Thanks LSU's Coach Mainieri

One of the former Fulbrighters to Namibia, Steve Grey, had the idea to start a baseball team during his stint here. Steve’s kids also attended Windhoek International and so naturally that is where he chose to base the team. He went through considerable effort to get equipment shipped over here since Cricket and not Baseball is what is practiced in these here parts. He was in contact with a little league team back home in his native Michigan. They sent uniforms, balls, bats and gloves among other things. When his tour was up he needed someone to whom he could hand over the reins. Naturally this then fell to Reid and his Fulbright colleague, Larkin Powell.

“The team” is an extension of WIS’s after school activities program, so it consists of just about anybody and his brother from year 4 on up. There’s also a number of boys who participate from a nearby orphanage associated with the school, Orlindi. Kelly usually runs over there and fetches the boys, typically about 6 or 7 in number, who then pile up in the back of the Polytechnic’s Toyota Corolla. They pile back in after practice to return.

The practice field may see 20 to 25 kids at any given time. The numbers vary depending on what else is going on that day. There hasn’t been a day when someone new hasn’t shown up and asked to play. Play, for us, has been the main objective of this all so international of exercises. We’ve tried to give the kids some basic skills and a general background concerning the rules, but we’ve also just approached this with the idea that it should be fun. Given that we’ve got kids from Israel, the US, the Netherlands, Iceland, and Namibia (just to name a few places) and from all income levels—the sons and daughters of ambassadors to orphans—it’s been an amazing lesson in the power of sport to unite all participants in a common sense of purpose and in the spirit of having a little fun together no matter how diverse their backgrounds might be.

We, of course, immediately thought about a role for LSU’s Baseball Program, National Collegiate Champs, in all of this. Reid wrote to Coach Mainieri and requested any kind of leftovers from the camps LSU runs for aspiring young athletes. Coach Mainieri’s reply was prompt and he put his assistant, Will Davis, right on it. Will had a bunch of t-shirts and caps all emblazoned with the LSU logo sent over FedEX for our rag-tag group of budding baseball aficionados. We held somewhat of a lottery among the kids in order to distribute them since there were an unequal number of shirts vs. caps. My brother also sent over a couple dozen baseballs and it felt like Mardi Gras handing these out. I was completely mobbed by the little munchkins. Although the shirts tended to run to the extra-large sizes, the kids were tickled pink with their acquisitions. They were especially pleased after Reid explained to them just who the LSU Tigers were and what kind of a baseball legacy they have. Who knows, maybe one of these days one of these kids will end up in Louisiana batting for the Tigers. There are a few of them that can really whack the ball.

Unfortunately, we’ve yet to find someone to whom we can now hand the reins and time is running short on us. We’ve harassed everyone we know, but we’re not yet ready to give up on it!

Namibian National Elections

The Namibian Parliamentary and Presidential Elections are scheduled for Nov. 27 & 28th. The ruling Party, SWAPO (Southwest Africa People’s Organization) which worked and fought to gain Namibian independence back in the 80’s & 90’s is predicted to win without too much of a show from the opposition. Although there’s been a few incidents of some wild talk, most of which has been directed at the former colonizers, Britain and Germany, there hasn’t been any violence per se accompanying these speeches. In fact, we’ve heard so little in regard to campaign speech as compared to American elections, where the presidential candidates begin advertising two years in advance, that we’ve hardly noticed there’s an election on. This week however, Reid and I have begun to get a little antsy in regard to what might accompany the voting when we read the pictured advertisement hawking riot insurance! This is Africa after all and no one ever really can predict what’s going to happen come election time. All one has to do is look at Kenya or Zimbabwe for examples of things gone wrong. I guess that’s the fear this particular insurance company is trying to capitalize on. We'll keep everyone posted on the progress of the elections.

Halloween in Namibia

Although Namibia’s population has a large component of British heritage, Halloween is not a widely celebrated custom here. There weren’t a whole lot of costumes available for purchase in the stores and most businesses are already focused on Christmas and their displays and product lines reflect this accordingly. The kids’ school, WIS, did allow the students to dress in costume on the Friday before and did hold an afterschool activity in the spirit of the tradition.

One of the mothers, incidentally of Brazilian origin but who has spent time in the States, organized a ‘Trick or Treat’ event in her “neighborhood” on the Friday evening and invited the kids from school as well as the neighborhood to participate. It must be noted that neighborhoods here don’t exist in the same way as they do in the States. In much of the city of Windhoek, houses are surrounded by high walls topped with electric or concertina wire. Every house is equipped with an electric gate. This makes it a bit difficult for people to get to know each other and house to house Trick or Treating virtually impossible. Eloisa’s neighborhood on the other hand is attached to the Country Club and is gated, so there are fewer walls and bars and the kids were able to walk down the street and knock on neighbors’ doors. Fewer bars do not equate to no bars and a couple of residents did hand out sweets between those that surround their porches it must be said (see photo above).

Despite the fact that Eloisa had sent out a notice, many of the residents weren’t exactly sure what to do when the gang of disguised munchkins appeared at their doorstep. One fellow was apparently caught unawares and so he invited the entire group into his house, opened his fridge and allowed them to take a soda of their choosing. By the time the last kid reached the fridge, he was down to one can of Tab (some of us are old enough to remember the first diet soda that’s still marketed here). I’m sure his wife wasn’t real happy with him when she got back from work! At another house, when the lady ran out of treats, she began distributing packages of yogurt.

All in all, a fun time was had by kids and adults alike. The kids especially enjoyed stuffing their mouths with treats and running from house to house with complete abandon. It was a bit strange though engaging in Halloween fun in the middle of Summer. I came home sporting a sun burn and guzzled down at least a liter of water to try and quench my thirst after running to keep up with Annie who was literally crazed from the unaccustomed sugar rush.

The following day, the Embassy community also engaged in its own version of Halloween. No one distributed soda, but we did have to jump in our cars and drive around town to the various embassy houses that were distributing treats. It did put an interesting twist on the custom as a convoy of American vehicles snaked its way from house to house and the masked kids jumped out to collect their treats.

I’m not sure that the custom of Halloween has a future in this country—it demands too much trust among residents and requires people to open their gates and let strangers in, strangers in search of free treats nonetheless! Perhaps if they did do so every now and again, they could finally rid themselves of the architecture of apartheid that continues to characterize this place. What a concept!

Camping at Hochland Nest

Went camping this weekend with another American family from the embassy community. They also have three kids roughly the same age as our own. So, six kids out in the African bush....wow! We camped at a place called Hochland Nest. It’s got a lodge, but its camp site is located a bit of a ways away from the lodge on a lake called Friedenhau Dam. The lakes and rivers typically dry up outside of the rainy season, so the water authority, NamWater, will dam up the rivers and create lakes so that there’s some standing water in the dry season. Some of the lakes serve as a water supply to different communities and/or also have a recreational function. This particular place apparently attracts fishermen from neighboring Windhoek. They host bass tournaments and so the camp sites are well frequented by the locals.

We weren’t sure what we were getting into. The website info on these places tends to be sparse and talking to people on the phone is an experience in and of itself—they’ve got an accent, we’ve got an accent, there’s an echo, yada, yada, yada—so communication is often sketchy at best. We did know beforehand that there wouldn’t be water at the pitching site itself. We knew there were ablution facilities (toilet & shower, such a medieval term), so our family had assumed that there would be drinking water available somewhere on the premises. Wrong! The water used in the showers was pumped up directly from the lake. Not sure whether or not it was then treated in some manner, but from the looks of it when we filled up our supply bottles, not likely. Never, never, make assumptions in Africa. Things turned out all right nevertheless and no one went thirsty since I had frozen a couple dozen juice boxes to use in the cooler in lieu of ice and the kids drank so much of that, that they were actually begging for water by the trip’s end.

The kids fished (didn’t actually land any though), played badminton, swam (until they discovered the leeches) and generally cavorted to their hearts’ content. The adults worked like dogs on the other hand getting tents and meals prepared. We took the first night’s shift on dinner and braaiied lamb chops, steak and sausage over a barrel that didn’t have a grill. Luckily we had brought our little grill, but had the devil of a time getting it so that it actually supported the meat over the fire in the barrel and didn’t collapse right into it. My friend Stephanie experimented the second night and made a ‘potjie’ which in Afrikaans means pioneer’s stew. We used hartebeest and other game meat just like they would have in the olden days. It turned out pretty good even though Steph had forgotten the red wine. We substituted Savanah Light Hard Apple Cider, so it gave the stew a rather unique flavor that we all enjoyed.

We didn’t see a whole lot of wildlife on this trip with the exception of baboons. We noticed their scat all around the campsite and I could have sworn that I heard them digging through the garbage one night. We saw a fine specimen on our way out of the campsite as he was foraging for breakfast. Baboons can be very aggressive, so being prepared for an encounter with one is the best advice. Just an added note, it was Emma's weekend to bring home the class pet, Jerry (a dwarf hamster). So, Jerry came along on the camping trip with us and spent the night in the tent. It's probably the biggest adventure he's ever been on! He did make it back to school in one piece. Thank goodness!

This will probably be our last camping outing here in Namibia and we sure enjoyed being out in the wilds of the African bush.

Photos: Kids from the two families in the splash pool at Hochland Nest Lodge. Jerry, the class pet, on his wild African Adventure.

Louisiana Makes The Namibian

The Namibian, Namibia’s foremost English language daily is one of many published here, however, it’s one of the most provocative and thought provoking in our opinion. In the run up to the presidential election in November, it and its editor, Gwen Lister, have been the subject of much controversy. It seems to invite the ire especially of the ruling party, SWAPO because the paper has a tell-it-like-it-is stance that seems to bother the powers that be. This is particularly sad given the fact that the editor worked tirelessly in the run up to independence in the 70’s and 80’s to help point out the injustices of the apartheid system. It is in large part due to her efforts that the ruling party is now the ruling party. It seems that lately though, many in the party leadership have conveniently forgotten this fact.
On the other hand, there are often some really strange things that make the publication cut. The following story entitled “Naked burglar breaks into home, cooks and showers” appeared in the Friday, Oct. 9, 2009 issue of the paper. Interestingly enough, the naked burglar performed his mischief in a house in SLIDELL, LOUISIANA. It’s thought that the naked man was possibly drunk or on drugs. Police Chief Freddy Drennan is appealing to the public to help identify the man and photos captured on surveillance video of his escapades have been published in the Times-Picayune according to the article. Once again, Louisiana makes the news for the wrong reasons and this time it’s not just the national news; it’s the INTERNATIONAL news!

More Photos of WABI & Waterberg Plateau

Photos: Baboon imitating art? Le Penseur en nature? This guy is sitting atop a skyscraper of a termite mound.

The family hiking in Waterburg Resort

Kids hiking with our guide Morné at WABI (who is living the dream of being a tour guide in the bush)

Female nyala just below the porch railing of our chalet.

Waterberg Plateau Visit

Just returned from visiting the Waterburg Plateau. The Plateau is located 150 km or so north of Windhoek. It is a most strange geologic formation that resembles many of the mesas of the Arizona/New Mexico region. It began to form over 300 million years ago and is an interesting mixture of sedimentary rock that has also seen volcanic activity. The sheer rocky face of the Plateau contains every shade of orange and brown and is dotted with psychedelic lichens of neon yellow, green or even blue. We hiked all the way to the top on one of the days of our visit. Annie did the best job, especially since we were moving almost vertically towards the top of this thing. I think her lower center of gravity helped her maintain her balance better than the older members of our family. The view was spectacular from the top.
We were pretty pooped when we descended the trail, but we still had a little left in us to visit the German cemetery on the grounds. Waterburg is the site where the Germans and the Herrero people clashed during the height of German colonization of the area. The Herrero, needless to say, lost. And the infamous ‘annihilation order’ was subsequently issued. It was rescinded sometime later by the Kaiser himself, but not before the death of many an indigenous man, woman or child. Most of the Germans buried there, however, did not die as a result of battle. They died mostly from disease or from the lack of appropriate medical attention after the battle.
In more modern times, the place has recently been turned into a resort complete with “chalets”, a restaurant and a humungous pool (which of course Annie fell into with all of her clothes on). There’s also camping for the more modest budget. Game drives are offered as well and guided hikes. Since we were staying up the road a bit which offered its own game drives, we just availed ourselves of the well marked hiking paths. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to spot the black rhino that inhabits the top of the plateau.
The lodge we stayed in was called WABI and it is a most interesting place indeed. Its décor is a bit of a throwback to the early eighties. It's also filled with hunting trophies from its earlier days when it was a hunting lodge. Its owner, Christine, is the ultimate hostess. She is the type of person that seems to anticipate one’s needs before one can even verbalize them. Our kids ate up her three course dinners with gusto, which is saying quite a lot. Because WABI is located so far in the bush, much of what is needed for the lodge is produced on site. There are ducks and chickens whose eggs are eaten at breakfast. So the experience was also much like being on the farm. The meat course is usually of some sort of game variety so we were offered kudu steaks, kudu stroganoff and springbok in a nutmeg sauce. Yum!
There were other animals just for the viewing—giraffes, sable, oryx, white rhinos, hippos, wildebeest, kudu, lechwe and black-faced impala—just to name a few. The lechwe are bred there for live sale to other lodges. It is normally an animal that inhabits Northern Namibia in the Okavango Region. Additionally, there was a flock of magnificent peafowl; the alpha peacock of the bunch being the most beautiful and well kept we’ve ever seen. They tended to roost on our doorstep, the roof, the exterior window sills or just about anywhere they darn well please. A small herd of nyala roamed free among the ‘chalets’ and the kids were able to get some really up-close and personal shots of them. Lastly, a pair of injured and / or elderly cheetahs were kept in a huge enclosure where they could be fed and kept safe from predators. On our last morning there, Christine took a group of tourists into the enclosure and one of the cheetahs began to express his discontent over the situation and it looked like it might be curtains for the tourists, but one of the bigger women in the group averted disaster by shooing him away like one would a troublesome dog. Emma said her knees were shaking after witnessing that little scene. What an interesting departing gift!