Just Plain Madness

Hmmm… it’s been so long since I’ve written anything here that I don’t even know where to begin now. This year has been pretty crazy. Hopefully I can do it justice in a single update.

For starters, I’m still in Namibia. As most of you know, I came back to help with the 2008 MYO staff transition. To be perfectly honest, my help with that probably wasn’t needed and not even really wanted in some respects. The staff this year is still going through some changes, but overall they are a very capable and experienced bunch that didn’t require a lot of my input. Also, as often happens to a project like this when new blood is injected, new ideas take new directions and the interest in protecting the status quo isn’t at the top of the list.

So basically my time with MYO this year was lackluster. I ended up bowing out of it earlier than expected at the end of February. Although I still believe in the program and the work being done there, it was time to make the break and follow the new direction in which my life is headed: Mozambique.

This is the point where you’ll start reading along and probably notice your head start shaking involuntarily, thinking, “Ah, here he goes again...”

In a nutshell, I’ll be moving indefinitely to the east coast of Africa to begin work on a long-term conservation project. My initial focus will revolve around getting a small tourist operation going in the northern coastal town of Pemba. On board a dhow—a Arabian style boat used extensively in East Africa—I’ll organize sundown cruises, snorkeling, fishing expeditions, etc. to get a sure footing in the area before expanding to the islands further north to begin a joint land/sea project working with elephants inland and marine conservation issues on the sea.

My timetable for coming home has understandably changed with this new adventure. In order to make the move to Mozambique possible, I need to go home for a couple of months to tie off loose financial ends. That originally meant moving my flight back to Boise up to the end of March and canceling my backpacking plans in Mozambique and South Africa so that I could be on the ground in Pemba for the end of May.

However, just as I was getting everything in order to leave, my friends at EHRA (Elephant-Human Relations Aid) approached me with a job offer working with their program in the Damaraland bush. I decided to accept for a couple of reasons: first, since the dhow project will be in conjunction with the founder of EHRA, they needed an extra set of hands to help organize everything here before anything can be done in Mozambique. Second, and probably more importantly, the experience working with volunteers will go a long way towards preparing me for my job when I come back.

So now I’ll be in Namibia until the end of May, spending two weeks at a time out in the bush and returning to Swakopmund every other weekend. My job is to oversee the building of elephant dams with volunteers for each first week and then helping out with various tasks in base camp for the second week while the group is out on patrol tracking the desert elephants.

I’m happy to be staying here for a little while longer. Although the work of hefting big rocks and shoveling sand in the 100+ degree heat doesn’t sound too appealing, living out in the open, sweating up an appetite in a rugged expanse of natural beauty has an undeniable charm. It’s difficult to explain the attraction I feel for the doors opening up before me. I suppose I’ve gained an appreciation for a lot of the aspects of life that have been more or less ignored with what I’ve done with myself until this point. Who knows where all of this will lead… but I’m excited to enjoy the ride and find out.

A Beau Update

Hi everyone. I’m back in Namibia after a brief stint in Idaho during the December/January holidays. This time around my work/visit here will only last 3-4 months. The plan is to work for two months with Mondesa Youth Opportunities (MYO), the after-school program where I’ve spent the last year as a volunteer teacher/interim manager. I’ll be aiding with the transition into the 2008 operating year as well as focusing on the completion of our new school facilities in the township of Mondesa.

This new year brings a lot of changes at MYO. There are plenty of new faces in the staff, including three new volunteer teachers, a new music teacher, an academic coordinator and a field manager. They join the existing Namibian staff and the two of us foreigners who have returned from 2007.

I must admit it’s very surreal being back in my most recent ‘hometown.’ As often happens in life (well, mine anyway), change has altered even the most basic aspects of what I have come to know. Of course many of the invariables in Swakopmund remain the same, but much of my old experience has been removed, leaving both places for new experience to grow and holes that cause me to reminisce.

My living situation provides the most telling example. Upon arriving in Swakop, my first stop was at the flat shared by Alexis, Casey and me last year. The keys traveled halfway around the world with me, allowing for the familiar sense of coming home and turning the lock to enter my domain. However, that is where the allusions of times past began to fade. Over the break, our apartment was rented out to vacationers so several changes had been exacted: furniture moved, curtains re-hung and minor transformations that cause your mind to pause even when your eyes don’t immediately recognize the alteration. As a person who cherishes the order to my surroundings (even though it doesn’t often look like order to others), the newness took me by surprise. But now, after a week of adjustment, much of the new environment has grown on me. Sure, I miss the chess drinking set holding the bookcase together, but the circa-1970 book on natural childbirth probably didn’t ever need to be on display.

Beyond the aesthetic elements of change, the loss of my fellow inhabitants continues to hang over everything at 32 Libertina Amathila #6. I can’t deny that this has been the most challenging part of my own personal 2008 transition. Looking back, I doubt I realized how close our circle had become. During the break, there were so many distractions in Cape Town, Boise and Pocatello that I never had the chance to miss my girls. However, walking into the house or back in from the balcony to a distinct lack of Aussie and Canadian flavor (flavour?) creates one hell of a contrast.

However, as I mentioned before, the old and new somehow manage to achieve at least a moderate balance. In place of Lex and Kc are a good—if not large—group of housemates. There are now five of us staying here. The feel is much different, which can be attributed to the fresh mix of personalities, marital status and previous experience in Namibia. I’ve managed to appreciate this more and more in the last week. Although it’s still a big transition from the 8am coffee and 6pm wine breaks on the balcony, fresh conversations have emerged and the newness does create an altogether different, and fun, atmosphere. Change comes. I guess you’ve just got to roll with it.