Swakopmund

This past week I spent in Swakopmund, the famous coastal town because it is the birthplace of Brad and Angelina’s baby. Sadly I wasn’t on holiday, but rather on duty as a delegate for the Mariental Ministry of Youth at the National Youth Week Expo. The conference was terribly disorganized. It actually took us 3 days and 12 hours in the cue to even get registered! I couldn’t believe that people put up with it.

Fortunately, we found time in every day to get to the beach. There is something comforting about being at the sea because it looks just about the same from whatever side of the world you are looking at it. It’s a home in some ways because it’s always there and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

We stayed in beach bungalows, four to a room for six nights. I learned so much from my roommates, all women around my age, during those days. Over the course of the week I found myself feeling either totally thrilled or utterly discouraged about what my future here holds. I was so lucky to have one of my closest friends from training, Peggy, in town. One night I even went with her to her host families house for a “braai”(basically a BBQ) and they were so kind they welcomed me back anytime. Their daughter lives in Mariental so I may have just found myself an easy ride between Mariental and Swakop.

Our journey back to Mariental was not an easy one. In ideal conditions, the trip between Mariental and Swakop should be about 10-11 hours by bus. Our last night, we went to bed early and planned to wake up and be at the bus at 8am, the time we had been informed by my supervisor. Sometime between when I went to bed and 3am, that time changed to 4am. So next thing I knew, the light was switched on in my bedroom and my roommate was yelling, “come on, pack your things the bus is leaving!” The whole week has been like this so at this point I’ve surrendered. I don’t even question or complain, I just do it, knowing that on African time, there’s no way we are leaving before 6am. I was wrong. We pulled out at about 7am. One hour into the journey, our bus pulled over and it was translated to me that we have broken down. We were on the side of the road in the Namib desert. Rumor had it that a bus would arrive for us, at 11am, one did, but it was full. At this point, some were walking the 5km back to the nearest service station, while others were just trying to get a hike on the side of the road. We were fortunate enough to get a hike from some people working for and NGO we work with. They took us about 20k when were were stopped at a police checkpoint. They said we were overloaded in the car and one of us had to get out. Beata (my roommate –remember) volunteered and I went with her for safety and we caught a ride with a nice fisherman and his wife in the back of their covered pick-up truck with his poles and smelly coolers. We were just laughing the whole way because it was such a ridiculous situation. We were dropped at a gas station in Windhoek to try and catch another hike to Mariental. After buying some water and stepping outside the mini-mart, we were so fortunate to see a bus we recognized from the conference that was heading in our direction. After a little pleading, they agreed to take us on board free of charge. It was truly a miracle that we rolled into town that evening. Even though I’d only been in this house for a day before leaving for Swakop, I was so happy to be home! What a day.