Swakopmund - June 18th

June 18th, 2008

Short: Picked up at the hostel at 9:30 for Sandboarding, Sandboarded for a few hours, ran a few errands in town, toured the townships, watched the sandboarding video at Swakopmund lodge, dinner, bed

Long (Very long sorry – Was an interesting day!): Today is the first day we are running on a schedule. We were picked up at the hostel at 9:30 by Far Out, a tour company, and were driven 15 minutes outside of the city to the sand dunes. At the base of the dunes we met about ten other tourists, we given a safety brief, fitted for boots and boards, and then hiked to the top of the dune. After two days of hiking dunes, Niki and I are getting used to walking uphill in the sand. However this morning was to be the most trying. The dune is approximately 85 meters high and we hiked to the top eight times in order to board or sled down it. Niki had only boarded a few times before, and I had boarded once, but it was still a lot of fun. The best part about sand is that it is soft, and therefore you can afford to go a little faster and bite it because it’s not as painful as snow. The equipment is exactly the same as snowboarding and you basically just wax up your board, headed down the dune (falling a few times), and then hike back up and do it again. After boarding they then have you sled down the backside of the dune. This turned out to be a lot of fun, but also pretty painful. After being warned that there was a “small” jump at the end, Nikolai and I were the first two to go. It worked out really well for all the others there, as both of us kindly hit the jump at over 70 km/hr (They clock your speed) and smoothed it over. I hit the jump at 77 km/hr and snapped my neck so hard I am suffering a bit from whiplash. The entire morning was a lot of fun, the only other negative being that sand makes it way into places you didn’t even know you had. We headed back to the hostel caked in sand, only to realize that our towels were being laundered. We would have to do the rest of the afternoon with no shower.

The afternoon tour of the townships was outstanding, we learned a lot. As mentioned previously in the blog, the townships are where the majority of the black population lives. They range from less affluent neighborhoods to impoverished shanty towns. The tour was mentioned to us by a person we met in Sossusvlei, and with a large portion of the proceeds going to the township itself, we decided it might be interesting. We were not disappointed. Beattle, a large black, dreadlocked, teddy bear of a man met us at the hostel and was our guide for the afternoon. We were the only ones on the tour. Apprenticed as a plumber, he began guiding the tour about four years ago. The only rules of the tour are that if you take any pictures of kids, you have to print and send the pictures to Beattle, so that he can distribute them back to them. It was obvious that some of the kids understand this, as some immediately run up to your looking for a picture…we of course obliged.




The townships are only a five minute drive outside of the main area of Swakopmund, but the disparity in income is very pronounced. The area was created in the early 1960’s as South Africa instituted apartheid (Namibia only became independent from South Africa in the early 1990’s). The black population, which had been integrated for decades, were moved to the outskirts of Swakopmund and forced to live in the township. Blacks had to attain permits just to enter the main part of the city. We learned the city was divided up among tribes and to this day many people live in their respective tribal areas within the township. Beattle belongs to the Damara tribe and his language requires the loud use of klucking or clicking. It is amazing to listen to. While walking around we heard there was a soccer match on, and so we took a look. Coca Cola was actually sponsoring a soccer match for two of the local schools (picture below). While on the sandboarding tour in the morning we joked with one of the drivers that we would bring him a beer while on the tour (he told us he lived in the township) and coincidentally we saw and chatted with him at the soccer match (We didn’t have a beer for him though). After briefly watching the match we stopped by “Mother’s” house, the political head of the Damara tribe that Beattle belongs to. After being taught the proper way of greeting, through the use of a particular handshake as well as by saying hello in Damaran, we were introduced to Mother. Mother is 83 and has been elected to her position by the township. She represents their issues, but also acts as a mediator. While at her house Beattle translated all of our questions and we had a very candid conversation.

As mentioned previously, Mother acts as both a representative and an advisor to the community. She stated that the majority of the issues she deals with are in settling inheritance and domestic violence issues. At 83 years old she has seen the area change a lot and spoke to us about apartheid and how things had changed between the 1950’s to today. We asked how she felt about South Africa and her only comment was that, “South Africa was very naughty”. You could sense there is a great deal of resentment, but also the motivation to just move on. While Mother was out of the room, Beattle mentioned to us how the younger generations in Namibia are very frustrated with their situation. He pointed out that while apartheid ended in the early 90’s, there has been very little economic integration since then. He states that the whites make up around 10% of the population and control 90% of the wealth. This is very evident in the city. The customers and owners are mainly white, and all of the workers are black. He says that much of the older population stand behind the government leaders that ended apartheid, but now the country must move on. You could sense a bit of his frustration as he told the story of how a 500 million Nimibian dollar statehouse is being built in the capital, while that money could be used more productively elsewhere…corruption can be terrible. When asked about industries, he states that most of the companies are foreign and that employment is not very good. In fact, he says Chinese workers have recently been coming in to take some of the lowest paying jobs. The best paying jobs are apparently in mining, as Beattle put it, “If you see a black man in a nice car, he works for the mines”.

After meeting with Mother, we took two pictures and then drove to the outskirts of the township. A kilometer outside of the townships is a shanty town built along side the city dump. This area, with no electricity and only a few water pumps, is where people from other parts of Namibia or Africa come to live while seeking employment. Once they are employed and earning enough, they can then apply for a residence within the townships. Almost every shanty within the town is made from scrap pulled from the junkyard. However, even within this area we passed little markets. Beattle states there is no tension between the townships and this outlying shanty town. We also learned that the government runs a program that helps those living in the townships build their homes. If a resident is making more than 800 Namibia dollars a month (Approximately $100 USD), they can apply for a $20,000 Nimibian dollar loan that comes in installments (Once the government checks ensure the loan is going towards the house). This gives an idea of how much people are making, with an annual income of $1200 being the cut-off for this program.

During a brief stop at an herbalist we learned, among other things, that different types of dung are actually used to cure many ailments. After this we had a beer at a bar in the township called the “Back side of the moon”. It is a small, well stocked bar, with a pool table. After drinking a beer and playing with the jukebox we were led to a small hut and served a traditional meal consisting of tradition maize bread, spinach and cream, beans, and caterpillars. Nikolai was brave enough to eat a caterpillar, I was not! I was satisfied to find out he didn’t enjoy it. Immediately following dinner about 10 kids showed up to give a traditional dance routine (picture below). The entire tour is obviously catered to a tourist at times, but we found it to be very informative. There is so much more than could be written, but this is already getting too longwinded! In the end - All of the people were very friendly, and we are thinking to head back to the bar tomorrow night.

Beattle brought us straight back to the Swakopmund lodge and we joined the sandboarder to watch the video and pictures that were taken in the morning. I must say you can clearly see on the video why my neck is currently hurting. With sand still lodged in our ears, we had a quick meal at an Italian restaurant next door to the lodge and then immediately headed back to the hostel for showers. We have decided we are going to stay an extra day in order to sleep, run errands, and Niki is most likely going to go sky diving!