London Airport

We arrived home on Friday and did a load laundry, spent the day on Saturday running around with final errands and then had dinner with our friends from WWF and IRDNC.  On Sunday my friend Ilana took us to the Windhoek Airport and we caught our flight to Jo-burg.  Several hours in Jo-burg, an overnight flight to London and here we are, waiting for our final flight to Denver. 

I can’t believe I’ll be back at work on Tuesday!  We are so grateful to the generosity of people in Namibia, both personal friends and work colleagues.  And, we are so thankful for our friends and family back in the United States.  Amazing thanks to Erin and Josh for keeping Finn, for Erica and Jay for helping us find a new look for a new place to live, to DGS and UC Denver for allowing Doug and I to take this time in Namibia, and of course to our families who are tireless cheerleaders for our adventures. 

Can’t wait to have happy hour and share our adventures when we get home. 

Kunene

Doug and I had the opportunity to take one final trip before leaving for home during the first week in June.  We travelled up to the North of the country to the Kunene region which is populated by the mainly Herrero and Himba people.  The landscape was somewhat similar to Moab, Utah and completely breathtaking. 

On Saturday we drove to Wederslend (which means “World’s End”) which is an old farm that is now the property of IRDNC (this is the nature conservation organization that Doug has worked in partnership with since he’s been in Namibia).  We were in for a treat as the founders of the organization Garth Smith Owens and Margie Jacobsen (who are now officially retired) were at the camp and we had the opportunity to spend some time with them.  In addition, on Sunday we hiked the Wederslend Mountain –we started out around 9AM and returned around 3PM.  The mountain was tough with lots of rocks and the last 45 minutes of the hike included many, many stingy nettles!  Nettles are brutal.  We eventually scrambled to the top and what a view---a pic here of the mountain:

We took off of Monday with an old land rover and the Wederslend mechanic—Alpheus—as our driver and then spent the next five days visiting the conservancies in the area so that Doug could give presentations on solar technology and camping at the conservancy campsites.  We visited five conservancies including Torrah, Annabeb, Puros, Orumpembe, and Sessfonetein and drove all the way up to Ontavi which is quite close to the Angolan border.  We saw incredible landscape, and were able to see many of the traditional Himba villages where communities still live in relative seclusion from the rest of the world.  They are really beautiful people.  We arrived on Thursday in Opuwa the capitol of the Himba community—imagine visiting the grocery store and standing in line with a Himba women smeared in Ochre and in traditional dress.  It was an eye opening experience and certainly left me wanting to understand more about this special community.

We drove back to Windhoek on Friday and were able to escape a flat tire (we got one on the way there).  A  VW Polo was not meant to drive on the majority of roads in Namibia.   We are happy to think about returning home on Sunday but certainly grateful for the time we spent here.

 Doug in Puros

 Alpheus between Puros and Ontavi fixing our brakes!

 Hiking up to Lodge in Ontavi

 View from the top of the lodge

 Himba woman pumping gas

Desert elephants, climbing the cliffs

Cruisin' in Windhoek

Doug is still up in Caprivi so I had this weekend to myself in Windhoek.  The Polytech has been very accommodating by lending a car whenever I request it, and the only thing we are required to pay for is mileage.  This week it was slim pickings and all that was left was a VW Chico w/out power steering.  I just kept channeling my Granddad who once ripped out the elbows of his dress shirt cranking his steering wheel when my mom was a child.  It doesn’t turn on a dime but it works. 

Namibian cars drive on the other side of the road, have steering wheels on the opposite side of American cars and for the most part are all manual transmissions.  Luckily, Nancy and Larry made their kids learn to drive stick shifts in order to get a driver’s license and I quite miss driving a manual transmission, so I enjoy driving a manual car.  The other thing I should mention is that Windhoek is a very hilly town.  The airport is actually about 25 miles outside of the city because they didn’t have enough flat land to build runways.  I have been caught more than once utilizing the parking break in fear that I might drift backward into a Namibian driver.  But we’re all good so far.

Yesterday, I went to the Green Market (Farmer’s market) in the morning, drove over to the Franco Nambian Cultural Center for a cultural bazaar that was hosted by the diplomatic spouses’ wives (there I could sample food from Zimbabwe to Malaysia and was entertained by a Russian dancer and a Cuban hip hop singer) , and drove over to a favorite lunch spot for a snack.  Then last evening our friends Karine and Nat had me over for dinner and today I’m heading off to the Avis dam for a hike with some folks.

While I miss the independence of my own car back in the states, I really can’t complain that I can’t get around the big city.  As long as my parking break is in working order, I’m good to go.

Early Alert Update

Back at the Poly after a flight back from Caprivi---for the record—the tiny 16 seater plane from Caprivi beats the Intercape bus ride any day of the week.  The plane flew fairly low so we had a great view of the Okavango River.  I arrived back in time for several importantmeetings today regarding the kick-off of the early alert program.  Here is where we’re at…

I am finishing up my project here at the Polytechnic and have a little less than two weeks of work left.  Amazingly, enough--if all goes as planned--  my final day on June 3rd will involve doing a staff induction for the three newly hired academic counselors who will run the early alert program pilot.  While much less complex than CU Denver's system,  but the three schools invovled in the pilot are enthusastic.  They simply do very little around retention, so I am excited that this can be a basic start for addressing the needs of at-risk students. It has been very rewarding to feel that something concrete was accomplished in my time here.  This is not easy feat in Namibia.

I received final approval today from all the Deans and from academic support services to move forward with the project.  Stay tuned...

Last night in Caprivi

Tonight marks my last night in Caprivi.  I am flying back to Windhoek tomorrow to finish up my project at the Polytechnic and Doug will join me on June 1^st before one final trip.  After a long and relaxing weekend in Caprivi, I feel bad that I didn’t get to spend more time here.  And I am reminded why it was so easy for Doug to fall in love with Africa here.  How can you not develop a love affair where you can take horse ride along the Zambezi River, take a hike through a Mopane forest, and spend the evening sharing meals and drinks with groups of people from all over the world who have come here for many of the same reasons that lured Doug.  This year’s trip to Caprivi (less the next 24 hours) was snake-free but the wasps were still everywhere—luckily, I only got stung once.  Dinners included a wonderful penne vodka pasta made by our friend Karam, a “fajita night” by yours truly and many long days where we had no breakfast or lunch because we were out  in the field with Doug and food is not easily accessible.  This is a magical place and I don’t know how anyone could come here and not fall for this country, it’s land and the people who live here. I am one lucky gal to get to have the opportunity to be here.

Karam and Janet’s Big Adventure..

On Wednesday morning Doug sent Karam and I off on our own on an inter-country adventure.  In the span of 48 hours we went in and out of three countries, took a taxi, ferry, bus, boat and game drive truck.  We paid for food, accommodation and adventure in four different currency (including US dollar) and were able to shower once.

Doug dropped us off in Shesheke which is the town across from Katima and is Zambia.  We then took a bus to Livingston, Zambia where we visited Victoria Falls—one of true natural wonders of the world.  This is a Unesco World Heritage Site and is truly one of the most powerful and breathtaking experiences I have ever experienced in my lifetime.   

Thanks for taking my photo Karam!

 No one is going over these falls in a barrel...

Not a double rainbow, but almost as awesome:)  This is the bridge between Zambia and Zimbabwe.  Folks bungee off it!  Folks I date that did not tell me until after they did it.

We stayed at a hostel called “Jolly Boys” and other than a very cold shower, it was a great place to stay for the night.  In the AM, we got up and had a great breakfast (found a place that served mochas which was a treat) and then had  a taxi (local driver) drive us to the river front town of Kazangula—there we stamped out of Zambia, took a ferry across the Zambezi (and almost Chobe  River) and stamped back in Botswana.  From there we took another local taxi and got ourselves to Thebe River Camp Site in Kasane, Botswana where we found Doug’s tent and a sign in dirt, “WE ARE AT THE POOL.”   From there, we re-joined Doug and Colin and were able to take an evening boat cruise (best place to see elephants—proof below) and then a very early morning game drive where we were able to complete Karam’s African adventure with great viewing of two female lions and two baby cubs. 

We left Karam to find his way to the airport in Kasane  and took a local bus to the border of Chobe National Park. We had a great time and we loved having him there.   From there we then went back across the Zambezi River and again stamped out and Botswana and back in to Namibia.  We actually hitched a ride with two local Namibians who had just bought a car in Botswana (much cheaper there) but needed to leave it at the border post in Namibia for processing of final paperwork.  So they drove us the first hour from Botswana to Namibian border and then we drove them from the border back into Katima.  We arrived back in Katima this afternoon and I for one, need a nap.

 Hippo spotting-hard to catch them above the water

Elephants coming down to Chobe River at sunset--we counted 30 that came down to drink in this one spot

 Chobe River--elephant crossing during the sunset

Doug and Karam (we'll be stealing all of his photos from his awesome camera!)

Intercape to the land of enchantment..

Last Friday night, Doug, Karam and I hopped on the lovely Intercape bus and took an overnight bus ride up to the Caprivi region—the World Headquarters of Elephant EnergyJ We departed at 5:30PM and arrived around 9AM the next morning—not exactly our idea of a good time, but we survived. 

We asked the bus driver to let us off in a town (not really a town, more like an intersection) called Congola and Doug’s intern Colin would pick us up.  The bus driver just couldn’t believe the Americans would want to get dropped off in the middle of no where so he proceeded to blow past the intersection and instead dropped us off about a mile past the intersection.  Trip on the Intercape: $35.00, Walking all of your bags down a desolate strip of desert in Africa in the heat of the morning, Priceless.

We splurged on a 4wd vehicle and spent the day driving around Babwata National Park—this was one of my favorite parts of our trip last year so I was glad we could repeat the experience for Karam—the place is filled with lots of and lots of elephants.  After our day in the park, we stayed out at a friend’s new campsite and then Dan took us on a pontoon boat ride in the early AM where we got to spot lots of lots of hippos.  As you may or may not know, hippos only eat grass but they kill more humans than any other animal in Africa. Ironic for a vegetarian, I suppose.  Forget the honeybadger—the hippo’s going to give it a run’s for its money for the title, “bad ass of  Africa.”  Anyway, Dan’s boat had been “hit” by hippos six times in the last six weeks so we took extra caution as we approached any and all hippo spots.  Luckily, for us, we were able to stay far enough away to enjoy the hippos, but not be scared for our lives. 

Some photos from our excursion..

Up close and personal with Ele's in Nambwa

Sunset at the campsite in Caprivi