NAM-Village

Yesterday we drove to the village where Samuel is from.  This one is a little bit further out, and we took the 4 wheel drive truck because, "If you go to the village without 4x4...you will not arrive."  The sand roads make driving pretty rough.  The video below is probably best viewed muted.  I did not manage to capture the times when we fishtailed or just left the road, but that definitely happened too.  They said it wasn't a far drive, but we drove for at least an hour (mostly on a paved road).  

I didn't take any other pictures this time, because it was mostly the same stuff.  And we were at a funeral, or perhaps a wake is a better term so it didn't seem appropriate.  I don't think the deceased was related to Samuel, but his sister was there, so I think we went to see her.  I did realize that what they call "the village" is really just the country- there are farmsteads or compounds, but they are not close together.

I got my first African marriage proposal- from my host siblings' grandfather, after he offered me some Ovambo moonshine (I declined- my host mother told me to say no, and my immediate host family seems to frown on drinking- Innocent thought one of the ten commandments was, "I shall not drink alcohol.")  Tourchy had to translate, "My granny wants to be your wife."  I know enough Oshiwambo to say no, thanks.

While we were "in the village," we saw three helicopters fly over, and I realized that I hadn't seen any kind of  aircraft since I've been on the ground here.  Samuel said it might be NDF (Namibia Defense Forces- Namibia spends more money than most African countries maintaining their military, but it makes sense once you consider their recent 20 year independence struggle), and then later decided it was NAMPOL- Namibian Police.  I guess in a country as vast and scarcely populated as Namibia is, police need helicopters to respond quickly.

Namibians love putting Nam in front of everything- NAMU (university), NAMPOST (post office), Nam-lish (mixture of Namibian English).


I also killed my first African spider.  On Saturday night, I found this guy on the wall of my room. The picture is zoomed in- the spider, including legs, is only a litter bigger than the rim on a soda can, but it sure looks scarier than a daddy long leg.  I thought it might be poisonous, so I left it alone, but I was worried it might do something.  I'm also super glad that the Lariam I'm on as an anti-malarial did not give me vivid dreams of spiders crawling around on the walls-I've heard horror stories about Lariam-induced nightmares. 

On Sunday night, it was back, so I asked my host mom if it was poisonous.  She didn't know, she told me not to touch it.  I asked her if I should kill it or leave it alone, and she said kill it, but don't touch it.  After some clarification, I tried to kill it, but I never found the body, so I may have only crushed a leg or two.    I'm glad I learned early on to keep the zippers of my bags closed, so I don't get surprise bugs in them!