Duluth: Sunny snowfalls and radio waves

Delicate December: new winning song in my books
Loveliest Radio
Currently listening to the radio program that a friend of mine does here in Duluth, DJ Wonderland on KUMD, sitting at the kitchen table of the house I grew up in. The winter sun is shining softly through the window and snowflakes are sparkling in the air. Nothing like a sunny Sunday snowfall. Can barely see the lake due to a light fog settling upon Duluth.

Home Away from Home
Minneapolis feels so far away right now, even thought it's only a three-hour drive (supposedly, I beg to argue this fact after my travels on Friday). After having spent the weekend away from school, Mpls friends, and the busyness that encompasses the Twin Cities, I gain a new respect for this "great white north". Duluth is a treasure in its own right, even if it is colder than one might appreciate, it has a beauty that I forget to appreciate at times. Driving into town on Friday night with the trees heavy with snow, houses full of Christmas trees and lights, everything felt just about right. Seth picked me up at UMD with his girlfriend and brought me home to my parents' house (where Seth currently lives). Despite getting into town 5 hours later than I had expected, I was just happy to get here.

Radio is now playing one of my absolutely favorite songs, River (Indigo Girls).

Skiing, Hockey, Foods and Friends
Saturday morning I went x-country skiing for the first time this season with Seth and Kara and a few of their friends. I seem to always forget the subtle pain that comes with the first ski, the aches on the particular appendages of your body that you either over-worked, or happened to fall on (I fell twice, once on an uphill, once on a slick downhill attempting to avoid a tree). Pictures of this adventure sure to come soon.

Evening time means food and friends. Dinner at Haciendo del Sol
Enchiladas De Carne Two corn tortillas rolled around our special blend of ground round and spices, smothered with our special enchilada sauce and topped with two tasty melted cheeses.
Mmmmm. That's all I have to say about that.

After dinner I went to a Bulldog hockey game vs. Denver @ the DECC, final hockey game at the DECC before they open the new arena right next door. Very cool to see the closing ceremony and see many of the former Bulldog players.
After hockey it was time to see friends, from near and far, some recent, some it's been a few years. We talked about life, school, the usual weather, the KGB, personality types, childish vs. childlike-ness, Katy Perry (apparently not as popular in Turkmenistan as here...), and of course, knitting. Cannot forget knitting.

Also, went to my first gay bar-not taking into consideration the bar my family accidentally went into in England on my brother's birthday, when we were just looking for a place to eat dinner- the Flame in Superior, very interesting, enjoyable place to dance when the DJ is doing his thing correctly. Ended the night by talking with a friend of mine til 4:30am, who has been abroad in Peace Corps. I love how friendships surpass national boarders, continents, and timezones.

Still jiving to Radio Wonderland, something that has finally given me the inspiration to write...first time in awhile as you can see. Hopefully my winter break will bring my writing itch back.

The weather outside is frightful..

Missin Namibia

I left my heart on the east coast

Surprise trip to Boston for my friend Chris' Birthday

OK Go Concert with my friends Chris and Becky

The backs of their shirts lit up!!


Dinner with Daniel (former classmate from Budapest): best Japanese food I've ever had!


Hobbit feet


Olin College Campus

Downtown Boston
Crossing the Charles after my tour of Northeastern University School of Law

The big 2-1

Namibia offered me with the best birthday weekend of my life.

On Friday I woke up to a text from a coworker, wishing me a happy birthday. Just half an hour later, one of my roommates who had been getting ready for her day burst back into the room and looked at me and said "happy birthday!!"

I went into work on Friday and my coworkers threw for me a birthday party with cake, cookies, and cool drinks, or as we would call in Minnesota, pop. More than half of the office came out and celebrated with me. It was a birthday/going-away party for me, as today, the 27th, is my last day at my internship. (More on that later) I was on a sugar high for the rest of the afternoon after all of that cake!
My housemates and I all went out to dinner at the Namibian Institute of Culinary Education, or NICE. The food was delicious, salmon with cream cheese and ravioli with tomato sauce and cheese,along with a little vegitarian quiche as an amuse-bouche. For desert my friend Hayley secretely ordered two little cakes for the intern and I (who share a birthday). Photos to come, i promise!

After dinner we all headed to a bar where one of the interns' friends was holding a going away party. We hung out for a bit, me not drinking (until 12:01) , talking with some people I knew and some I didn't.

To top off the evening we decided to go to one of the clubs in Windhoek called La Di Das. We all danced the night away until at least 3:00am, some later, with all sorts of music (not great music but we take what we can get right?) Many of us had some 12-15 Namibian boys trying to dance with us, to which we attempted to politely decline. One of the guys in our group had the opportunity to dance with the Namibian guys. Getting home at around 3:30am, I was exhausted!

On Saturday I went hiking on a hill that overlooks Windhoek, and on Sunday we all had a big "family dinner" at the house, everyone helping to make Mac & Cheese, Sushi, 7-Layer Dip, and Vegan Chocoalte cake/ cupcakes. Needless to say, most of us overate. We then raided our interns' closet, dressing up in some pretty fantastic outfits. A good party and a great end to a birthday weekend.

Avis Dam and Ovitoto

It's hard to write when everything going on around you just fills your brain and it's so interesting that you don't even know where to start. Weekend continued to be good after the party; finished writing a paper about how Africa is both represented in and impacted by Western Media.
On Sunday we took a break from studying and schoolwork and went out to one of the most gorgeous places I have been in my life, Avis Dam

This dam is a bit outside of the city and a river flows into it during the rainy season, but it doesn't rain much here so I doubt it gets that deep. We walked around the entire dam, one of my friends carrying the son of another of our classmates (he's almost 3 years old) around the whole thing. Took us 1.5 hours or so total.I think I may have just found paradise. Just to let you know, it's in Namibia.

Today was our 2nd-to-last actual day of class and we had a road trip, 1.5 hours drive west of Windhoek to Otjozondjupa region, to the Ovitoto Conservancy as we have been studying sustainable development. It's mostly hills, semi-arid climate, some bushes and grasslands.
We did a tour of the Ovitoto town, where in 1904 the colonizing Germans conducted a genocide upon the Herero people, a tribe that was wiped out and is now a minority within Namibia.

There was a school in this town, 400+ kids attend it.. many of the kids were walking to or from school, they almost all waved and many said hello. There are very few white people in that part of the country, most of them are German. The sense in the town is that they still very much remember the genocide, and one of the men we talked to said "don't worry don't worry, we know it wasn't you. it was your great grandparents..." A sense of blame upon all whites was felt at that particular moment, but it's certainly not held against any visitors.
The conservancy is ever-searching for new ways to bring in tourists from the outside, because this bring in money into the community.
Many of the people that live there breed cattle to sustain their livelihoods. Cows, bulls, goats, and sheep wander freely around this whole town. Pretty cool site to see.
It seems that some of the area had some kind of plumbing, but not much. They have a well and a pump where they get most of their water, you can see this in the picture below. Very few bathrooms as well in the town.



After meeting with the Counselman of the whole area who told us it was not a mistake that we came to meet with him, as any outsider needs to get permission of the counselman before visiting, we met with the head of the Conservancy.
It was a long day, but our driver did a great job in getting us home safely in the dark. A view of our gorgeous drive. More soon. MCS

Windhoeked

Only one and a half weeks left of actual classes, where has this summer gone??
Since we've been back from Swakopmund, I have been struck by two colds,which zapped a lot of my energy and willingness to write.. or run..
My internship has been going relatively well, I haven't always had a lot to work on but I have had the opportunity to edit some very interesting documents, such as the Universal Periodic Review report submitted on behalf of Namibia, and a few legal documents sent to the High Court of Namibia. Only one full week at my internship left!

This Tuesday we are going to visit a conservancy about two hours drive outside of Windhoek, I am excited to be on the road again!

Went to a party in one of the mostly white neighborhoods outside of Windhoek, in the nicest house I have been in in quite some time. Met quite a few people there, danced to a lot of music, and really enjoyed it being summer time (despite the paper I have to work on this weekend!)

A group of students/teachers/profs arrived from the US funded by Fullbright. They are doing a travel seminar so are traveling around Namibia for the next few weeks, and staying here for the next couple of days.

Off to watch Lion King!

Swakopmund

The city on the coast. The warm part of Namibia in this mild winter. And warm it was indeed.
I guess I'll start at the very beginning.

The Drive:
The drive to Swakop takes about four hours in our 12 passenger van, and we were all very ready to leave last Wednesday. Ready for the ocean and the dunes and the more humid air (Windhoek is extremely dry). On our drive we saw baboons, an ostrich (way off in the distance), and springbok, a deer like animal. I felt as though we were just jumping through different parts of the world as we started off in a rather hilly area which surrounds Windhoek, and then hit the grasslands. You can see for miles there. Then we hit the desert. Very few plants, except for tumbleweeds and little bits sprouting up here and there.
Once we got to Swakop, I was in heaven. Dunes on one side of me, Atlantic Ocean on the other.
I had my first oryx meat on our first night (google oryx.. pretty cool looking animal). I also have been enjoying the local brews here, but the Windhoek lager is my favorite.

Day 1: Gobabeb, Lagoon, and Export Processing Zone & Dune 7!!

Our first day was spent visiting Gobabeb, an environmental research center located about two hours from pretty much everything. The center is used to study climate change and environmental changes on the Namib desert (fact: the oldest desert in the world). Gobabeb is run by Namibians, but is home to a few interns and many international researchers.This is Ollie, the almost three-year-old on our trip, and Passat, our driver who is from Swakop

It is an amazing center for environmental research, and is run mostly on solar energy. When were at Gobabeb the winds were coming from the east across the desert, so very strong and very warm... as you can see the wind blowing off the top of the dunes.

After our picknick lunch at Gobabeb we meandered back to Walvis Bay, the town just 20k or so away from Swakopmund... Walvis Bay is more the industrial city, whereas Swakopmund is more tourist focused. We all ran around on the lagoon and had our first experiences in this side of the Atlantic Ocean... chasing away the flamingos!

After seriously dirty-ing ourselves in the sand and muck of the lagoon, we visited the Export Processing Zone (or free trade zone). We visited a factory that makes parts for many car companies. We saw many of the positives and negatives of this kind of economic zone (ask me if you wanna hear more.

Around 4 in the afternoon we headed towards the dunes, to climb Dune 7, the sand dune located 7km away from Swakop. I don't have pictures of this amazing experience yet since I took a kodak non-digital camera with me, as the sand will ruin most digitals. I felt as though I was in a dream, looking out over Namibia from the top of a hundred-something foot sand dune.

Day 2: Rossing Uranium Mine & Tour of Informal settlements (including meeting with a traditional leader)

I felt like a very small child in a very very big sandbox. The mine was about 400m deep at its deepest point, and is constantly expanding. We learned about the process is takes to make Uranium (unenriched). The factory area was HUGE! The wheels of the trucks used to carry from the mine to the factory were bigger than ME.

We visited a center that was originally set up by an American to help support motivated kids in Mondesa (a township outside of Swakop) reach their full potential. It is now run almost entirely by Namibians, and gives about 120 kids grades 4-10 the opportunity to read books, learn to play musical instruments, play sports like tennis, and have lunch after leaving school (schools end around 1pm here, start at 7 generally).
We also had a tour of the informal settlements, which included meeting with a Darama tribal leader in her home, a 70-something year old lady with many grandchildren, who acts as a representative of the Darama peoples in Namibia. This was one of the most interesting experiences I have had in my life. We then went to visit a remedial school where kids are sent if they are not in the correct grade or if there are no rooms in schools (or if they cannot pay for school fees/uniforms). Inside of this school is also where you can buy tokens for the local water pump, so many kids and their parents were hanging around.

Day 3: Free Day
Our final full day in Swakop was left for us to do our own biding. I ran along the beach with Kristen, the CGE Intern, enjoying the waves crashing just a few meters away from us, smelling the sweet salty air. We all went into town and looked at some shops, ate some fish, and sat on the beach. I swam in the Atlantic and convinced a young Namibian girl to come swim with me. She asked me if I could "learn her how to swim". She was adorable, and we ran around chasing waves. As a group, many of my classmates and I did yoga on the beach, instructed by our professor.
We topped off this productive yet busy day with eating sushi (pretty sure i had 22 pieces....)

Day 4: Last day-swimming-ride home (giraffes!)
On our last day in Swakop Kristen and I went running again, and I took one last dip into the frigid Atlantic before packing our stuff up and climbing back into the van. It was sad to leave the sunshine and the fresh air, but I was exhausted from vacation. The coolest part of our ride home was seeing giraffes along the side of the road eating off of trees.