Trip to Luderitz

This weekend we went to Luderitz which is a small, coastal town in Namibia. We stopped at a place called Keetmanshoop Thursday night. We got to see Cheetahs and Meerkats and we even stayed in Igloo Bungalows.

Curious meerkat checking us out.

Me petting the Cheetah. If it looks like I was a little scared, it was because I was. I've got cats, I know they can be a little unpredictable.

Quiver tree forest sunset at Keetmanshoop.

Group photo right before the sunset.

Emily and I being risky...

The igloo bungalows were fun to stay in and reminded me of the houses in the original Star Wars where Luke Skywalker lived.

Beautiful Cheetah named Chakita.

Chakita eating dinner. It happen to be horse meat that day, which was her favorite.

Here I am petting the cheetah. Apparently cheetahs are one of the few cats that you can pet while eating and they don't care. I still was a bit hesitant though.
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Friday morning we drove the rest of the way to Luderitz. We walked around town and saw the old buildings and had fresh seafood at the waterfront. The buildings were picturesque and the sight of the ocean was beautiful.

One of the original buildings built in Luderitz back in 1909.

We went to a place called Diaz Cross, where the Portuguese landed back in the 1400's. When they got here they looked around and didn't see much worth sticking around for. They put up a cross to mark that they had landed, but then headed back to Portugal. It wasn't until the early 1900's when the Germans came back around and saw something more. They are the ones who found the plethora of diamonds in the sand. Luderitz and Kolmanshop are still diamond territory.

Shot of the waves crashing against the huge rocks near Diaz Cross.

Atlantic Sunset.

One of the few houses at the ghost town, Kolmanshop.

This was a common site among the houses. The sand had taken over everything.

On the drive out we saw a lot of different wild life. The ostriches were my favorite to see. At one point we saw a bunch of them still sleeping with their heads in the sand.

Poly Students

We have been working hard this last week scanning 35mm film and getting a workflow in place. Our main objective is to train the Poly students so that they can take over once we leave and continue scanning, cataloging, and backing up these photos. They are eager to learn and catch on quickly. I thought it would be fun to include some pictures of the students we are working with and who are becoming fast friends.

Here is a picture of the girls. From left to right: Andrea, Em'C, Me, Vimbai, and Katrina.

Here's pretty much the whole group. This was taken on campus at the Polytechnic. We were all enjoying the sun since it is cold here in the mornings.

Above is a picture of Goderich and Kwayo preparing film to be scanned. We have to wear cotton gloves when handling the film.

Ok, so I wanted to throw in a few more Safari pictures. Here is a momma and baby giraffe. They were so cute together.

Here is us in our Range Rover, Defender. I love these things. Too bad they don't make them in the U.S. :) Oh...the guy in the front is not a part of our group. He just wanted to have his picture taken with us and we couldn't convince him otherwise.

These are Elome. They are the biggest animals of their type here in Africa.

Above is a Kudo. They are everywhere. I guess that would be why they are a common source of meat here in Namibia. It's good meat too!

Here's another picture of the rhinos that we saw. I just couldn't get over how massive these animals were. I still think this picture, just doesn't do them justice, but it's a start.

This little cricket isn't so little. We saw him on the way to church. Kind of creepy looking, but harmless.

The weekend...

Boy what a weekend it was. It was packed full of lots of fun stuff! On Friday we went and saw the movie Wall-E. It was pretty good. It was a nice way to unwind after kind of a crazy week. Saturday we slept in, which we all needed and then went to a rugby game. For many of us, it was our first rugby experience. I've decided I'm a fan! I love hockey, partly for the violence, and I must say, rugby will probably be the same way.

Sunday we went to the local branch in Windhoek. It was AMAZING! These people are rock solid and so full of love. It was an awesome experience to be with these people and feel right at home. The new mission president for the South Africa mission came to visit the branch. He and his wife said a few things in sacrament meeting. I know I've only been in Africa a little over a week, but it was a strange thing to see and hear another American. Coming home might be quite the adjustment. :)

On Sunday after church we drove about 25 minutes outside of Windhoek and went to a small game preserve called Okapuka. In 3 hours we saw some amazing animals. Below is a picture of the male crocodile just outside one of the watering holes. He was sunning himself and didn't seem to mind all of our pictures.

Giraffes have always been one of my favorite animals. We got to see quite a few on the trip. We learned that the older they get, the darker their spots get. We got to see one that was about 40 years old and also a little baby one as well.

The white rhinos were my favorite part of the whole trip. It reminded me of what I felt like when I did a shark cage dive in Hawaii. We stopped the jeep when we got close and the rhinos started to run up to the jeep. None of us knew exactly what to do, except to stay calm, quiet, and not to move. They got right up next to the jeep and sniffed us out. Their horns were so incredible big that it was intimidating to have them that close to us. Our driver got out of the jeep and fed them some sort of grain or pellets. He explained that it was like chocolate to rhinos. That's why they ran up to the jeep. Now he tells us....


We also got to see a couple of lions in a separate part of the reserve. They fed them and we got to watch. That was also a sight to see. Hearing the lions roar was something that I will not soon forget. It's something that will send chills through your body. Beautiful, majestic animals though!

First week in Namibia

Holy Cow!! Our first week has flown by already. It has gone by so fast! I still can't believe I am in such a beautiful country with such AMAZING people. This is more wonderful than I could have ever imagined! Everybody has been so kind and have treated us so well. We have made many friends already.

We are working with a group of about 8 Namibian students. All of them are eager to learn and are picking up things very quickly. They are all Journalism students here at the Polytechnic school of Namibia. We have had 3 days of workshops teaching Photoshop and have worked in the little studio we have here to scan photo negatives from the National Archives of Namibia. Yesterday was amazing!! The scanning process is quite time consuming. We only have one scanner and we are scanning these images at a high resolution and making them into 4 X 6 prints. We have had to make sure we get high quality scans because the originals are deteriorating fast. While waiting for the scans to finish we were able to chat with these students and really get to know them. They know quite a bit about their country and some of their history, even though they have no real record of it.

When we finished scanning the first batch of pictures they all gathered around amazed at these photos that were taken in 1947. The pictures were of a fabric manufacturing shop and it showed white people working among black people. The significance of this picture is that in 1948 there was Apartheid in place and it separated the blacks from the whites. This was something that we, as UVU students easily overlooked, but was not lost on the Namibian students. They recognized this immediately. They were even able to recognize a lot of the buildings and details in each photo that made each of these pictures come to life. It made me aware of how important this work is and how critical it is that this work goes forward. These people do not have access to their history and their records. Their culture is slowly, but surely dying as these records and photographs fade and disintegrate. Having access to my own history and records at my fingertips is something I have taken for granted. It gave me chills to watch these students get excited to see these pictures. These photos have only ever been seen by a few people, but will now be available to everybody.

Andrea is one of the students from our group that came with us. She is Navajo. She brought a bag with her that her aunts made. It has one of the symbols that the Navajo use for the sun. One of the Namibian students, Em'C saw it and recognized the symbol. Apparently the Namibian's have similar symbols as the Navajo indians and also similar structures. They got to talking and realized that Navajo Hogans are similar to Namibian bushman dwellings. It was amazing to see the similarities.

We had a party at our house Wednesday night. We attempted to make nachos with what was available at the grocery store. It turned out as Dorito type chips and yellow cheese (which we hoped was similar to chedder cheese) sprinkled over the top. No one seemed to mind them though. We also made potato wedges which were a huge hit. We also had some Namibian cookies and sweets. We made introductions and soon had split up into different groups playing different games. One group played Speed Scrabble and the other played Uno. Both were a lot of fun and helped us get to know each other a lot better. We all came away as friends.

I will post more pictures soon. Here are a few of the images that we scanned last night, just to give you an idea of what we are looking at. It probably won't mean much to most of you, but to these students it was like Christmas. :)

A glimpse of Namibia

This was one of the ladies at the open market here in Katatura. She was a sweetie. Emily and Mike from our group bought some grubs from her and ate them for us. Don't know if I will ever get the courage to eat a grub.
This is Nate. We were in Katatura at the market and there was this lady braiding hair. We all talked him into having her do a few braids for him. She was a good sport and did it for him. He made sure to pay her. We all had a good laugh. A lot of the Namibian children thought it was the funniest thing to see a white person with braids.
This is another picture from the market. These men were grilling meat. They would slice off a bite size piece and hand it to us. We would then take th meat, dip it in salt and cayenne pepper and pop it in our mouths. Thank goodness for that typhoid shot, eh? The meat was good and so far so good. ;)


We have now been in Namibia since Saturday. The jetlag seems to be wearing off slowly. Most of us are sleeping through the night now. You will still see some of us taking cat naps as soon as we sit down though. It was a little tough in England. We were on a double decker tour bus and when we were just stopped at traffic lights and nothing really was worth seeing, we were gone.

The weather here is a lot colder than I had expected. When we got off the plane you could see your breath. So at nights and in the morning we are all bundled up. In the afternoons it warms up quite nicely and we shed our layers. Very similar to Wyoming summers.

We have been so spoiled. The people at the Polytechnic school have been so good to us. We have gone out to dinner every night this week. They have a driver for us that will take us anywhere we want to go. We are all staying in this really nice house right across the street from campus. I can't believe this is all in Africa. We are within walking distance to the "mall" and the grocery store. There is probably 300,000 people in Windhoek. A lot of them live in a place called Katatura. This is the poorer side of town. This is where the South African government forced the native people to live during the apartheid. They do have a closed sewage system and running water though. It truly could be a lot worse.

London on the 4th of July!

Me and Andrea on the plane for Atlanta. This was the first of three flights that would take us to Africa.

Me and Emily taking time to take pictures in England. I can tell it's England because I have my jacket on. It was a bit chilly in London. It did warm up, but it was a bit windy and humid.

The famous London Bridge. It was beautiful. This picture just doesn't give it justice!

The Parliament building. You can see Big Ben in the back. This place was huge!

A shot of the tower of London. This was an impressive building with a lot of history behind it. had no idea it was used for so many different things. A palace, a prison, etc.

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Yay! Happy 4th of July! How fun is that I get to spend the day in England. So far I've been up for 25 hours and it's starting to hit me. I love it here though. The weather is gorgeous and it's so beautiful here. I took so many pictures that my camera ran out of batteries. We rode a double decker tour bus and have seen so many sites. Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, etc...

I will upload pictures soon. We are at the Apple Store in the dead center of London all checking our email. :) It's awesome! Well we are off to find a place to get some fish and chips! Cheers All!