Namibia!!

Namibia, September 19-23
Hey everyone!!! I just got back on the ship yesterday, September 23.
I really enjoyed being in Namibia. This is the first semester that SAS has ever docked in Namibia. Nobody on the ship (besides the hair-dresser) had ever been to Namibia or had any idea of what to expect. It was fun to explore all together. Namibia is coming into their spring now and the weather is still chili. During the afternoon the winds pick up and town becomes less and less busy. I thought it was interesting how, during the weekends, the shops close down by one and town becomes vacant. To paint a picture of most of Namibia, all I need to say is flat desert + sand dunes meets ocean.
All of the locals that I met and that had a chance to talk to were incredibly sincere and humble. There are only two towns that I visited, Walvis Bay and Swakopmund, but they offered an array of activities to experience. Some of the most popular to Semester at Sea students were, sandboarding, 4-wheeling on the dunes, camel riding, horseback riding, camping/stargazing, skydiving, and kayaking. I got a chance to explore the towns, talk to very interesting people, do some super fun camel riding, SKYDIVING and of course some great food tasting! I soaked in every bit of it.
The food in Namibia is amazing. I sampled different types of seafood, such as shrimp, calamari, fish, and muscles. I definitely give their different types of game two thumbs up. Things they might offer in an average restaurant might be zebra, oryx, springbok, ostrich, gazelle, and many more. Something that really surprised me was how much Namibians like their pizza. There are pizzerias everywhere! Its nothing like what they serve in the states. Their pizza usually has a very thin, crispy crust with a ton of different kinds of cheese, topped with fresh veggies, spices and meats.
I was talking to a cab driver about Swakopmund and Walvis Bay. He said that people from the two towns Walvis Bay and Swakopmund don’t mix and if you were to put ten guys from Walvis Bay and ten from Swakopmund in a bar together there would be a fight in about five minutes. It is interesting, and shows how people and their culture can vary drastically from one town to the next, not to mention one country to the next.
Namibia has only been its own country for eighteen years. Since the apartheid ended changes have been made to create a more equal society but there is still much segregation within the country. Those that are white have a much higher standard of living than those who identify with being black, colored, or Indian. Although the people are very friendly, there is still a lot of crime, mostly all instances of pick-pocketing, and ATM fraud. I was happy to not have learned this from experience.
Some pre-conceived notions that I had tuned out to be very wrong. It is not always hot in Africa (duh, not like it’s a big continent or anything). Many, to my surprise, speak German in Namibia. The cloths worn in town are like any you would see back in the states, not some exotic tribal garments. One day, I walked into a music store and asked one of the employees what his favorite music was, expecting him to pick up some African rap of some kind… he picked up Celine Dion, Usher, and an Afrikaans country artist (his top pick being Celine Dion J).
It was an incredibly surreal experience to be in Africa. I kept on having to remind myself of where I was. The people were loads of fun to be with and there were so many fun things to do. In short I loved Namibia!