I'm back

Back in Canada. Sorry for being so lax with my updates. Bad Jason!

Merry Christmas!

I've been in Mozabique for the past couple weeks and am having a wonderful time. Its actually quite cool as within 5 days time I was able to swim in the Atlantic and Indian oceans...pretty cool. The drive was nice and we spent the first night at Ben's place in Otse, Botswana. He and Rebecca are working with orphans, of which a majority are victims of AIDS. After that we left for J-berg to pick up Peter. It was great to see him as he's the first real contact with anyone from home I've had in the last 6 months...and he brought me a 6 pack of beer and a fresh papaya. After getting Peter and being lost for several hours in J-ber we headed east again and spent the night in Neilspruit. It was a relazing night and we crossed the border into Mozambique the next morning. It was a 3km walk and 3 hour wait, but all was sorted in the end. After that we slowly made our way up the coast stopping in Maputo, Murrungulo and finally Vilankulo. Yikes, only 10 minutes internet time left! It costs 10,000 meticals/minuts. BTW, I'm a millionaire. Well, hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and happy New Year. We'll be celebrating at our hostel, which is called Zombie Cucumber. Its a really nice place and the owner is an amazing cook. The menu for Christmas reads Yummy Dinner and Pudding! I won't lie to you, I will miss spending the holidays with family and friends :-( I just hope Santa can finds me here. Have a safe and Merry Christmas. Much love, Jason

End of days

As my time is Tsumkwe slowly comes to an end I can't help but think of the things I will miss...and the things I'll be happy to leave behind. Both have made my experience what it is.

I'll definitely miss horseback rides at the lodge. I usually went riding with Sone (and sometimes Arno as well) a few times a week. It was always a hot sweaty walk down to the lodge after a not always pleasant day at school. But all would be forgotten as we'd spend a few hours crashing through the bush and occasionally seeing some elephants or other game. The abundant thorn trees also help give me jeans those perfect runway rips and wear.
I won't miss being the cooler at school. The cooler in that I had to regularly break up fights between learners because no teachers were around...or they were hiding in the staff room. Although I did hone my reflexes dodging softball sized rocks tossed back and forth. Luckily I was never hurt, but I didn't make any friends by calling some teachers cowards for not intervening. You win some, you lose some.

I'll definitely miss children singing. The learners at school all have amazing voices and I can hear them rehearsing songs for World AIDS Day. The harmony...and well everything is amazing. I was lucky enough to hear these voice each morning to sing the national anthem or other Christian songs.

I'll definitely miss the smell of wood smoke. The sweet smell of wood smoke is always in the air in Tsumkwe. In villages most people still use wood as the primary source of fuel for cooking and keep warm. The wood here has a very different smell from home and is always around like a think fog.

I'll definitely not miss the chaos of organizing my visa extension through Namibian Home Affairs. I've spent the better part of 2 days there and have had 4 different answers to the same question "How can I extend for 7 days?". Luckily I was finally able to speak to a higher official and was narrowly able to keep my cool. I told them it was ridiculous that I had this hassle when I've given up my time to volunteer in Namibia. She then wanted to sent me back down to wait in the long lines again. I told her I didn't want to hear a 5 answer and she finally relented. So, I need to go in at 2 p.m. today and will hopefully get my extension. If not look for me on Namibia most wanted. Duh, duh, duh.

Next steps...this weekend I'll be going to Swakopmund with Brendan and will be leaving Wednesday (December 14th) with Michael, Kate S, Peter, Ben and Kate M to spend Christmas in Mozambique. We'll be staying at a place called Zombie Cucumber and I intend to spend most days on the beach, sailing on dhows or fishing. Can't wait.

After the holidays I'll be going North to Malawi - Tanzania - Zambia - Zimbabwe - Namibia. I'm super excited to see lake Malawi and will be taking a day long ferry to Tanzania. After that we'll be catching the Tanzara train to Dar es Salaam and spending some time on the island of Zanzibar. My return to Zambia will again be aboard the Tanzara train, which will take 3 days and cross game reserves. I'm told the 1st class cabins cost $25 USD and will become Ernest Hemmingway as I don my safari gear and drink gin-tonics. After that I'll be going to Victoria Falls and crossing back into Namibia via Katima Mulilo. Am super excited and hope to write as much as possible on my trip!

Take care,Jason
BTW, my email account will be changing back to my old jason_moodie@hotmail.com account. So please update your contacts!

Snippets from Tsumkwe

Here's a few snippets from daily life from my time in Africa.

- "What is that?" says Mr Nashipili. I reply that its called an iTrip and I can broadcast songs to any radio station in your truck. "In Africa, we call that witchcraft!" he replies.

- I was sitting at Trine and Anders' place yesterday and the thermometer read...40C...in...the...SHADE. Sweating isn't possible as it evaporates right away...welcome to the Kalahari.

- Horseback ridding through the Kalahari is the perfect way to get that ripped and used jean effect. Luckily there's an abundance of thorn trees and horses like to brush me against them. Anyone want me to weather some fashionable jeans for them? All it will cost you is postage! Speaking of which, I went horseback riding the other day with Arno and Sone...and we saw 11 elephants. It was pretty cool and we got quite close!!!

- I'm asked by some locals near Oshakati "Are you Ruud Van Nistlerooy from Man U?". "No" I reply. "Are you sure? You look exactly like him" I'm asked again. "Pretty sure I'm not him. I wasn't born in Holland and I'm not very good at soccer" I reply. "No, you are him! Or maybe just his brother. Are you his brother? Can I get a picture with you?" they ask. "But I'm not him." I contest. "Why don't you come play with my team this Sunday!". It was quite funny as no matter what I said they wouldn't believe that I wasn't him!

- "This isn't a school for hunters, hah!" Mrs. C tells the students at assembly. As it turns out some boys had been hunting birds with catapults (sling shots) earlier in the week and killed a bird. Unfortunately it landed on the roof of the school and they got caught climbing up to get it. They told the principal they were hungry and wanted to take it home to cook.

- During one of my labs with the teachers Mr. Kalonda stands up and yells "I'm the best, hah! Look at my score, I beat you all!". He just got 100% on one level of Typing Tutor, but it sounded like he's just won a gold medal.

- I finally made the tough decision to cut my hair the other day. It was way too hot and I was getting sick of wiping sweaty hair out of my face. So I had one of the police officers in town shave my head...feels so good! However, it was a little creepy as all the hair clippings mysteriously disappeared from out outside bin overnight. I'm not looking forward to seeing someone wearing my hair!!

Hope you enjoyed these! The last day of school is November 11th, then exams begin. I'll be in Grootfontein November 17-18 for an educational conference, then back in Tsumkwe. World AIDS Day will be held in Tsumkwe this year and I'm working with the activities committee. Its a day worth of festivities, with a sports tournament being held the weekend before. Should be interesting as most high ranking government officials will be visiting! After that my placement finishes and I'll be travelling until early February. That's the excitement in my life!
Jason

Some Pics and Update!!!

Well my holidays are over and I've been back in Tsumkwe for a few weeks! After Botswana Ben, Michael and I made our way down to Windhoek. Michael is leaving Tsumkwe so we had to move all his belongings and return one of his trucks. We all stopped in at the crocodile farm in Otjiwarango for lunch. The crocs were huge!

After arriving in Windhoek we dropped Michael's stuff off, booked into the Cameleon Backpackers and then went to Brendan (Netcorps volunteer from Canada) place for dinner. Little did we know it was his birthday and the people he's staying with had a party for him. He lives in an amazing house on the hill, with a rather steep laneway. It was a great dinner and we went for a few drinks at Joe's Beer House, El Cubana and the Tower Bar. Unfortunately we were all quite tired so it was an early night. The next day we picked up supplies for Fish River Canyon, but Ben and I had to sleep on Ben's floor because we couldn't get another night at a Backpackers.

The next day we started our long 7 hour drive to FRC. Luckily I was quite tired and slept most of the time. We camped the first night ouside the canyon, but woke at the break of dawn to start our descent. It took a couple hours to get down and the view was amazing. We clambered over the last few rocks and saw the river! After quickly dropping all my gear and clothing I jumped into the water. It was cool but perfect refresher from the long descent.

The rest of the first day consisted of bouldering and slowly making our way through the canyon. The first day was definitely the toughest and we made slow progress. Michael brother actually had cramps so we had to stop early the first day and got seperated from the other half of the group. We had a hearty meal of pasta and soy mince for dinner and all slept like babies, except for the crying part. The next day we finished the boulders and ended up at some thermal springs. Unfortunately the water was way too hot to bath in, so we sat at the end where the spring meets the river. The next few days consisted of fewer boulders (thank god!) and heaps more amamzing scenery. On the 3rd and 4th day we started to run into troups of baboons and dead horses. Luckily there was no correlation between the two and nobody was dinner. We also got lost going through a pass on the 3rd day and ended climbing a mountain to get our bearings. On the final day we ran into a South African guy who was too tired to continue and had to stop. His companions were a day ahead of him so we offered him food, but he was fine. He told us that the trek is much harder then Kilimanjaro...we'll see.

At the end of the canyon is Ais Ais hot springs...whnich was a perfect way to end out trip. I happily gulped down a cold beer and spent many hours relxing in the warm pools.
Well that about it for FRC, it was amazing and I would recomend the trip to anyone who visits Namibia! This week I'll be going for In Contry Training (ICT) in Oshakati and then to a San Conference in Grootfontein. I hope to copy my photos on my way through Grootfontein, so thank for being patient!
Jason

San Festival

Well school holidays started last week and I've been doing a little travelling. Last weekend I went to the Kuru Dance Festival just north of Ganzi, Botswana. The dancers were comprised mainly of San people and it was an amazing experience. I went with Trine and Ingrid from Tsumkwe and we were joined by Beth and Ingrid from the Peace Corp. We crossed the border just east of Tsumkwe on Friday August 19 (my birthday!) and made the 120 km trek across deep sand to the paved road. From the paved road is was another 200 km (or so) to the camp just north of Ganzi.

Friday evening consisted of fireside healing dances and was quite nice, although hard to see at times. After the dancing we went back to our site and prepared some of my famous chilli for dinner and had champagne. The chilli definitely has an African twist, as ants had somehow crept into the pot. All in all a great birthday.

The next morning started off will VERY long speeches by representatives. It was worth the wait as this was followed by children dancing. So cute! During the afternoon break we went into Ganzi to pick up more supplies, fuel and explore. Its a very new and clean town, not at all what I'm used to seeing in Tsumkwe. The rest of the day consisted of more dancing and games. I have many pictures and hope to post them shortly. After dinner on the Saturday evening they had several musicians, with the most popular instrument being a hand piano!
On Monday morning Ingrid and Beth caught a lift to Windhoek while we headed north to make the border crossing. Unfortunately the border closes at 3:30 p.m. so we decided to go a few hours north to the Okavango Delta. It was so amazing! We drove through swamp, mud, cow pastures, monkey filled trees, by elephants...to a beautiful campsite on the water. I haven't seen water since I've arrived in Namibia, so it was awesome to sit by the water and feel the wind of the delta. We basically spent the afternoon sitting by the water and sipped a cool beer. Heaven.

The next day we made our way back to Tsumkwe and since then I've been anxiously awaiting our trip to Fish River Canyon. We'll be making our way to Windhoek this weekend and will start the 86 km trek of FRC in Monday. After that I'll be in Windhoek for a week at the VSO National Conference...then back to school. So if I'm not quick in replying these next few weeks...SORRY.
All the best, Jeanson (my other new name)

Great White Hunters

Well, Ben and I are offically men! A few weeks ago we purchased bows and have spent a few hours honing our archery skills.

It all happened a few nights ago as we were on our way back to Tsumkwe. We spotted a Dig Dig, which is a ferocious animal about twice the size of a dog. As we drew near it turned its head and snarled, clearly a warning. Ben and I took carefull aim, as we knew a miss would mean we became the hunted. The first shot brought the beast down, but fearing he was playing possum we drove a few more into him. We then hoisted the beast and brought it to a local village for their cooking pots.

Evything is true...except a Dig Dig is a very cute minuture deer (please google it) and the arrow was our Nissan truck. We're actually not very good bow hunters, but deadly when behind 2000 lbs of steel!

Legolas