Namibia is beautiful, but I haven't seen a great deal of it yet. Due to my husband's work commitments, we are fixed in one spot. Luckily, we live in Swakopmund, a tourist happy town on the west coast - fronting the Atlantic Ocean.
I am quite content here. There are beaches, sand dunes, parks, libraries, coffee shops, restaurants, supermarkets, old buildings and modern buildings. I have no private transport here and the only true source of public transport is the local taxi network. It seems that every man who owns a car obtains a taxi licence and becomes a taxi driver. Taxis charge on a per passenger basis and will cruise around attempting to fill their vehicles before they deliver passengers to their destinations. A very interesting way to meet people. This means that taxis drive through the town very slowly, beeping their horns regularly - just in case you are looking for a ride. I found this practice rather disconcerting until I understood the meaning of all that beeping. (A beep beep, followed by a leering smile by a bloke driving by slowly is not the flattering behaviour I had misinterpretted it to be)
If anyone wants to travel outside the town limits, the local taxis are not permitted to take them:
And there is also a (largley ignored by locals) "no hitching" rule:
If one wants to travel beyond the town limits, one has to go by local taxi to a special depot where the "distance drivers" appear to be prepared to beat the living daylights out of each other in competition for the fare. Subsequently, I haven't travelled out of town very often. I get the film's shuttle bus if I really need to get out of town.
So I spend my time in and around Swakopmund.
Well, I have discovered several orphanges and childrens' homes and I have contributed (and continue to contirbute) in various ways to hopefully make a difference. I have also become a regular volunteer at an after school enrichment program for economically compromised children. Mondesa Youth Opportunities is designed to supplement the over-crowded and under-funded schools and it promotes academics, athletics, the arts and life skills as a means to bring an end to the cycle of poverty that is prevalent in Swakopmund's townships.
These townships are shanty towns. I take a taxi (for $N10 = A$1.25) to get there but I have so far managed to stop myself from slipping into PseudoEchoesque requests of "Won't you take me to Shanty Town"
I love the resourcefulness of the people here. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Now, relying on the old addage that "a picture paints a thousand words", I'll let some pictures do the talking:
