walvis bay and swakopmund, namibia

well its been over one week since my last blog and most of that week was spent at sea. eight days at sea can be quite a long time especially when you are doing the same thing every day-global studies class from 9:20am-10:35am, work out from 10:30am-11:00am, shower, staff meeting from noon-1pm, lunch from 1-2pm, then desk duty or work stuff for a couple of hours, then game time from 4:00-5:30, then volleyball tournament and then dinner at 6:00pm. we didn't last long in the volleyball tournament so that really did not become routine :)

after leaving morocco, we stopped in dakar to bunker (refuel). just outside of dakar is a small island called goree island-this is where slaves were help just before they were taken to the states. we did not get off the ship on goree island or dakar.

after leaving dakar we spent eight days at sea. during this time, i met the four women in my family (luisa, jana, devin and michele). faculty and staff have the opportunity to adopted students on the ship thus creating a family. the idea is to spend time with your family having dinner, ice cream, going places together while you are in port, etc so the students feel like they are part of a family. some faculty and staff have ten to twelve students in their family-i only have four children since i am a single parent :)

i also have three faculty members (dee bird, fred levine and jon kastendieck) that i am meeting with in order to bridge the gap between student affairs and academic affairs. i met with them once during training in miami so i figured it was time to connect with them again. after meeting with them, i asked them to meet with my family of students-they thought it was a great idea so we all had dinner together and it was a good time!

i also had dinner with the lgbtqa group of students on the ship. dee bird and i are advising the group, for this semester. the group is small but we seem to be adding folks every time we gather for a dinner so that's great!

i also spent some time writing back to the twenty three fifth grade students i have adopted via the vicarious voyage program! i am working with two students (whitney and kristen) on the ship to send menus, newspapers and other items from each port we visit to our fifth grade class in golden, colorado (welchester elementary). they sent us a package filled with letters from each of them asking an assortment of questions so they all know now my favorite color, what my favorite food is, how many brother and sisters i have, the names of my friends on the ship and which country i am most excited to visit.

i guess it goes without saying that i had dinner every night that we were are sea :)

after six days of being at sea, i began to feel a little under the weather and by the time we docked in walvis bay, namibia i was feeling better yucky :( but still went on the city tour of walvis bay and swakopmund. before we could get off the ship, we once again had to clear immigration and customs-this included them having to stamp over one thousand passports. we also had our first diplomatic debriefing in which we heard about the current state of affairs for namibia as well as how to be safe while in namibia. although we had to wait on the ship until 1o:00am before it was cleared, we were treated to namibian children dancing and singing to us.

once off the ship, we headed to our bus to begin the city tour. namibia is the second smallest populated country(2.1 million) so having us arrive (over one thousand people) was a little overwhelming. the bus ride to swakopmund was filled with a mixture of desert, dunes, sea and homes. we even passed the home where brad pitt and angelina jolie stayed while they were waiting for their third child to be born.

along they way to swakopmund we past a place called guano bay-this is where one gentleman spends his time collecting bird feces and sells it so it can be used as fertilizer and such. he even sells a percentage to europe where they use it to make lipstick! after hearing this, and taking in the smells of guano bay, i am so glad i do not wear lipstick :)

as we continued on to swakopmund, we were able to see the division amongst the namibian people with one side of the road being occupied with homes belonging to the "mixed" (black and white) and the other side of the road with homes for the "colored" (blacks only). some of the older homes in namibia have roofs made from cardboard which is not a problem unless it rains-which may happen once ever five years or so.

while in swakopmund, we visited a place called karakulia weavers-where we watched local people making rugs and tapestries from wool. we learned from beginning to end how the wool is cleaned, dried, sometimes dyed, spun or not spun depending on its use, and then watched as a handful of folks created spectacular images of elephants, zebras, springbacks, antelope, figures, etc from wool into rugs and tapestries. we even received a special treat when our guide asked one gentleman to count from one to ten in nama for us so we could here the use of clicks when he spoke-it was truly amazing!

after leaving the weavers, we made our way to the kristall galerie where we saw the world's second largest crystal.

we then spent some time in town before heading back towards walvis bay. on our way back, we stopped at dune 7 where i attempted to climb to the top of the dune. i almost made it but was unsuccessful-i think i would have made it had i not been sick.

after returning to the ship, i emptied my shoes of namibian sand (which i will bring back with me), hopped in the shower and then went in to the town of walvis bay with a bunch of folks to have pizza at crazy mama's. we had heard the pizza at crazy mama's was great so we wanted to try it but we were worried we would not be able to get in since it was valentine's day. not only did we get it but we received one free carafe of blush wine, one free carafe of sangria and one freed small garlic pizza because it was valentine's day :) oh, and the pizza was great!

after leaving crazy mama's, we walked over to a bar called pet planet where they not only sold adult beverages but had live animals walking around the place. we saw parrots, goats, cats, dogs, etc.. we even played with a curly, white puppy who i am convinced would have ended up as the ship's mascot had we not a strict no pet policy.

i spent the next day, and night, in bed. my body hurt so bad i was tempted to go to the clinic but didn't in hopes that i would feel better after lots of nyquil, sudaphedrine, emergen-c and ibuprofen.

we are now on our last day in walvis bay, namibia and while i do feel better i have opted to stay on the ship, work on some conduct letters and watch the seals play in the bay.

we leave namibia tonight and after one day at sea we will be in cape town south africa!