Gearing Up and Winding Down

Three weeks from today (and barring any flight delays) I'll be home in Bergen. In the words of another Stanford-ite spending the summer in Africa, "I'm both dreading and dying to come home." I miss my family and friends, balmy summer nights (and sunlight past 5pm!), running with my iPod, a bathroom with a door that fully closes where I can keep my shampoo every night, to name a few. I knew time would fly here, but this is such an amazing experience I'm trying to savor every morsel of it - who knows when I'll be able to come back?

After a busy few weeks, work is winding down. Today Willem and I submitted our draft legal report to the rest of the environmental assessment team for review and comments. It's a beast of a thing - nearly 70 pages, single spaced, 1 inch margins, Times New Roman 11 font.

Meanwhile, I'm busy preparing for some personal travel. Tomorrow morning I'm leaving for my mini-holiday / present-to-myself : an 10-Day safari through the Okavango Delta to Victoria Falls! I'm going with a local tour company - Wild Dog and Crazy Kudu Safaris - I've heard wonderful things about them from other guests. You can read more about our trip itinerary here. I'm ridiculously excited, especially about riding in a Mokoro (traditional dug-out canoe), I really hope there aren't any snakes in the water - eek!

I'll have lots of updates and stories when I get back... wish me safe travels!

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

Will increased uranium mining destroy the Namib Desert? Will the construction of four new mines negatively affect the tourism industry?

For some background reading, here's a news article about our project I came across in the news.

Windhoek Wins for Worst Drivers

NYC, DC, and Beijing all have some pretty scary drivers. Windhoek, I think, has the scariest of them all.

NYC usually has enough traffic or enough other drivers to cross the road without fearing for your life. Similarly in Beijing, unbelievably dense traffic flowed in some sort of controlled chaos, and there were usually enough people to practice “shielding” (a technique I learned from Lucien on our China trip – basically, you find an old local woman or woman with a baby also crossing the street, walk awkwardly close to them and make sure they are between you and the on-coming traffic).

Unlike these cities, Windhoek lacks the traffic congestion that forces a foot close to the brake and the multitude of lawyers ready to sue in case of an accident. Even worse, people drive big cars here. It's one thing to have a close encounter with a Chinese man on a bike, it's quite another to have an elevated full-size pick-up truck inches from your right foot. Not that either would be a pleasant experience - but we're talking about a serious difference in the fear factor here.

Regardless of what the lights say, pedestrians never have the right of way here. If you dare to cross the road at all, you are in the way, so do not expect anyone to stop or slow down for you. Believe me, this isn't the Bergen talking here! I walked to work every day in DC and dealt with a lot of near-accident experiences - impatient cab drivers or confused tourists who are busy gazing at their maps, the monuments, or baffled by the circular intersections - but I honestly don't believe any of them try to hit / terrorize pedestrians. At first I thought drivers were picking on me - I'm obviously foreign, and maybe it was entertaining to see the look of fear / shock / horror when nearly flattened by a turning car. I even thought about carrying my insurance card in my pocket, just in case. After several weeks of crossing awkwardly and uncomfortably close to anyone who looked like a local and still coming close to a few accidents (one day I even had to stop and console a UNAM student for several minutes after she was nearly hit by an SUV), I know it's not me and have come to accept that drivers here always have the right of way, so be patient.

I still walk to and from work every day - I need (and enjoy) that mental space between home and the office. At every intersection though, I sprint when it's time to cross the street. I probably look crazy, but I'm determined to make it home in one piece!

The Dunes at Sossusvlei

Unless I'm catching an early morning flight, there's not much that can get me out of bed at 4 in the morning. But after Chad's wake-up call at 4:30 Saturday morning, I found myself singing Billy Joel's "In the Middle of the Night" in my sleeping bag. After a quick cup of coffee and a biscuit (cookie), we were headed off see the sunrise over the famous sand dunes in Namib Naukluft National Park, home to Sossusvlei, Deadvlei and the apricot-colored sand dunes. First declared as a game reserve in 1907, the Park now covers 50,000 square km of one of the oldest deserts on earth, and is one of the largest national parks in Africa.

Driving from Camp Agama to the gates of the Park, we were surprised to see so many dark and ominous clouds but not a hint of sunlight at 6 in the morning. Unbelievably, it started to rain. In Chad's twenty years of experience taking groups to Sossusvlei, this was one of the only times he'd ever seen rain inside the dunes in the middle of winter (the dry season). At the first stop inside the park, where Chad normally stops for the group to take photos of the sun rising above the dunes and admire the contrasts and colors of the morning, we stood in the cold, misty morning and glared at the grayish sky, less than thrilled about our "unique" experience.

Moods quickly changed once we got to Dune 45, one of the more famous dunes and a popular one to climb (and a decent workout at 80 meters through sand). The sun started to come out and we really started to appreciate the clouds once we got climbing.


Though Dune 45 was only our first stop inside the park, my pictures stop here. Though I'd been warned to be extremely careful on the dunes with my camera, a bit of sand got caught inside the lens gears while I ran down the side of the dune (even though it was closed and sealed inside my pocked). I was crushed - I don't have photos of the most scenic parks of the trip - our climb of the Crazy Dune (the highest in the world at 388 meters high) and Deadvlei, the surrealistic-looking pan with camel thorn trees over 1000 years old.

En Route to Soussvlei

Last weekend I enjoyed the best scenery I've seen yet: the Dunes at Sossusvlei. Unfortunately, I came back from the trip with a broken camera (stupid sand!) and it might be a while before I have new photos to share, so I'm going to do a full post with photos of the trip there before posting photos of the actual dunes.

The owner of Travel Bug Safaris, Chad, was our guide for the trip, his humor and love for his job made things extra special. We had quite the international crew as travel companions - besides Kaylan, me, and Kaylan's two friends from Stanford, we had an Australian globe-trotter (taking a year off to travel, he'd just spend 6 weeks in India), a South Korean chemistry student on holiday, a Franco-German working in Windhoek temporarily. Since Chad is South African, we did quite well with the Continental representation (except for South America).

Leaving Windhoek Friday morning, we headed south-west through the Khomas Hochland highlands to the edge of the Great Escarpment, the dividing range which also crosses Angola, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. This major geographic feature separates the high plateaus of the southern African interior from the coastal lowlands. While munching on sandwiches for lunch, we enjoyed the dramatic view from the top of the Spreetshoogte Pass. Ham and salami are very popular sandwich meats here, good luck finding turkey. Also, I was a little bummed we didn't have any mustard or mayo for our sandwiches... until I discovered dijon mustard cream cheese. The texture was what we'd call "whipped" in the states so it was easy to spread and had little hunks of mustard seed in it. It felt weird to put cream cheese on a sandwich, but then again, most sandwiches are buttered here, and it ended up being really tasty.

After descending the steep and scary roads through the Spreetshoogte Pass, I was happy to be on the flat land and enjoyed the view of the Namib Desert. After about an hour's drive, we stopped at tiny oasis town aptly called Solitaire – well known for its bakery and homemade apple pie. Good thing Kaylan and I split a piece... this was more like an apple experience than a traditional pie, per se. There was a crusty, buttery layer at the bottom, topped with some sort of rich, carmel-y, buttery custard, then cinnamon and sugar apples, more of the creamy custard, brown-sugar & butter crumb topping, and garnished with some homeade whipped cream. Wow.

After apple pie and coffee in Solitaire, it was only a forty-minute drive to Camp Agama. The Camp is situated at the base of the Naukluft Mountains and is just plain gorgeous. Since Chad brings a group every week, there were huge dome tents already set up for us - it felt like a palace after Brooke, Kaylan, and I shared the teeny 2-person tent in Harnas last weekend, we could stand up in this one! Since setting up camp was a breeze, we had the rest of the afternoon to take a walk and enjoy the scenery (and sunshine).

I'm not sure if Kaylan and I were still giddy / delirious from the apple pie or just feeling patriotic, here's us giving a little tribute the States in front of the Naukluft Mountains.

Nothing like a sundowner and an African sunset... breathtaking.

Everybody Needs a Little

After two months in Windhoek I finally did it. Today marks my first trip to Kentucky Fried Chicken.

I'm not normally a KFC-fanatic, truth be told I can't remember the last time I went to a KFC in the U.S. But it's been a hard week. Work has been crazy, the weather is still pretty darn cold, and some very messy guests have left the Puccini House kitchen in a state of disarray the past few nights, so I've been too grossed out with the mess or too annoyed to try to cook dinner the past few nights (Ryan, the beef jerky you sent came in handy). I'm in good spirits, but have also felt a little bit homesick this week. I'll be home in less than one month (!), and to steal a line from a fellow Stanford-ite in Africa, "I'm both dreading and dying to come home." I am having an incredible experience here, and the longer I'm here the longer I wish I could stay, but I miss friends and family from home - there's definitely a part of me itching to get back to the US of A.

KFC is the only major US fast-food chain in Namibia. No Starbucks, no McDonald's, no Burger King, definitely no Taco Bell (or any Mexican food that I can find, for that matter). There are several local food chains, Nandoo's (peri-peri chicken), King Pie (flaky-pastry sandwiches filled with various types of meat), and Hungry Lion (haven't tried, mostly fried chicken). People rave about Nandoo's and I think I need to give it another shot - when Kaylan and I went last month, the chicken and fries were slightly below expectations, though the sauces they use are quite tasty. At one point, I made a promise to myself I wouldn't go to KFC until I tried all the local fast food chains and some type of street meat from the sidewalk vendors, but Brooke with her public health expertise gave me a mini-lecture on the sanitation practices of street meat vendors, and I decided to hold off on that idea. Maybe once before I leave.

I've thought about going to KFC before - there's one I pass everyday on my way to the gym, and there's something about the smell of the Colonel's secret recipe at 5 in the afternoon that really makes my mouth water. The line usually scares me away though, no matter what time of the day it is, the line is usually out the door. Today seemed like a good for a treat.

I think violated some Namibian lunch-time norm by ordering chicken strips instead of the regular chicken pieces, because I had to wait at the counter for nearly ten minutes after placing my order, mouth watering while fried chicken and chips (the local word for fries) went flying off the counter. The twenty-minute walk (one way) and twenty minute wait in line were worth it... 3 crispy chicken strips, BBQ sauce, and a large salad (cole slaw) = lunchtime bliss. The only thing that could have possibly made it better was a massive fountain Diet Coke, but only Fanta and regular Coke cans in this KFC.

(Happy Birthday Dad!)

Tea Time is My Favorite Time

Willem just asked me to attend a conference with him next Monday and I'm already excited about Tea Time.

Tea Time in Namibia is more than just tea - it's a regular meal, and conferences usually have TWO (in addition to lunch), one around 10am and the other around 3pm. When I attended a 3-day workshop my second week here, I was blown away (delightfully so) at the amount of food served with our tea and coffee. In the morning, they would usually set out several platters of open-faced sandwiches - crusty halves of mini-loaves spread with butter (all sandwiches here begin with butter) and topped with ham and cheese, salami with olives, egg salad, or a raw meat mixture I wasn't brave enough to try. After a full lunch at 1, the second round of tea is usually includes some sort of sweet cookie treat, and of course, coffee, Rooibos tea, and cream. This is par for the course for any conference or meeting in Namibia. Makes you wonder a bit, though, about the money spent on all this food, especially when it's a group of non-profits or government agencies getting together... it seems like an excessive misallocation of funds and food considering the poverty here. I have more thoughts on this, perhaps I should save it for a separate entry.

At any rate, I do love my tea time and recently institutied a modified version of the practice with Victor and Lucia. Every day around 10, I have a cup of Rooibos tea and some rusks, a South African food that is basically a rectangular, hard, dry biscuit (or twice-baked bread) and dipped in tea. According to Wikipedia, rusks were used extensively during times of war and long-distance travel as a way to preserve bread in the dry climate. So far, I've tried the Muesli, Lemon-Poppyseed (my favorite), and Wheat flavors... next on the list is the Sweetened Condensed Milk flavor. Yum.

I felt proud yesterday morning when another lawyer in the office said she was "happy to see me drinking Rooibos tea - most of the other visitors don't like it." I do love the tea, but I think I like the idea of rusks more than the actual taste. Oh well, I think it makes my co-workers happy when I bring in treats, and it's a good morning snack. After all, when in Rome...

It is a Constitution We Are Expounding

(I'm a nerd. For the non-legal readers of this post, the title of this blog is a line from Justice Marshall in the Marbury v. Madison opinion. The picture is the Namibian Coat of Arms.)

I've been doing a lot of research on the Namibian Constitution. Willem gave me several books and pamphlets on the Constitution to read "for background and perspective"; like most Namibians, he is very proud of the Constitution. The best book out of the bunch is a book entitled "The Namibian Constitution in Perspective" by Joseph Diescho. It's worth quoting a few lines in full to give you a sense of the reverence for the Constitution here:

The entire process that led to the adoption of what Namibians have come to call the "Mother of All Laws" has been hailed throughout the world as the most democratic exercise in the history of Africa ...

The adoption of the Constitution of the Republic of Namibia on 9 February 1990 ushered in a new understanding and appreciation of governance with responsibility in the entire region of South Africa, it not all of Africa. The collapse of dictatorial rule in Eastern Europe towards the end of 1989 signaled to African rulers that their heavy reliance on foreign governments to control their people was coming to an end. It was against the background of the three-decade-long struggle for independence and great events the world over in 1989 that the people of Namibia wrote their own constitution as the fundamental legal framework upon which their future was to be built.

A few interesting tidbits about the Constitution:

• Non-Sexist Language: The final version of the Constitution uses "he or she" throughout, the result of lobbying by women activists through their policitical structures. Kathleen Sullivan would be proud.
  
• Apartheid and Affirmative Action: Article 23 explicitly outlaws apartheid and racial discrimination, but states it will not be considered discrimination for Parliament to pass laws to help people who suffered from race or sex discrimination in the past. No arguments here about the Constitutionality of affirmative action...
  
• Environmental Emphasis: Article 95 commits the government to the "maintenance of ecosystems, essential ecological processes and biological diversity of Namibia and utilization of natural resources on a sustainable basis for all Namibians, both present and future." This section also forbids the dumping or recycling foreign nuclear and toxic waste on Namibian territory.
  
• International Law is Binding: Article 144 makes the general rules of international law enforceable in Namibia, including customary international law (the norms and general practices of states, not codified but generally followed). This is different (and much simpler) than the treatment of international law in the U.S., where there is a great deal of debate over the extent to which international law is binding and enforceable.
  

Big Kitties

Out of all the animals at Harnas, I was most excited to see the big cats - the cheetah and lions. Cheetahs and lions are both are extremely difficult to spot in the wild, and game farms are one of the best opportunities visitors have to view them. I'd been itching to see some Cheetahs since I met Anne, an employee of the Cheetah Conservation Fund who stayed at Puccini House a few weeks ago. After watching the Disney movie "Cheetah", the feline was my favorite animal for a spell and I always hoped I'd see one.

The cages make the animal seem a little sad, but they are well taken care of and have plenty of space at Harnas, which occupies some 24,000 acres. Baboons and cheetahs are often regarded as nuisances by farmers and shot. The owner, Marieta, has established a reputation in Namibia for rescuing orphaned or injured animals, and many landowners will contact her directly. Some have been caught in traps or their mothers were shot by trophy hunters. Many, in the beginning, were animals South African soldiers had taken as pets during a bush war they fought in the north before Namibian independence in 1990, then abandoned as they withdrew. The van der Merwes also took in a pride of lions left homeless after the closure of a South African zoo. Ultimately, they aim to return animals to the wild, where possible. This is done through the Harnas Lifelife Project (read more here if you're curious!).


Harnas even has a "resting place" for the animals they can not save.

While I fell in love with the baby lion cubs, our campsite kitty had to be my favorite "cat" of the trip. Lady Marmelade, as I nicknamed her, sat on my lap by the fire and purred for a good hour after we fed her leftover steak scraps from our dinner.

Naughty Baboons

Fritz (my German/Namibian tour guide, written about here) was right: baboons are very naughty. The staff at Harnas said they considered the baboons more dangerous than the lions! Lions mind their own business and will stay away from humans, whereas baboons running wild can create some serious damage.

Harnas has several huge parks exclusively baboons - they were fun to watch because they are very active and will often run up to the fence and stare at you. Brooke even held hands with one! It was amazing to look at their little fingernails and toenails. Definitely naughty, but pretty darn cute I think.

Harnas Wildlife Foundation

Harnas Wildlife Foundation markets itself as one of the few wildlife orphanages and medical centers in the world to take in abused, injured, and captured wild animals. Though it's location (300km NE of Windhoek, near the Botswana border) makes it less popular for tourists than some of the game farms just outside the capital, it has one of the highest profiles, given its international patrons are none other than Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.

I'll probably add several separate posts with pictures (I have a ton), so I'll keep the comments in this post pretty general. We left Windhoek feeling quite excited (albeit a bit sleepy) around 7am Saturday morning. There were four of us: Brooke, Kaylan, Mark, and me. We rented one tent and the car, otherwise we were able to scrounge up supplies (another tent, sleeping bags, cooking equipment, headlamps, etc) from Marybeth and the Puccini House owners, which was wonderful. Thankfully Brooke can drive standard and was brave enough to attempt driving on the wrong side of the road and shifting with her left hand!

Gorgeous day, gorgeous drive. With a stop for groceries in Gobabis, it took us just about five hours to get there. It's not that many kilometers, but the roads are fairly narrow and the last 100km or so was on a sand / dirt road, so we didn't dare drive too fast!
To put it mildly, customer service in Namibia is a bit, well, more "relaxed" than in the U.S. At Harnas, however, we were all delightfully surprised at the superb hospitality of our hosts. After we signed some paperwork at the entrance gate, one of the staff members was waiting for us at the reception, holding four glasses of sparkling fruit juice on a tray covered with a white napkin. Wow!! We sat at a picnic table sipping juice while filling out the registration paperwork and Petier told us about the various activities and tour options. When he mentioned an afternoon game tour that involved baby lions, the others saw the look my face and we quickly agreed to sign up. They encouraged us to come back to the lobby area 15-30 min before the 3pm tour so we'd have time for coffee and chocolate cake. After five hours in the car, this made me giddy... and mind you, this is before we went to our campsite and saw a herd of springbok bounding through the air not 200m away.


Saturday was the Fourth of July, and although we were camping in a very remove area of a sparsely populated country, we did our best to celebrate in true American style. We couldn't find sparklers or mini-fireworks, which is a good thing, because dry season + explosions = potential fire and disrupting animal rescue. We did purchase some "Texas-style" steaks (pre-seasoned) in Gobabis, corn on the cob, and potatoes, which we cooked over the campfire. We couldn't find graham crackers or Hershey bars, but we made S'mores on thin tea biscuits with multi-colored marshmellows (very popular here) and Cadbury chocolate. Yumm. Being the dork that I am, I also brought StarPops (suckers that taste like a combination of blue raspberry and cola, not that yummy, but the wrapping is blue foil with silver stars and they looked so patriotic I just had to get them) and a book of "Obama's Most Inspirational Speeches" I received at the Ambassador's Fourth of July party so we could dramatically read a few lines over the campfire.To be sure, another day (or two, or three...) would have been nice, but I think we all agreed this was the perfect weekend get-away. Total cost of the trip (tent rental, 3-day car rental, gasoline for driving 5hrs each way, groceries, per-person camping fee, game drive fee): about $100 USD.

Attack of the Curious Giraffe

Setting up camp at Harnas, we were blown away to see a small herd of springbok leap (they can jump two to three meters high!) through the woods not too far from our camp. It was amazing and a totally cool way to start the trip.

With a bit of time to kill before our tour of the game farm, I went for a little stroll around the camping area (which we had to ourselves). I was stunned to see a beautiful giraffe munching away just 200m away from our tents. After tip-toeing a bit closer and taking about 30 photos of him standing in one spot, I was thrilled when he started to move closer to our camp site. Stopping to nibble along the way, the giraffe slowly made his way toward our site. We were amazed and grew a bit scared when he started to sniff around the food tent... Once he got to the firepit, Kaylan hid in the car. I was tempted but too stunned to do anything and afraid any big movement would startle the giraffe. I'm not sure how a giraffe behaves when startled or angry, but those hooves are pretty big and I'm sure those long legs have some power in them.

Mark and Brooke jokingly referred to me as the Giraffe Whisperer. Though I'd like to take credit for the power to beckon and tame wild animals, we later found out that Kleppie (the curious giraffe) is quite used to humans; the owners were even able to pet and feed her, but warned us to be careful because she does like to kick her legs. I wasn't brave enough, admiring from a safe distance back felt adventurous enough for me.

Share and Share Alike

I need to provide a recap and photos of our weekend in Harnas – it was amazing and we all had a great time. Unfortunately, I need to hand in a draft of the full legal portion of the assessment to Willem by Friday morning and I’m battling a cold, so it might be a few more days before I have the chance to update the blog. I wrote this entry last week and wasn’t sure if I’d post it, so here’s a little something till I get my act together with the Harnas update.

Namibia’s got me thinking a lot about resources. Natural resources, community resource management, public-private ownership… After my long tirade about the Case of the Missing Lunch last month, and all my other entries about wining and dining, I figured I should take a break from talking about food. Alas, here I go again.

Sadly, quite a few of my personal food items have disappeared from my personal drawers in the Puccini House kitchen. One week it was all the canned goods from the Italians, then it was my bottled curry sauce, a bag of dates, then my Thai spice mix (though this was admittedly stored on the spice rack), then my peach chutney sauce, a can of tuna, a bag of rotini, and then one night I found my personal tea stash in the community cupboard.

Random, and upsetting. I know it wasn’t the same person shopping in my drawer since it would only be a few items at a time over the course of a month. Though these are small groceries disappearing, I usually only go to the supermarket once a week and buy what I can carry. No one’s touched my frozen veggies so I never go hungry (and there are definitely delivery options available), and Brooke hasn’t noticed any of her food disappearing, so it appears I’m just the unlucky one.

Bothered by the disappearing food at home, I was getting rather annoyed when Lucia helps herself to my food at work. I often have a pack of gum, nuts, dried fruit or biltong (jerky) on my desk, and found it odd she helps herself without asking permission or making any sort of acknowledgement. I usually offer, but after a while I began to feel like a food pantry. Of course, I’m happy to share, but felt slighted by the taking without asking or thanking.

Then I thought about it. Am I the rude one for thinking she needs to ask permission? Should the default be to assume things are shared rather than mine and mine-only? Am I a jerk for thinking she should ask?

I like to think the people at Puccini House have just been confused about the communal drawers versus the private drawers (even though my name is now on a sheet of paper inside my drawer). Maybe only one or two bad apples have passed through the hostel and the rest could legitimately think it’s leftover or communal cupboard stock. I can’t complain too much. Knowing I’m a long-term stay, many departing guests have generously left some food for Brooke and me.
Still, I keep my “good stuff” (peanut butter and care package goodies) in my room.

Fourth of July Festivities

This past Saturday marks the first Fourth of July that I’ve spent outside the country. While I missed the watermelon and fireworks, I did manage to attend two parties sponsored by the American Embassy.

The first was a “Fourth of July Community Celebration” open to all Americans residing in Namibia. I registered with the Embassy when I arrived in Namibia, but didn’t make it on to their mailing list for some reason. Fortunately, at this point I know enough Americans to hear about the event anyway.

It was held outdoors at a local elementary school and the weather was typical for Windhoek this time of year – high 60s, perfect sun, no humidity, light breeze. The fee was N$100, about $12 USD. Interestingly, the organizers used a ticket system: your fee included one ticket for a hot dog, one ticket for a hamburger, and one beverage ticket (either a soda, water, or beer). Several women behind the buffet table served the food for you – which felt slightly awkward for a “traditional” picnic. The food, albeit portion-controlled, was quite tasty – someone was telling me the organizers went to great lengths to get genuine eats for us – which apparently means importing hamburgers from Germany (apparently German meat tastes more authentic than anything we can buy here?). The organizers also imported ketchup, mustard, and relish… maybe the expenses from importing was the reason behind the food rationing? For dessert, they had several white cakes decorated with the American flag, brownies, and fruit salad. Drinks were also “local” – Coca Cola Light, Tafel & Windhoek lager (local beer), Savannah (cider) instead of Diet Coke and Budweiser, which was good… I would have been concerned if they went as far as importing liquids to the middle of the desert.

I was pleased with the afternoon entertainment – a DJ blasting CCR, a softball game, and sack races for the kids. Joining me for the picnic were Marybeth’s American interns, Amy and Alexis, and Kaylan. Several of the girls we met at the Wine and Cheese reception (the Air Force cadets and Megan) were there, so it was fun to chit-chat with them a bit more.

The second Independence Day party was sponsored by Gail Dennise Mathieu herself (the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Namibia). This party was invitation only – and though I wasn’t technically invited, my boss Willem was, and since he had no interest in going, he suggested I go and represent the LAC in his stead. Excellent.

The Ambassador’s Independence Day Celebration was a complete 180 from Saturday’s picnic. Held at the posh Safari Court Hotel, a 4-star hotel and conference centre just outside the city, this Celebration was held from 12:30 – 14:30 Thursday afternoon. The embossed invitation was personally addressed to Willem in calligraphy, and looked quite impressive. I was feeling too cheap to pay for a private car service (since the address was outside the city centre, they usually charge $70 each way (around $9USD, remember this is enough for an entire entrée at a really nice restaurant here). I found an empty cab, and after deflecting several marriage proposals from my barefoot cab driver, found myself awkwardly outside the large gates surrounding the Safari Court Hotel. Apparently, public taxis do not go in the entrance, so I had to dodge several fancy-looking cars and buses to make my way to the guarded entrance. I’m not sure if the guards thought I was innocent / cute or insane / a security threat, but one led me through the back of the security post (there was no entrance for people on foot) and walked me to the reception area. Immediately greeted by two people in suits, I was escorted through several spacious, marble-tiled hallways to the back of the Safari Court Hotel.

After handing my swanky invitation to one of the staff (I’m sad I couldn’t keep it), I was lead through a receiving line of well-dressed Americans. I’m pretty sure most were diplomats, but they identified themselves by name, not title, unfortunately, so I’m not quite sure exactly who I met. I really wish I had a better memory. Happily, I recognized the Defense Attaché Lt. Col. Rantham from last week as soon as I walked in – it was nice to see at least one familiar face right away. An enormous, fully-stocked bar also awaited… no charge for anything at this reception. It was a working day, though, so I stuck to Coca-Cola Light.

A little after 1pm, the speeches began. In Namibia, it is a sign of respect for each speaker to individually say the name of each figure of authority in the room. This takes quite some time. I didn’t find any of the speeches particularly inspiring, mostly general commentary around the importance of free and fair elections (Namibia has elections coming up this November), both countries’ shared commitment to democracy, freedom, and equality, and everyone’s excitement about Barack Obama (he’s hugely popular here). I did enjoy the performance of the American and Namibian national anthems by a local school group.

The food selection seemed rather “American” but is all pretty common in Namibia as well; it included a variety of cold salads (cole slaw, potato salad, tomato and cucumber salad, green salad), beef in some type of thick sauce, rice, collard greens with onions, a type of fish I didn’t try, and also some distinctly American fare, including sliders (mini hamburgers), and mini-hot dogs wrapped in a croissant.

As far as elbow-rubbing goes, I met two HIV / AIDs workers from Zimbabwe, a reporter for the Namibian (newspaper), a teacher from Angola, and a member of the Namibian Parliament (!!). I hope I didn’t violate any protocols when chatting with him; we met in the food line and I didn’t realize who he was until we has passed the salad. A little embarrassed for not realizing who he was sooner, I decided I’d done enough to represent the LAC, found Megan and the Air Force cadets, and enjoyed the rest of my lunch.

Happy Independence Day!

The holiday certainly isn't forgotten in Namibia. I've been lucky enough to attend two Independence Day parties sponsored by the U.S. Embassy (I'll write about this next week) and this weekend I'm celebrating with a quick trip to Harnas Wildlife Foundation. Wish us safe travels on our first do-it-yourself weekend get-away and expect pictures next week!

Have a very Happy Fourth of July and please eat some extra watermelon for me... that's one thing we don't get here.

Feedback

This is my first attempting at blogging, so my apologies for all the formatting glitches and errors I'm noticing as I scan through past entries. I usually write my posts off-line in a word document and upload them quickly to save internet time, but I can't seem to figure out why the formatting / fonts get crazy.

A bit of the feedback I've gotten so far:

• We Want More Photos! I'll try! I don't carry my camera with me often (I want to make sure I still have it when I travel) and uploading photos uses up quite a bit of internet time, but I'll try to spice things up with photos wherever possible.
  
  
• Please Use Hyperlinks! Check. I just learned how to do this.
  
  
• Do You Actually Work? Yes, quite a bit actually. Look forward to more on this front, starting today.
  

Keep the comments coming!

Lots of Work Amidst the Play

Looking over the past 20 entries or so, I realize it must look like all I do is eat, drink, and dance. While I enjoy all of these things greatly, my week actually revolves around my work at the Legal Assistance Center. I feel a tad awkward blogging about work (I'm pretty sure CEB had us sign a non-disclosure agreement explicitly saying we would never blog about work?), but since it’s just friends and family who read this, I’m past due for an update on how my internship is progressing. Also, the final product will be publicly available, and there's no client confidentiality to worry about.

I am incredibly lucky to have the amount of responsibility I do. Up to this point, I’ve been doing the majority of work for the legal portion of the strategic environmental assessment (SEA). Since the scope of a SEA is extremely broad, the relevant legal areas we need to cover in our report run the gamut from worker health and safety regulations to water law to land use regulation to corporate governance. Our report needs to summarize all current legislation and relevant case law, and then analyze how well this current case law protects the people and environment in the Erongo region. To me, it seems a solid knowledge in just one area of law (water law, for example) could take an entire summer. Namibia is a young democracy but was administered by South Africa before independence. Since they adopted all law in force at the time of independence, many of the laws in force are unwieldy regulations adopted in South Africa and applied to Namibia half a century ago.

For this report to be a good one, we need to do more than understand what laws are technically in force, we should also understand how the law is actually applied. For example, many Namibian laws vest various Ministers with a great deal of power, but do they actually inspect mining operations at will, demand operating documents, and impose fines for non-compliance? Are the fines drafted in 1956 South Africa an effective deterrent for a subsidiary of RioTinto in 2009?

My work for the past few weeks has been looking at previous environmental assessments and legal reports to determine what laws might have applicability to our report. Since the scope of our report is so broad, you can imagine how long the list of relevant legislation is, and one single law might be several hundred pages along. It is slow but steady work.

While it is fascinating for me to get my hands dirty with actual rules, regulations, and case law after a year of abstract legal ideas, it’s also overwhelming. What’s more, my boss has been out of the office for nearly three weeks, on the road for work and more recently mourning the loss of his sister. I’m eager to get feedback on the work I’ve done so far (and hopefully get the okay for my travel plans) but his family duties obviously come first.