mooving on to the next place

Rural homestay: amazing
So we drove from swakupmund to Omaruru, a town a few more hours north. From there we met with Mayor Mike who hooked us all up with homestay families. From there we drove an hour or so to a tiny town - one person stayed there - from there we drove another hour (all dirt roads with nothing around) to some farm communities/villages/towns/whatever pc way you want to call them. I stayed in Otjiarango, a town made up of a primary school, 2 or 3 shops, and probably a few hundred people and a few hundred cows. I ended up staying with another student b/c my "should have been sister" was supposedly out of town at the beginning and I was to join her the second day - she didn't leave town until the third day and by the time they found me a new family it was towards the end and I wanted to stay with my family that I grew to love. so that was a little disappointing - I wanted to experience my own family but C'est la vie, and I had a great time. My family consisted of my sister, Jubilene (28), her daughter (6), and Jubilene's grandmother. Jubilene was the only one who spoke english. The town is all Herero people and only those who had completed a decent amount of education (and it had to be in the later part of apartheid) spoke english. I met amazing people and learned a lot. The community was very strong there. Everyone knows each other, and almost everyone is related, and everyone seemed to take care of each other. I got to know a lot of people by the end of the week and felt really comfortable walking around and could see people I knew all over. Everyone was very friendly towards us (there were 5 of us in the town) and were really appreciative that we came to see how they live and get to know them.
Here's a few highlights:

Me milking our cow - it is more difficult than you think - I probably only got a cup's worth
View from our house - it was really beautiful there - dry but beautiful - you can't even imagine all the stars at night - trees and mountains and the most incredible sunsets
my sister jubilene and her daughter ngoumme (goo-may)
where we slept and one of the cows - our family only had a few cows and goats but everyone's wandered everywhere, and I mean everywhere - it is a communal farming area so all the land is shared

donkey cart time - main mode of transportation (though a few people have cars) - it was so much fun to ride, even when we ran into a tree - just an example of life there - we just asked random people to give us a ride and they said yes - then he turned out to be my sister's uncle
a couple guys took some of us and our families on an incredible hike - a mountain basically made of rock - great view from the top
cool area of the hike that had old Saan people paintings on the walls
my grandmother and ngumme and one of the many cats - she was a super sweet lady who couldn't speak english and just laughed and laughed when we tried our Otjihereo on her

What I learned during my homestay:

how to live without running water or electricity (and it was kinda nice after a while), how to trust, how to share everything, about Herero culture and people, a few Otjihereo words, that I love people, a few dance moves, how to milk a cow, how to be comfortable with myself, about the affects of colonialism and apartheid, how to communicate without words, how kids are the best way to find out what's going on, to cook outside over a fire, how to "see" in the dark, about community, about the struggles of living in a rural area in Namibia, about love

and the lesson that I learn on a daily basis living over here that just was strengthened during this experience is that we are all people - we are all human beings worthy of life and respect, no matter where we live, what language we speak, what our culture is, what our skin color is - we are all people - we all laugh, cry, get angry, feel pain, we all dream, hope, smile, learn, love, and we are people, all images of God


So after that we packed up our things, said our goodbyes and went a few more hours north to ethosha - biggest game park in namibia and one of the best in africa supposedly - lots of animals - zebras galore, kudu, springbok, a few lions, giraffes, and a lot more



Namibia has the best clouds and some of the bluest skies - and I just thought this was a cool pic
Next time - Zambia! I'm almost caught up!