"Eyes Like Yours"

Friday--"Arabian Nights" from Aladdin
We arose this morning very early and headed to the Cape Town airport. After a brief time, we loaded on a very small plane and headed to Swakupmond, Namibia.
So dad, remember that joke you like telling about sending people who live in deserts U-hauls? I'm telling you, that place in Namibia! For those of you who don't know, Namibia is a very arid country. Swakupmond is right smack in the middle of the Namib Desert. We were flying over the country and literally, there were no trees in sight for miles. We finally landed and a few of us freaked out because it was the first time we had been in a desert. We wizzed through the "international airport" (it was literally a building with about 20 employees) and got into vans with our guide from the Center for Global Education.
When driving, there was literally NOTHING in sight. Emily, in fact, said "The first person who sees a tree gets a hug from me." I said I saw a bush about my height. Melinda promptly replied, "That's not hard, Hill." We then went to eat lunch at a local restaurant that also doubles as an ATV place where you can ride sand dunes. The lunch was amazing. Pasta with alfrado and ham, tempaura, and another type of starch that I can't remember.
We got to the Bungalows and I'm rooming with Melinda, Laura, Sophie, and Mallory. We then went to the store and bought dinner. All in all, not the most exciting day. A good, quiet introduction to Namibia.

Saturday--"Danger Zone" from Top Gun
Sleeping in till 9 today was beautiful. At 10:00, we had our first econ class since Furman. We learned about what makes competitive markets fail and got into a heated debate about negative and positive externalities. Basically, 4 people chose to raise their personal quiz grade at the expense of everybody else in the group losing 4 points. Ask Sophie and Alicia about it, they're still upset.
We then went to a local township in Namibia, heard a local acapella group, and saw the DRC (Democratic Relocation Community, I believe, is what it stands for) which is a Kliptown or Orange Farm equivalent in Swakupmond. The houses in the DRC were built from scrap pieces of wood in the local dump a few kilometers away. We were pretty affected by it. In the township, a lot of the children would come up to us and stand by us/hold our hands. Josh in particular was pretty popular. We couldn't tell if it was because of his blond hair/fair skin or something else.

Next, we proceeded to go to Dune 7, this absolutely spectacular dune in the middle of the desert. I'm serious, it felt like I was in Aladdin. It was a beast to climb, but well worth it. Got tons of fablous picures doing thoughtfully-looking/mountain-conquering poses.

We then proceeded to go back, wash the sand off our bodies, and go to a braai with other participants in the CGE program. We met a lot ofpeople who are doing the same activities as us. They even had the same homestay families as we did! So it was really fun to compare and contrast some of the things we had done. They also gave us good suggestions for what to do around Namibia since they were going to be there for longer.

Sunday--"Eyes like Yours" by Shakira
Today was our free day, and let me tell you, it has been incredibly fun! Unfortunately, a bunch of people are starting to feel sick. We think it's from the h2o, which is a little briney. I seem to have the stomach of a billy goat, so "knock on wood" that I remain helathy!
The song for the day reflects a very Arabian feel, and there's a reason for that. From 9:30-1:30, a bunch of us went sand-boarding on a bunch of the dunes! It was so legit and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to do it ever! On one of them, I reached a speed of 69 km/hr! The fastest was 73 km/hr. I don't quite remember who got that speed. It was probably Charlee, Matt, or Cam. Josh kept doing 360's and not going straight at all, and then he wipped out a few times. All of you Wesleyians would have loved seeing it! We then got off the dunes, sand everywhere on our bodies and inside every parcel of clothing we had on, and had lunch by the vehicals.
When we got back, we decied to go the local market. There were a lot of woodworks, but everything was INCREDIBLY EXPENSIVE. Note to self: if you want to buy anything in Africa, buy it in Durban in the Indian market. Everything is cheaper there. But I did buy a few woodworks for some people. And comparatively speaking, they were a bargain for how much they would bein the US. We then went to the beach and some people played in the ocean. Tandy, Charlee, Josh, Em, Cam, Katie, and I burried Matt in the sand and it was hystarical.
At 6 tonight, we're goint to watch a DVD of our sand boarding experience and probably will finally work on our homework tonight. It's not going to be the most fun night, fur for what we've done today, it's cool.

Yay Namibia!

Love,
Hill