Ghanzi, Bushmen, Windhoek and Christmas

After we left the Delta, we drove for about 400kms ( a very long day) to a little town called Ghanzi in Botswana.  This was really nothing more than a stop on our wway to Windhoek which is the capital of Namibia and is over 900kms from the Delta.  This is nearly 900 kms of the Kalahari Desert which as I mentioned is flat, sandy with low scrub vegetation (because of the record rains there last year).  We saw the occasional Ostrich, Kudu, Oryx and Elephant but very little else.  Even the towns were stretched out by 4-500 kms so other than good roads (with no powerlines or other obstructions), we didn't see much.

Our camera battery had died on the last morning of the Delta and we weren't able to charge it until we got to Windhoek so we have a dearth of pictures, but here is one that shows what the Kalahari looks like.

Even the Elephant was bored of the surroundings!

The Kalahari has its charms, but the sheer size of it is whats most astonishing.  We drove for most of three days to get through it and the details were fascinating, the kids found it a little tedious at times.

The pace of this trip was a little hectic!

The kids (all 7 of them plus a few of the young women who Rachel had attached herself to (and Shawn had crushes on - Monica and Mattie) usually sat up front and played Scum - an Aussie Rules card game they really enjoyed where the winner is the Emperor and the loser is Scum.

Anyway, after a very long day on the 24th, we arrived in the bushmen's village in Ghanzi in time to setup our tents (we were getting extremely good at this by now) and set out on a short hike with a bushmen tribe.  This was nothing like the one we did in Tanzania with the Hdazabe as instead of a nice small group of 4, we had 23 but they wore the traditional clothing (women topless in all their glory and men in loin cloths - which Shawn/Rachel didn't bat an eye at).  They showed us some of the indigenous plants and their purposes (roots for brushing teeth and curing kidney stones, etc.) and then made a fire with sticks - I guess this is the big tourist draw item.  I timed them this time and they did it from start to finish in a shade under 2 minutes.  I wanted to tell them that there was a tribe in Tanzania who were twice as fast! :-)

They had some babies and small kids with them (carried in skins on their backs) who were completely adorable.  The bushmen are a very attractive race as they have slightly Chinese features and ready smiles.  Its hard to believe that they were hunted to within an inch of their existence - in early times for being seen as poachers on livestock, and later by the South African's because they were excellent trackers to use in their wars with Angola.  The bushmen also have two other physiological differences.  They have an amazing capability to store water and fat in their buttocks.  You can almost watch their butts grow as they gorge themselves after a kill.  In this way they can store large reserves to last them for the next meal which may be days away.  The other is that they are extremely fast.  Another tour group joined us (so we had about 40) and one of the other guys was a sprinter and challenged two of the boys to a race.  He bet them his shoes he could beat them (against their shawls).  They setup a track about 300 metres long and we all lined up along the sides.  He went through all the motions of stretches and practicing his start with the bushmen watching him curiously.  Then they lined up and took off.  The bushmen jumped into the lead right away and then despite his size (he was 6' or so), kept increasing the lead so that they left him in the dust.  It wasn't even close.  I don't think I've ever seen anyone run that fast.

We later learned that the star of the "gods must be crazy" could run down an Oryx which is one of the fastest antelopes.  We also learned that he died a few years ago.  We don't have pictures of this yet, but our tour compatriots will be putting theirs online so I'll add some as I get them.

After Ghanzi, we left for a 500km drive to Windhoek on Christmas Day.   Windhoek is a very modern town with obviously German influences.  The Churches were Luthern as you'd expect and the streets were neat and tidy.  We also saw lots of Mercedes and VW's.  The wealth and prosperity of the locals was astonishing after the past 6 weeks in Africa.  Obviously Namibia is in even better shape than Botswana - astonishing when you consider it was a war zone in 1990.  We wandered around town and went into a shopping centre (stores closed of course) with eyes drooling after our depredation.  Then it was off to our campsite outside Windhoek to setup the tents and then back in for Christmas Dinner which we did as a group.  We did a Secret Santa  which was fun and Shawn ended up with a load of fireworks which helped kick off his Pyromania.  Every time you'd turn around he was setting off some firework when you'd least expect it.  We all missed our families but this was different and nice as we were with good friends by now.

Instead of turkey, and all the fixings we had a continuous round of African dishes including most of the game animals you can think of.. Zebra, Kudu, etc.  Merry Christmas!

Mud, mud and more mud!

I've been meaning to post this for the last two days but the internet and/or power has been sketchy at best.  Yesterday we got the first real rains since we arrived in Tanzania.  We've seen the odd storm or dash of a 20 minute downpour but nothing like yesterday.  We awoke yesterday morning about 7:00am to hear the sound of rain falling in the distance - SIGNIFICANT rain...  then you could hear it as it advanced to our location.  That was very cool.  It wasn't wind that was pushing the rain as is often the case (or if it was, it was nearly non-existent) but rather just the rain flowing down in rivers from the clouds high above.  We heard it coming from at least 1/4 mile away and when it opened up here, it was like someone had turned on a huge fire hose.

I'll say something for the rain here... when it finally does happen, it sure does happen!  And the mud?  Well that hard packed concrete red dirt we've been walking on almost instantly turned into the most vile, sticky substance known to man.  Our Pamoja (together) Guesthouse is located on a long stretch of dirt road between two main, well paved, roads which hasn't been an issue.  (I've marked it on the location for this post and you can see the house we are staying at in the satellite view.)  Every day, we've packed up our stuff and hiked into town or to the Y for swimming or what ever with nary a thought for the conditions of the road.  It's rough as all get out and nearly takes a 4x4 to navigate the ruts and bumps but on foot, it's as hard as pavement and we've loved passing by all the locals and kids who unfailingly shout out Jambo! to us as we walk by.

Yesterday however, we found out just how bad that road can get.  Within seconds of passing out of the gate (the driveway is made of stone and red-concrete), our shoes were carrying along another 2 lbs each of mud.  The mud sticks in layers so you end up walking on 6" platforms... and this mud is SLIP-PER-RY!!!  While the adhesive properties of this mud would put the Space Shuttle Tile Glue to shame, it is also more slippery than water on ice and teflon combined!    Imagine our fun walking with an extra few inches of sole to your shoes (that weigh a LOT) and then add the fact that ANY slight incline (let alone the trenches and moats of this road) is enough to send you slip-sliding-away like Paul Simon from Art Garfunkel.

When we finally did make it to the Y (and took our shoes off at the entrance to the building and carried them 150' to the sinks), it took us over 20 minutes each to get the mud off the shoes because of that fore-mentioned adhesive properties.  I thought I knew mud from PEI.  This stuff is red like that, but it puts PEI mud to shame.  After doing a swim and getting our shoes/sandals cleaned off as best we could, we stuck to the pavement (dodging motorcycles driven by maniacs with less than 1-2 years behind the wheel - Motorcycles are only within the last 3 years here) and buses (driven by drunken maniacs carrying 250% more people than they should) to go in and try out the wifi at the local Muzingu (white person) Union Cafe.

The internet is cheap here (I bought three 60 minute cards for each of our devices) for under $2 but we found it's the same provider as the guesthouse - with those proverbial two tin cans and a string somewhere between here and North America.  Didn't get a lot done but did have a pretty decent Pizza for about $2-3 each.

This AM, we awoke to the sun again and were planning on going back to Theresa's Make A Difference Now Orphanage for a Christmas Celebration with the kids before they all head back to their villages for the holidays.  I went out and checked the roads and sure enough... they were back to their usual hard packed selves... the tire treads from the cars the previous day being as firmly etched into the surface as if it were concrete!  No issue taking tire prints here - if you happen by during a heavy rain at least!

The Christmas celebration was very cool.  We walked to the Y (about a mile) and were picked up by Theresa in her van and driven out to the Orphanage in Hima.  We got there around noon just in time for a traditional Tanzanian lunch of corn meal in a large shapeless blob and beans - which add some flavour.  It's not the most tasty meal out there but it sure is filling (which is obviously the point).

Then we helped prepare the Christmas dinner.  This involved picking through the rice (about 25 lbs of it) for chaff and small stones, peeling loads of vegetables (cucumbers, carrots and green peppers) and fruit (oranges).  We then spent the afternoon playing and/or reading with the kids again.  I've said it before but these kids are really special and stick to your heart.  One of the girls (that was our star swimmer) came down with a malarial attack it was thought so Theresa took her into the local clinic for a quick checkup.  We had the kids to ourselves - and the Tanzanian house moms of course.  They knew UNO and played for keeps!  They also loved teaching us a new game with cards and would peel off a new rule as soon as we goofed so it seemed we could never win although by the end, it was clear that there really was some rules to this game and they were very good at it.  They throw down every card with such enthusiasm, it's hard not to have lots of fun playing with them - even if one of the little monkeys could teach a pool hall card shark a thing or two about cheating!

Christmas dinner was served about 7pm and it was a traditional dish called Pilau (beef flavoured rice - quite tasty), some VERY overcooked and cheap beef/bone chunks, a few slices of orange, cucumber, a small passionfruit and a slice of watermelon.  All quite good and from the silence around the classroom as everyone was busy eating, a real treat for them!  Then back to Moshi to drop off two of the youngest brothers (Peter and Juma) with their Auntie who is a street vegetable seller in Moshi for the holidays and us to the guest house.

The power and Internet were on (thanks to my handy Apple Airport Express router that I'd brought alone - the main router was not working as the power supply got fried in the thunderstorm the night previously) so we caught up on the news and Jen looked into our next destination - we're now thinking of avoiding Zanzibar at least to start with as neither of us can face a 10 hour bus ride, a night in Dar es Salaam, a two hour ferry ride and then a 2-3 hour taxi drive.  Theresa had pointed out a great little spot on the coast halfway between Mombassa (in Kenya) and Dar called Pangani and we are thinking to stop off there for a bit and see how things go.

Now that the swimming lessons are over, we'll likely pack up here in a few days and head off on the road again.  We'll certainly miss this place and the people we've met here - both at the guesthouse as well as around Moshi.  This has been a great spot to hang out and get to know Tanzania.  Hope all is well with everyone.With our love.