing Zone. There we were supposed to take a tour of some of the manufacturing plants, but unfortunately everyone is on holiday so we were only able to listen to a speaker.  He told us all about how critical Walvis Bay is to the Namibian economy. Afterward we were standing around the lobby and a bunch of us were looking at the Walvis bay crest which has a couple of Flamingos and, what is very clearly, a blue whale on it.  One of our professors (neither of which is actual teaching this class, merely chaperoning) turns to our speaker and asks if the whale is a dolphin, and then she tried to tell the other professor that  Pelicans and Flamingoes were the same bird.  I might have to go buy them a picture book of animals that live on a coast….

Our next stop was a fish processing plant. We suited up in coats, hairnets, and shoe covers and had a tour through the plant. Unfortunately the machinery was so loud it was very difficult to hear what our guide was saying. Thankfully the actual process was very simple to understand.

After lunch back at our home base we left to take a tour of Swakopmund. We were a little confused by this, since what we have seen of Swakopmund- there isn’t that much too it. It’s very touristy, and easy to get around. However, this tour took us to the non-touristy parts.  Our first stop was in the single courters- which looks a bit like the first Katatura. We walked to a little courtyard   where we met Vocal Galore- a Namibian acapella group.  They sang us four songs, three of which were African songs and the other was their own version of Hakuna Matata. They were very very good.  We then went to DRC- Democratic-something-community.  It was the government’s temporary housing…ten years ago. It’s since grown substantially, and there is no way to build permanent housing for all of the DRC residents.  It’s kind of sad; at one point street lights and street curbs were built in preparation for the 800 houses to be built. But now there is no way that these 800 houses could fit all of these people, and there must not be funding to start this huge project. Now hundreds of streetlights just sit deserted in the desert.

We went into a kindergarten in the DRC. Here 10% of the funds from our tour go to the kids to help them pay for kindergarten. They sang to us, and danced  a traditional Nama dance. It was adorable. Our final stop was the house of a herero(a Namibian tribe) women’s house. Our guide explained a bit of Herero history and culture before asking for three volunteers.  I decided, hey, why not… and quickly found myself dressed in the traditional Herero dress complete with head dress.