Day 20 – Cultural Pre-port

Sept 17th

Cultural pre-port
After classes, we had our Namibian cultural pre-port, which explains all the ins and outs of Namibian society. We learned that Namibia is the youngest country in Africa, once it officially gained impendence in 1990. After years of German and South African colonial control, Namibia is now a sparse, desolate landscape of 2 million people. They have 300 days of sunshine a year. 90% are Christians, despite the presence of over 12 ethnic minorities. The official language is English, but we have been given language cards with German and Afrikaans to help us out. Professor Scott presented the pop culture aspects, which include the famous actor Nixan from ‘The Gods Must Be Crazy,’ the Jolie-Pitt offspring (Shiloh) birthplace, the fashion of cowboy boots, the contemporary dance of stomp and the popularity of hip-hop star ERAZE. They played a little of his music and I think we will definitely be getting a copy of his CD. ‘Lonely planet’ offered pertinent info also:

1) “Never pitch a tent in an open area along a riverbank as this is probably a hippo run.”
2) “When camping, don’t keep fresh fruit-especially oranges-because they attract elephants.”

I’ll have to keep that in mind during my soon-to-be camping ventures.

Highs and Lows
My “high” was finding out oranges attract elephants. My “low” was being unable to duplicate Goldie’s wild-bird calls, which would come in so handy.