Did You Bring Your Permission Slip?

15 April 2007



I got to go on my first field trip with some of the kids on Friday. It took us a while to get things moving since we were taking a group of grade 4’s, but once we got on the road it was a great experience. The plan was to go to a place called Dune 7—which you might well guess is a sand dune. Then head down the Walvis Bay Harbor to take a tugboat ride. Finally, go swimming and braai at a place called The Dolphin Park. All in all, it’s a pretty eventful day trip.

First, the Dune 7 plan pretty much got knocked out by our leaving almost an hour late. Only about a third of the 17 students going showed up on time. So we had to call their schools, track them down and stuff them in the combi. I was a little disappointed about missing the dune. Apparently, it’s the biggest one around and takes about a half hour to climb. The trek up doesn’t sound very appealing, I’ll admit, but running down a giant sand dune is nothing if not pure enjoyment. We did get to drive by and take a look at it, though. The kids didn’t seem to mind at all. They were interested in boats and swimming.

So we headed for Walvis Bay for the tugboat ride. Walvis Bay is about 30km south of Swakop so we’re not talking very far away. It’s a pretty important harbor with a lot of history that surrounds it, but that’s not part of the field trip story so I’ll leave that on for another day. Anyway, we arrived early as instructed and ended up running around all over the port authority trying to get our permit to enter the harbor because either the lady who organized it for us got it all mucked up or the guy who was handing out the permits was an idiot—probably both actually. In the end, we had to wait until the lady who organized it came back from lunch to actually figure stuff out. She sent us off with two of her staff who promptly sorted out the permit, and we were in business. Or so we thought. Then they informed us there was no boat ride. Instead, a tour of the port itself was supposed to be our entertainment… yawn. “Here we’ve got cranes unloading shipping containers.” “And there they are loading salt to be shipped to Congo.” You get the picture. Luckily, when we were just leaving the place we would have taken a boat, some random guy stopped us to ask if we wanted to go out on one of the boats. So we did end up getting to go out into the harbor a bit. The kids loved it. Most of them, if not all, had never been on a boat before. Plus there were seals swimming around, clapping, barking and having fun.

Finally, we made it to The Dolphin Park—which doesn’t actually have any dolphins. Mostly it’s just a big swimming pool with a sweet water slide. The place was awesome. We showed up only about an hour before it closed so no other visitors were there. Having the run of the place was good, particularly because there was no line for the water slide. I’m not sure who enjoyed it more, me or the kids (as you can see from the picture above). Very few of them could swim and the water at the bottom of the slide was kind of deep so I ended up taking them down with me quite a few times. It was great flying down the slide, trying to get as high up on the corners as possible and then dunking myself while holding a kid over my head to keep them above water. As soon as I came back up all I would hear was: “again! again! again!”

Once I tired myself out and their appetites were worked up, we got the braai going and fired up some hot dogs. Ahhh… BBQ and a pool. It brought back memories. I’m pretty sure I had 5. The kids must have been thinking, “fat Americans.”
After that, we packed up and headed home. On the road, I turned around to see a combi load of children who were falling asleep of exhaustion. Now that is the way a field trip should end. Can’t wait for the next one.

Quad Biking!

12 April 2007

I think that might be the cheesiest photo I’ve posed for in a long time. The reason for the helmet and the desert in the background is that I went quad biking in the dunes just outside Swakopmund. (Quad biking = 4-wheeling for us Americans.) It was a lot of fun. For the first half of the ride I was with the “slow” group, which means I got stuck behind an older British lady why was not exactly riding the accelerator. But it did make me feel kind of like a rebel adventure junkie passing her over-the-top style on a dune. Let me explain. We pretty much had to ride in a single file because in a lot of places the natural surroundings could be torn up by a pack of quad bikes. There were also some serious drop-offs that the dunes hid well—and I guess it’s bad publicity if one of your tourists ends up eating with a straw for the rest of his/her life. Anyway, once we got into a ‘safe’ area in the dunes we could branch out ever so slightly. Plus the guide would come in at a big dune at an angle and drive his bike as far up as he could, waiting until the last moment to turn back down—in what they called ‘a roller coaster’. It was solid fun trying to match his tracks (since his bike was a lot more powerful than ours were). However, I had to spot the guide’s move coming a while back so I could ease off the gas and let Old Mother Hubbard get ahead of me. This allowed me to gun it at the proper distance and have a sweet ride. Then I got the idea to James Bond it a little early and pass her at the top of the roller coaster. So I waited until the next big dune and followed in her tracks until she chickened out and turned down. At this point, I kept on the gas, drove a little farther up, pointed my bike downhill and let loose. I picked the right dune because I got some serious speed going back down. So much speed, in fact, that the turn at the bottom left my back wheels sliding like a rally car and kicking up sand. And just like that, the deed was done.

After we stopped to look around, take some pics (like the one above) and grab some juice, I decided to head off with the fast group. I had originally tried to go with them, but I got stuck behind my friend Konsta (the other guy in the photo) because I thought he was going with them when in fact he was waiting to be the guide all the way in the back. Talk about your all-time backfires. Anyway, I took off with the guys who wanted to ride fast and was not disappointed. Earlier, when I mentioned that the guide had a faster bike I didn’t mention that I had the chance to get the same bike when I chose mine. I chickened out and took the automatic for fear of not being able to work the gears on the fly. Wrong choice. Even with a few stalls, the manuals would have run circles around their less complicated counterparts. I mention this because in the new fast group, I was the only guy with an automatic. So in the first half I was constantly letting off the gas to not rear-end someone, whereas in the second my thumb was getting numb constantly pushing it to the max—and I was barely keeping up. Nonetheless, it was a blast. We were going off some pretty sweet stuff. On the roller coasters, if I weren’t at the back I was the one in danger of getting half-mooned (that’s a term I just made up for getting passed over-the-top). We took a few trails that had some nice jumps, and we drove over some drop offs that were scary to even look down. On those, I felt like “The Man from Snowy River”… it was intense. A couple of times we caught up to and passed the slower group before heading off on other trails. I waved.

Can't think of a title...

01 April 2007

Hi everyone. Before you hear it from elsewhere and get worried, I should probably let you all know that a few days ago I got into a car accident. It wasn’t anything too serious, but I did get a little banged up. I broke my leg in a couple places, but managed to escape without any further injury (except some nasty bruises and minor cuts). Luckily, I convinced them to take me to the private clinic so I wasn’t subjected to the questionable Namibian State Hospital treatment. From what they’re telling me, it should heal up alright but my amateur basketball career is over—for most of my time here at least. The doctor was Cuban, ironically, and he thinks I got pretty lucky by escaping with what I did…

Just kidding! Happy April Fool’s Day! I’m fine. There was no car accident. Sorry, I couldn’t resist. You can call to yell at me if you want—I wouldn’t mind chatting. Otherwise, this will probably be a short entry since not a lot has been going on this week. I’m just going to tell a couple of stories and then send you on your merry way.

First of all, I’m about 2 days from being an illegal alien in Namibia. Apparently, you are supposed to apply for a work permit before entering a foreign country. Otherwise, especially in Africa I think, the process to get one is slow and tedious. Don’t go thinking I’m in danger of being deported or anything, though. We’ve filed all of our paperwork, paid the fees and I hear the visas have been processed. So the lady at the Ministry of Home Affairs just needs to get on the ball and send them to us. In the meantime, however, I’ve been contemplating my life as an ‘illegal’. I’ve always considered myself a bit of a rebel; maybe this step will bump me up to revolutionary. That might not make sense, but just pretend it does and go along with me. They sell a lot of Che Guevara t-shirts around here. I should buy one and if it suits me; that could give a little insight. I just read his book, The Motorcycle Diaries. That sounds like my kind of adventure: one good friend, a beat-up motorcycle, not much cash, seeing some beautiful country… Yeah, I like that. I’m not sure about the next step of joining a revolution in the Sierra Maestra, but I’ll cross that bridge when it presents itself.

Second, I saw a pretty sweet spectacle yesterday. I left the house expecting to have an uneventful walk to the bank and then continue to the internet café. Instead, I ran smack into a mini-parade being staged by the Herero people (not sure about the spelling there). The women were all done up in their traditional costume, and most of the men were in military fatigues marching at a very interesting cadence. The women wear big, colorful skirts, a white puffy shirt and a head scarf that is wrapped, twisted and tied to look pretty much like bull horns. I wish I would have had my camera with me because it was an amazing sight to see. Some of the men had fur caps on; one guy’s started as a hat and flowed down the middle of his back like his own patchwork Daniel Boone hair. I tried to find out what the event was, but the closest thing to an explanation I got was that 31 March held cultural significance for them. In the front of the procession was a sign saying something like: “This is to re-emphasize that we will never again be beaten, enslaved and made to be prisoners in out own land.” That’s a paraphrase; the actual sign had a little more written, but you get the gist.

Finally, Easter is coming up and I get a 4-day weekend because Easter Monday is a public holiday in Namibia. I’m not sure why, but I’ll go with it. That means with only 4 weeks left before the end of the first school term, I only have 2 full weeks of classes. In addition to the long weekend, we’ve got a couple of field trips with our grade 4’s to look forward to. They are a huge group—33 kids to be exact—so we’re actually splitting them up into 2 groups and doing the same trip. I’ll only be going on one, but I’m looking forward to it nonetheless. Also, we’re receiving a visit from some Namibian Chess Federation representatives mid-month, and they’re bringing a Grand Master from Iceland. We’ve recently registered MYO as a school chess team with them, and the visit is part of the deal. I’m pretty sure that my level of excitement in meeting ‘The Master’ (as I’ve taken to calling him) greatly exceeds that of the kids, but I’m confident I can stir up interest in the coming weeks. I love chess, and the lessons I’ve been giving to the kids who want to join the club have been the most fun I’ve had in the classroom so far at MYO. I’m sure you’ll hear more about that and the rest of this stuff on my blog in the upcoming weeks, so keep posted for the updates.

That’s about all I have for now. I hope everyone is doing well. Thanks for the emails, MySpace/Facebook messages and everything else. I really enjoy getting word from home, hearing how you all are doing, etc. It’s nice to know that even though I’m long gone I’m not forgotten. I think about you all a lot, and staving off homesickness is sometimes a chore, but getting word from my friends and family helps a lot. Have a great week!

Beau