Rundrejse med NID

As I promissed my sister the next story will be in Danish, to make my mom happy.

Syvende uge i Namibia, og tredje uge paa min rundrejse rundt i alle afkroge og ikke afkroge landet for NID. Er nästen löbet tör for rent töj, og min krop er konstant däkket af et let lag sved, fugt, stöv og Gud ved hvad ellers. Lugter dog ikke slemt nok til at skrämme myggene väk som nyder mit udenlandske bölod i fulde drag.

Har efterhänden tilbaglagt 5000 km af asfaldt, grusvej og landsbyer siden vi forlod Windhoek den 12 november. I takt med de tilbagelagte kilometer har landet omrking sig forandret sig. Fra det golde törre syd, hvor 'bjergene' bestär af sand, hvor ens näsen lide af permanent näseblod og hvor regn er en själden gäst, op til det grönne frodige nord, hvor der er vand og ikke blot sand i flodlejerne og hvor mangoerne frister i träerne. Fra nordvest hvor utallige trädäkket bjerge knejser stolt op over alt til nordöst hvor det flade landskab er reageret af vand, örne og elefanter.

De to forgäende uger har jeg kört rundt med Naomi fra mit arbejde, en dygtig, religiös og meget bestemt kvinde. Har opdaget at hun er lidt af en berömthed i kraft af hendes arbejde for NID men ogsä hendes ägteskab med vicebiskoppen af Windhoek. Denne uge körer jeg rundt med Mandela. Hans köreregenskaber efterlader meget at önske. Pä grusveje körer han som en gammel bedstefar, med en konstant opgassning for at slippe speederen igen, og pä hovdevejene körer han med 180 km og det er til trods for at der er huller i vejen og at den er ensporet. Min mave er ofte pä nippet til at overgive sig. Indtilvidere efter hvad jeg har kunnet tälle stär hans köreihjel score pä fem döde fugle.
Han er en sammensat person, han bestär af en del afrikansk perfektionist og en del traditionel afrikansk. Han er blevet eftertjekket fem gang, herunder faxmaskiner og mödelokalet. Den afrikanske side er hans ideer om kvinder, hans tredje spörgsmäl til mig var, 'hvor mange börn vil du have?' og 'er du gift'? Under den förste workshop formäede han at kalde to af de deltagende kvinder for tykke..............hmmm en modig mand.

Det er vidunderligt at väre pä farten og möde nye folk hver dag. Folk er utrolig äben og hjälpsomme. Mit här har väret genstand for stor opmärksomhed, mange kvinder vil föle pä det og er blevet tilbudt 300 nam dollars for det. Med til historien hörer det at ca. 95 % af kvinderne hernede har paryk eller kunstigt här i forlängelse af deres eget, som sä bliver flettet, da det ellers er umuligt at have med at göre.

Dagene hernede bliver varmere dag for dag, og mit krop vil uden tvivl blive sat pä pröve i december, min mission er derfor at finde en svömmingpool, hvor jeg kan tilbringe hele december omgivet af gudesmukke velformet Namibiske mänd, som vifter palmeblade for at afköle mig..................jeg vil bare blive ved med at drömme.

I morgen skifter jeg bil, selskab, land og drager öst over mod Botswana og kommer först tilbage til Windhoek den 6 december. Sä flere historie skulle väre pä vej

Quotes from the last week

"Hello my name is Gaddafi, may I call you sexy earrings?"

"LOVE THE SKIRT, but I would wear it with high heels myself"(plz note this was said by a guy)

"You will look beautiful as pregnant"

"What is it with you Europeans and your sparkling water?"

"A table? Sorry, what is a table?"

"I like you, can I have you?"

"Don't marry him, he only has 20 goats, and you don't want to look after goats for the rest of your life"

'Great White Place of Dry Water’- Etosha

Last weekend four other girls and I decided to escape the 'busy' town and go up north to Etosha National Park. We had for that purpose rented a four-by-four vehicle, to make sure we would drive in true Namibian style. After one ice-cream break, one confrontation with the police and 5 hours we arrived at the gate to Etosha. As we were a bit late we used three brownies to persuade the gate keepers to let us in.
Thirsty we sat up the camp and celebrated our escape from Windhoek with 25 degree warm beers and food made over fire..........yum yum. Five beers and a bottle of wine later we decided to go to the local waterhole as we had been told it would be a good spot to spot animals. If these persons who told us, were referring to mosquitoes and white elderly people in sandals with white socks, khaki shorts and safari hats they were right, as the place was over floating with them. As we weren't able to take the whole thing serious and simply weren't able to keep quiet we went back to our campsite.

At the break of dawn when all the animals were waking up from there sleep we were still asleep. Despite our good intention to get up at five, we gladly passed five on the alarm and kept sleeping to seven. As I was waking up I could feel a burning sensation just below my eyebrow and could to my surprise not open my eye......the mosquitoes had succeed in finding the only place on my body was soaked in anti-mosquito spray........evil creatures!! With one working eye and just one cup of bad coffee we set off to track down the big five and almost ran over a giraffe that was playing hide and seek behind a tree!!

I want to jump a bit in time and go forward to the evening, as the remaining of the Saturday passed by our car window in the shape of kissing zebras, hungry lions, a tiny turtle who will never become a member of the ninja turtles, massive elephants that for a moment had us fooled into believe they weren't real but simply gigantic stone statues and about one million deers of different sizes, shapes and colours.

Back in the camp Saturday evening, after escaping a car full of screaming SVAPO members we once again decided to try our luck at the local waterhole. In high spirits we arrived at the hole, which clearly by the hissing sounds of the others wasn't appreciated. Well anyways we were determined to stay a bit longer and after 15 minuets Fortuna smiled at us as an owl joined in with the 1 million mosquitoes at the water hole...........how lucky can you be?! Glorious. (to be continued)

Why would any ever go to

the middle east?! It is dangerous you know with all those terrorists and bombs.
These words were said by a person born and raised in Namibia. No doubt that danger is relative and like so many other things here in life measured in the eyes of the beholder. But since Namibia itself is not the safest place in the world, I must admit that I was a bit surprised to hear the above statement from a Namibian person. One would think that a person who has grown up here would have a more relaxed attitude to danger than a Dane apparently not.

Katutura - Windhoek - stories in pictures

Saturday we went to visit Windhoek's township - Katutura.
I wasn't sure what to expect.

Swakop - White man's country

After five hours on the dusty road and one puncture we arrived late friday night in Swakopmund (little Germany). Friday evening was spent in the company of a Springbok, several beer and Jägermeister in a pub in Swakopmund. Despite the fact that I had been told that Swakopmund was just as, if not more German, than Germany itself, I was still surprised to find Scooter posters hanging on the wall, German 80hits coming out from the loudspeakers and all the guest to be white.......... Admittedly I am in a country that I really know nothing about, so I am not sure what to expect but still it would be naive to think my understanding about the world hasn't been shaped by among others the media, so I did not expect to see this. Lesson learnt from this expect everything, don't believe everything you see in the media and keep your mind open.

Saturday we were all 'rudely' awaken at 8:00 by our guide Shaun who apparently had a bit to much energy and thought we all were in need of an early start. Maybe is it just me, but I do find it a bit hard to get up at 8:00 in the morning when I've been out drinking and dancing the night before.
Anyways we all got out of bed and were all surprised to find that Africa is not that warm after all, my knitted sweater was deeply missed throughout the day.

The plan for Saturday was to race through the magnificent sand dunes on quad bikes, sounds great right?!
After a short and fast introduction to the bikes, which best can be compared to buying a chain saw and not reading the user manual before using it, we were given permission to start the quad bikes and were to follow the instructor in one long line. Forgetting that most of us never had tried this before the instructor took us at a very high speed through steep dunes and as you can see from the photo below this resulted in two accidents. One of the German girls I live with was literally thrown off her bike and the guy next to her ended up with the bike in his chin while doing some kind of fancy stunt which resulted in five stitches. Conclusion ALWAYS read the manual. Saturday evening was spent as the previous night in company with a springbok and beers. Btw the national dish seems to be meat with more meat.


Besides quad biking and building castles out of sand, the desert outside Swakopmund had more activities to offer, so Sunday we decided to go sand boarding and yes you guess right it is indeed like snow boarding just done on sand instead of snow. So we packed our gear which included of cause, beer, snow boards, big boots and helmets and we set off to climb the big sand dunes and slide down them. Can not express how surreal it felt to be standing on the top, looking out at the warm, dry sea of sand wearing shorts, a top, massive winter boots and be about to slide down a 84 meter long dune on a greased-op snowboard.
As I have never tried snow boarding I can't really compare the two but can only say it was great fun. Just to make the whole thing more exciting our instructors suggested that we all should try the jump and so we did. First time went well but the second time I landed right on my tail bone, but what the hell accidents happens when you are having fun.
I had overall a great and very different weekend and managed to avoid getting sunburned.

This is day five and the real ‘thing’ is just slowly getting started. Yesterday I started my internship at the NID but as today only was my second day I wouldn't say I have really started yet, so more to come another day.

Vi spiser ikke aber

Rapport fra Namibia. Turen var dræbende kedelig og fly maden meget britisk. Prøvede at undgå den klassiske English breakfast og valgte derfor en omelet men ak og ve den var dækket/ sejlede rundt i baked beans!!Men efter mere end 30 timer på farten, fire lufthavne of to mellemlandinger er jeg nu ankommet til Windhoek, Namibias hovedstad.

På vej fra lufthavnen og ind til byen passerede vi en stor gruppe fritgående bavianer og naturligvis måtter jeg spørger min chauffør Shaun om de spiser aber hernede og måtte skuffet konstatere at dette ikke var tilfældet, men at jeg kunne få hund at spise hvis jeg havde mod på det.

Vejret er vidunderligt, 32 grader og en smule skyer på himlen, end del bedre end grå og våde Thorsø.

Jeg bor på et hostel i Windhoek sammen med 15 tyskere. Jeg har i de næste fem måneder intet form for privatliv, da jeg deler værelse med tre af disse...........good true hippie style!! Er overbevist om at minus privatliv kombineret med manglen på tysk gloser nok skal blive lidt af en udfordring. Gør mig en lille forhåbning om at mit så godt som ikke eksisterende tysk, vil være lidt mere livligt efter opholdet her. Eftersom jeg ankom sent i går har jeg ikke set så meget af Windhoek endnu, men har gjort et par få observationer. En af disse er gadenavnene, som er lidt særlige. Windhoek har en Mozart strasse, såvel som en Beethoven Strasse, samt en Bismarck Strasse og ej at forglemme en Robert Mugabe Strasse

Her i weekenden drager vi til Swakopmund, som i følge de tyskere, jeg bor sammen med, er mere tysk end selve Bayern. Så der er lagt brænde i kakkelovnen til masser af tyske slager, pilsner og lederhosen i 35 graders varme..........

Nye mål og nye horisonter

Her tyve dage før take-off til Namibia går min-eventyrs-blog atter i luften for at markere, at et stort nyt eventyr er lige om hjørnet..
Sidste års forsøg på at nedskrive alle mine oplevelse gik som I nok kan se, ikke helt som jeg havde forestillet mig. Et sølle indlæg blev det til. Men kort fortalt havde jeg et storslået år i Brighton. Sidste år har studiemæssigt budt på store, hårde men spændende udfordringer. Socialt var det enestående. Jeg har truffet utrolig mange enestående mennesker det sidste år, som jeg har delt overvældende mange eventyr med. Brighton har efterladt mig med en overflod af smukke, og sjove minder, som har gjort mig sulten på mere.

Min første uge da jeg kom hjem fra Brighton var lidt af et antiklimaks.
Efter at havde arbejdet intenst med mit speciale over hele sommeren, røg jeg nu ind i en periode som var karakteriseret af post-dissertation stress. Den første uge i Danmark gik jeg rundt med et stort spørgsmålstegn i panden, da jeg ikke havde lagt nogen planer for tiden efter mit studie. Efter blot en uge, blev dette erstatte af et nyt mål.............Namibia!
Igennem en god ven, er det lykkedes mig at få en praktikplads hos Namibia Institute for Democracy med start hurtigst muligt. Så med et har jeg fået travlt igen. Travlt med at finde ud af fly derned, visum regler, hvilken vacciner jeg skal have, rabies eller ikke rabies, almen sundhedstjek hvor det stadig er uklart hvorvidt dette involverer et røntgenbillede af mine lunger. Alt dette skulle gerne snart falde på plads så jeg den 7. oktober kan stige på flyet og rejse Syd på.

Farvel til den kolde, våde og mørke danske vinter og goddag til nye eventyr under den brændende sol i Karen Blixen's Afrika