Time is flying

Hi,

Sorry to people who are patiently trying to follow my escapades - access to the web is hard at times and I'm also a bit of a technophobe it seems - though my work with a camera is improving. So I thought I'd onfine this entry of my last 2 weeks to mostly photos. I have travelled a lot and last weekend went for a long expediion around the Avis Dam and surrounds. I have a comedy tan (head and arms). It is very hot here. It's also the rainy season.

Work is progressing and my reports are well received and things are starting to happen.

I took a colleague up North to the Opuwa a few days ago. Driving hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of kilometers - I know that's a lot of hundreds, but it's hard to convey the vastness of the country. The Himba people are relatively unscathed by more modern Western life. And they have a very definite heirarchy and symbolic way of reflecting their status, both personal and professional.

So, here then are some images of the Himba and my jaunt around the Dam. I am off "air" now for a full week as I head back to a Conservancy area to visit some projects as part of my work and reports. This time I can share the driving with some colleagues - the last time it was just me driving - though I am now a pretty accomplished monster truck driver!!

Marlize

My third week - the story so far

A few photos first before my news of my work:

The damage caused by elephants to the campsite loos! views and the vegetable garden in the middle of absolutely nowhere!;Downtown Swakopmund, Farmer and his lad, Very large snakes!!!. My offices shared with other volunteers and local staff My first weekwas spent familiarising myself with my surroundings and receiving further in-country" training. Namibia is vast, Windhoek, the capital sprawling. German and Afrikaans seem to be the dominant languages.

I formally started work last week. I spent Monday doing a lot of reading and trying to get a feel for the project I am to review. The aim of the project is to ... "improve the livelihoods of disadvantage rural populations in communal areas of Namibia."

It seems that this is done in a variety of ways: training for business start-ups, tourism lodge partnerships; and developing small tourism enterprises - crafts and so on.

I went on a field trip on Tuesday and Wednesday, travelling hundreds of kilometres. You are lucky to see another car every 10-15 minutes on the road. And you can't travel on the roads at night because the animals move out of the bush and the desert to cool down and sleep on the road at night. No Highways Agency patrols here!! We visited 3 projects; a vegetable garden in the middle of nowhere;

a coffee shop and a campsite. The campsite was interesting - the outside showers and loos where destroyed by migrating thirsty elephants. Funny to imagine that as problem back at work in Wales! A solution has to be found for that one and quickly!

The discussions were interesting and suggestions ranged from concreting the pipes (this will cost a fortune because the site is in the middle of nowhere with only a dirt track. Getting cement and other building materials to the site is difficult and labour is also hard to find.) Getting to the vegetable garden took for ever. We had a 4X4 and kept on crossing a dry river bed. On route we saw an enormous snake.

It's raining hard here now though and all sorts of flood alerts are out. It's also very hot. I'm being bitten by the "Mossies" quite a lot.

We spent the night in Swakopmund - a German town in the middle of the desert. Most of the roads are made of salt and it is surprisingly cold with a freezing fog at night straight from the South pole. The sea temperature was only 10C. We had a meeting in Swakop and I was back in Windhoek (the capital) at 9pm.

So that was the tone for week 2 and now this week its getting down to the research and the visits and the reports and recommendations.

Namibia is a very beautiful country, full of contrast on just about every level. Getting internet access is quite hard and there is a queue here now (I'm at a cafe in my lunch hour - it isn't wise to venture out at night downtown), so I'll update as soon as I can. If you know someone who would be interested in VSO, please feel free to pass them my details and I'd gladly provide advice on my experiences upon my return in early April. I'll make another post soon!

Thanks for reading this blog entry and supporting my venture and VSO.

Marlize

Preparing to go

I've been busy packing and finding that I've forgotten all sorts of things! Even after spending most of yesterday in town. It was nice to relax at the movies last night (we watched "Nine", a really exhilarating film, the music was fantastic and so was Daniel Day-Lewis in his Italian persona! What a man!)

Today Kevin and I are heading out to Brecon for lunch at the Nant Ddu lodge and then we're having some friends over for tea before some last minute evening panics!

My flight leaves Heathrow tomorrow evening bound for Johannesburg. I have a brief 3 hour stopover before boarding for Windhoek.

It's all very real now and I am looking forward to my assignment. It all feels very worthwhile. I feel very lucky to have found a place through the Welsh Assembly Government sponsorship and International Learning opportunity scheme and to have been placed by VSO (and in Namibia too).