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on John and Dinah with VSO in Namibia (Namibia), 23/Nov/2007 15:15, 34 days ago
Etosha updateWe had a brilliant time doing the education training day and combined visit to Etosha, the jewel in the crown of game reserves in Namibia. The training was in Grootfontein (and I won't comment on our route as I can't take the flak from Trevor). This is not a place worth visiting in it's own right being about the size of Rundu and not as nice. John says he went round a corner and there was in fact a much more attractive area so perhaps this is harsh. It does sport a decent Spar supermarket and this excited Lian to near hysteria about the availability of hair mousse.In fact Namibia is not too bad for most things if you're patient and buy a year's supply when you find it! The only 2 things we really want and haven't found yet are a small saucepan (non-stick) and a mop bucket! We have this old fashioned mop made of lots of bits of string and pay a learner, Tabitha, N$10 a week to mop. She is only tiny and about 14 years old and N$14 is approx.£1 so I expect you're all very shocked that she earns about 70 p. She is delighted with this generous wage however, and we give her a drink and a biscuit. It takes her about 20 mins. to sweep and mop our entire place (one advantage of it being so small). What I hate is that she squeezes the excesswater out of the strings by hand. I broke a glass the other day and I keep imagining tiny splinters in the mop cutting her. I've been told I will be able to get these items (pan& Bucket) in Windhoek but I find it extraordinary that people use this method of mopping in 2007. Some entrepreneur should get cheap mop buckets round the country and mop up him/herself.To put Tabitha's wages in perspective John and I earn about N$100 a day each, which is less pro rata than we pay her! Perhaps you didn't know that all VSOs get the same allowance plus free accommodation. The allowance is slightly less than a Namibian classroom teacher would earn. In fact this may sound impossibly little but there are couples living here on one allowance. Of course it isn't easy but possible as the cost of living is very low. To give you a better idea dinner at a lodge is about N$60 for a main course. You can get a week's groceries for N$200 and be living quite well. I had a very expensive prawn dish on Sat. night and spent over N$100 on it (lucky we've got John's pension!) and it was wonderful. This is the most extravagant it's possible to be unless you are buying cars, laptops etc.or staying inside Etosha. This should encourage all perspective volunteers to realise that you don't have to be brave (everyone keeps telling us how brave we are!) or put on a hair shirt to be a VSO. Also I trust we'll get lots of visitors as once you've done the air fare it is a cheap holiday!Most of us in the rural north have now decided you really have to get a car. We knew this before we came but for others this has meant a bit of bullet-biting. 2 other couples have bought them and one single woman. The method of public transport is 'hiking' ie. hitching and you can (and frequently do) wait hours for a ride, or end up walking. There is one combi a day but these are notoriously dangerous and overcrowded as they seem to accept whoever comes regardless of how full they are. We heard a story the other day about a teacher who insisted on driving the combi herself as the driver was drunk. When she tried the brakes they weren't working! Luckily she was going slowly and through sand and no harm was done. Bear in mind this was a school trip and she had a party of learners in tow. The cost of a car is beyond the allowance so people are not able to do this unless they have some savings to buy one and then more for the running costs. Luckily lots of VSOs are our age and have pensions and/or houses at home which are being let and providing income and grown up children. Some single 30 somethings are also able to get cars but it is hard on the young volunteers in their 20s or anyone with no savings or outside income. However for people in our position it isn't as hard as we imagined and we felt quite guilty having a brilliant time in Etosha and staying in a lovely hotel and eating gourmet food. Not what we expected but we'll cope!The other side of the hiking is that we are constantly picking up hitchers. Yesterday we picked up a man who then produced two live chickens. When I refused these a ride loose, he got a plastic bag and stuffed them in and they lived for the 10 mins. or so while he came down the road with us! I was convinced they'd suffocate. Photo hopefully attached. We also stopped for a middle aged man who then got his 81 year old mother out from under a tree and carried her to our car. She was in a pitiful state and we thought he wanted to get her to the hospital. It turned out that in fact she needed to go and collect her pension and had to do this in person. Each month she must make the difficult and distressing journey to a local meeting point which is the shadow of a very large tree. Here are heaps of exhausted pensioners awaiting their cash. My guess is that this wait is hours. There were lots of people waiting when we got there and no sign of any distribution. The journey home means another long wait for a lift. It must be a whole day of anguish for this lady, and of course lots of the other pensioners. It also means a whole day a month for her son when he misses work. While you can see the need to avoid fraudulent claims, this can't be cost-effective (ignoring the human element). Still the great thing is that at least here they do get a pension which is often not the case in developing countries.Anyway Etosha was wonderful but we were unlucky with the big cats. There's about a 50% chance of seeing them so we hopefully will next time we go. VSO's get in as Namibians and provided you don't stay at the really posh hotels inside the park it's wonderful value. We went to these for coffee and actually preferred our friendly, atmospheric hotel in Tsumeb, a lovely town like I believe a small provincial German town (built when the German's ran the place in 1890s to 1914). As I hope you can see from the pics we saw lots of zebra, giraffe, gemsboks (oryxs) and about a million steenboks. The park itself is wonderful and a large part is closed to motorists except for authorised tours. This is for conservation purposes and is no problem as it literally takes all day to drive from one side to the other of the open part if you are going slowly enough not to miss everything. You also have to stop at the waterholes and wait. When we did this at about 7 am. it was really unbelievable how many birds were round us. Caro would have loved it. We had a crib sheet to help us identify them, but the ones we saw were clearly rare and not on the sheet. The colours are like pet birds at home. We couldn't believe how many exotic looking ones we saw.We also visited the world's largest meteorite so that shiny rock in a sort of amphitheatre is the HOBA meteorite. It is only a short distance from Grootfontien and worth a visit if you're in the area. It would apparently kill us in Mpungu if it hit the earth today. The dust would be the problem and would spread at least 100 miles in all directions. The shock waves would travel the globe so although you'd be safe at home you'd know about it.We decided to take a pic of the M6 of Namibia at a busy moment. We timed the spaces in between cars going in the opposite direction and once it was about 14 mins. on a straight open road where we were going at 120 km/hour. So like the M25. The problem is staying awake and in the rainy season not slipping off the gravel roads when avoiding goats. However it's so lovely to drive without traffic lights or parking problems! The country is very beautiful and friendly too.Finally there are some pics of our school and home. There is also me in a car on the way to visit a school where the last 5 km. are across sand. We were a bit complacent and got to a dead end on the way home and had to literally retrace our prints! No-one else had used it since so we were fine. The one of us is standing outside our house (it's half the building) and the school consists of several blocks (single layer) like the one shown. It's not a bad building and if we had resources and better teacher attendance could be really good. As I keep saying the learner's are terrific and make it all worthwhile.We are in Rundu this weekend for the grand opening of Matthew's new home, which John moved mud for. Should be a grand occasion. Lots of love to you all in sunny old England and elsewhere.The views expressed in this log are the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of VSO.