Cultural Experiences

Journal #15 February 15, 2009

What an awesome two days!!!! Yesterday, Saturday, I woke up as we were arriving in Namibia. I went to the diplomatic meeting where people from the American embassy come and talk to us. After the meeting we were told to go to the 7th deck and look out on the ground and you will see Namibian girls singing. I was one of the first people out there so I got front row seats. The girls were from the age of 5-11 and they were absolutely precious. They sang, danced, and played the drums for about an hour. During the middle of it I went down to the ground and listened to some of their songs a little closer. At one point I just started crying, I could not hold it in. They were sooo little and so joyful and yet most of these girls are orphans because their parents died of AIDS. It was quite emotional.

After they finished singing the girls came onboard and ate breakfast and toured the boat. Me, Elise, and about 6 other SAS students stayed with the girls and talked to them. This has probably been the most cultural and best experience yet. One girl came up to Elise and asked if she had any nail polish. So Elise went to her room and got her nail polish and we painted all the girls nails. They were so grateful.

On the tour the girls had a blast. We took them to the workout room and they ran on the treadmill, typed on the computer, played the piano, and wrote on marker boards. I can not believe how many of these girls had never done any of these things. They were amazed by everything. Also, this was the first time many of the girls had seen the ocean. They were wondering if they jumped in would they drown.

So after the girls left I got ready and left for my star gazing trip. It took us about an hour and half to drive there and when we got there the scene was gorgeous. It was kind of like a valley with slate rocks on either side. There were about 35 tents for us and a big tent for where we would eat. After getting settled in we were able to walk around and me and my friends decided to climb up the slate rocks. It was extremely hard but when we made it to the top the view was awesome!!! I just could not get over the fact that I was in Namibia in the middle of the desert.

Then we sat around for a while, played games, cards, and ate dinner. A group of singers came and sang us some African folk songs and danced for us. They were really good. I bought their CD so I will share it with ya'll when I get home. We sat around the fire for about 6 hours and just talked and got to know each other better. Unfortunately, the clouds were in our way of seeing the stars, they say that there are only 5-7 days out of the year that there are clouds in the sky. Of course there were some in the sky our night, but it was nice cause we actually got to know each other and not look at stars. So I made some great friends.

Wendy I must say that when we first got to the camp fire and we were a little uncomfortable, I decided for everyone to do our high and low of the week. It was a lot of fun!!! Sleeping in the tent was ok, I woke up sweating really bad but other then that I slept well. For about 6 hours we were stranded in the desert until out 4x4 cars came.

The rest of the day was pretty much just relaxation until around 6 when a group of us went to dinner. We ate dinner at The Lighthouse which was amazing. The food was sooo good and really cheap. Some people for huge steaks for $8. For 11 of us out total bill was 1100 Namibian dollars. That is about 100 American dollars. What a good deal, including drinks and appetizers. Namibia is nothing I thought it would be like. It is very clean, and the people speak English and are very nice. I can not wait to do some SHOPPING!!!

Love
Michelle