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Thursday Jun 14, 2007

When breaking news is a little too local

 

There's no way I can write an upbeat entry today, but a lot of things have happened. The mother of two friends of ours has been seriously ill; it had seemed like she was in remission then they left a couple of weeks ago to be with her because the doctors weren't sure how long she would last. They don't have the facilities to deal with cancer patients in Lüderitz so she was being treated in the capital. She died the night before last. Her son's 18 and her daughter's 16.

That was coupled with the news that last night a friend of ours was shot dead in his garage. It appears his house was being broken into and he surprised the burglar when he came in, though we're not sure of the facts yet. He was young, in his early 40s at most, and he leaves behind a wife and two children. It was so unexpected it's surreal, I saw him just yesterday. We weren't really close or anything but he's someone we see around all the time, he's always friendly to me, Bozena and Marcel; he'd jokingly invite us as 'the guests of honour' to events he wanted us to cover for the paper.

Which makes it all the more surreal – as local news goes, you can't get much more local than a friend who died a couple of streets away from you. I don't know how to go about writing a piece on this for the paper; we've had calls from the national press asking for more information, and it seems strange that what would usually be a sensational story is actually something that affects us personally. I can't believe I was at the police station yesterday, going through the crime log and bemoaning what a 'slow' month it had been.

If I was in England, I could be more confident that the murderer would be caught and brought to justice, but things are different here. In the First World the combination of massive CCTV coverage and modern forensics units make almost any crime solvable; although the richer areas of Lüderitz sometimes seem just like Europe, in some essential matters Namibia is very much a Third World country. The police here don't have forensics units; they don't even have cameras, or phones that can reach outside the Karas region, for God's sake. I just hope that they manage to track down whoever did this.

The higher amount of violent attacks in Namibia as a whole acts as another reminder that you're in Africa, when sometimes the rich suburbs and luxurious hotels allow you to forget. Perhaps I'm generalising, but I'm willing to bet that knife-point muggings end in a stabbing much more often here than in England. A combination of less effective law enforcement (and so less fear of consequences) and considerably more severe poverty means that criminals are frequently desperate enough to turn to violence. A friend of mine who lives in Windhoek was stabbed three times when he refused to hand over his mobile. The attacker obviously thought it was worth risking 10 years in prison for the N$500 (just under £40) he could get for the phone.

Me, Bozena and Marcel were talking about how easy it is for someone's world to fall down around them, and it made me appreciate more than ever how lucky I am to have my family and friends. My heart goes out to everyone involved – but at times like this is it wrong to admit that you're thankful with every fibre of your being that it didn't happen to you?

Posted by Lucy Hayes ( 6:36 PM )
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Sunday Jun 03, 2007

Birthdays, holidays and long-lost relatives

 

I really had no idea it had been such a long time since I last wrote, too much has been happening... We finished a damn good edition of the paper just before my birthday and then our May holidays. There was quite a lot of depressing and dramatic news going on which isn't good for everyone involved, obviously, but it makes for an interesting paper and we got to put a picture of a skull on the front page. They found some skeletons in the desert while building the new railway line, and though it was in diamond area we managed to get some pictures, which was cool if a little morbid.

Anyway, my first ever birthday away from home... I spoke to my parents on the phone for the first time since I left England (10 months ago, eek), which was a little odd because it had been so long, but it was good to speak to them again. I originally didn't plan to ring home at all in case it made me too homesick; oddly enough, I haven't been homesick at all which rendered that plan a little pointless. So I figured there was no reason not to, especially seeing as it had been so long.

We had a birthday braai (Namibian barbecues are just better) with all our friends at our flat which was really fun. The next day Marcel and Bozena had organised free lunch and a swim in the pool at a hotel in town - our newspaper contacts come in very handy at times. They also got the best cook we know to make me a birthday cake, which completely assured their titles of 'best partners ever'.

At the start of May we headed off on our two weeks holiday. There were 6 of us altogether; us 3 Lüderitz volunteers then two other Project Trusters, Conor and Miles, and a girl who'd been working on hyena conservation in Lüderitz, Kyra. We're all becoming well acquainted with the knack of managing to sleep while balancing on the broken seat of a rickety combi taxi for the 10 cramped hours drive to the capital...

We went to Etosha, a national park in the north of Namibia which is the size of Wales. Really. I still find it hard to get my head around just how much space there is in this country. It was so amazing, we saw loads of animals including black rhinos which are incredibly rare. There have been so many times where I've just had to stop and think about how amazing life is and how lucky I am, and watching the sun set behind a herd of elephants crossing the road has got to be one of those moments.

There is one highly important aspect of being a volunteer which anyone considering volunteering should mentally prepare themselves for. Working on an tight budget is made infinitely easier if you become well versed in the art of 'blagging free stuff'. This holiday I excelled myself; as I'm a pretty fantastic person, I actually managed to convince the guy who was our tour guide for Etosha to give us a lift to Swakopmund, our next destination. He had some time without any tours so we convinced him he wanted to come travelling with us for a bit, which was obviously because we all got on so well and had nothing to do with the fact he had a car. Not only that, but it turned out his parents had a house in Henties Bay (just near Swakop) where we could stay really cheaply.

By far the most fun thing I did in Swakopmund was skydiving - from 10,000 feet, with a 35 second freefall, it was incredible. The drop was over the desert so I had the most amazing view of bright blue sea rolling up to meet sand dunes the entire time. Well, some of the time I was upside down and screaming, but most of the time I was admiring the view...

Anyway, coming back to Lüderitz and work was made a lot more fun by the fact that I left again shortly afterwards. A friend of ours, Ramon, who's a tour guide took me on a 4x4 dune driving trip for free – yes, that's more free stuff I managed to get! Though I can take less credit for this as he's taken the Project Trust volunteers on his tours for the past few years, just because he's a really nice person and knows we have very little money. That was a lot of fun, we did some terrifying driving through the desert while Ramon laughed at me for the occasional involuntary whimper as we approached near-vertical slopes...

Oddly enough, I found that I shared surnames with a father and daughter on the tour, then quickly established that our families actually come from the same county in Ireland; their branch of the family had emigrated to South Africa two generations ago. There can't be many people that can say they found long lost family in the Namib Desert, can there?

Posted by Lucy Hayes ( 9:10 PM )
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Saturday Jun 02, 2007

T.I.T moments

 ok, I have 2 T.I.T moments. first is very short...yesterday I spent about an hour typing up T.I.T moments, just to hve a power cut as i was publishing it, so today I'm afraid the story is different and shorter.

So its 6.30am in casa za happy and emmy. I have just finished showering over our toilet in ice cold water i hauled from the well, and run inside to my room to get dressed. Happy is wandering around in her matching african skirt and top ready for school. Im in a kitenge....a handy peice of material that is used for everything you can imagine, currently its my towel. I hear the kitchen bolt squeaking and Happy's screaming. In casa za emmy and Happy screaming is not uncomon, for me it is reserved for special occasions such as panya (rats) or deadly animals. Happy however has told me her philosiphy is that if you are ever in a state of concern you should scream and cry as much as possible, but she also screams when laughing, when singing, and basicly whenever she feels like it. (i feel at this point i have to explain that last night we were given a chicken as a gift. We later found out that about 10 men in our village have a bet going, tht who ever can have sex with either of us will win a cow, so presents are the obvious route.)

 when i hear "EMMY...EMMY!!!!" i casually stroll outside to our 'kitchen' to see the very alive chicken hot footing it across our yard. Happy is hopping from foot to foot looking concerned, and i speedily take chase, the chicken and I soon enter the maize field and i am darting around trying to catch the dinner that I had dreamt about so fondly  the night before, while trying to protect my dignity by clutching to my kitenge. Soon the 'kur-fufle' drew several young boys to help me and we finally cornered it and the youngest boy launched himself ontop of the kuku and we carried back to the house, where happy was now on the dirt floor crying with laughter at the sight she had just witnessed. the chicken got put back in the kitchen, and we had a delicious chicken and rice dinner that night.

Slightly abrupt ending, but  feel its a good example of life out here, I'm very proud to say that I have caught my own food...truely self sufficient (ignoring the fact it was a present, and technically some one else caught it, i just ran around, and then collapsed in a heap and couldnt breath.)

Posted by Emily ( 1:19 PM )
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