Email No. 2 from Namibia
Email Letter No. 2
February 24, 2005
Windhoek, Namibia
Dear All,
So far, so good. All is well with us, and we hope with you too.
We have had some interesting experiences since the last time we wrote which we would like to tell you about. So sit back, relax, and enjoy! Once again, what follows is in the order that we jotted notes rather than in chronological order.
We will also try to publish this with some photos to our blog at www.peterandhindas.blogspot.com so try to check it there as well, especially for the photos.
As we have told you before, Namibia is populated mostly by blacks, but because of colonialism and apartheid, many blacks in Windhoek live in segregated areas, and much of these are what you would refer to as a slum. Well, the “Babylon” area of Windhoek is pretty bad. It is an ironic name of course, because the original Babylon was considered one of the wonders of the ancient world, and this Babylon is the antithesis of that. The housing is made entirely of scraps of sheet metal that must make the inside like an oven in this heat; no running water in the houses – some communal pumps; no electric; very high unemployment; and nothing to do but hang out, drink, etc.; and when it rains, as it does now in this season in buckets, these hovels just kind of float away. One of our co-workers took us there and we will go back and meet some of the folks and take some photos. And of course only blacks live there. By the way, to add to the irony, the government is building a new presidential palace for N$500,000,000 which in $US is about $80,000,000+! Somehow, we are not surprised.
Not far from Babylon, in a slightly better area, we visited a woman who has taken in 10 orphan kids (due to AIDS) and cares for them. Very small house, but as clean as a whistle – even the dirt yard is swept and clean. What it can come down to is where there is a will, there is a way. We plan to go back there and help her if we can.
We also visited one of the programs funded by CAFO and there we saw our first “boomslang” – a very poisonous snake that climbs trees. Very fast, but obviously very dangerous to be so close to the children. The program has 92 children, and is run by an assistant pastor and several volunteers. We were not particularly impressed with it – lots of broken glass and broken windows which is not very safe for the kids and tells us something about how poorly it is managed. This was good for CAFO to see, since they had given them a small grant and is a good learning experience to see how these programs actually operate. We all talked about it afterward. More site visits are necessary.
As an aside, Windhoek, and Namibia are very clean, as compared to Uganda. Part of the reason is the low population density. Namibia has the 2nd lowest population density on the planet. And while on this subject, here are some not so nice statistics: Namibia has the highest TB rate in the world; is in the top 5 countries with the highest incidence of AIDS; has the highest level of income disparity in the world – the difference between the top 5% and the bottom 50% is 50:1!.
Here at work we are well into the swing of things and here this some of what we are doing: computer training for the staff, and today we are going to go to another town for 3 days and do some computer and other training there; developing job descriptions; policies and procedures; developing fundraising plan; this will be the first of several training trips we will take; have set up very good contact with the US Embassy who have agreed to donate small books for small libraries for some of the orphan programs. Also have tentatively scheduled a site visit from a major Canadian foundation that CAFO had applied to, but we are helping to move it along – there was some mis-communication between them that we straightened out. Our goal in all of this is to pass on some of these skills of ours and they can do much more themselves. Actually the CAFO folks we work with are a pretty competent group.
Last week we took a short hike in a nature preserve on 25 km from here. In addition to seeing wildebeest, eland, eagles, baboons, we also met “Jack Daniels” a very funny 62 year old Scot doing some temporary work here. So now we know the real Jack Daniels.
For those of you who like beef jerky, here they have “biltong” and game chips made from game such as wildebeest, eland, springbok, , etc. We will take your order by return email if you are really interested in eating these beautiful animals. However, is it any different than eating deer, elk, or even pigs, chicken, beef, etc. It seems that here, ostrich is the cultural equivalent of our turkey. The headlines in today’s newspaper is that Namibia is now one of the top hunting destinations. More about that later. There are many different points of view as you can imagine.
This past weekend we went on our first long trip. Round trip about 480 km, (300 miles), some 200 miles or so on gravel roads. Most of the roads here are gravel, expect for those “tar’ roads which for some inexplicable reason go mostly to those places that whites and tourists visit most often.
In any case we went to spend the weekend at a leopard and cheetah reserve where the two leopards and 3 cheetahs, and 4 caracal are kept in large enclosures because they have either been injured, or somehow can’t be returned to the wild. And also a vervet monkey, also know as a blue monkey because of his BIG BLUE BALLS – REALLY BIG AND VERY BLUE. Leopards and cheetahs are beautiful. The leopards are wild animals and will never change. But the cheetahs, at least one of them, CP is pretty tame and we went into his enclosure to pet and photograph him. Very rough tongue – like sandpaper and coat is rough. The cheetahs and the leopards, even though both have spots, are very different from each other in terms of looks, how they hunt, and their temperament. No one goes into the leopard enclosure unless they only want a one way trip. It was interesting to see the leopards “stalking” the camp’s resident dogs. Lucky for the dogs there was a fence between them, or else, adios doggie!
Hope the photos are good – will try to send some.
The place was kind of a rest camp B&B and so for dinner, we ate Oryx. Well, we ate it, because that’s what you do, and that’s all there was. According to Hinda, the best food for the weekend was the homemade carrot cake and homemade bread. Agreed.
These “guest farms” seem to us what we might imagine a plantation in the south of our country to have been. Owned, and managed by whites, and lots of blacks to do the cooking, cleaning, upkeep, etc. It was interesting to see. By the way, these “guest farms” and real farms are huge – thousands and hundreds of thousands of acres, and all owned by whites, in fact 95% owned by whites. We believe that this is going to change, and it is already. The government is “encouraging” the whites to sell to blacks and is providing low interest loans to buy some of these farms. At some point, we think the encouragement may become a bit stronger, and it will be an interesting situation here, hopefully not like the violence that is taking place in Zimbabwe over the same issue.
The scenery is dramatic. Because of the rains, lots of green and beautiful wildflowers. The part of the country we visited is semi desert. Hills, mountains, low vegetation, little water. We went on a ‘sundowner” (to watch the sun go down over the mountains and have a drink and some snacks). Went by 4 x 4 up into the hills and then short hike to the top to watch the sun set and enjoy the colors and quiet. Very very nice.
We have just returned from doing a 3 day training in Rehoboth, a small town about 100 km south of here. It was an interesting experience which we will tell you more about in our next letter, but only to say now that we visited a number of programs for orphans, and this gave us a pretty good idea about the scope of the problem, and even in little ways during these past 3 days we were able to provide some small, but important kinds of help.
OK, this is long enough. May have to post the photos separately on our blog, but will try to do it all at the same time.
Finally, here is a photo of a cheetah, a leopard, and us! Enjoy!
Love and hugs to all of you.
Peter and Hinda
February 24, 2005
Windhoek, Namibia
Dear All,
So far, so good. All is well with us, and we hope with you too.
We have had some interesting experiences since the last time we wrote which we would like to tell you about. So sit back, relax, and enjoy! Once again, what follows is in the order that we jotted notes rather than in chronological order.
We will also try to publish this with some photos to our blog at www.peterandhindas.blogspot.com so try to check it there as well, especially for the photos.
As we have told you before, Namibia is populated mostly by blacks, but because of colonialism and apartheid, many blacks in Windhoek live in segregated areas, and much of these are what you would refer to as a slum. Well, the “Babylon” area of Windhoek is pretty bad. It is an ironic name of course, because the original Babylon was considered one of the wonders of the ancient world, and this Babylon is the antithesis of that. The housing is made entirely of scraps of sheet metal that must make the inside like an oven in this heat; no running water in the houses – some communal pumps; no electric; very high unemployment; and nothing to do but hang out, drink, etc.; and when it rains, as it does now in this season in buckets, these hovels just kind of float away. One of our co-workers took us there and we will go back and meet some of the folks and take some photos. And of course only blacks live there. By the way, to add to the irony, the government is building a new presidential palace for N$500,000,000 which in $US is about $80,000,000+! Somehow, we are not surprised.
Not far from Babylon, in a slightly better area, we visited a woman who has taken in 10 orphan kids (due to AIDS) and cares for them. Very small house, but as clean as a whistle – even the dirt yard is swept and clean. What it can come down to is where there is a will, there is a way. We plan to go back there and help her if we can.
We also visited one of the programs funded by CAFO and there we saw our first “boomslang” – a very poisonous snake that climbs trees. Very fast, but obviously very dangerous to be so close to the children. The program has 92 children, and is run by an assistant pastor and several volunteers. We were not particularly impressed with it – lots of broken glass and broken windows which is not very safe for the kids and tells us something about how poorly it is managed. This was good for CAFO to see, since they had given them a small grant and is a good learning experience to see how these programs actually operate. We all talked about it afterward. More site visits are necessary.
As an aside, Windhoek, and Namibia are very clean, as compared to Uganda. Part of the reason is the low population density. Namibia has the 2nd lowest population density on the planet. And while on this subject, here are some not so nice statistics: Namibia has the highest TB rate in the world; is in the top 5 countries with the highest incidence of AIDS; has the highest level of income disparity in the world – the difference between the top 5% and the bottom 50% is 50:1!.
Here at work we are well into the swing of things and here this some of what we are doing: computer training for the staff, and today we are going to go to another town for 3 days and do some computer and other training there; developing job descriptions; policies and procedures; developing fundraising plan; this will be the first of several training trips we will take; have set up very good contact with the US Embassy who have agreed to donate small books for small libraries for some of the orphan programs. Also have tentatively scheduled a site visit from a major Canadian foundation that CAFO had applied to, but we are helping to move it along – there was some mis-communication between them that we straightened out. Our goal in all of this is to pass on some of these skills of ours and they can do much more themselves. Actually the CAFO folks we work with are a pretty competent group.
Last week we took a short hike in a nature preserve on 25 km from here. In addition to seeing wildebeest, eland, eagles, baboons, we also met “Jack Daniels” a very funny 62 year old Scot doing some temporary work here. So now we know the real Jack Daniels.
For those of you who like beef jerky, here they have “biltong” and game chips made from game such as wildebeest, eland, springbok, , etc. We will take your order by return email if you are really interested in eating these beautiful animals. However, is it any different than eating deer, elk, or even pigs, chicken, beef, etc. It seems that here, ostrich is the cultural equivalent of our turkey. The headlines in today’s newspaper is that Namibia is now one of the top hunting destinations. More about that later. There are many different points of view as you can imagine.
This past weekend we went on our first long trip. Round trip about 480 km, (300 miles), some 200 miles or so on gravel roads. Most of the roads here are gravel, expect for those “tar’ roads which for some inexplicable reason go mostly to those places that whites and tourists visit most often.
In any case we went to spend the weekend at a leopard and cheetah reserve where the two leopards and 3 cheetahs, and 4 caracal are kept in large enclosures because they have either been injured, or somehow can’t be returned to the wild. And also a vervet monkey, also know as a blue monkey because of his BIG BLUE BALLS – REALLY BIG AND VERY BLUE. Leopards and cheetahs are beautiful. The leopards are wild animals and will never change. But the cheetahs, at least one of them, CP is pretty tame and we went into his enclosure to pet and photograph him. Very rough tongue – like sandpaper and coat is rough. The cheetahs and the leopards, even though both have spots, are very different from each other in terms of looks, how they hunt, and their temperament. No one goes into the leopard enclosure unless they only want a one way trip. It was interesting to see the leopards “stalking” the camp’s resident dogs. Lucky for the dogs there was a fence between them, or else, adios doggie!
Hope the photos are good – will try to send some.
The place was kind of a rest camp B&B and so for dinner, we ate Oryx. Well, we ate it, because that’s what you do, and that’s all there was. According to Hinda, the best food for the weekend was the homemade carrot cake and homemade bread. Agreed.
These “guest farms” seem to us what we might imagine a plantation in the south of our country to have been. Owned, and managed by whites, and lots of blacks to do the cooking, cleaning, upkeep, etc. It was interesting to see. By the way, these “guest farms” and real farms are huge – thousands and hundreds of thousands of acres, and all owned by whites, in fact 95% owned by whites. We believe that this is going to change, and it is already. The government is “encouraging” the whites to sell to blacks and is providing low interest loans to buy some of these farms. At some point, we think the encouragement may become a bit stronger, and it will be an interesting situation here, hopefully not like the violence that is taking place in Zimbabwe over the same issue.
The scenery is dramatic. Because of the rains, lots of green and beautiful wildflowers. The part of the country we visited is semi desert. Hills, mountains, low vegetation, little water. We went on a ‘sundowner” (to watch the sun go down over the mountains and have a drink and some snacks). Went by 4 x 4 up into the hills and then short hike to the top to watch the sun set and enjoy the colors and quiet. Very very nice.
We have just returned from doing a 3 day training in Rehoboth, a small town about 100 km south of here. It was an interesting experience which we will tell you more about in our next letter, but only to say now that we visited a number of programs for orphans, and this gave us a pretty good idea about the scope of the problem, and even in little ways during these past 3 days we were able to provide some small, but important kinds of help.
OK, this is long enough. May have to post the photos separately on our blog, but will try to do it all at the same time.
Finally, here is a photo of a cheetah, a leopard, and us! Enjoy!
Love and hugs to all of you.
Peter and Hinda
posted by Peter and Hinda Schnurman at 12:45 AM
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