On our first night staying with my cousins in Swakopmund they treated us out to a delicious steak house and took pride in having us taste their famous meat. Apparently Namibia is famous for its red meats, and we can understand why. I had the garlic butter steak and Tyson and Rayyan had the 500 gram T-bone. This is the largest steak they sell at the restaurant and when I saw the steak with all the side dishes I almost doubted Tyson could finish his. I was proven very wrong within minutes when a polished bone remained on his plate and he hungrily began eyeing my 200 gram piece.
After dinner my cousin took us to the beach area so we could take a walk down the pier under the moonlight. Tyson and I took a quick stroll, it is undoubtedly a very beautiful town, also one of the priciest in Southern Africa. It is colonized by Germans, so the street signs and shops are often written in German. Many of the enormous and luxurious holiday homes are empty most of the year. The owners just keep them as a place to stay when they come to town.
That night after my baby cousin Taeed went to bed with his mommy, the rest of us sat up until late chatting away. Sunday morning we woke up and had breakfast together. Then we had a Bahai devotional meeting where we met some of the local community. We said prayers together and talked through the morning. As luck would have it, two of the friends were going quadbiking in the sand dunes that afternoon and invited us to join them. This worked out perfectly because he picked us up an hour later after we ate a delicious lunch courtesy of my cousins. There are several companies that offer sand activities in the area, but we heard the one we used is the best. Tyson and I decided to share one larger and more powerful bike because he was scared to go on his own. So with Tyson and myself on one bike and our two new friends ahead of us, we follwed our guide into one of the most beautiful places we have ever seen. We rode up into the sand dunes in one of the biggest and the absolute oldest dessert in the world. The ocean sparkled on our right hand side, and we enjoyed this unique scenery because this is the only place in the world where the dessert meets the ocean in this manner. We marvelled at this phenomenon as we rode up and over huge dunes on our bikes. One of our friends was a bit slower on the bike and wanted to try to double so Tyson and I took the single bikes and the other two shared for a while. During this time, of course, I rode on the quadbike by myself. It was exhilerating and scary when the bike seemed to have a mind of its own in the sand and would veer where ever it wanted to. I almost ran into the very rare bushes more than once, luckily, Tyson managed to catch this on video. We eventually swapped back to sharing a bike and continued on for over an hour. We stopped at a couple points to take photos and help a lady with a possible broken arm in the middle of the dessert. This activity was one of the highlights of our trip.
Afterwards our friends drove us through Long Beach where the beautiful holiday mansions sit pretty until their owners pop by. In fact, Brad and Angelina, Pitt and Jolie spent their time in this area while giving birth to their children. After this we went to Dolphin Bay which is similar to Long Beach and then we stopped at Guano Island. This is a man made island, created to collect bird droppings for harvesting nitrate for gun powder. The story behind this man who created the island is that he noticed when the tide was low, the birds would gather on the rocks and waste all their valuable droppings. So he built this permanent dry spot where the birds now gather. After spending all his money, that of the banks, and that of anyone else who listened to him, he went bankrupt without finishing. Later on he found a man from the US who invested enough to allow him to finish his project and make enough money in the first year to pay off all his debts and not worry about cash again. The Island sits untouched by man most of the year and when the birds migrate, they harvest the guana. Wish I had though of that.
After that we went to Walvis Bay where they have the most efficient port in the world. At other ports in the world, a container, once offloaded, sits in a yard for an average of two months. Here in Walvis Bay, the average is only two weeks. This is their main resource. Unfortunately that day there was a planned power outage to upgrade their systems to diesel, so most places were closed. We stopped at a lagoon, where due to the high winds, a sail boat beat the fastest speed record. There is also a peninsula that blocks off the lagoon that grows further into the ocean an average of seventeen meters per year.
After learning all these fun facts, we met with Rayyan and Lewam to visit their friends in town. The couple we visited, have a grown child and the husband had recently suffered a stroke and was working through a new parkinsons diagnosis. We had a short but sweet visit and head back to Swakopmund. Here Rayyan cooked us to a five star steak dinner with salads, corn on the cob, mashed potatos and more. That night, like the others we sat, snacked, talked and bonded before passing out late at night.
Luckily Tyson and I are unemployed so we could sleep in but poor Rayyan and Lewam got up a few hours later and put in a full days work. Tyson and I took our time to get up, shower, eat breakfast, do laundry, fiddle on the computor and finally we called Lewam for directions to their Persian Carpet shop. She was explaining but then decided that it would be easier to pick us up. So we went to their shop in the center of town. They have not had a grand opening yet and are still setting up but it looks great already. We hung out for a bit and then Lewam closed up and took us to a Crystal Museam accross the street. Inside we learned all about how valuable stones are mined, polished, cut, designed into jewlery and other decor and created. All of the precious stones displayed are ones found in Namibia. Mining is one of the largest industries in Namibia and many of the folk in Swakopmund work in the mines. The area is very rich in Uranium. We also saw the largest crystal in one piece in the world on display. It was gigantic and I have posted some pictures of us standing next to it. We walked around for an hour or so and then went for lunch at a lovely place on the beach. The weather was warm but since it is winter the water was very cold. This did not however, stop people from swimming and hanging out in the sand. At the restaurant I had a burger meal and Tyson ordered a calamari ceasar salad which Lewam treated us to. We had a great time chatting and finally thought to head back to the shop. Lewam stayed to run the place while Tyson and I went for a walk in town. We stopped by several shops including the tourist office which was very busy. The lady behind the counter was an elderly German lady who went on about nothing but was very sweet. We got some information about how to catch a ride back to Windhoek the next day. Our choices were a twelve hour train, a pricier four hour tourist bus or a four hour local mini bus.
The town is very cute and small and everyone seems to know everyone else. The shops are quaint and seem like they have been around for a long time even though they are in great shape. There are no skyscrapers or even apartment buidings which creates a nice atmosphere. We were a bit shocked that many of the stores had metal bars blocking the doors and customers have to ring a bell to gain entrance for security reasons but we never felt unsafe.
Back at the shop, Rayyan arrived with baby Taeed and we all head out to buy some groceries. After that we went to a local pizza shop where Tyson and I split a large Swakop special with salami, ham, feta cheese and mozzarella. It was quite good and we all took turns playing with Taeed who was sleepy and wanted to interact. He is the busiest and cutest eighteen month old ever and we had a great time with him.
Back at the house, the adults sat up and chatted into the night. We sipped tea and ate bisquits and tossed back jelly tots. We laughed a lot and short of passing out on the couches we all went to bed. Again, Tyson and I did not suffer since we are on holidays but my poor cousins lost a lot of sleep during our visit.
In the morning we packed up our things and ate breakfast. We did some computor work and head out with Lewam to the shop to do some printing. Then we went back to the house to load some movies onto our laptop from their hard drive. After this Lewam took us to my Aunt's ginormous holiday home. It is an empty nine bedroom, ten bathroom fully furnished home on the beach. It is set up to be a bed and breakfast, and each room has a private bathroom, most even have jaccuzis in the rooms. There is a sauna, huge dining hall, tons of balconies and decks everywhere with a private brai. From the house, you can walk right onto the beach. My cousins are trying to sort out a bed and breakfast liscence which would be perfect for that place.
While I loaded movies onto our laptop, Lewam drove us to the mini bus station. The mini busses were full of locals and they wait until the van was full to the brim before leaving. So Lewam waited with us and made sure we were well taken care of before saying see you later. It was a very short but very special visit and we enjoyed our time there thoroughly. Tyson and I boarded on different ends of the van, Tyson in the back and me near the front. The driver finally drove off stopping at a petrol station and driving around until about thirty minutes later we arrived back where we began. We were confused but decided to let it go and after two more bodies squeezed in, we were off. It was hot and not the most comfortable but it was a safe ride and after stopping at several rest stations for pees, poops and drinks we finally got dropped off at my cousin's friend's home in Windhoek. Our flight out of Namibia was not until the next morning so we had to leave the day before and spend the night in Windhoek to make it work. My cousins kindly set us up with their lovely friends and we were so lucky to stay with them. We instantly felt at home with the young couple and their two young children in their lovely house. Soon after the husband's parents came by the house for dinner and we quickly worked out that his mother and my granfather are first cousins. It is not unusual for me to find a relation with any Persian Bahai that I meet but it was still very special. I felt an even closer connection to the whole family and we had a great dinner while chatting the whole time. We hung out late into the night discussing every topic possible including how they were the second family to pioneer to Namibia ages ago to teach the Bahai faith. Tyson got a wack load of new music to obssess over and he was able to put it onto our computor which made him happy. We took pictures and finally retired for the night.
The next morning our alarm assaulted us at 4:30am. We got up at 5am and left the house at 5:30am to catch our 7am flight. Our lovely host sacrificed hours of sleep to drive us the 50 kilometers to the airport and even waited with us until we were checked in and all set to go. We were very well taken care of and it was such a pleasure to have met them. After lingering in the gift shops and blowing the last of our money on chocolate we were, of course, the last two people to enter the plane. We slept most of the flight, while obviously waking up in time for the hot breakfast they served. We arrived in Johannesburg for a four hour layover, which we spent wandering, reading, chatting and blogging. On to "real Africa" as we have been told.
We were also the last two people on our connecting four hour flight to Entebbe airport in Uganda. When we got on the airplane, the pungent smell of body odor was unmistakable. Smells are not usually something that I mention in the blog, but as we got closer to our seats, I was in pain. I am not prissy by any means, but I had to get Tyson to inquire into switching seats. Just before I passed out, we got moved out of the odorous area to new seats. They served a big lunch and put on movies during the flight so we were happy. We also watched one of the most stunning sunsets on the planet ever in history. We have it on camera to prove it.
After paying $100 USD for visas at the airport, we were greeted by an American guy calling out Tyson's name. We followed the voice and met the American volunteer and our new host for the next few days. He goes by "Lucky" and he is a local guy who offered us a place while we are in town through couchsurfing. We followed Lucky, his other local friend (our driver) and the American guy out to their vehicle. The drive to their tiny village in te boonies was more like a roller coaster ride than anything else. We all chatted in the car while rap music boomed through the speakers and we sped through the streets like we were running for our lives. As I looked out the window at the thousands of people out on the dirt streets with no electricity, just small candles, I realized we were back in the third world, and I was happy. We stared out the window at the apparent poverty, at the tiny shacks, litter, overpopulation, thoroughly crazy drivers and flooding from the rain. We stopped to bribe a cop to let us past the traffic and carried on. It took us forty minutes to drive what should have taken several hours but we arrived in one piece which is a bonus.
We arrived to a village that one may see in the movies. This is what some may visualize when thinking of "Africa". Up until this point we had been staying at beautiful luxury homes in the wealthy uptown areas. This was our first taste of the rest of the continent. We were greeted by several men and one woman who work with Lucky on his campaign to help out his community. They are all volunteers who lobby the government and help the locals in any ways that they can. This is what we are here to help with as well. After meeting the rest of the team, they all left us alone in the tiny house by ourselves. It had two rooms, one living area and one bedroom with a mosquito net. As they left they told us a secret password and told us not to open the door for anyone. Our instructions were loud and clear, they said that even if the person on the other side of the door was being killed or dying, we should let them die. We were not to open the door until they would be back at 10am with the secret password. Of course there was no toilet in the shack so we were given a small yogurt container to urinate in through the night. So yes, Tyson and I peed in a bucket in the middle of the room until morning when we could dump it out outside.
We secured the doors as best as we could, as stayed quiet for the rest of the time. Several minutes after everyone left, someone knocked on the door and called out. We held our breath and ignored them. We gathered everything that could potentially be used to protect us against bad guys and hid them around the room. We put down the mosquito net, prayed and then watched some of our new movies on the computor. I have to admit that I woke up more than once in the night thinking I heard something suspicious but I was quickly assured by a sleepy husband that everything was ok.
The next morning I was relieved that we were both still alive and intact. We both used the bucket in the living room to urinate and waited patiently for our host to show up. He did so around 10:30 am after we had eaten our breakfast of chocolate, bread, and cheese. We left all our belongings in the house, unsure if we'd ever see them again. We walked out into the village of Kazo during the day light and saw in front of us what many people may believe Africa to look like. The roads were extremely uneven, unpaved and covered in reddish dust. We saw the outdoor shared bathrooms which were the poorest we had ever seen. They were nothing more than a small space with a tiny slit dug into the ground. There were people everywhere in torn and dirty clothing. Children were running were running around in the nude or poorly dressed and they rarely had footwear on. The homes were less than shacks and in very poor condition. They looked like they could be blown over with the next gust of wind. Of course the area was also extremely dirty with litter everywhere and a strong odour of rotting food and dirt. Every single pair of eyes were on us as we walked through the village that had barely seen another white face. Some kids said hi, and how are you, some just stared, some laughed and others ran up to us in greeting. We walked to the place that our host was staying on the other side of the village. There were a few children there with several other adults that work with his foundation. Our host, along with six or so other locals have started an organization to help out their community. They assist children with food, money and medical treatment, they fight for free education for students, they look after the elderly and so on. Of course they are short of funds and other resources so this is always a challenge. The poverty in the area was in plain sight for us to gawk at. There was no hiding the under nourished children, the lack of resources, the unhygenic environment and the pain.
We went for a walk to the local market where the sellers allowed us to take some photos of them and their families. They seemed very excited to have visitors and even though some spoke broken English, they managed to smile big enough to make us feel welcome. We ate a delicious pinapple and walked accross the dirt field where everyone was hanging out. We walked through a long dirty alley covered in mud and garbage to a tiny room where three children were sitting on the concrete floor in dressed in rags. A very elderly lady greeted us kindly in her local tongue, she looked very frail and weak. Our host explained that this is one of the families that they support. This elderly lady looks after five of the local orphaned children. In her old age, she cannot do much for them so they rarely eat and when they do it is because the eldest boy (perhaps five years old) walks to the market after closing and pick up the rotton vegetables that have been thrown out. They boil and mash everything they can find, if anything, and this will be their meal for the day. None of the children go to school because they cannnot afford the school fees of 30,000 shillings ($12) per semester, per child. The children all drink water they find which has caused them illnesses. We interviewed the family on camera and took many photos. Their home could not be comfortable for one person, let alone six. They all sleep on a small single bed and the rest of the area is covered in garbage. It is extremely filthy, with no electricity or sanitary precautions. There is no electricity and no running water. All of these children, in addition to millions of others in Africa, have lost their parents to HIV AIDS which is on a rampage killing the people of the continent.
"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"
After dinner my cousin took us to the beach area so we could take a walk down the pier under the moonlight. Tyson and I took a quick stroll, it is undoubtedly a very beautiful town, also one of the priciest in Southern Africa. It is colonized by Germans, so the street signs and shops are often written in German. Many of the enormous and luxurious holiday homes are empty most of the year. The owners just keep them as a place to stay when they come to town.
That night after my baby cousin Taeed went to bed with his mommy, the rest of us sat up until late chatting away. Sunday morning we woke up and had breakfast together. Then we had a Bahai devotional meeting where we met some of the local community. We said prayers together and talked through the morning. As luck would have it, two of the friends were going quadbiking in the sand dunes that afternoon and invited us to join them. This worked out perfectly because he picked us up an hour later after we ate a delicious lunch courtesy of my cousins. There are several companies that offer sand activities in the area, but we heard the one we used is the best. Tyson and I decided to share one larger and more powerful bike because he was scared to go on his own. So with Tyson and myself on one bike and our two new friends ahead of us, we follwed our guide into one of the most beautiful places we have ever seen. We rode up into the sand dunes in one of the biggest and the absolute oldest dessert in the world. The ocean sparkled on our right hand side, and we enjoyed this unique scenery because this is the only place in the world where the dessert meets the ocean in this manner. We marvelled at this phenomenon as we rode up and over huge dunes on our bikes. One of our friends was a bit slower on the bike and wanted to try to double so Tyson and I took the single bikes and the other two shared for a while. During this time, of course, I rode on the quadbike by myself. It was exhilerating and scary when the bike seemed to have a mind of its own in the sand and would veer where ever it wanted to. I almost ran into the very rare bushes more than once, luckily, Tyson managed to catch this on video. We eventually swapped back to sharing a bike and continued on for over an hour. We stopped at a couple points to take photos and help a lady with a possible broken arm in the middle of the dessert. This activity was one of the highlights of our trip.
Afterwards our friends drove us through Long Beach where the beautiful holiday mansions sit pretty until their owners pop by. In fact, Brad and Angelina, Pitt and Jolie spent their time in this area while giving birth to their children. After this we went to Dolphin Bay which is similar to Long Beach and then we stopped at Guano Island. This is a man made island, created to collect bird droppings for harvesting nitrate for gun powder. The story behind this man who created the island is that he noticed when the tide was low, the birds would gather on the rocks and waste all their valuable droppings. So he built this permanent dry spot where the birds now gather. After spending all his money, that of the banks, and that of anyone else who listened to him, he went bankrupt without finishing. Later on he found a man from the US who invested enough to allow him to finish his project and make enough money in the first year to pay off all his debts and not worry about cash again. The Island sits untouched by man most of the year and when the birds migrate, they harvest the guana. Wish I had though of that.
After that we went to Walvis Bay where they have the most efficient port in the world. At other ports in the world, a container, once offloaded, sits in a yard for an average of two months. Here in Walvis Bay, the average is only two weeks. This is their main resource. Unfortunately that day there was a planned power outage to upgrade their systems to diesel, so most places were closed. We stopped at a lagoon, where due to the high winds, a sail boat beat the fastest speed record. There is also a peninsula that blocks off the lagoon that grows further into the ocean an average of seventeen meters per year.
After learning all these fun facts, we met with Rayyan and Lewam to visit their friends in town. The couple we visited, have a grown child and the husband had recently suffered a stroke and was working through a new parkinsons diagnosis. We had a short but sweet visit and head back to Swakopmund. Here Rayyan cooked us to a five star steak dinner with salads, corn on the cob, mashed potatos and more. That night, like the others we sat, snacked, talked and bonded before passing out late at night.
Luckily Tyson and I are unemployed so we could sleep in but poor Rayyan and Lewam got up a few hours later and put in a full days work. Tyson and I took our time to get up, shower, eat breakfast, do laundry, fiddle on the computor and finally we called Lewam for directions to their Persian Carpet shop. She was explaining but then decided that it would be easier to pick us up. So we went to their shop in the center of town. They have not had a grand opening yet and are still setting up but it looks great already. We hung out for a bit and then Lewam closed up and took us to a Crystal Museam accross the street. Inside we learned all about how valuable stones are mined, polished, cut, designed into jewlery and other decor and created. All of the precious stones displayed are ones found in Namibia. Mining is one of the largest industries in Namibia and many of the folk in Swakopmund work in the mines. The area is very rich in Uranium. We also saw the largest crystal in one piece in the world on display. It was gigantic and I have posted some pictures of us standing next to it. We walked around for an hour or so and then went for lunch at a lovely place on the beach. The weather was warm but since it is winter the water was very cold. This did not however, stop people from swimming and hanging out in the sand. At the restaurant I had a burger meal and Tyson ordered a calamari ceasar salad which Lewam treated us to. We had a great time chatting and finally thought to head back to the shop. Lewam stayed to run the place while Tyson and I went for a walk in town. We stopped by several shops including the tourist office which was very busy. The lady behind the counter was an elderly German lady who went on about nothing but was very sweet. We got some information about how to catch a ride back to Windhoek the next day. Our choices were a twelve hour train, a pricier four hour tourist bus or a four hour local mini bus.
The town is very cute and small and everyone seems to know everyone else. The shops are quaint and seem like they have been around for a long time even though they are in great shape. There are no skyscrapers or even apartment buidings which creates a nice atmosphere. We were a bit shocked that many of the stores had metal bars blocking the doors and customers have to ring a bell to gain entrance for security reasons but we never felt unsafe.
Back at the shop, Rayyan arrived with baby Taeed and we all head out to buy some groceries. After that we went to a local pizza shop where Tyson and I split a large Swakop special with salami, ham, feta cheese and mozzarella. It was quite good and we all took turns playing with Taeed who was sleepy and wanted to interact. He is the busiest and cutest eighteen month old ever and we had a great time with him.
Back at the house, the adults sat up and chatted into the night. We sipped tea and ate bisquits and tossed back jelly tots. We laughed a lot and short of passing out on the couches we all went to bed. Again, Tyson and I did not suffer since we are on holidays but my poor cousins lost a lot of sleep during our visit.
In the morning we packed up our things and ate breakfast. We did some computor work and head out with Lewam to the shop to do some printing. Then we went back to the house to load some movies onto our laptop from their hard drive. After this Lewam took us to my Aunt's ginormous holiday home. It is an empty nine bedroom, ten bathroom fully furnished home on the beach. It is set up to be a bed and breakfast, and each room has a private bathroom, most even have jaccuzis in the rooms. There is a sauna, huge dining hall, tons of balconies and decks everywhere with a private brai. From the house, you can walk right onto the beach. My cousins are trying to sort out a bed and breakfast liscence which would be perfect for that place.
While I loaded movies onto our laptop, Lewam drove us to the mini bus station. The mini busses were full of locals and they wait until the van was full to the brim before leaving. So Lewam waited with us and made sure we were well taken care of before saying see you later. It was a very short but very special visit and we enjoyed our time there thoroughly. Tyson and I boarded on different ends of the van, Tyson in the back and me near the front. The driver finally drove off stopping at a petrol station and driving around until about thirty minutes later we arrived back where we began. We were confused but decided to let it go and after two more bodies squeezed in, we were off. It was hot and not the most comfortable but it was a safe ride and after stopping at several rest stations for pees, poops and drinks we finally got dropped off at my cousin's friend's home in Windhoek. Our flight out of Namibia was not until the next morning so we had to leave the day before and spend the night in Windhoek to make it work. My cousins kindly set us up with their lovely friends and we were so lucky to stay with them. We instantly felt at home with the young couple and their two young children in their lovely house. Soon after the husband's parents came by the house for dinner and we quickly worked out that his mother and my granfather are first cousins. It is not unusual for me to find a relation with any Persian Bahai that I meet but it was still very special. I felt an even closer connection to the whole family and we had a great dinner while chatting the whole time. We hung out late into the night discussing every topic possible including how they were the second family to pioneer to Namibia ages ago to teach the Bahai faith. Tyson got a wack load of new music to obssess over and he was able to put it onto our computor which made him happy. We took pictures and finally retired for the night.
The next morning our alarm assaulted us at 4:30am. We got up at 5am and left the house at 5:30am to catch our 7am flight. Our lovely host sacrificed hours of sleep to drive us the 50 kilometers to the airport and even waited with us until we were checked in and all set to go. We were very well taken care of and it was such a pleasure to have met them. After lingering in the gift shops and blowing the last of our money on chocolate we were, of course, the last two people to enter the plane. We slept most of the flight, while obviously waking up in time for the hot breakfast they served. We arrived in Johannesburg for a four hour layover, which we spent wandering, reading, chatting and blogging. On to "real Africa" as we have been told.
We were also the last two people on our connecting four hour flight to Entebbe airport in Uganda. When we got on the airplane, the pungent smell of body odor was unmistakable. Smells are not usually something that I mention in the blog, but as we got closer to our seats, I was in pain. I am not prissy by any means, but I had to get Tyson to inquire into switching seats. Just before I passed out, we got moved out of the odorous area to new seats. They served a big lunch and put on movies during the flight so we were happy. We also watched one of the most stunning sunsets on the planet ever in history. We have it on camera to prove it.
After paying $100 USD for visas at the airport, we were greeted by an American guy calling out Tyson's name. We followed the voice and met the American volunteer and our new host for the next few days. He goes by "Lucky" and he is a local guy who offered us a place while we are in town through couchsurfing. We followed Lucky, his other local friend (our driver) and the American guy out to their vehicle. The drive to their tiny village in te boonies was more like a roller coaster ride than anything else. We all chatted in the car while rap music boomed through the speakers and we sped through the streets like we were running for our lives. As I looked out the window at the thousands of people out on the dirt streets with no electricity, just small candles, I realized we were back in the third world, and I was happy. We stared out the window at the apparent poverty, at the tiny shacks, litter, overpopulation, thoroughly crazy drivers and flooding from the rain. We stopped to bribe a cop to let us past the traffic and carried on. It took us forty minutes to drive what should have taken several hours but we arrived in one piece which is a bonus.
We arrived to a village that one may see in the movies. This is what some may visualize when thinking of "Africa". Up until this point we had been staying at beautiful luxury homes in the wealthy uptown areas. This was our first taste of the rest of the continent. We were greeted by several men and one woman who work with Lucky on his campaign to help out his community. They are all volunteers who lobby the government and help the locals in any ways that they can. This is what we are here to help with as well. After meeting the rest of the team, they all left us alone in the tiny house by ourselves. It had two rooms, one living area and one bedroom with a mosquito net. As they left they told us a secret password and told us not to open the door for anyone. Our instructions were loud and clear, they said that even if the person on the other side of the door was being killed or dying, we should let them die. We were not to open the door until they would be back at 10am with the secret password. Of course there was no toilet in the shack so we were given a small yogurt container to urinate in through the night. So yes, Tyson and I peed in a bucket in the middle of the room until morning when we could dump it out outside.
We secured the doors as best as we could, as stayed quiet for the rest of the time. Several minutes after everyone left, someone knocked on the door and called out. We held our breath and ignored them. We gathered everything that could potentially be used to protect us against bad guys and hid them around the room. We put down the mosquito net, prayed and then watched some of our new movies on the computor. I have to admit that I woke up more than once in the night thinking I heard something suspicious but I was quickly assured by a sleepy husband that everything was ok.
The next morning I was relieved that we were both still alive and intact. We both used the bucket in the living room to urinate and waited patiently for our host to show up. He did so around 10:30 am after we had eaten our breakfast of chocolate, bread, and cheese. We left all our belongings in the house, unsure if we'd ever see them again. We walked out into the village of Kazo during the day light and saw in front of us what many people may believe Africa to look like. The roads were extremely uneven, unpaved and covered in reddish dust. We saw the outdoor shared bathrooms which were the poorest we had ever seen. They were nothing more than a small space with a tiny slit dug into the ground. There were people everywhere in torn and dirty clothing. Children were running were running around in the nude or poorly dressed and they rarely had footwear on. The homes were less than shacks and in very poor condition. They looked like they could be blown over with the next gust of wind. Of course the area was also extremely dirty with litter everywhere and a strong odour of rotting food and dirt. Every single pair of eyes were on us as we walked through the village that had barely seen another white face. Some kids said hi, and how are you, some just stared, some laughed and others ran up to us in greeting. We walked to the place that our host was staying on the other side of the village. There were a few children there with several other adults that work with his foundation. Our host, along with six or so other locals have started an organization to help out their community. They assist children with food, money and medical treatment, they fight for free education for students, they look after the elderly and so on. Of course they are short of funds and other resources so this is always a challenge. The poverty in the area was in plain sight for us to gawk at. There was no hiding the under nourished children, the lack of resources, the unhygenic environment and the pain.
We went for a walk to the local market where the sellers allowed us to take some photos of them and their families. They seemed very excited to have visitors and even though some spoke broken English, they managed to smile big enough to make us feel welcome. We ate a delicious pinapple and walked accross the dirt field where everyone was hanging out. We walked through a long dirty alley covered in mud and garbage to a tiny room where three children were sitting on the concrete floor in dressed in rags. A very elderly lady greeted us kindly in her local tongue, she looked very frail and weak. Our host explained that this is one of the families that they support. This elderly lady looks after five of the local orphaned children. In her old age, she cannot do much for them so they rarely eat and when they do it is because the eldest boy (perhaps five years old) walks to the market after closing and pick up the rotton vegetables that have been thrown out. They boil and mash everything they can find, if anything, and this will be their meal for the day. None of the children go to school because they cannnot afford the school fees of 30,000 shillings ($12) per semester, per child. The children all drink water they find which has caused them illnesses. We interviewed the family on camera and took many photos. Their home could not be comfortable for one person, let alone six. They all sleep on a small single bed and the rest of the area is covered in garbage. It is extremely filthy, with no electricity or sanitary precautions. There is no electricity and no running water. All of these children, in addition to millions of others in Africa, have lost their parents to HIV AIDS which is on a rampage killing the people of the continent.
"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"
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