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Natural rhythms
I like to think that the fact that this quarterly report is arriving closer to mid-September than its suggested due date of mid-August is a testament to how in-tune Mark and I have become to the natural indicators of the passage of time. Yes, I've had one group after another, my computer hard drive is being resuscitated in Walvis Bay, and I have put off the assignment, but September 15 actually marks the passage of a quarter of our time here. Although other factors may be involved in this particular scenario, living at Gobabeb does allow you to become aware of certain dynamics you might not notice elsewhere. A few mornings ago, we had the first heavy fog in several weeks and several people came in late for work. It wasn't until later that I realized that this was no coincidence. I (and apparently most of the station) rely heavily on the brightness of the curtains to indicate whether it's 5am or 7:59am, and the occasional fog confuses the subconscious immensely. I've also become much more aware of the lunar cy
cles while at Gobabeb. One night I might stumble back to my room, arms outstretched, with the Milky Way and Southern Cross clear in the sky, but on others the light of the moon reveals even the orange tint of the dunes. Because the contrast is so stark, I sometimes even consider what lunar stage will occur on certain groups' visits and take it into account when planning projects and activities.
First impressions
The landscape of Namibia is different from anywhere else I've been. So before it becomes too familiar, or the memory of my first few days too hazy, I want to describe my first impressions of the place. After flying into Windhoek, I caught a ride to Gobabeb with DRFN staff going there to help with Open Day. The paved road ended just outside of the city, and on our 5-hour drive to Gobabeb we saw only two cars, and none of the small towns, rest stops, signs, or billboards that I realized are intrinsic to my mental image of a 'highway.' Instead, we saw zebra, oryx, ostrich, foxes, springbok, sparse vegetation, and amazing rock structures- all through a cloud of dust. The next morning, my first impression of Gobabeb was that it looked like another planet. The dunes were striking, the plains vast, and the 'riverbed', although lacking water (I had read enough not to expect this), surprisingly green with vegetation. Even the station itself, isolated except for small Topnaar settlements up, and marked by a huge water
tower with a light, looked completely alien. Out in the dunes, I was first struck by how much what I saw resembled pictures I'd seen. The contrasts, wind movement, and colors were not some professional camera trick for an inspirational nature poster- that is how they actually look. But at the same time, I couldn't capture the expansiveness and magnificence with my camera. Now I have more meaning attached to what I see- I know the names of the plants and animals, I have a mental map of the dunes and surrounding area, and I have memories attached to certain locations- but I still have moments of complete fascination and awe at where I am.
Training
In my first week, my predecessor, Natalie, casually mentioned that it would be a "busy for four months." I brushed it off and thought to myself that people have busy days coming up, or even a busy week, but surely not a busy four months. But she was right. Since June (and continuing through September), there have been groups from primary schools to Masters programs coming and going one after another. I plan, design, and lead the programs for these groups at Gobabeb. Depending on their interests and how long they plan to stay, their visit might include different activities at the station or focus on a different subject. In the last 3 months we've had Geography, Biology and Biodiversity courses from University of Namibia (complete with assignments, independent projects, lectures, and grades), primary schools from the north in vast quantities at a time, Colleges of Education, and several international groups- from South Africa, USA, Angola, UK, and Germany- many on parts of study abroad programs. Some come for j
ust a day, some up to a week, or even four weeks. Although this has kept me extremely busy and sometimes feeling somewhat underqualified, with each group, my skills and confidence increase. Also, a lot of what I've learned about Namibia and its people - the best music, political opinions, stereotypes, and even how to slaughter and prepare a goat the Ovambo way - has been from my students. I've also made more subtle observations about the contrast between traditional culture and increasing development in Namibia. On a break from fieldwork in one of the Topnaar settlements, the students discovered they could get cell phone reception on a nearby hill. I couldn't help but see the profundity of the setting: the students, most of whom also grew up in an agrarian or traditional setting in the North but moved to the city just a few years ago for school, excitedly holding up their cell phones with the Topnaars in the background, pumping water from their water point, and seeming much more distant than just down the hil
l.
Language
Most of the population of Namibia lives outside the city, and a large portion in the northern regions. Roughly, in the very north you find the Ovambos, northeast central the Herreros, northwest the Himba, the Caprivians on the strip (northeast) and the Nama-Damara in central and southern Namibia (a branch of which are the Topnaars, located along the Kuiseb River near Gobabeb), to name a few. Each of these groups has one traditional language (or more) associated with it. Most people in these regions and in the cities also speak Afrikaans. In certain areas, there are also large German populations, since Namibia was once a German colony. So, although most people speak English, and it is being taught more and more, almost all of the people I meet also speak at least one of these other languages. This can be frustrating at times, but it can also be fascinating trying to compare them or to learn how they are blended in slang and in jokes. "Ke" (an Afrikans ending that makes whatever the noun it's attached to small
in size) is added on the English slang "thingy" to make a "thingy-ke;" Ovambos often get jabs because they are notorious for having an especially hard time with the r and l sounds in English; and when playing Scrabble, every time someone challenges a word that someone has no doubt just created out of desperation, the defendant will laugh at being caught and right it off as "oh that must just be my ". Language difference is just something that comes up here much more than in the States, and people are much more comfortable with it. I like this a lot but it makes it hard to learn any one language well because there's little immersion and no one language that would be the most useful. When I came here, I thought I would try to learn Afrikaans because I thought it would be one of the only other languages I would hear regularly spoken. But, in light of the above, I've altered my aims to learn a greeting and a few words in each of the many languages I encounter. This is harder than it seems,
as after a quarter of a year here, I'm still working to correctly pronounce the !nara plant (! is a specific click in Nama-Damara) on nature walks.
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