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Grootfontein, Namibia

Hi Ho hi hi it’s off to Namibia we go!

And we’re back! But this time we are staying in Namibia for the rest of the 12 day tour we are here. The group split for our free afternoon. We chose to go on a village walk with a local who was our age. This particular local showed us in his house which he proudly built for his wife and child. Like all of these houses, it was one room and about 2m sq. The walls are made of this sand stuff used for concrete with tree branches used to support the cement and for the roof long grasses (from the delta). For the locals it’s expensive to build a house like this as it costs them $10 to bring the sand from another town. Most poor villages in Namibia are like this one and some villages houses are made of tin. On this whole trip we have seen no houses as we know them, anywhere at all. In this particular village the land of about 12m sq is free if the house owner can prove to the local tribesman leader that he is a good person with no wrong doings. I’m looking forward to learning about Namibia over the next few weeks. The extent of my knowledge was that Angelina Jolie adopted a Namibian baby who’s now 7 and Dave’s was to try a springbok shot (which he did and loved). Needless to say, travel broadens the mind…

“Africa today #1: Our Zimbabwean leader advised us that today is the Zimbabwean elections. I read on my BBC App that only a tiny 7-10% of the population have employment. Meaning their employment rate is the unemployment rate of other countries. To educate a child cost $4.5 per year yet few can afford it. Zimbabwean independence has slightly improved and violence isn’t as it was in the 2008 elections but it will be very doubtful if the elections prove to be anything but a predicted result, with Mugabe getting another term”

I swear the Intrepid chef and Dave have a little plan going to improve my wife capabilities. The other day I learnt to chop veggies properly (I started with a small knife and worked my way up) and this morning I was cooking 60 pieces of toast on a frying pan (without a toaster).
“Note to Mum: you said to me before I left I wonder how long it would be before you start eating bananas that haven’t been refrigerated and heaven forbid, slightly bruised. Well,after 2 months warm bananas came and after 3 months bruised ones. This came to mind just this morning when I was eating cold toast. But I made it so I just had to enjoy it! Dave said how proud he is that I am more adventurous than he is (initiating the eating of scorpions etc), I said that’s because I have a reputation TO GET RID OF!”

There’s something about banks and ATMs in Botswana and Namibia. You can wait hours to be served. The queues for locals to do everyday banking are always hundreds of people long. The town of Rundu where I’m writing this paragraph (on the border with Angola) is known for card skimming at ATMs, so we had no choice but to wait 1.5 hours for money exchange.

We have just left our visit to see the lives of the San Bushmen. In particular the Ju Hoansi San tribe. About twenty San men, woman and babies speak only their unique “clicking language” – also known as Khoisan Language. Over 70% of words in the dictionary of this language begin with a click. Clicks are articulated with two closures (points of contact) in the mouth, one forward and one at the back. The enclosed pocket of air is rarefied by a sucking action of the tongue. The forward closure is then released, producing what may be the loudest consonants in the language.
The San are very animated when they speak. Although we had a click click translator it was fascinating just watching their passion and enthusiasm mixed with such a beautiful language. Often when interpreted, you wouldn’t think what was said matches up. The clicking language has more to it than just click click clock click, although that’s what makes up most of it. Other sounds which seem to be one syllable are like ga, tang, ah, gaga and other weird sounds. Each word is made up of 4 clicks and there are about 10 clicks per sentence.
The Bushmen are the oldest ethnic group in Namibia and have inhabited Southern Africa for an estimated 20,000 years. Around 30,000 San live in Namibia, but only 2,000 of them still follow a traditional way of life.
Traditionally they would eat 20 kilos of meat each over 36 hours. As food didn’t come often, evolutionary adaptation of their body actually stores the meat/food inside their bottoms. This group of people we saw have a slightly different shaped tush, but their ancestors would have had bottoms so big, I’m told children could stand on them, kinda like a platform. The eland antelope is the best food to eat as it’s the biggest antelope with the most amount of meat. We actually ate eland antelope for dinner last night. It’s very tasty but very, very chewy.
The San have a deep understanding of nature and ecology, living in harmony with their environment. The leader (and his translator) took us on a walk through the bush (sand with trees) and showed us their traditional way of life, how they hunted with giraffe bone arrows with poisonous plant inserted, how to find medicine underground and in trees, how to find water in trees and showed us grass houses they would have lived in. An example of medicine is if they have a headache or get bitten by a Black Mamba snake they would cut a gash into their skin and insert part of the plant, then go for a quick nap. When they wake up they are fixed.
The San we met today were all really tiny people, but particularly the ladies who are just over shoulder height next to me – I’m only 5ft. They don’t have much meat on them. The employment rate in their village where they now live is 1%. The San Bushman are the poorest people in the country. They were dressed in absolutely nothing except for a cloth. This cloth is the skin of a dik dik or springbok which is rubbed on a plant to make it softer before it’s shoved between the bum cheeks. They have no hair on them whatsoever. Their skin colour is unlike any other African, a provencal apricot yellow and their skin will never burn in the sun. Cheeks are high boned and eyes are wide but slightly slanted. Although they have brown eyes it’s not a normal brown, they say it’s the same as an antelope. Their face is heart shaped, ears pan like and their hair is black and grows in thick round clusters. The most interesting thing is women have a natural little apron over their genitals and men are born, live and die with a semi-erection. The San found dignity in this fact and never tried to conceal it. The San smoke rabbit poo instead of cigarettes and I think it must give a hell of a head spin, based on their reaction to it.
To end our visit to their village, they performed traditional songs and dancing. In one of the welcome songs those ladies who wanted to participate were welcomed to do so. I can tell you I have never enjoyed dancing as much as I did with the little naked ladies. That was the highlight for me. Our leader said he has never met a race who is so kind, welcoming and polite as the San Bushman, I would have to agree. It is said that them being so kind and gentle is one of the reasons this race is being slowly pushed out of their land and moved around the country. One other observation – I have never seen so many boobs, of all shapes, sizes and dimensions!

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