Hello Everyone! Sorry it has been so long since I have posted. I have a number of things to share, so I will be writing a few different post. Unfortunately my photo port is broken, but I will be attempting to share pictures from my group members and others on my facebook and on this page.
So my host family, I stayed with Trudi and Sam and their two year old son Danta. They live in a house in Katutura with three dogs. We had great food and we had some take out (KFC, Spurs), we watched soccer and had a lot of down time.
The family is Damara/Nama and spoke Nama, but also spoke Afrikaans and English. Both of my host parents had family and themselves were very involved in the liberation struggle and are still activists. Sam works as a developer as a consultant and works all around the region. He travels often for work and has had the opportunity to travel all around the world. Trudi has had her share of travels as well and now works for the City of Windhoek doing Youth Development. Hearing from my friends at Young Achievers that they love Trudi, and she is so nice, I knew even more that I had a great host family.
Their son Danta was very very cute, and had a great smile. He fell in love with me by the first night. Trudi said he did not know how to control himself he was so excited. He would run around the house and jump around. The best was that he only knew a little English, so he would speak to me in Afrikaans, often expecting my response, especially saying it a number of times thinking I would answer. He would say AnGEEEEEla AnGEEEEla. Apparently he dreamt about me one night in his sleep as well. We weren't sure what he was going to do when I left.
One day it was very funny, he was in my room I was staying in, and he tried to say something to me over and over again in Afrikaans. When I didn't respond after like five times and there was no one to translate for me, he started to speak in Damara/Nama, thinking that would work, but it did not.
My accommodations were very nice, not much different than what I am used to which was very comfortable. I got my own queen size bed for the weekend and my own room, which was nice to be away and have something different for a few days. It definitely was strange being away from my housemates for so long though after we have been spending much of our days together the last few weeks.
My host parents took me on a tour at night of Katutura. They showed me the Bourbon Street of Katutura, which is a whole street of Shabines (or bars). They said it gets pretty busy on the weekend, especially the last week of the month. They also drove around more of Katutura on the second night. At night in Katutura there are lots of people out and on the streets even when it gets very dark. Also there are lots of dogs that are up very late barking and barking all night long, which is a noise adjustment.
On Saturday, I went with Sam to their farm. They have a number of animals, goats, sheep, pigs, cows, chickens, and a turkey. They said that it is great to be out of the hustle and bustle of the city. Also they are able to teach their family members and their son about the importance of animals and about what life is like out of Windhoek. They are also able to provide employment for up to three workers at the farm and purchase feed off of a women there. They are the only ones that farm there that come from outside of the village area.
To get to the farm, we took the road towards the airport, and then went another half hour or so, so it was an hour away. The road was paved with not much on either side, just lots of land, dried up rivers, and beautiful mountain ranges. It is a great reminder of what Namibia really looks like out of Windhoek and makes you really understand that the population of Namibia is 2.1 million but with so much land.
He was explaining to me about how land ownership worked for some of the huge commercial farm areas. He said that during colonialization many German Settlers took control of large portions of land, and over time, that land has now been passed down a few generations. The problem is that even when the independence happened, the land did not go back to who it belonged to. The problem was surpassed and moved on, but a number of people and tribes no longer have the land they once used, and these huge spaces of commercial farms, are not actually being farmed, they are just sitting there.
Even more interesting, the area their farm is in, was down a long dirt road, that gradually got smaller and smaller, to their house at the end of the 3 mile road. As we drove there were a number of cows, donkeys, and goats that were roaming over the road and around different settlements that did not belong to them. Also on the sides of the roads, there were people who had come back outside of the informal settlements because they could not find the opportunities that they thought they would have in Windhoek. This is difficult because there is not a lot of sustainable living that they are able to do at this point in their position. Also, for kids to go to school who live in this community, they must go to a 'youth hostel', which is basically a boarding school, where kids go at the age of five to school, and are not able to see their families much.
Being at my home stay, it was very interesting to see the impacts of American Culture. We were able to watch the cooking channel and all kinds of American TV shows. We were talking about in our group, do they really think people in Namibia will be watching these shows when they are made, probably not.
In conclusion, my last night, I made homemade spaghetti and meatballs and Papa's Salad - a Bonfiglio classic. They loved the meal, and my mom asked for the recipe. It was nice to have a great last meal.
Thanks for Reading...more to come....
Peace,
Angela
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