Our first trimester had just ended for 2014. I only
had about four months left of service (leaving in September) and by then I had
been able to travel to almost all of Namibia. On the coast I got to see
Ludderitz, Walvis Bay, and Swakopmund. I was able to see the amazing sand dunes
in Sossusvlei, the three central towns/city of Windhoek, Rehoboth, and
Okahandja. I went out east near Botswana to see Gobabis and way northwest to
see the Himbas in Opuwo. I’ve been through the central north in Ovamboland,
covered the Kavango (my region), and to the far east into the Caprivi Strip. So
for our last large holiday before the end of service I wanted to travel outside
of Namibia and visit other countries in Africa. My nearest neighbors, Tim and
Lindsey have been my most consistent travel buddies so we began to plan a trip
to Malawi via Zambia. Meeting us there was also Kelsey and Sara, two incredibly
hilarious girls who were going to meet us at our final destination, the idyllic
Nhkata Bay in central Malawi.
 |
| Kelsey and Sara by the river in Shamangorwa |
My journey first started when Kelsey and Sara came
up from central Namibia to visit my village. It was amazing to have guests, it
gets real lonely in the village and I’ve spent many a Friday night staring at
the wall and being in bed by 9:30. Having them over was awesome. They came over
and I cooked a bunch of food for them (I bought too many things from the
grocery store and I gave us a mission of finishing all the food in the house,
we put in a valiant effort but we were unsuccessful, at least the village dog
got to have a hearty meal when we left). Our plan was to hitch hike to Divundu
(a small town 60 km from my village where volunteers where rendezvousing before
we struck out into central Africa). Problem was that the main road was 7 km
away. We ate a huge lunch that day, entered a food coma and tried to wait until
the sun wasn’t so high before we started walking. As soon as we started to head
out the door though, one of my teachers pulls up and gives us a ride in his car
to the tar road. Once we are there we start flagging down cars for about 45
minutes while Sara and Kelsey are doing Sara and Kelsey things (dancing, acting
weird, talking in strange voices, all that). Two lorries (sixteen wheelers)
finally stop and take us to Divundu. Next, we jump into another car, get
dropped off at the volunteer’s site in Divundu, crack open a bottle of wine,
ate some homemade pizza (big up Steph!) with salami imported from the U.S and
had a jolly night.
Next morning we rouse ourselves and get back on the
road and start hitch hiking the 300 odd kilometers to Katima Mulilo (means
burning fire), the capital of the Caprivi region which is the border town to
get into Zambia. We were a group of five, so not very good numbers for hitch
hiking. We waited for about thirty minutes until two lorries came by. Turns out
the two drivers were brothers and came from Rehoboth, the same town that Sara
was working at. So Sara and Kelsey start speaking to them in Afrikaans and they
agree to take us for free. There was only one stipulation, the police where
recently cracking down on lorrie drivers who carried passengers so whenever we
passed a police checkpoint we would have to find a way to hide. The lorrie
driver told us that the fine was 3,000 Nam dollars (300 American). We didn’t
want to get the drivers in trouble but they insisted that we would be able to
hide and that it would be fine. Tim and I jumped into one while Lindsey, Sara,
and Kelsey jumped into the other. If you’ve been inside a sixteen wheeler you
know that there is the driver seat, the passenger seat, and the bed behind the
seats for where the driver can rest. That is where we were sitting.
 |
| The Dream Team - Tim, Lindsey, and I |
I forgot the name of our driver, very cool guy
though. He had an auxiliary cord so we were able to put in my Ipod and jam out together.
We were 100 kilometers out when we came across our first police checkpoint. As
soon as the driver saw it he yelled “get down, get down!” As it was only a
small bed I pretty much had to lay down on top of Tim to hide. His hip was
poking my head, very uncomfortable. Luckily these lorries are very tall so we weren’t
seen. The police woman comes up, asks the driver for his license and
registration, she also asks if he is traveling with anybody. He boldly says no,
flirts and jokes with the police office for a little bit then we head out. We
get up and start whooping and celebrating that we didn’t get caught. First time
ever being smuggled past the police! Definitely gets the adrenaline pumping.
About 50 km later there is another check point. This time it’s a man in an army
uniform at the checkpoint. This man actually climbs up the lorrie and takes a
look inside, we get up before he sees that we are hiding therefor avoiding
pissing him off. He asks us where we are going, takes a look inside our bags,
then speaks to the driver in Afrikaans. Turns out that the army does not really
care about lorries giving people rides, they were more looking for drugs. Funny
thing was that the soldier had told the driver to watch out for us Americans,
that we could be dangerous. It was strange but then we reflected later that it
must have something to do with the Illuminati. People in Namibia believe that
Americans are part of some secret group called the Illuminati and that they are
trying to take over the world. I still have no idea where this rumor started
but it’s shocking to people here when we tell them that the Illuminati does not
exist. Anyway, we all had a good laugh at that once we passed through the
checkpoint.
 |
| Victoria Falls - Our first target in our trip |
We go for another 100 km and the driver tells us
that there is another police checkpoint ahead. He told us that at this one the
cops where a bit more thorough so he dropped us off at a bridge .5 km before
the checkpoint. The plan was for us to walk up to the checkpoint, go past it,
and meet up with the driver on the other side. At the time it sounded like a
good idea and that we would be able to make it look normal (the check point was
in the middle of nowhere, two white guys emerging from the bush, walking by the
checkpoint nonchalantly and disappearing again into the bush, not really
normal). So the driver drops us off and Tim and I start walking. We adhere to
the philosophy of if you walk around like you own the place nobody will bother
you. So we tried that. We walked up to the police checkpoint where there was a
line of cars and trucks, kept walking past the police with bravado but no
actual confidence, and passed the checkpoint. We made it about 15 feet before
one of the cops called us and told us to come back. We smile at the officer, shake
his hand respectfully (handclap included), and put our brains into overdrive.
“Where are you guys going?” Asks the officer. “Oh we are just going to Katima,
we have a friend that is coming from that side and he is going to pick us up
around half a kilo up the road” (This is when I realized how stupid of a lie we
were trying to pull off). “You can’t go over there, there are wild animals!
Call your friend and tell him to pick you up here!” Says the officer. “My phone
is out of battery, I can’t really call him, it will be fine, he will come
close” I said. “So just stay here, charge your phone in our office and he can
come pick you up here.” (Oh oh!) At this point another less friendly officer
comes and starts questioning us more aggressively, “where are you coming from,
where are you going, who are you?” Tim and I did not want to talk to that guy,
it seemed like he noticed that we were being suspicious but luckily at the same
time the friendly officer asked “so what are you doing here in Namibia all the
way from Europe? America?” Tim and I talked right over the short aggressive
officer and tried to continue our conversation with the friendly officer. So we
chatted with him for a bit, told him what we were doing, showed our passports,
made some jokes, complimented him and his country and eventually the angry
officer went away. The friendly officer takes us to the office to charge my
phone, we enter and our bus driver was also there charging his. We pretend not
to know each other (driver gives us a wink and smile while the officer isn’t
looking) and I connect my phone. The officer seemed like he wanted to help us
out so I ask the driver. “Hey how you doing man? Any chance you heading to
Katima?” “Yes, yes of course, do you guys need a ride?” Replies the driver. So
we agree on our ride and I ask the officer respectfully, “Sir, this man is also
traveling to Katima, would it be alright if he helps us out?” By that time
something else had distracted the officer so he just grunted in affirmative and
we were off! Another close call but we made it!
No comments:
Post a Comment