Welcome to “Africa Lite”

While this is a few weeks overdue I thought it would be worth highlighting Kelley (my mom) and mine’s adventures (ß I don’t even know if this is grammatically correct and this feeling will be highlighted in a following post). Kelley arrived a few days before Christmas bearing gifts and food of a foreign land. Two of my lucky friends and I were able to indulge in homemade Christmas cookies, Bath & Body Works holiday scented candles, and instant Starbucks coffee (Christmas Blend and Peppermint Mocha). After 5 months of being away from home these gifts brought a few tears especially from those who don’t hear from home (or receive as awesome packages) as much but I think the greatest gift was just having a parent around for the holidays. My mom was able to meet around 7 of my new American friends here however many more attempted to schedule their plans to meet her. Not only is someone right off the plane from the motherland refreshing, an American mother is something to be craved (specially when she comes with US dollars and tells us to shut up when we express how expensive cheese is at $27 a block and she comes back saying its only like $2 in her currency). Needless to say she earned the name of Santa Clause by showering people with gifts and food at Christmas time during her less than 24 hour visits. My friends are still talking about how awesome she and her $2 cheese is.

            Our adventure started with a tour of my new home which I am happy to say got the mom-approved seal. She was able to meet the various families that take care of me and experienced why its actually hard to loose weight living here because there is so much delicious food all the time. I also showed her how I can never deny braii-ed goat meat even after I have had a full Christmas dinner. She met some of my new friends, most of which were animals including but not limited to a cat named Cornflakes, a puppy, and a Rottweiler named Zamur. I also pointed out my favorite donkey.

            From Home Sweet Schlip we ventured north to our ultimate destination Etosha National Park which is very appropriately called The Real “Animal Kingdom”. I am letting Kelley contribute a post on her trip to this blog so I am sure you will hear much from her but what I want to highlight is how easy Namibia is as a vacation destination. Through all of our travels through third world, post-apartheid, newly independent (20 years) Namibia we never had any problems. It is not any more or less dangerous than the rest of the world, you have to exercise caution like you would walking anywhere from the mall in suburban America to downtown Detroit. Just don’t be stupid and flashy. Getting around the country is also super easy and convenient. The roads are better maintained than I-75, the rest stops (while usually just a large shady tree and a picnic table) are extremely clean, and every road is labeled quiet well. Much of that might be in part because there aren’t many roads in this country so keeping them up doesn’t require much work but honestly a lot of it has to do with the fact that this country relies on tourism. For that reason, they’re not going to let anything jeopardize it. 

            While driving though a small town on the way to Etosha I pointed out to my mom just how safe many of these communities were. The town’s residents were all black so any white person stuck out like a sore thumb and if their skin color didn’t do that, then the giant safari trucks/fancy rental cars did it for them. While they are seemingly moving targets though, this community (and many others like it) relies on travelers to Etosha and other tourist destinations to stop and purchase gas from their petrol station, or groceries from their market, or souvenirs from their small road-side shops.  I’m not saying go out to a shabeen (local bar) at night alone with your iPhone, I’m saying don’t let the stereotype of what “Africa” is keep you from visiting a place like this. (Kelley can also attest that once you get over the price of flight across the pond, everything is relatively cheap). Another refreshing thought that I realized when on the lonely road to Namibia’s most popular tourist destination was the absolute absence of billboards advertising anything. You had no indication you were going in the right direction toward the worlds greatest animal kingdom except for the fact that you were on the only tarred road for hundreds of kilometers and had not turned directions since getting on the road initially. We really didn’t see any other cars on the road either. No billboards for how much further you had to go, no information regarding where to stay or eat once you got there, and most importantly no advertising for attractions hundreds of kilometers away. I absolutely hate when you are on a road trip and you see a sign for something really cool only to realize that its 2-4 hours away in another direction from the next city you will come to. Like really? Buzzkill.

            The only inclination we had that we were going in the right direction was the giraffes on the side of the road a few kilos away from our lodge.

Hello Mr. Giraffe - Are you the welcome committee?

This is arguably cooler and a much better advertisement than any billboard.

            I will post Kelley’s personal account of our adventures but I leave you with the overall message of this post. While staying at a guest house in Okahandja, the owner appropriately termed Namibia as “Africa Lite” meaning you got the authenticity of what Africa had to offer but no terrorism, corruption, violence, etc that you see in the news that scares you away from coming on that safari you have always dreamed of as a little kid. This is no doubt a shameless plug for a country I have grown to love but it is not without true valid facts.