Under the blue Namibian Sky

Day One: Namibia is one of the few countries in the world, where us, lucky owners of red passports with Cyrillic font, are lucky enough to not require a visa. So here I am at the immigration desk, preparing myself for frowny stares and formal questions aimed at catching me out on some sort of immigration fraud (UK Border Agency has prepared me well!). Instead, the officer kindly suggested that he sent a text message to Faith to ask for the address in Ongwediva where I would be staying!!! While he was waiting for the response I was allowed into the country!! To collect my luggage. He then found me inside the arrival hall and returned my passport with a smile and a note with the address which Faith had provided to him, and wished me good luck with my stay! In which other country would this happen?
   

The girls working at the checkout started asking me what I was doing in Windhoek, and found it a bit difficult to get their heads around the fact that I was Russian, living in London who for some reason decided to come to Namibia. And yes, that I did not speak Afrikaans too! They were being really nice, took my phone number and said that when I am back in Windhoek, we must definitely go out! They also gave me a few survival tips for Windhoek, and to further make sure that I am safe one of them, Tatum, suggested that she shows me to town once she is done with work in half an hour. 

Well, it has been 5 hours in town and I already made some friends - not a bad start methinks =) Tatum and I later went to the main local site of attraction - the mall - where she introduced me to her friends where she used work before. We then went to a very Namibian (not!) steak house Spur! I am yet to find Namibian food in Namibia... One interesting thing about getting around in Namibia - taxi share! You literally flag down a taxi which may already carry three passengers, and join the party! The charge is per person, rather than per kilometer travelled. I am not sure I would be as comfortable to do this if I were not with Tatum.

 

On the road to Ongwediva, I was amazed that the road was really good! I know it may sound strange, but this was a road across the entire country leading to small villages, and nobody along the way. All signage was in place and there was not a single pot hole!! And the road was long....I had been warned that these buses are quite an experience, and I would be travelling with chickens!! Well, there were no chickens!!... May be if there were chickens, it would have been much more fun!! Reading a book on small bus shaking from side to side was not an option…

 

 

Faith picked me up from the station to take me to my new home (at least for the next week). This is it!

 

 

The lodge is very nice, clean and cozy. The swimming pool is deceptive, I would not risk going for a swim there, even though the pool boy happily informed me that they clean it every two days! The place is close to the office, and local amenities, such as Spar supermarket, open market and a couple of smaller restaurants. There is also a Fish Consumption centre, which is where I had my first meal in Ongwediva! Voila!

 

 

Day Two On a typical day, Anna and Emily (picture below)  go out to meet the clients - groups of women-entrepreneurs. I tagged along with Anna to go and see one of the groups.There were 9 women in the group (main blog picture), and their businesses range from fruit and vegetable resale to tailoring and clothes making. When Anna and I arrived, some of them were already sitting under a tree, which must be their equivalent of a meeting room ;) Each came with their own chair and a set of jokes - I did not understand any of them, but everyone laughed, so they must have been funny! The meeting went on for about an hour, during which the ladies passed on their repayments and savings money to the Treasurer, who would then deposit it in the bank. This is a process that takes places every 2 weeks - the loans are given out for 4 months and repayments should be made fortnightly.