Caprivi August 2006

10th August 2006

 

Dear all

 

I've been in Namibia for a month already and haven't been able to keep up the joint emails as well as last time…I hope you are all doing well, wherever you are.  I miss your lovely company.

 

Things here are going well – it's good to be back, and nice to no longer have to worry about camping in daily thunderstorms etc.  In exchange, however, it's freezing cold, and even when I'm not camping, all the houses are half-open-air, which means they're like, about 5 degrees inside in the evenings and mornings.  That said, daytime temperatures are wonderful.  Research stuff is going fine, though there is still a lot to do, and sometimes it feels like the more I know, the less I know, as I try to complete my enormous socio-political-historical jigsaw puzzle.

 

In between rural village life, my second home the Fish Farm is as usual – actually more of a farm these days, since they're actually producing stuff now, and I feast off home-grown vegetables, salad and eggs.  Domestic animals of all varieties still abound, including the dog which got shot in the head at point-blank range and survived. The proprietors have a family of barn owls living inside their roof which make incredible noises, somewhere between deep breathing and hissing.  I have one or two yoga companions here, which is always good.  And when I come home up to my eyeballs in interviews, I make my education more rounded by watching 6 Feet Under, Desperate Housewives, and Sex and the City.

 

Last week I made the long trek of 1300km to Windhoek, and had a good week catching up with a friend there, going to restaurants, having interviews and going to the archives.  The archives proved to be a lot more interesting than I would have guessed, but I was quite pressed for time.  My supervisor probably wouldn't have been impressed at the speed I went through all those files!  The colonial reports were hilarious:  the topics covered in one report range from Locusts to Witchcraft to Tribal Chiefs to Child Prostitution. 

 

I am now the proud owner of a solar oven, thanks to inspiration from my enviro-friend F.  There won't be much point in bringing it back to England, given the lack of sunshine, as well as its size (!), but my parents will no doubt make good use of it in Harare. 

 

Well, gotta run kids!

You better send me some text messages or emails – it gets a bit lonely sometimes ;)