Accident, shirts and May holiday.
on John and Dinah with VSO in Namibia (Namibia), 11/May/2008 14:16, 34 days ago
It has been another very eventful few weeks.At the end of last term 2 new teachers, fresh out of college, arrived. This was amazing as we had been promised them for the new grade 10 repeaters but no-one really expected them. The first came on the Friday and on the following Tuesday (the learner's last day) went out for the evening with an English teacher and a grade 11 learner. On the way back the Eng teacher who was driving, (v poss not sober), overtook someone on a dark, gravel road and went off the road. The learner and driver were both rather battered and bruised but essentially OK, but the new young teacher was very unlucky. Having been thrown out he was struck by the car as it bounced off a tree. He was killed. As you can imagine the shock was terrible and it was only a mercy that the learners had left (although they came by on the Fri to collect their reports).As we didn't know him at all we didn't go to the funeral or anything although Mr Mendai went to represent the school. What will happen to the driver remains to be seen and we hope that the rumour that he doesn't possess a licence is not true or he is in even worse trouble.We got back to a new time-table after the wedding but haven't taught it yet as we were invigilating exams. What we will be doing is not clear but we are getting used to sudden changes in the TT. It is Fri. 9th May today and term starts on Mon.Meanwhile the battle of the shirts continues. I got a call from the customs chief at Windhoek airport. I was quite hopeful that this meant we'd soon get them. Foolish dreamer!! He told me I needed a letter from the Min of Ed. to say I was working for them at a Ministry Sch. I got one from the regional office to be told it needed to be from the Permanent Secretary at the Min in Windhoek. I was also told I needed an Import Permit from the Min of Trade. This is the third Ministry involved as I had already been trying the Min. of Finance as originally directed by customs. John and I spent 2 entire days talking to officials and getting letters and thinking we were making progress. Then we were told as non-Namibians we couldn't get an import permit. We applied in the name of a Nam teacher at the sch. Then we were told we'd have to pay duty (on donated goods?!) and VAT and needed an import agent. This last sounds very expensive but am not pursuing this at present.I spoke to Gary Leslie (deputy High commissioner at the High Comm in Wind.and very helpful) and asked if he could help with the b woman at the Min of Trade that kept putting up these new hurdles. He tried but was also brickwalled. He also rang customs but got the same bureaucratic stubborness.We temporarily gave up as we were leaving the country and I hope a few days will have helped our customs chap to see the wood for the trees. He hopefully has a heart I can appeal to as I'm pretty confident he could ignore the proceedures if he really wanted to. Back to that next week. I think I need to get a letter from the donars as Ms Shivute (who went to Min of Trade, Windhoek) thinks this may still get a permit for us.Our holiday was fantastic. We went to Zambia to see the Vic Falls. Crossing the border is a nightmare. There are a series of portacabins (about 6) and you have to queue at each an cough up money and sign a book each time. The sums are generally paltry (excluding the visa itself which is£75 each!!) but the real nuisance is that it is very inefficient and slow. At one time we found ourselves back at the door we'd queued at before for a stamp to be added to the paper he had given us first time round! The whole exercise took about 2 hours. Friends had warned us so that helped, butanyone considering the falls, with an English passport, would be advised to look from Zimbabwe assuming all well there. At the moment VSO are advising against going there so we didn't have that option. With that border and the customs we were heartily sick of paper-pushers and delighted to report all other border crossings trouble free - except we had to pay a 'farewell tax' to Zambia!It was wonderful to see them and we went at the right time as they were in full spate and absolutely magnificent. We walked around on the opp side of the gorge and got drenched by water that apparently bounced 100 metres up from the bottom. We watched the intrepid bungy jumpers leap off the wonderful bridge over the river below the falls. Unfortunately the white water rafting was off as the river was too dangerous, but another time.......... The following day we went over the falls in a helicopter. It was really fascinating and the geology was really clear from up there. In about 8000 years the falls will move back as the rock splits again. This is already the 8th position of the falls with gorges formed showing clearly from the air. There is also a wonderful scale model in the town's museum and we were lucky to get a very good guide at the information centre out at the falls. We were worried that it might be too touristy as it is so famous. It's such a huge area though that this wasn't a problem and it would have been perfect without the pushy curio salesmen that pester you in the car park.We had a curry after our heli ride and whether it was that or a bug I don't know, but poor John got a bad tum and spent the next 3 days either in bed or resting by the pool at our hotel, (a back-packers place Jollyboys). It was quite peaceful and I read a lot and did crosswords and Sudukos (as ever). A shame though as Livingstone is quite good for eating and J couldn't take advantage.Then we went over the border to Kasane in Botswana. The border was quick and pleasant (like home) so that was a relief. In fact this was true of everything in Botswana. We found everything clean and everyone very kind and speaking terrific English. It's not fair to compare with Namibians really as Botswana has been Eng speaking for 100 years and Nam only since 1990. We had to cross over the river on a little ferry. Thank goodness we weren't planning to bring a lorry over. There was an enormous queue on both sides and only 1 lorry each crossing. J reckoned that they were there for a week at least, unusual exaggeration from him!Kasane is on the edge of Chobe National Park which is famous for elephants and we saw lots of them. We also got to see 3 lions, 2 lionesses and a young male but not up close and only briefly. our guide tried to get closer but they are incredibly good at just melting away. Next we went on to Maun. We set out at 6 am and arrived at 6 pm so it was a long day but a great one. We had a couple of hitchers which was lucky as at one time all 3 passengers were pushing the car which got stuck in thick sand. We really needed the 4 wheel drive that day as we forded a river about 25 metres wide and possibly a metre deep! Our hikers called me supergran so I hope my grandchildren agree! It was near the end of the day and no alternative or I might have bottled out!From Maun we flew to a small strip on the delta and spent 3 fantastic nights there. It is rightly famous. The colours were fantastic and the whole thing would have killed Monet. There were about a million waterlilies. We had our own personal guide who was not allowed to carry a gun to our consternation. He told us if we met a lion not to run or the lion would be sure to think we were an impala and kill us. We had to stay still and stare at the lion! Luckily this didn't happen as I'm not sure I could have carried this out. In fact the most dangerous are the hippos. We could hear them all the time, especially at night, but only saw a few. We loved being shown around in our Mokoro (traditional boat much like a punt) and also enjoyed the walking safaris when not too anxious! On one walk I was about 10 feet from a cobra that was straight out of a snake charmer's basket, on it's tail and giving me a pretty hostile stare. I didn't argue! I believe it's ok to run away from snakes as I can report nothing worse than a raised pulse for a few mins.Back in Mpungu today Sun. and got here to find our electricity cut off. It's been coming and going since. Not the most brilliant start but it was good to see some of the teachers again. Only 3 (other than ourselves) here at present but looking forward to a new term.All the best to everyone reading this and know our thoughts are often with our friends and family.The views expressed in this blog are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of VSO.