Why Namibia?

Why Namibia?
Why not?

My husband, Bert, is involved in the production of a movie that was scheduled to be filmed in the dusty, dry, red-sandy desert of the Broken Hill region in Australia. However the dusty, dry, red-sandy desert region of the Broken Hill region of Australia is not particularly dusty, dry, or desert like at the moment due to unprecidented precipitation in the region. It won't stop raining. Great news for the people of the Broken Hill region, who are somewhat tired of a dusty, dry, red-sandy desert environment, but not good news for a film production which has a plot requiring a dusty, dry, red-sandy desert.

So, the director upped sticks and relocated the whole shebang to Namibia - where there has been no real rainfall for 20 years. It is dusty. It is dry. It has red-sandy desert. It is...in Africa.

Bert had been in Namibia for 2 months before we were able to join him. I spent some of that time googling Namibia in preparation for our arrival. This is my potted History of Namibia:
The Republic of Namibia is in southern Africa. It shares borders with South Africa, Botswana, Angola, Zambia and the Atlantic Ocean. The original inhabitants were Bushmen, Damara and Namaqua, and Bantu and others joined the population during the 14th century. Germany busted a move in the 1880's and decided it should be a German Imperial Protectorate. The end of WWI put paid to that. Then South Africa took over - imposing all of its rules (including apartheid). Not surprisingly, the natives became restless and fought to become an independent nation. The Republic of Namibia gained independence in 1990. They are proudly celebrating 22nd year of independence this year. Celebrating the "freedom to live independently in our country as we strive for just and fair market competition."
Namibia's 2.1 million people enjoy stable democracy, driving on the correct side of the road, and English as the official language (despite the fact that only 7% of the popluation speak English). Things they don't enjoy include having more than half the population living below the poverty line and having more than 15% of the population infected with HIV (some of which originated from vaccination programs). Malaria is present in parts of Namibia, with 50% higher chance of death due to Malaria if concurrently infected with HIV. Orpanages are subsequently a fact of life.

That's enough history for now, but I'll add more throughout my blogs.

So, Why namibia? Why not indeed.

Next blog will talk about my arrival here.