More things to do on a Sunday afternoon

Save a goat from drowning in an open septic tank, of course. I took a shower afterward. The photo is courtesy of my roommate, and it's a little blurry because he was laughing so much. All in a day's work for an IT volunteer in Namibia!

Things to do on a lazy Sunday in Namibia

Teach some Hambukushu ladies how to crimp network cables for a rural
youth center's computer lab, of course. Yes, I fully intend to introduce
Counterstrike to the African youth.

Namibian Names

So, most Namibians have Christian names because they actually have lots of trouble pronouncing names of people from other tribes or other language groups. These Namibian Christian names are sort of pseudo-Roman, Latin-esq, and straight out of fantasy novels. I may have to use one of these next time I'm playing D&D. Here's a sampling:

Male Names:
Eusebius
Faustinus
Augustinus
Esegiel
Adriano
Kosmas
Amadeus
Vallentines
Pascalius
Bonifatius
Romanus
Thimotheus
Athanasius

Female Names:
Venansia
Sandrina
Engelbertha
Fransina
Therisia
Herlinde
Eufransia
Sabina
Rosalia
Letticia
Leocadia
Gergensia
Constantia
Eleotheria
Rheinhilde

Transportation

For the 2nd least densely populated country in the world, roads are very easy to come by in Namibia. There are well maintained, paved roads between every major population center in the country.`Cars and transportation, however, are another story, especially for the Peace Corps Volunteer (beggar). Here's a rundown on the options:

Rent a Car
This is easy to do in Windhoek and is the most convenient option for anyone traveling in Namibia. Of course, you may need to drive manual, and you will have to drive on the left side of the road. This option is not possible for Peace Corps Volunteers, since they're not allowed to drive, and I suspect it wouldn't be in our price range anyway.

The Intercape
is a humongous box-shaped transport vehicle otherwise known as a bus. Besides some other ill-run services which are poorly advertised and impossible to contact, the Intercape is the only bus service in Namibia, and its only function is to ferry tourists to hotspots in Zimbabwe, Namibia, and South Africa. This pretty much means a cushy ride between Cape Town and Victoria Falls or any of the places in between, meaning Keetmanshoop, Windhoek, Otjiwarongo, Rundu, Katima Mulilo and any podunk village in between. I believe the Cape runs to Swakopmund as well. Tickets must be booked ahead of time. If you don't do this physically at their office in Windhoek, then the process is straight out of a time before credit cards and e-tickets, when dinosaurs roamed the earth. First, you have to call and make a booking. Then, you have to go to your local Bank Windhoek branch (mine is located conveniently 200 kilometers away) and wire the money to them. After that, they will fax you a ticket. An e-commerce consultant could go far in this country. As usual, this option is too expensive for regular use by a Peace Corps volunteer.

Combis (Kombis?)
are small vans piloted by entrepreneurial Namibians. They tend to congregate in designated areas of town, usually a gas station or an appropriately sized patch of dirt. I'm told you actually need a license to operate a combi and that there exists a union, but looking at a group of combis, you would never know it. There are no signs, and the combis themselves generally lack any markings identifying a company or phone number. A combi area essentially looks like a bunch of guys standing around their vans waiting for something. While the prices of rides between destinations are set and non-negotiable, the timing of that ride generally depends on fate. A combi leaves when the combi is full. A combi can semi-comfortably seat around 9 people. A full combi typically consists of 11 fat ladies, their screaming children, and myself. In their defense, however, combis are fast, cheap(er), and reliable, insofar as you will get to your destination sometime on the day you leave. You can also get the phone numbers of combi drivers and if you have a large enough group to make it worth their while, you can usually get them to ferry you and your companions almost anywhere you want. A viable option for the volunteer in a hurry.

Hiking
does not mean strapping on your boots and walking the 800km to your destination. If a Namibian says they are hiking, they mean hitchhiking. The process is simple enough. Walk out to a road, wait for a car, then wave it down. There are some hand signals you can use to expedite the process. The height of your hand is a general indicator of the distance you wish to travel, and if there's a turn coming up, you should indicate which direction you will want to go in. Surprisingly, the prices for hikes between destinations seem to be standard, as if all Namibians had a meeting to decide them. Hike prices are lower than combi prices, the rides are usually infinitely more comfortable, and Peace Corps Volunteers often get lucky and receive free hikes from wealthier curious people in nice cars (a foreigner hiking is a very rare sight). Obviously, hiking can be risky business. No, not from a security standpoint - the hitchhiking culture is so ingrained that crimes related to hiking are very rare. The problem is simply that you might not get a hike on the day you want one, or your hike might not be able to take you all the way to your destination. Fortunately for volunteers, there is always a friend nearby willing to let a stranded colleague couch surf for a night. I've heard of Peace Corps Volunteers who travel internationally this way, staying for free with other volunteers, even those outside of their own country. Inexpensive, and makes for excellent stories.

Excellent Equipment: Solar Oven

So, basically, it's a wooden box with a double-paned glass window on top, a reflective lid, and a black tin interior. But there is some science to its construction and operation. The angle of the glass window should be adjusted depending on the global latitude that the oven is to be used at. When using the oven, it should be facing North if you're in the Southern Hemisphere, and South if you're in the Northern Hemisphere, so it can catch as much sunlight as possible. The angle of the reflective lid should also be such that it will reflect as much light into the oven as possible. Also, only black colored cookware must be used in the oven.

Ok, that's all well and good, but the most important thing about this cheap, light, environmentally friendly device is that everything that comes out of it is DELICIOUS. It generally takes the oven 4 - 6 hours to cook something, so you can only really cook one thing per day, per oven - usually dinner. However, since the solar oven cooks so slowly and evenly, meat and fresh veggies come out tender and tasty - the kind of tender and tasty you can only get by cooking something for 6 hours. Bread and cakes don't rise as much in a solar oven, but they somehow retain more flavor. Since the physics of cooking something using solar energy is different from using fire or an electrical heating element, it is literally impossible to burn food in a solar oven. This means, you just have to pile your ingredients into a pot, set up the oven, put the pot in, then come back when everything is done. Cooking doesn't get much easier than that, and the results are really spectacular. Ron Popeil needs to start selling these in infomercials right away, because solar ovens really are a miracle appliance. Plus, how awesome is "Solar Stew" as a name for a recipe?

Of course the one disadvantage is that you need the Sun. Unfortunately, it's the rainy season right now in Kavango, so the solar oven hasn't seen as much use as I'd like. The rest of Namibia is pretty much desert, however, so I bet my fellow volunteers are getting plenty of use out of theirs. Lucky skunks.

Hair: The Sequel

So this is what it looks like when I have the braids taken out. Awesome. It went back to normal after I showered, though. Nuts.

Diary of Deliciousness: Chakalaka

In Namibia they have something called Chakalaka. No, it's not some sort of Pagan god, or even a heavy metal band (although it would be a fantastic name for one).

Chakalaka is, put simply, spicy deliciousness in a can. Ingredients are as follows: Tomatoes, Carrots, Onions, Sunflower Oil, Cabbage, Green Bell Peppers, Spices, Salt, Chillies, Garlic, Corn Starch, Acidifier, and Natural Coloring. This seemingly innocuous blend of vegetables and spices produces flavors that can enhance virtually any meal. Koreans have kimchee. Mexicans have salsa. Indians have curry. Namibians have chakalaka. It goes on everything, because it's just that good.

Since chakalaka has a salsa-type consistency, it is very versatile in the Namibian kitchen. Add to pasta sauce for that extra kick. Put on top of eggs for that extra kick. Use as a meat marinade for that extra kick. Indeed, because other Namibian foods tend to be bland, that extra kick is often necessary. To attempt to use words to describe its flavor would be utter folly. Its heat comes from chilies, but that is the only aspect of chakalaka that I can convey accurately.

Language Lesson: Thimbukushu

Of the many languages in Namibia, I am learning one called Thimbukushu. Thimbukushu is a Bantu language, making it one of the most complex on Earth. The Bantu languages I've heard so far (Otjiherero, Rukwangali) all have what's called a concord system. Basically all nouns are divided into semantic classes (a noun class for humans, a different noun class for animals, another noun class for household objects, etc). In Thimbukushu, there are 10 different noun classes, plus a special class for the gerund and infinitive form of verbs (the gerund and infinitive are identical in Thimbukushu). Depending on what class a noun is in, it will have different prefixes for singular and plural forms (for example, in the human class: maguva is one person, haguva is people). That much is simple enough, but the different classes also conjugate differently with verbs and adjectives. Basically, verbs and adjectives will adopt different prefixes depending on the class of the noun that they are operating on. I believe the different classes also have different possessive particles, also. I would give more specifics, but I'm still memorizing all the classes, and their concords, as the particles used in conjugation are called. Fortunately there are no exceptions to the rules, and all nouns can be put into classes based on their prefix (except for words borrowed from other languages).

However, as difficult as the system may seem, it has some interesting linguistic potential. For example, if you want to personify an animal, you can use the human noun class prefixes with that animal instead of the normal prefixes.

A really neat thing about Bantu languages is that they are phonetically very similar to Japanese. Actually, Japanese is a phonetic subset of Bantu languages, which means that Bantu language speakers make all the sounds that Japanese people make, and a few more (like nasals). I really like the way Thimbukushu sounds. The language flows well, and has a soothing tone. It also lacks any guttural sounds, which I am not a fan of.

Important Locations: Spar

In Namibia, the most common chain of supermarkets is named Spar. You can easily spot a Spar by its logo, an evergreen inside a circle. Despite the contradiction of using a tree that doesn't exist in Namibia, Spar's green beacon can be found in all major towns, like a herald of air conditioning, cold drinks, and western food.

In case you haven't noticed, Spar is one of my favorite getaways in Namibia. They are pretty much comparable to a good Shop Rite or small Wegman's in the States, since they all have some ready-made foods available in addition to normal groceries, and sometimes, you just need a Coke. Peace Corps Trainees will often congregate in Spar, resulting in an event known as a Sparty. However, Spar must be used with care. A PCV that attends Spartys too often will quickly run out of money.

Towns and Locations

In Namibia, cities are divided into sections called Town, and Locations. In a city, Town refers to the area with established businesses, chain stores, hotels, and modern homes. If a person lives in Town, it's pretty much a guarantee that they're wealthy and connected. In a single city, there's only one Town area.

Locations are the areas outside of town where blacks were forced to live during apartheid (now there are also many blacks living in Towns). A Location is laid out similar to a suburb in the US, but the housing is mostly cement and corrugated tin, with some all-concrete buildings used for small businesses. Some people may also run small businesses out of their homes. In the Locations I've seen, the roads are mostly packed dirt, which is actually good because children are almost always playing soccer in the street and the dirt forces cars to drive slow. I hesitate to compare Locations to ghettos or tenements, because all Location houses have electricity, running water, and modern conveniences (I've yet to meet a Namibian who doesn't own a TV), but people in Locations are undoubtedly poorer than those in Town. However, Locations are complete communities with schools, parks, and churches. I can't speak for all cities, but in Omaruru, the Locations are safe at all times of day. The worst problem in Locations I've seen has been public drunkenness. In each city there can also be multiple Locations, always segregated by ethnic group (I'll talk about the ethnic groups in another post), although it doesn't seem to generate any great animosity if a member of an ethnic group settles in a different group's Location.

Towns are generally nice and comfortable. Stores have air conditioning; there are roads, sidewalks, and plants; buildings are very clean. As an American, Towns feel familiar to me. But Locations are way more interesting. In the Location in Omaruru, children are play together in the streets (when school's out), and people are go about their business or visit each other. In Location, it's ok to just talk to people and make friends, or drop by the houses of people I know for quick visits. Every house and business also has a lot of individual character. In Omaruru, one man built a white two story castle on his land in the Location. While that example is extreme, it gives a good sense of the diversity and fun one can find in Locations.