Reflections of Namibia

Namibia was much more relaxed and easy going than Spain or Morocco, besides for the ATVing (INTENSE!!!). One in five people in Namibia have HIV. It is very noticeable too, you see so many young people; hardly anyone who looks over the age of fifty. But honestly, the people in Namibia have been the nicest yet. Everyone was so helpful and kind to us. In addition, it is amazing how embraced American pop culture is here. This country more than any other we have been to, was in-the-know about everything happening in American pop culture – probably because everyone is so young here. The lifestyle is so relaxed and laid back; a very nice change from the hectic streets of Barcelona and Marrakech. The whole atmosphere reminded me a lot of the Bahamas, except with a desert. It is funny how before this trip, I had no idea a country in Southern Africa called Namibia even existed. Now, the country itself has given me so many great memories which I will never forget. Shredding apart the sand dunes with ATVs was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. But, all in all, I will remember Namibia mostly for its people.

Namibia Day 3 (February 16, 2009)

After waking up a little later than we had planned, we set out for breakfast. We stopped at a beachside joint which served breakfast food (Namibia’s food has been the closest to America’s so far). The waitress we had was very nice as well. She loved Barak Obama and professional wrestling. She thought I looked a lot like John Cena. After breakfast, we set out for some shopping. Telling street side vendors we were “going to the ATM”, Matt, Mark, and I went to a legitimate sport and jersey store. I bought a very cool Namibian national soccer jersey as a souvenir for the country. One of the most memorable moments of the entire trip was conversing with this store’s owner and workers. We talked about soccer, Namibian specifically. Apparently, the owner had been part of the national team when he was younger, so we were grilling him on all of the best Namibian players. He told us that today; the best player in Namibia is Quinton Jacobs who plays professional in Norway. The rest of the day was filled with more bartering and traveling back to port.

Namibia Day 2 (February 15, 2009)

Day 2 in Namibia was jam packed with extreme sports! We woke up to the African heat, it was incredibly hot outside. I obviously had not adjusted well to the African heat either, because I had woke up with a v-neck tan line (more so sunburn), which I had gotten from our walk in Walvis Bay. We left the beach house in search of a place to eat. The search just lead us back to the restaurant we had eaten at the previous night, oh well. After lunch, we went and got some ice cream. The flavor I chose was great! Like nothing I had ever tasted before – Kiwi. Some of the main tourist attractions in Namibia are extreme sports in the sand dunes (ATVing, sand-boarding, etc.). So we found a place, called Outdoor Orange, to go ATVing. Our group was fairly big so only Mark, Matt, Jack, Dean and I went today. I couldn’t wait, but was a little nervous. We all were presented the contracts, and signed our lives away for the first time on the trip. Not to say anymore signings are going to come, but you never know. There was a two hour lay away before our venture actually started and four untouched computers with unlimited internet access…so…we did what any male students deprived of the internet for the past month would do -- Facebook and ESPN! Once it was time though, we hit the road for the desert. Upon arrival, we did a quick tutorial and got fitted for helmets. Then, with no other prior experience to riding ATVs, I hit the dunes (along with the rest of the group). It was very intense at first, but I soon got the hang of it. It took Matt awhile to get used to his though; his stalled out and he went about 150 yards in the other direction. It was hilarious. The best description for the entire experience is that it is like an on-going roller coaster which never stops. However, at any moment, the bike can feel like it is going to completely flip over; especially when riding up and down a huge sand dune. The largest dune we rode on was probably in the height range of 100 feet. Picture these beautifully and naturally-laid sand dunes, which don’t even look real. Then picture five guys in their early 20s on off-road machines with a max speed of around 50 mph. Put two and two together and it is a great picture. It is somewhat of a great and intense feeling, looking at all of the beautiful sand hills while riding on an ATV through the desert. Then when the time comes, ripping that dune apart with you ATV. It is kind of hard to explain. The whole trip was great besides for the last ten minutes. My ATV stalled out on me (I think because we had them all on max speed the entire time). I ended up doing the last ten minutes of the venture on the back of one of the guide’s bike – “got to be flexible”. It was a pretty funny sight though, and it gave me a chance to really enjoy the scenery. Once we got back to the beach, we immediately headed down to the beach to watch the sunset. Jack and I played the guitar as we were all down there – a very cool experience. That night we ended up hanging out with a lot more S.A.S. kids, it was great to see some more familiar faces.

Namibia Day 1 (February 14, 2009)

Ported in Walvis Bay, once again very industrial. Our group rented out a beach house in Swakopmund, or “German Town” as it is referred to by the locals. However, my friends Dean, Jack, Heather and I decided to spend the day in Walvis Bay, instead of heading straight for the beach house like the rest of the crew. It was a smart decision though, because we knocked an FDP (field requirement for classes) out of the way. I’ll touch on that part later. We ported in the Bay at about nine in the morning. Dean, Jack, Heather and I basically did a self tour of the city. It was very peaceful, the traffic specifically, compared to Marrakech. Everything seemed way more laid back, which was a nice change from Spain and Morocco. As soon as we left the gate, the locals had stands ready for bartering. We waited until after lunch. The place we found was pretty neat, “The Raft”, or something like that. The entire restaurant was on stilts in the ocean, with miles of beautiful beach right next to it. We all went with seafood, which could have been a tad risky but it ended up being really good, and none of us got sick -- a plus. After lunch, we bartered. I bought a great mask for about half of the man’s asking price. All of the stands were selling a lot of beautiful African woodwork, jewelry, etc. I wanted to spend more time just browsing, but I new that we would be here for quite some time more. The four of us stuffed ourselves into about two open cab seats and road back to the port. Namibian cab drivers are much more chill and reasonable that the ones in Barcelona and Marrakech. Once we got back to the ship, I took about a three minute shower and made it in time for the MICE FDP. The MICE group is a music group that makes music through computer technology and our natural environment. My Ecoacoustics class requires me to attend a few of their concerts. This was the first time I had heard the group, so I did not really know what to expect. We drove out to the middle of the desert, and after walking over a few small sand hills, we found our teacher and the rest of the MICE group alongside $10,000 of recording and sound equipment. There was a little time before the actual concert so we climbed up one of the huge sand dunes surrounding the site. The climb was absolutely exhausting, a very hard workout. The view was absolutely incredible, well worth the climb. The concert was…how do you say...interesting? I heard a number of new sounds and saw a number of new ways to actually play and make music. It was interesting; I’ll leave it at that. After the concert we climbed more dunes. Being sandy, hot, tired, and blistered, all I wanted was a cold shower and a beverage. We caught a cab to Swakopmund fo roughly four dollars a person for about a 35 minute cab ride. When we arrived at the beach house, everyone was just waking up (don’t forget it was the middle of the day though). The house was way bigger than I had expected. That night we met a few locals (3 teenage girls) that directed us to a great place for dinner. The S.A.S. girls we were with conversed and talked about American celebrity gossip with these Namibian girls, and all of the guys pretty much stayed out of the conversation, as you can probably imagine. The rest of the night, we walked around Swakopmund and experienced a little bit of the night life.

Reflections of Morocco

Overall, Morocco was amazing. Spain, and the European culture in general was way more similar to ours back in the United States than Morocco. It is so astonishing to see and recognize that people today, are living as if it was a thousand years ago. Driving through the Atlas Mountains, we were able to see an entirely different lifestyle than anything remotely close to in the United States. I also noticed the power of American culture and certain American companies, such as Coca-Cola. Here we are driving through the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, and we are able to purchase a Coke in a somewhat run-down street side convenience store. It is said that around the world, a Coca-Cola is what embodies American culture the most; Coke in a sense embodies “The American Dream”. It is amazing how admired American culture is around the entire world. Morocco was a whole new and completely different experience than Spain. I can’t wait for our voyage to Namibia and South Africa!

Morocco Day 3 (February 5, 2009)

I hate to say it but the third day in Morocco was nowhere near as adventurous as the previous. Breakfast was great though: fresh fruit, Moroccan pancakes (similar to crepes), hard-boiled eggs, and great coffee – everything incredibly fresh. Our bus was scheduled to head back to Casablanca at 12:30, so we had about an hour and a half to walk around Marrakech for the last time. This time we got the address of the market, took a cab, and it ended up being much easier than yesterday. Walking around the market was pretty amazing. Like I stated in my previous entry, we saw produce stands, boot-leg movies and music for sale, a number of vendors selling clothes, snake charmers, and guys with chained up monkeys doing tricks. These men would physically hold the monkey’s arm out to you, and ask you to touch it. I ended up getting a great picture of this, but there is no way that I was touching one of those animals. We also noticed that one of the monkeys was wearing a diaper. It turns out that before being strapped up with a diaper, this monkey had a problem with throwing his…well…you know…at people. This diapered monkey was a pretty funny sight and story. We ended up stopping by a few stores to do some bartering and I ended up buying only a pair of fake sunglasses. The rest of the day was left for the bus ride back to Casablanca.

Morocco Day 2 (February 4, 2009)

In my last entry I had forgotten to mention that a few of us had had a great late night talk with our guide Sashim that night at the Nomad Camp. He basically told us his life story in addition to interesting points about Morocco and Islam in general. Here are some of my notes from that night:
- The Muslim culture is not focused on sacrificing oneself for salvation. Suicide bombers more often then not commit those acts in search of a better life for their family – their family receives payment after the act is committed.
- Unlike many other people we have met, Sashim is not “obsessed” with Barak Obama as president. He believes that it gives the United States a better image around the world (which I can agree with), but says that it is essentially just another man in the same seat, and stated that a number of Moroccans share this same view as well.
- The Moroccan government is currently working to give women more rights within the country (I have noticed so far that there are no waitresses, women drivers, etc.).
- A few of the largest problems in Morocco are the lack of schools and poverty.
- Morocco used to be heavily dependent on agriculture; but has since moved to immigration and merchants.
- They don’t really celebrate birthdays. Sashim even sometimes forgets when his birthday is.
The second day in Morocco was packed with a bunch of stories. We trekked back through the Atlas Mountains via bus to Marrakech. As soon as we arrived in Marrakech we set out to eat lunch. We ate at a nice place in the infamous Market Square (Marrakech’s main bartering area). As we walked to the restaurant we passed produce stands, guys selling bootleg movies and music, snake charmers, and leashed monkeys. We got to the restaurant, and like every other Moroccan meal…it was meat tagine. I really like it, but the dish is starting to get a little old. A few of us headed to check into the hotel after lunch. The hotel was a very nice and classy place (students always stay at nice places while on S.A.S. trips). As soon as I got to my room, I hit up the shower to wash off the bonfire stench…Thank God. As you can probably imagine, the bathroom facilities were not that impressive back at the Nomad camp. After the shower the real adventure started. Three other friends of mine and I attempted to head back to the market square where we had eaten lunch. We unfortunately ended up in a different market square though. We must have walked a mile from our hotel before anyone even approached us to ask us where we were going. In Morocco, there is a piece of wardrobe that is very popular among the men. Essentially, it is a full body cloak with a pointed hood, and they come in an array of colors. Anyways, a man, dressed in one of these cloaks, came up to us and asked us what we were looking for. He was a smaller man, about 5’6’’, spoke fairly decent English, big nose, no teeth, and was holding what looked like a plastic grocery bag filled with I have no idea what. So, us being the typical American tourists, decided to follow this man – he spoke decent English, so it made sense…right? He tells us that he knows where the market is. We walk with this sketch-ball for about twenty minutes, through dark corridors, covered walkways, unlit streets – no other American or even legitimate looking person in sight. We see blind men singing for money, women holding babies asking for offerings, and just plain beggars. We ask this guy where he is taking us, questioning him numerous times and he keeps saying “No confidence? Only 10 minutes away, I don’t want any money.” The “no money” thing is what really freaked us out because he is honestly the first person in Marrakech who we had talked with us, who didn’t ask us for money. We continue to a “Mosque” surrounded by what looks to be homeless people, handicapped men and women and a few children. He says “take pictures”, so we American tourists continue to follow whatever this guy tells us to do, and take out four cameras and start taking pictures. It starts to get dark, and we have already been walking with this guy for about 40 minutes, so we finally stop. A 12 year old kid sees us, doesn’t speak English, but we can tell by the look in his eyes, he was saying “what the hell are you guys doing here?” The man yells something in Arabic to the kid, and says to us “he is just a kid, don’t listen, the market is only 5 minutes away”. We finally come to our senses that we are not supposed to be there. We start speed walking back to where we had come from. The man follows us for awhile but we finally lose him. As we are walking back, a taller man with a moustache, wearing a Nike stocking hat asks us if we want to go to “the market” – we don’t even respond. Frustrated and a little freaked out about what could have possibly happened to us, we stop by McDonald’s on our way back to the hotel – amazingly tastes exactly like back in the states. However, the portions were much smaller than in America; there was no “double” anything, you were only given one packet of ketchup. Instead of the dollar menu, they had the 20 dh menu (roughly $3) which included a single sandwich, small fries and a small drink. It was a very comforting meal however. That night our S.A.S trip took us to what seemed like some sort of “Moroccan Disneyland”. Obviously set up for tourists, the place was full of entertainment and music. I got to sit on a camel too, so I guess all is not lost in the SAS trip -- no camel trek but at least we got something. Dinner was good too though; it took until the last night but we were finally served couscous, and not meat tagine. After dinner, we told Sashim about our story with the guy who we followed around for an hour. Sashim told us that these guys will search for tourists and take them to markets which aren’t out in the open. The owners of these stores will then pay these men commission on what they sell to us. So, we were probably fine, but it seemed pretty sketchy at the time. Overall, great day though.

Morocco Day 1 (February 3, 2009)

Ported in Casablanca this morning. It is a little more free-and-easy this time around because my Semester at Sea sponsored trip is taking care of everything for basically the whole time we are in Morocco. The only downfall to this though is that we were supposed to get here yesterday, which means some adjustments had to be made to our already set itinerary. Basically, our “Marrakech and Camel Trek in the Sahara” trip is now just Marrakech and the Sahara; which is somewhat of a downer because the camel trek was the main reason why I signed up for this trip. But as our executive dean told us the first day onboard: “you got to be flexible” – I’m trying to live by that slogan. But anyways, we got into Casablanca then headed straight for the Sahara, passing through Marrakech on the way to pick up our guides. On our way through the Atlas Mountains to the Sahara, they informed us that Morocco’s number one export is olive oil -- we saw a number of these olive trees throughout the road trip. Along the way, we stopped at a small grocery store in the mountains. Some of the students experienced their first Moroccan bartering session…I just got a coke – which tasted exactly the same as it does back in the states. After the stop we continued on our way. It is mind-blowing how many of these natives live. I first noticed this when driving on the outskirts of Casablanca. We saw numerous beautiful houses and estates followed by shacks, constructed of sheet metal roofs and mud sidings. Once we arrived into the mountains, it was as if we had entered a third-world country. We saw shepherds, numerous small agricultural fields, and women hiking up very steep cliffs, carrying huge loads of hay and other materials on their backs…absurd. It is crazy to think that these people have been living like this for thousands of years! It is also amazing how spread out and individualized each village is. We passed numerous small villages throughout our road trek, yet there was a noticeable stretch of untouched land in between any two of them. Around 5 o’clock, we had finally made it to the restaurant where we would be eating lunch. I had my first taste of Meat Tagine – a Moroccan specialty. It is essentially a meat stew, usually made with lamb, potatoes, and a few vegetables. It was really good! Even after this first dish, I could tell that I was going to enjoy Moroccan food way more than the food in Spain. Moroccan food simply has more flavor. The dessert was simple, but tasted amazing – orange slices topped with cinnamon sugar. Which brings up another point, Moroccan produce (specifically fruits) – best I’ve ever had. After lunch, we all did a little more bartering at some nearby shops. I bought a hat, which was presented to me, at first, by the store owner forcing it over my massive amount of hair to get it on my head. He told me word for word “see, it fits, it fits. And if you wet hair, it fit better”, after that effort, I had to buy the hat – only four American dollars too. We then continued on our journey to the camp site in the Sahara. I was a little skeptical at first but soon felt very safe. We ate dinner once we got there – meat tagine followed by fresh fruit for dessert! After dinner, there were a few bonfires, dance parties, local music (provided by people from a nearby village), and men making different artwork from palm tree leaves. The entire night was very fun.