Blogs from Windhoek, Namibia, Africa - page 4

Hello, again, all my friends, Sorry to have already missed my once a week deadline. I'm toward the end of three weeks of orientation, mostly in Windhoek; but last week we spent in Imungwelume, up north, near the city of Oshakati. We didn't have wireless available, and I have not bought a Netman which lets you do internet through the phone lines, because I am pretty sure my school will have wireless access. The week in Omungwelume was at a school called Eengedjo where we were doing a practicum. They had put out the word (it was still their summer vacation) that we would be there and I think we probablly had 60 - 80 students from grades 5-11. It was great fun. We worked in pairs or threes to plan and to teach lessons. The ... read more

Windoek, Namibia, 29 August 2012 We arrived in Windoek at lunch time and booked into our rooms. We then had a pizza for lunch and caught the hotels bus into the city. Tom had a haircut and I found a card and present for Tom. Cards are certainly not a thing that the Namibians do as I had a difficult time finding a card. I also had worse trouble finding a get well card for my little granddaughter, Gemma, who is having her little bent ear corrected on 7 September. I found a DVD with African images and music on it and post cards with African animals for a get well card. We were too late to post the card for Gemma because we got there just after 4.30pm even though the locals said the Post ... read more

We started thinking about a trip to Africa last year and after deciding on a self drive the number of countries that we could go to was reduced quite a bit and in the end we decided to go to Namibia and South Africa which seemed to encompass most of what we wanted to see or experience. Given the difficulty of booking accomodations especially in Namibia we decided to employ a travel agent and after getting quotes from multiple agents and a few false starts including an agent whose quote quadrupled after we decided to go with him everything is booked. And so after months of planning and preparing we are finally starting our Southern Africa adventure. And it starts with a good omen as the Phoenix airport actually opened an exhibition on African animals so ... read more

Well how do I describe our holiday to Namibia, two years ago when we went to South Africa I stated it was the best holiday ever, but this has been more than a holiday it has been an adventure, better than anything we have experienced in our lives. Before I came here, when people asked where we were going on holiday and I said Namibia, we got two reactions, one was ‘where’s that?’ the other was ‘oh fantastic!’ I was also often asked why, and I found this quite difficult to explain as I don’t think I really understood why; I had seen the country on television programmes like Long Way Down and Ray Mears. But me being me I think it was because at that time I did not know of anyone who had been. ... read more

Our last full day in Namibia, and a very cold night in our tent when it got down cold enough for frost to form. Due to an administrative error, another early start was on the cards as the alarm went off at 6am but we got to see a wonderful sunrise. Because we were early for breakfast we got to see the staff feeding the local bird population: we managed to count fifty lovebirds before they consumed all of the food and disappeared. We hit the road early again back to Windhoek with a quick stop at Okahandja to look at the craft market. It was OK but on approach looked more like a shanty town because of the cobbled together stalls. Browsing was not possible, as each ‘shopkeeper’ made a personal approach (the first as ... read more