The last few weeks have been without a doubt the craziest and most enjoyable times I’ve spent in Namibia.

On December 20th I headed out to Khorixas to meet up with some friends who were already beginning to celebrate the holidays. It was a day I had been looking forward to for a while. I had been planning on going to Otji to meet up with Sarah but she was practically in Angola at a wedding so I had to change my arrangements. My first time hiking alone was an epic you can read about on my last entry. So, after a few hours of free hiking I found myself beginning my 23-day drinking spree at Vanessa’s hostel house in Khorixas with Julie and Michael.

An ostrich and peacock make friends in Khorixas

The next day we hiked back to Otjiwarongo to meet up with Sarah. We spent the next two days poolside at Sarah’s friend Danella’s house. We lounged with her and her friend Robert, who travels Southern Africa making documentaries. We slept in beds, pooped in toilets, and showered in hot water. We were living the high life.

Braaing at Danella's

On the 23rd Julie and I went with Sarah’s family to their farm. Nearly every Namibian family has a farm. I compare it to a lake house…sans lake. They are generally in the middle of nowhere, have no electricity, running water or toilets (the first two we were privy to…but we had to poop in the bush with the goats.) And goats there were many. When baby goats wandered into the yard one of us would leap up, yell “Baby goat!” and chase it out of the fenced-in yard. We had a tent set up in the yard to sleep in. Life on the farm was good. It was interesting to live in the way that we knew many other Peace Corps Volunteers who aren’t used to our posh lifestyle of toilets and inside showers do.

We woke up on Christmas Eve feeling optimistic about a day of trading stories about how our families were celebrating the holidays. At about 2pm, Sarah’s host father came up to us.

Dad: “Are you guys ready to go to the farm?”

Us: Blank stares. “Aren’t we at the farm?”

Dad: “Oh, we’re going to another farm.” Of course. How silly of us.

We packed up, put some beers in the cooler and grabbed a couple for the road. About an hour later when we stopped to open a gate/pee behind a bush, Sarah’s host father suggested we grab a few more beers. It was going to be a long ride.

A wrong turn on the way to the farm

About 2 hours later we arrived at what I would call a Nam-mansion, and were shown to our bedroom, which was just a bed in a hallway. We realized quickly that there was no cell reception and we’d be spending Christmas out of reach from our families. Normally this would have been a problem, but we had each other and we were fairly happy from all the beers we drank in the car so we were ok with it. We got out and saw Pumba’s cousin slaughtered. At about 9pm, just when our empty tummies were wondering where the food was, we were told we would be returning to a farm we had made a turn at about an hour back to eat. [A word on Namibian road trips: “Making turns” is the Namibian word for the cultural experience of stopping at every house where you know someone on the way out of town. This is expected, and making turns can last anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour.] So we climbed into the back of a bakkie and sang every Christmas carol we could think of along the way.

We arrived at Farm #3 and were immediately served kabobs, potato salad, and beets. Our plates heaved. I chowed down on my kabob (only pausing for a second to note that what I thought was a potato was actually a large piece of fat). A couple hours later we were back to Farm #2 to pass out.

We woke up on Christmas Day and started wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. Namibians celebrate Christmas the way we might celebrate Memorial Day. It was hot enough, anyways. We took a ride in the back of the bakkie around the seemingly never ending farm, saw some cows get fed, then sat around and had some drinks. Whenever we ran out of beer, some small boy would bring more for us [cultural note: small boys are young children, male or female, between the ages of 8-12 who do all the work around the country in exchange for food or a dollar. I might invest in one to do my laundry, which I am inept at].We took a nap and watched the finale of our favorite soapie, Lorenzo’s Wife. We ate the sheep we had slaughtered earlier. All in all, an excellent Christmas.

Am I in Ohio?

The next day we expected to leave but it was not to be so. We did more sitting around socialized, talked to some a Namibian who thought Bacardi Spin was the end-all-be-all and made fun of us for drinking beer. We didn’t tell him he was drinking a 17-year-old girl-drink because he seemed to be enjoying himself. Sarah’s host mom told her we wouldn’t be leaving because they wanted to show us dinosaur footprints nearby. So the next day we got up and went to see said footprints. They’d have been more impressive if we didn’t have to climb rocks to get to them. Sarah fell off a rock and face planted, but it was ok because her beverage was safe. After 4 months at site, this is what it had come to.

On a rock. Not the one Sarah fell off.

We returned to Farm #1. We stayed up and talked to a friend of Sarah’s host dad. Some of my favorite people in Namibia to talk to are those who have traveled, and this guy has been to more countries than I have, including the US and Europe. He had a lot of really great perspectives, and even told us that he had a Peace Corps Teacher in high school who made a huge difference in his life. It’s great to hear that we’re making a difference in general, even though that volunteer might not know it herself.

The next day there was a monsoon. The rainy season had indeed started. Our tent fell over, so Sarah’s host brothers slept in the car and we slept in the house. The next day when we cleaned up the broken tent, we found a scorpion underneath. Ouch. We went back to Otjiwarongo and spent the next day in bed exhausted. We watched movies and had a relaxing time. Thus began the waiting for New Years, a party we had been planning since September. People trickled in and each arrival called for a celebration.

In the way only reunited friends could, we celebrated New Years the right way (with a power hour and delicious dinner).We all kissed and hugged each other. Happiness had found the Dirty 30 once again. Hey, remember last year when we moved to a strange country and spent many long, lonely nights without our loved ones? 2010 is a year of optimism and change.

I and a few others went back to Okahandja on the 1st. I was mostly worried about my house getting broken into, but it was safe. Everyone else from the North joined us on the 2nd and we broke in my house with 14 people sprawled across all the available floor space in my apartment.

The next day we hiked to Windhoek in shifts. We met up at our favorite restaurant, and had some drinks as an entire group for the first time in 3 months. We got to the Peace Corps office at 3:30 and were driven to a lodge about 15k outside of Windhoek. There we started a week of Reconnect, which was supposed to be our technical training. The training was good for the most part. It was less staff-led and more of a consolidation of our problems and solutions. I’m not sure how effective it was, because it was people who had only been in the country for 5 months trying to come up with solutions, but there were a few resource volunteers who came and showed their insight. Best of all, we had free food for a week. Being in Namibia has turned me into a binge eater. I never know when my next meal will come so when I get food, I eat all I can as quickly as possible. It’s entertaining to watch me suck meat off bones, I’m sure. The most fun part was the evenings. We spent our time drinking at the pool and trading ridiculous stories from site. Laughter was uncontainable and even continued into many of the sessions.

On Saturday we had a day in Windhoek to do some shopping. I went to the SPCA to look at puppies. They weren’t very nice to me and said they don’t like giving animals to foreigners which I thought was an unfair discrimination, but they said they’d give me a chance and come look at my house this week which I’m excited about. Saturday night we downloaded a karaoke program and had a great party.

By Sunday morning we had all gone our separate ways. It was an amazing holiday with friends, and now I have the end of April to look forward to for our next Reconnect. I’m glad to be back at site. When I parted ways with my friends, I breathed a sigh of relief. Time to get back to school and do what I came here to do. Teach. [Look forward to an email about the first days of school soon]

Dirty 30

And that, my friends, was my Namibian holiday. I returned to school to hear my colleagues tell me how fat I’ve gotten. I took it as a compliment, because in this culture it is. And thought fondly to all the free food I’d enjoyed over the last few weeks.