Email 1 from Namibia
February 7, 2005
Windhoek, Namibia
Email Letter No. 1
Dear Friends and Family,
Once again you are “somewhere in the world with Hinda and Peter”, and that somewhere is Windhoek, Namibia. We arrived safe, sound, hot and tired on Sunday January 30 after 22 hours of flying (5 from Seattle to NY, 15 from NY to Johannesburg, South Africa, and then the next morning, 2 hours to Windhoek. So, here are our first impressions without any particular flow, but rather from some notes as things occurred to us.
We spent the first 3 night in a very nice B&B owned by a friend of a board member where we are working. Very nice and friendly, but we felt we needed some more privacy (not a shared kitchen and living room with a teenager and his girlfriend. So, after some intensive looking, we found a beautiful 1 BR “flat” in a private home with a fantastic view of the city and nearby hills, patio, storage area, carport, fully furnished and has a gardener for $N2,500 (about $415). Windhoek and Namibia are pretty expensive, and so this was a very lucky find for us. It takes us about 10 minutes to drive to work in our rented 70’s something VW “bug” ($US 200/month) that barely runs but gets us around the city, (which is quite small and quite modern – built by the South Africans). By the way we drive on the left and sometimes it is a bit confusing. However, there is very little traffic so we are pretty safe. There is even a traffic helicopter that flies around every morning, we can’t figure out why since there are less than 100 cars on any road at any time and from Saturday afternoon until Sunday night, the roads are virtually empty.
Windhoek is pretty warm now – mid to upper 90’s, but dry. Also, this is the rainy season, and when it rains, it POURS, so much so that many of the streets are flooded and we can’t drive. In fact, when the rivers which cross the street and which are usually dry flood after a rain, there are signs telling drivers how deep the water is, so you can take your chances to drive through. We are at about 5,600’ in elevation here. Our apartment faces east and is on a high hill, so it is pretty breezy and comfortable. We eat breakfast and dinner out on the patio, looking out over a garden of lovely plants across the city. We have been cooking on a small BBQ we bought, and take lunch to work.
We, and everyone else here lives behind locked gates with electrified barbed and/or razor wire, and in some places such as ours, there is a guard outside all night.
The city of Windhoek has a couple of hundred thousand people and is pretty modern. Southern Africa is very different from East Africa, and has a history of apartheid – more about that in a bit. There are supermarkets and upscale shops. Prices are high, food is less expensive than in the US but most other things are twice as much. For example, a 20 inch TV in the States costs around $100 here it is $200.
Namibian food is heavily influenced by German and south African culture and is heavily weighted toward meat. In addition to what you would expect such as beef, lamb, chicken, and pork, how about ostrich, zebra, crocodile, and most all of the many wild antelope species, e.g. gemsbok, springbok, oryx, etc. There are many game farms and trophy hunting is very popular. We are having a hard time with that and are certainly not eating any of the game.
This country of 1.8 million is populated by blacks, “coloreds” (mixed), and whites – only about 5%. The lingua franca is Afrikaans, but the official language is English, in that Afrikaans was the language of apartied, and when Namibia became independent in the early 90’s, you can understand why English was chosen. Many people do speak English, but not all, especially as you get further away from the capital.
The different groups live very separately – no surprise. It does not seem that there is much socialization, and many if not most neighborhoods are also separate. We work in Katatura which is black, and before independence was the place where blacks were forced to live. In fact, different tribes or ethnic groups had to live in different sections, and the house addresses are still marked showing the ethnic group identification, (not use any more). This neighborhood is all black and mostly poor. We work for CAFO – Church Agency for Orphans – and they are in the building of the Council of Churches of Namibia. All are co-workers are very pleasant and we will introduce them all at another time, except to say now that of the 5, 4 are colored and one is black. The problem with HIV/AIDS is huge – a pandemic, and most of the 87,000 orphans here are orphaned because one, or both of their parents have died from AIDS. This figure is expected to grow exponentially in the next decade. Perhaps the west will eventually come to the conclusion that there will never be peace in the world and an end to terrorism until we put an end to world poverty and diseases such as AIDS and malaria. It really doesn’t take much. Did you know that in the USA we only give one tenth of one percent of our GDP to fight world poverty and disease? (And we spend about $4 billion a week in Irqq).
In general, our perception is that there are a lot of whites who may if they had their own way might want to revert back to the “good old times”, and seem like they might be rednecks”, but we really don’t know for sure. Just a feeling. In any case, the white community owns much of the wealth, even though they are a very small numerical minority.
We have begun to accomplish some things already including drafting a board orientation, setting up a couple of small data bases, and helping to organize the membership records. On Wednesday there is a big conference on Orphans and Vulnerable Children which Peter will photograph, including a planned group photo with the children and the President of Namibia, Sam Njoma. By the way, in about 6 weeks, this president who led the movement and struggle for independence will be replaced by a new person: Hifikipunye Pohamba. What a great name. However, we don’t know anything about him yet.
Some of the street names, many in Afrikaans, but some great ones in English including Nelson Mandela Street and Robert Mugabe Street. Can you believe that the British High Commission is on Robert Mugabe Street! Talk about poetic justice. And, do you know anyplace in the USA where you can drive on Fidel Castro Street! Also Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, streets.
For directions, you turn left at the first robot, then right at the next robot, etc. Is a robot a stop light? Yes it is!
OK, that all for now. We will try to get this to you and then separately we’ll send some photos of where we live – perhaps tomorrow or the next day.
We did develop a small “BLOG”, but for now this email will be easier. In any case when we post things there we ill let you know.
Love, hugs, and peace!
Peter and Hinda
Windhoek, Namibia
Email Letter No. 1
Dear Friends and Family,
Once again you are “somewhere in the world with Hinda and Peter”, and that somewhere is Windhoek, Namibia. We arrived safe, sound, hot and tired on Sunday January 30 after 22 hours of flying (5 from Seattle to NY, 15 from NY to Johannesburg, South Africa, and then the next morning, 2 hours to Windhoek. So, here are our first impressions without any particular flow, but rather from some notes as things occurred to us.
We spent the first 3 night in a very nice B&B owned by a friend of a board member where we are working. Very nice and friendly, but we felt we needed some more privacy (not a shared kitchen and living room with a teenager and his girlfriend. So, after some intensive looking, we found a beautiful 1 BR “flat” in a private home with a fantastic view of the city and nearby hills, patio, storage area, carport, fully furnished and has a gardener for $N2,500 (about $415). Windhoek and Namibia are pretty expensive, and so this was a very lucky find for us. It takes us about 10 minutes to drive to work in our rented 70’s something VW “bug” ($US 200/month) that barely runs but gets us around the city, (which is quite small and quite modern – built by the South Africans). By the way we drive on the left and sometimes it is a bit confusing. However, there is very little traffic so we are pretty safe. There is even a traffic helicopter that flies around every morning, we can’t figure out why since there are less than 100 cars on any road at any time and from Saturday afternoon until Sunday night, the roads are virtually empty.
Windhoek is pretty warm now – mid to upper 90’s, but dry. Also, this is the rainy season, and when it rains, it POURS, so much so that many of the streets are flooded and we can’t drive. In fact, when the rivers which cross the street and which are usually dry flood after a rain, there are signs telling drivers how deep the water is, so you can take your chances to drive through. We are at about 5,600’ in elevation here. Our apartment faces east and is on a high hill, so it is pretty breezy and comfortable. We eat breakfast and dinner out on the patio, looking out over a garden of lovely plants across the city. We have been cooking on a small BBQ we bought, and take lunch to work.
We, and everyone else here lives behind locked gates with electrified barbed and/or razor wire, and in some places such as ours, there is a guard outside all night.
The city of Windhoek has a couple of hundred thousand people and is pretty modern. Southern Africa is very different from East Africa, and has a history of apartheid – more about that in a bit. There are supermarkets and upscale shops. Prices are high, food is less expensive than in the US but most other things are twice as much. For example, a 20 inch TV in the States costs around $100 here it is $200.
Namibian food is heavily influenced by German and south African culture and is heavily weighted toward meat. In addition to what you would expect such as beef, lamb, chicken, and pork, how about ostrich, zebra, crocodile, and most all of the many wild antelope species, e.g. gemsbok, springbok, oryx, etc. There are many game farms and trophy hunting is very popular. We are having a hard time with that and are certainly not eating any of the game.
This country of 1.8 million is populated by blacks, “coloreds” (mixed), and whites – only about 5%. The lingua franca is Afrikaans, but the official language is English, in that Afrikaans was the language of apartied, and when Namibia became independent in the early 90’s, you can understand why English was chosen. Many people do speak English, but not all, especially as you get further away from the capital.
The different groups live very separately – no surprise. It does not seem that there is much socialization, and many if not most neighborhoods are also separate. We work in Katatura which is black, and before independence was the place where blacks were forced to live. In fact, different tribes or ethnic groups had to live in different sections, and the house addresses are still marked showing the ethnic group identification, (not use any more). This neighborhood is all black and mostly poor. We work for CAFO – Church Agency for Orphans – and they are in the building of the Council of Churches of Namibia. All are co-workers are very pleasant and we will introduce them all at another time, except to say now that of the 5, 4 are colored and one is black. The problem with HIV/AIDS is huge – a pandemic, and most of the 87,000 orphans here are orphaned because one, or both of their parents have died from AIDS. This figure is expected to grow exponentially in the next decade. Perhaps the west will eventually come to the conclusion that there will never be peace in the world and an end to terrorism until we put an end to world poverty and diseases such as AIDS and malaria. It really doesn’t take much. Did you know that in the USA we only give one tenth of one percent of our GDP to fight world poverty and disease? (And we spend about $4 billion a week in Irqq).
In general, our perception is that there are a lot of whites who may if they had their own way might want to revert back to the “good old times”, and seem like they might be rednecks”, but we really don’t know for sure. Just a feeling. In any case, the white community owns much of the wealth, even though they are a very small numerical minority.
We have begun to accomplish some things already including drafting a board orientation, setting up a couple of small data bases, and helping to organize the membership records. On Wednesday there is a big conference on Orphans and Vulnerable Children which Peter will photograph, including a planned group photo with the children and the President of Namibia, Sam Njoma. By the way, in about 6 weeks, this president who led the movement and struggle for independence will be replaced by a new person: Hifikipunye Pohamba. What a great name. However, we don’t know anything about him yet.
Some of the street names, many in Afrikaans, but some great ones in English including Nelson Mandela Street and Robert Mugabe Street. Can you believe that the British High Commission is on Robert Mugabe Street! Talk about poetic justice. And, do you know anyplace in the USA where you can drive on Fidel Castro Street! Also Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, streets.
For directions, you turn left at the first robot, then right at the next robot, etc. Is a robot a stop light? Yes it is!
OK, that all for now. We will try to get this to you and then separately we’ll send some photos of where we live – perhaps tomorrow or the next day.
We did develop a small “BLOG”, but for now this email will be easier. In any case when we post things there we ill let you know.
Love, hugs, and peace!
Peter and Hinda
posted by Peter and Hinda Schnurman at 3:45 AM
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