'Not so black...'

So, today has been an interesting day spent in Windhoek the capital city. Though urban sprawls and western clothes are not the reason we came, we still got some glimpses of the mix of cultures in Africa. We have been addressed in many different languages today including German, English and Afrikaans – outside the city there are countless other indigenous languages and Im not sure how people here keep up. During our shopping we asked an oldish white lady for directions to a supermarket; she went out of her way to lead us in the right directions and assured us the market was not ‘as black’ as the one we were in – other than that a nice lady.

We landed at around 5am, kicked a ball around at the airport before being driven here by a small man of San descent. On the way, it was very strange seeing the almost surreal mountainous dry landscapes again and we were surprised to see a small herd of Hartebeest at the side of the ride, though we weren’t quite as surprised as we were last year.

At the guesthouse we had breakfast, before being picked up and brought to the car hire company. We were given a walkthrough of all the tools in the car, the freezer, how to put it into 4WD and how to set up the roof-tent. On the way to the shopping mall we were lucky enough to find the Surveyor General’s office which we had given up one. Inside were shelves upon shelves of satellite images and maps and the curator helped us make copies of highly detailed maps of some of the areas we will be visiting up north.

A few things we quickly became used to include random people helping you with loading and unloading your luggage and shopping in the hope of gaining some change, slight undertones of racism in the interactions between whites and blacks, the driest air (it hasn’t rained in months) and dilapidated buildings and beggar – the real Africa. Though to be fair the city is modern, occasionally fashionable and we definitely feel safe walking the streets, even at night.

I’ve just returned from a nice dinner of traditional African cuisine (although we did suffer a power cut), a Senegalese dish called Boukare, and am heading to bed; tomorrow we leave early to head to Waterberg. For this reason I won’t be online for at least the next two days and probably not for a while afterwards. If you want to contact us (please do), send us a text and well turn on our satellite phone which can be reached on 00881631553586.

The next time I get online I promise you many photos as well as proof that I really have seen a Michael Scott Street.