We arrived in Namibia a little later than we expected. We finally pulled into port and the diplomats got on board to stamp our passports and clear the ship so we could all depart the ship. We had our first diplomatic briefing for the voyage. 2 diplomats from the US Embassy in Windhoek (Namibia’s capital) got on the ship and talked to us about safety/logistics. The 2nd diplomat told us to be safe and told us a story about how he got attacked by someone while staying in a hotel. The point was: attacks could happen to anyone, so be careful and travel in groups.
Next, we had a little surprise. A local school choir performed for us on the port (we were watching from the deck of the ship). They sang several songs and danced too. They must have been 4th or 5th grade students, and the performance was very good. We all cheered after every song from the deck. Then, we heard that the ship was cleared, so I went back to my room to get my stuff, and Achal and I left to walk around the city of Walvis Bay (pronounced Walvish Bay).
The next bit I urge everyone to read (for all you people who are skimming, read this part, you will like it). We walked around the city and it was very clean and everyone seemed very nice. We went to a bank and ran into several other SAS students, all of whom were converting dollars to Namibian dollars, or South African Rand (both currencies are accepted in Namibia). We waited in line for a LONG time, and finally exchanged our money. By this time it was 11:30, and we had to be back on the ship by 1330 so we decided to go to lunch. We crossed the street and saw a restaurant called Crazy Mama’s Pizzeria, which I had read about on wikitravel. But, it was CLOSED, which was very strange since it was a Saturday around lunch. So, we walked around, and saw a store called The Crazy Store, so we decided to check it out. Let me tell you, it was anything but crazy…everything inside was very much “normal”so we left and Achal saw a coffee shop that said Pizza on the building. We were starving, and I hadn’t eaten pizza since leaving home, so we went in. We ran into a bunch of SAS students and joined them. We all ordered pizzas, 6 total, and the waitress told us it would take a while (20 mins). It was noon when we ordered. We still had over an hour, so it was fine. We talked for a while, and no pizzas came. 12:30…I mean, these people had no reason to do this and they could have just boxed the pizzas and said good day. No, instead they boxed our food, and drove us back to the port in THEIR OWN CARS! The girls all got dropped off first, and then they dropped us guys off. The problem was, it was a 15-20 minute walk from the port entrance to the ship, and it was 1325, so we were screwed. We started running. After a bit of running, a big truck drove by and we joked about jumping on the back and hitching a ride, but that, of course didn’t happen ;) Then, a scene started playing in my head about is hitching a ride on some truck and riding it to the ship. Right when I came out of my reverie, a white pickup truck pulled up next to us, and the driver said, “Get in! I take you to ship!”We all just looked at each other, then at the driver, and said “Really? For how much?”And he said, “for 10.”We jumped into the back of the pick-up truck and were off. After about a minute of us cheering and screaming, we saw the girls up ahead, and told the driver to stop. The girls all saw us, and screamed and cheered and jumped into the pick-up truck with us. And then, akin to a scene from a movie, we pulled into the docking area with 9 students in the back of a pick-up truck! It was classic and epic and awesome! Luke aka the Voice, saw us, and I won’t forget the look on his face as his jaw dropped and then he just shook his head and chuckled. We got out of the truck, paid the driver, and ran onto the ship. We got to the union at 1332, just on time! And that is how we got back to the ship and just made it for our trip. Phew!
On that note, I just want to say that people in the US need to step it up a notch. The hospitality we got was very, very nice. We all talked about it later, and we all agreed that we would not have gotten the same treatment in the US…people treat you more as a stranger, and here in Namibia, they thought of us as their own, and helped us out when they were not obligated to. So yea, Americans need to step it up to keep up with the Namibians. If Namibians came to the US, they would not feel as welcome as we felt in Namibia. It is kind of sad, but it is something all of us in the group realized after we reflected on what happened.
Ok, so our desert camping and stargazing trip departed shortly after that. We were on “vehicles which were actually huge vans with 4 wheel drive…lol. Achal thought we would be on ATV’s…hehe. It took quite a while to get to the camp site, and it was HOT in the vans (the A/C didn’t work too well). Anyways, the camp site was really cool, and there was a line of 2-person tents. I was rooming with a guy named Cameron. It was about 1530, and we had nothing to do until dinner, so we roamed around the canyon area. There was a rock we climbed, a wash area, and that was about it. I sat down in the wash and closed my eyes and it was absolutely SILENT. It was pretty amazing. Then, we came back to the camp site and pretty much played cards until dinner. All in all, a good bonding experience. I made some new friends, and found out a girl I had met on the ship had a twin sister, which was interesting. Both girls, Victoria and Stephanie, were very nice and the only way I could tell them apart was that Victoria had short hair, oh and Stephanie’s boyfriend was also on the ship with her. So, we played cards and word games for a few hours. Next, a local band showed up and performed. They were wonderful…they were an a capella group that sang local songs and English songs (they sang The Lion Sleeps Tonight) and we all loved them. I took lots of video that is def going on Youtube at some point.
Then dinner was served. It was pretty good, nothing special for Achal and me…that is, until dessert was served. The dessert, how can I say this, was absolutely amazingly wonderfully good (and yes, Rel, you can eat it because Johnathan was freaking out if it had nuts in it since he has allergies and he forgot his EpiPen on the ship and he was fine :) ). I ate a LOT of dessert..mmmmm.
After dinner comes the sad part. It was completely cloudy, and NO STARGAZING was going to happen :( I was very, very bummed out. I was definitely having a lot of fun, but stargazing in Namibia was up there on my top 2 things for SAS. So, I was very upset naturally. We ended up talking and playing cards until about 1 AM, when I went to sleep.
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