Maltahohe and Sussusvlei

Let me start with a word that describes these places... AMAZING! Maltahohe was just a great experience. It is a small town with a lot of history. We stayed at the most amazing accomidations better than any five star hotel. The place is Pappot. It is part store, restaurant, and motel. The owners are german and AMAZING cooks! i have never had better food in all my life! You can stay in this town if you are passing through to go see the dunes in Sussusvlei. While in Maltahohe we interviewd some really old Nama folks who gave us their Oral history some of Witbooi and some personal. Hendrick Witbooi started the battle between Namibians and the Germans to try and gain independence. They spoke in their native tounge and it was so neat because its the clicking language. ! = a deep click from teh roof of the mouth, ll = click on the side of your mouth, l = click from the teeth, and the other symbol isnt available but it looks like # with only one vertical line. that = click from the top gum.... To say good morning you would say !gai se ll gu

We went on Sunday to the Dunes... We climbed Dune 45 and Big Daddy which is the Largest Dune in the wolrd... it wasnt easy and each time i thought we were close to the top we still had miles to go. An amazing experience never the less. As we stood on top of the Big Daddy dune you could hear the dunes all around singing... With the strong winds blowing the sand shifts the sides of the dunes and that creates a tone... just incredible. On the way back to Maltahohe we got a flat. With all the guys lifting the van we were able to get the tire off and we were on our way to a very delicious dinner at our motel. It was sad to leave. the people were so friendly and seemed like we were all family. I cannot believe our month is coming to close. It went by way to fast and I will be leaving a lot of good friends. I hope to return next year. What ever photos I dont get to load this time, I will be able to load my whole trip experience when I get to the states. The internet connection here is like dial up and is almost impossible to do anything Via internet... So there will be one more post after this, it will be the concluding post. Thank you all so much for following it.

Well pictures are still not wanting to load. SO when i get home I will load all the pictures for you. and you wil have an oipportunity to see all the wonderful things we did here in beautiful Namibia.

Good Times

well we did our safari which was so much fun. The rhinos came up close to us. The Deans Wife wanted to touch the Rhinos skin. We laughed she is so funny! She didn't do it. The warthogs were cute too. There were so many of them. On the way to the Safari we saw baboons crossing the road. they look so beat up. On Sunday we helped at a soup kitchen which was specifically for children and the guy in charge is a man who used to go to the BNC center organized by Mary Beth. If the videos load right you will see a little of both. The children were my favorite part of the whole weekend because so many of them dont get any attention from their parents, they get so excited when vistors come, they just hang all over you. I loved playing with them and giving them attention. I wish i had money to just support them all. That is why Mary Beth created the BNC center so she can give these beautiful little children a safe place to come and get attention and schooling. The internet has been down at the house we are staying in so this bulletin is a bit late. This coming weekend we are traveling away to a small village so my next post will be sometime next tuesday. Mike tried to teach the boys how to play football. A local Black Panther guy came to teach the kids some songs and give them excercise. The Girls at the BNC beat on drums and "model" for their play time. If you listen carefully you can here them talk in Damara which is a clicking language. There are at least four different versions of that language. I don't know how these kids keep it all in their memories.

well the internet connection has been very bad lately so the video and pictures cant upload. I have a lot of work to get done this week so pictures will come next time I update. Sorry guys.

Getting Started

Well this week was full of excitement. We got to meet the students we will be working with and what a neat group! On Wednesday we gave a Braai party for the Namibian students and teachers involved with the DNA program. We had a ton of meat and yummy desserts. The students really enjoyed the food and we all got together and played UNO, which they loved as well... I have to say some of those Namibians know how to cheat their way through a game haha.

We have lunch every day at the Hotel School which is a culinary arts school and on friday I ate Oryx! which is Americas equivalent to a Caribou mixed with a gazelle type animal...It was VERY good!

I was able to get started figuring out what format to put the images under. We are struggling with data space though Mike and Rodayne were able to give the archive program 8 terabytes that still isn't enough for what we have... I taught on Monday about some of the formats I thought would be a good option to save the Archives under and the rest of the week was research. I have seen some incredible photos and some have been in the archives for so long only 1% of the Namibian population has seen it. We scanned in some glass plates which dated back in the 40's and deteriorating very badly some were broken and already coming a part. I saw pictures of the old Bushman tribes and Nazi planes and so much history that no one has been able to take part in until now.

Its really exciting to see the life in the students when they scan in these photos. Some students recognize the tribes and some they have no clue on. So its a learning process for all of us how great a project.. a much needed one!

We Made It!!!!

The Poor mans bar












Kevin and Jameson Drinking the largest Fanta ever












Mike, Rodayne, Jared, Kevin













Me in the TUBE















Child playing in front of his hut




















The poor village. They build these huts out of tin, go to the reswtroom in a community toilet and build showers on the out side of their huts





















me at the market























The reason Half these Tomb stones are just numbers. The people buried here are unknown and the records are lost. We are here to capture what is left before it too is lost forever.

















THe city of Windhoek

Ant, Tiff, Me at the under ground market

Yummy Plane food

Andrea

Mike, Aaron, Jameson, Andrea, Kevin, Rodayne in line to go through customs in London

Andrea, Aaron, Empty Seat for our missing companions, Jared

More pictures will be posted...

When we arrived in London, one of Mikes bags were taken by mistake a look a like was left behind but Mike didnt have the lock for it.

Our hotel reservations were canceled due to some credit card issues with the school so Rodayne had to make reservations in the airport. It was going to cost us a lot of money to put our luggage in lockers so we opted to take them with us to the hotel. we had 17 pieces total and non of them weighed under 22 pounds. We took the Tube (Londons travel system) to the Hotel.... At first we couldnt remember what hotel because Rodaynes reservations and wallet got stolen. Luckily he remembered what stop we got off of and remembered it had the name Rochester in it.

After lugging around hundreds of pounds of luggage around the streets of London we found our hotel. It was a hot sticky day.

We dropped off our bags and went to the strees to tour. It was fun to see the Big Ben clock and look around. London is very interesting. People are not very friendly and the drivers seem to aim for you if your in the streets... the hotel was very nice and comfortable. The name of it was Grange Rochester.

The next day we went to the Tate museum and the Imperial War Museum which i have to say... EVERYONE must take the opportunity to see that. It is four floors of amazingness.

We barely made it to the airport .... we being Rodayne, Aaron, Andrea, Me and Jared.... we rushed to the plane and had to leave Mike, Jameson and Kevin behind for the next flight because as we tried to find the right tube to get on, those three jumped on the wrong one and we had hoped they would get off the right train and end up on ours but.. .they were twenty minuted behind us and the airport was not willing to hold the plane for them. Lucky for them the next flight out was only an hour later. We were able to meet up with them in Johannesburg where we flew to Windhoek, Namibia. The three did get their luggage in time to the Namibian airport so they had to wait while the five of us headed to the fooundation house...The drive was neat because I saw wild baboons and wart hogs on the side of the road... it was all desert and desolate then suddenly homes and city buildings.. not like I expected... We got to the foundation house and after Rodayne opened the doors an alarm went off and he didnt have the password so the guard didnt let us in until the main guard cam to stop the noise. After twenty minuted we were able to settle in... and after the other three arrived we went to dinner with a lady in charge of helping us with this program (sorry I dont rememebr her name). Today, Sunday the 5th, we went to the market to get some food and then that lady took us out to lunch for Mike's birthday. We then took a three hour tour of Namibia and it was really neat to see. People live in home made medal shacks and that is in the poor section... there are very nice big homes on the rich side.. there are ten percent white in Namibia. there are four different Dialects here....

I will learn some and post at a later time. Enjoy the pictures and OH the meals on the planes are better than any meal I have prepared hhahaha they are well balanced and have great portions...

video will come soon.

One thing i have noticed about Namibia, the woman here have very pretty faces. Their eyes are a very pretty shape.