Bana ba Metsi

I remember being told at school that one should never begin a speech with an apology of any sort: I would like to apply the same principle to blogging, only I really have let it fall off the radar and have been sitting with this post in the Drafts folder for at least a week. Sorry!

Where were we? Holidays, and I believe I last wrote about Victoria Falls. After our Zambia trip, we spent the last week of our holiday in the Okavango Delta in northern Botswana, visiting the two Project Trust volunteers at Bana ba Metsi school. I'm really hoping that I get this right - Bana ba Metsi is a school for boys from vulnerable backgrounds that aims to enable them to improve their prospects for the future. Many of the pupils are orphans, and some have never received a full, formal primary education; attending the school offers respite from very difficult circumstances and the opportunity to obtain their primary school qualifications. One of the most ingenious aspects of the school, however, is that alongside their education, the boys are also taught practical skills like joinery, carpentry and agriculture, and they use these to contribute towards the school community. While we were there, for example, the students were working on the plumbing for the new toilet block, and had already thatched the roof themselves. I dread to think what would happen if you let a power drill loose in one of our classes, but they were brilliant with it - by the end of the session, we left with all members of the group, all digits in tact and a decent start on the project.

It was fascinating to visit the school, and it is particularly interesting to see a country from the perspective of the volunteers: while most visitors to the Delta flew in expensive planes over our heads, we spent a day travelling on a bus,a  combi, a ferry and a truck with one loose door to find ourselves right in the middle of the bush and surrounded by the world's greatest inland delta. We did end up staying one more night than originally planned (perhaps a foolish decision given the 3 day trek back to Tses that was to follow), but it was certainly worth it. In the company of two more Scots and a German, all of whom are musically talented and have a small orchestra of instruments with them, we had a rather bizarre music evening after watching the sun set by the river and before a wonderful braai featuring fillet steak and...just fillet steak. A fantastic end to a truly wonderful holiday.

And now we're back in business here in Tses! Last week was nominally the first week of the new term, but it was a strange start: Monday was the first day for the staff; Tuesday was the first day for the few kids that turned up, only to be sent home at 9am; Wednesday was the first full day of school, but the kids had neither books nor pens; Thursday was our first real attempt at actually trying to do some schoolwork;and then on Friday, we had a condensed timetable to make way for an Africa Day celebration. School is also somewhat chaotic, as one teacher is on study leave for a month and so Caitlin and I are covering his classes as well as our own timetable. We are both exceptionally busy, and perhaps I am mad to say so, but I'm quite enjoying it. Most of my timetable is now consumed by his English classes, which I do like teaching, and I have only Grades 5 and 6 for that (sorry Grade 7, I'm assuming none of you have found this blog yet!). I'm still flying around at 100mph with a to-do list as long as my arm, and I can see that this term could become stressful in a way that Africa typically isn't, but I have never enjoyed a challenge more. More soon!

Three Volunteers, Two Nations and One Giant Waterfall

After Sossusvlei, it was time to leave Namibia for the first time and head off to Victoria Falls. For the trip, Caitlin and I met up with Lorna, another Project Trust volunteer, who has a cracking sense of humour and an even better Yorkshire accent. After several hours waiting in a Wimpy restaurant, 17 hours on a coach (including an hour of gospel television as entertainment : I kid you not, it’s as weird as it sounds), we had arrived in Zambia.

Our first day was spent in Livingstone, getting to grips with Zambia and relaxing after our bus journey . We did decide to take a trip to the local orphanage that our hostel seems to have a link with that afternoon. Bit of a mistake. Listing a trip to a children’s home next to safaris and rafting trips under the guise of volunteering set my ‘volun-touirsm' alarm bells ringing. Sadly, I was right. Whilst it was interesting to see the home, I just didn’t feel like our presence contributed anything valuable or that we were providing anything worthwhile. A controversial point of view, perhaps, but the distinction between goodwill and mere gawping is one that I feel is worth considering. (Please note: all views published on this blog are solely my own, and do not represent the opinions of Project Trust or any other organisation I represent here in Namibia).

Zambia, however, certainly did not disappoint: it was a truly incredible trip to a fantastic country. The Falls themselves are simply magnificent.  You can see the spray from the falls for kilometres around, and the noise hits you as soon as you step out of the bus – they don’t call it Mosi-Oa-Tunya, The Smoke That Thunders, for nothing. Walking around the trails, it’s impossible not to be overwhelmed by the force of the water, the enveloping spray and the density of the rainforest. They do rent out ponchos for visitors walking around the Falls, but waterproofs are for sissies: we were determined to get absolutely drenched. Crossing Knife Edge Bridge in the pouring rain (? spray? not totally sure which direction the water was coming from, but there was lots of it) was invigorating, and although we were pointed at and conspicuously laughed at by a group of Asian tourists for being so soaked, we had a fantastic time. There’s going to Victoria Falls, and there’s wearing Victoria Falls; we had a great laugh doing both. After exploring the park and drying off a little on a walk through the craft markets, we headed to the Victoria Falls Bridge where Caitlin and I did a zip slide across the river, temporarily ending up in Zimbabwe for all of 5 minutes, and Lorna did a bungee jump of 111m over the Zambezi. Turns out Lorna is an absolute scream in more ways than one, but exceptionally brave.

"Is it really that wet?...."

"....yep, definitely soaking."

After an early morning elephant back safari with Caitlin and yet more time in Livingstone’s craft markets on Tuesday, we finished our time in Zambia with a sunset cruise on the river. Some labelled it as a booze cruise, which sounds a little more debauched-6^th-year-holiday-in-Malia/Zante/some-other-Godforsaken-Greek-island than Central-African-Wonder-of-the-World, but it turned out to be more like a floating barbeque, and a lovely evening as the sun went down over the Zambezi: simply stunning.

Me?! Carried away with Zambian souvenirs?! Never.....

Sun, Sand and Sossusvlei

After a quick turnaround in Windhoek after Swakopmund, it was time to make like tourists again, jump on a tour bus and head south to Sossusvlei. Impossible to pronounce, it is a range of sand dunes in an ancient dried river bed in the Namib-Naukluft National Park in western Namibia. It is almost entirely desert, and as you drive down, the landscape changes and ends up looking like a cross between Mars and the Moon. But very, very sandy.

Almost 4 months in Namibia hasn’t cured my intolerance to early mornings, but even I have to admit that this barren, deserted landscape looks incredible at sunrise and sunset. Watching the sun come up as we sat on top of Dune 45 was stunning, and the way that the light catches the grooves in all of the sand dunes is both infuriatingly difficult to capture on a standard digital camera, and infinitely more impressive seen with the naked eye. That’s my story anyway, and I’m sticking to it.

We then spent the remainder of the morning on a walk through the desert to Deadvlei – a large, dry pan that is completely and utterly dead. Trees have stood there for hundreds of years, but are entirely dried out and look like something out of a Halloween cartoon. The colours are simply fantastic though, and to see such a unique landscape felt very special. If only a pesky grain of sand hadn’t snuck into the lens to make a uniform black spot on all my pictures!

Our journey back to Windhoek took us back to a bakery in the middle of the desert owned by a man named Moose McGregor, who was very excited at the arrival of two Scots and was desperate to share his Scottish ancestry with us. Fortunately, he was also happy to share two extra large pieces of apple pie for the standard price – most exciting. We also stopped at a cheetah rehabilitation reserve outside Solitaire for a short drive with the cats. The foundation has a great ethos, and what their programme offers really is impressive: although we were only there for a very short trip, it was fantastic to see cheetahs so legitimately close and was a great way to finish our Sossusvlei trip before heading up to Zambia!

Notes From An Amateur Backpacker

Time and Wi-Fi are proving difficult to find in the same place and at the same time, so blogging has been a little sporadic recently – lots to catch up on since April. After a brilliant end of term (they came in, wrote an exam, had an assembly featuring Mrs Kruse’s dancing, and then left by 9am), we’re now on holiday!

Caitlin and I are travelling for four weeks, on a trip that will take us around Namibia, into Zambia to visit Victoria Falls, and then to Botswana to visit some other volunteers. Our first stop towards the end of April was a short safari in Etosha National Park in northern Namibia – a fantastic 3 days with amazing wildlife. There are no buffalo in the park to complete Africa’s Big Five, but we did spot all of Etosha’s Big Four – lion, elephant, rhino and leopard-, plus countless zebra, giraffe, springbok and warthog. Watching the animals come to drink at the floodlit waterhole under the stars was a highlight: difficult to capture on camera, but absolutely beautiful and any pictures I take could never to justice to how remarkable it was to watch.

What also struck me about Etosha was the number of tourists we came across. Living in the middle of southern nowhere, we rarely see any other foreigners, but here, there were hundreds of them. Armies of khaki-clad warriors, with socks pulled high around their knees and permanently brandishing titanic Canon SLR contraptions, were everywhere. Whilst it meant that we were lucky to have only 5 on our tour, and benefitted from a night in a rather nice tourist lodge, it did feel rather strange to be a foreign visitor to Namibia all over again. Whilst I am by no means local, and we are still very much those two white girls with the custard cream addiction, I do have a noticeably different perspective on Namibia: what I see of this country, and the way that I see it, is completely different as a volunteer than it is as a tourist. At least it made me look a little less pasty in comparison!

Our tour of Etosha finished in Swakopmund, a fairly large town on the Atlantic coast. They joke that it’s more German than Germany, which may not be strictly true, but it was truly bizarre how European the town is. It’s full of cafes, boutiques, bars, restaurants and a very pleasant seafront – couldn’t be further from Tses if it tried.  One thing we did do was sandboarding in the dunes just south of the town. Essentially, you take a dune, a helmet and a piece of waxed plywood and...that’s it. You just send yourself flying down giant piles of sand very, very quickly. Trekking up and down was knackering, and I think it’s an understatement to say I’m not really cut out for these things, but it was good fun nevertheless. It was lovely to have some time to relax by the sea, and meeting up with Sachi and Jake (another PT volunteer) also made for an excellent break. Photos from Swakop are, unfortunately, few and far between. This is for several reasons: firstly, we spent a lot of time not doing an awful lot; secondly, it’s a bit difficult taking photos whilst out sandboarding; thirdly, after encounters with dune sand and one unprecedented wave, my camera had a bit of a hissy fit for a while.

 In Livingstone at the moment, due to visit Victoria Falls tomorrow and cannot wait. Updates on Sossusvlei and our pending Zambia adventure coming soon!