Life on the Farm

By Evan Carr

Following an amazing week with our families in the rural Khorixas area our homestay experiences for the semester are already over! While this is a sad realization I feel incredibly fortunate for the experience this past week, but also to be connected to three great families across the Southern Africa region. A huge thanks to Sarah, our Homestay Coordinator here in Namibia, and all of the staff for making this week a great success!

Returning from a trip into town.

Our schedule in the so-called “Damaraland” area allowed for plenty of time bonding with our families on the farms combined with ample opportunity to continue the learning process with our busy schedule during the day. Our homes for the week did not have plumbing or electricity so we quickly adapted to the local lifestyle of cooking over fire and open-air toilets, but we were also fortunate to experience stunning night skies thanks to zero light pollution. Daily activities on the farm ranged from playing with baby goats and donkey cart rides to games of Owela under the sun and hot cups of Rooibos tea around the campfire. Owela is a local game requiring strategy and wit that was traditionally played between chiefs to settle disputes in the community. Another highlight of my week was the opportunity to develop my Damara language skills. As my host grandmother, the head of my house, did not speak English it was important for me to pick up some phrases in order to connect with her. While mastering the four clicks used in Damara presented a significant challenge, I was able to hold very minimal conversation in Damara by the end of the week about things like how I slept or how hot the weather was. Our week on the farm wrapped up with a big party where all five homesteads on each farm came together to celebrate the week and eat delicious food to our heart’s content. We danced and the sang the night away as we exchanged American and Namibian songs and dances with our families.
 

While we ate breakfast and dinner and spent nights at the farms, we spent our days together as a CGEE family. Some highlights of the program included visits to Cornelius Goreseb High School and the traditional court of Khorixas. The traditional court operates under the jurisdiction of the local Damara clan and mainly deals with domestic issues and theft, while other matters are left to the municipal court. It was valuable to see how people in rural areas integrate their traditional community structures with those of the modern Republic of Namibia. We delved further into Damara culture with a visit to the Damara Living Museum. In order to preserve their culture, people working there run demonstrations on blacksmithing, natural medicine, and jewelry making. Our trip also included a visit to the Twyfelfontein UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is the site of many ancient rock art drawings, and to a petrified forest. These excursions helped us to put into context topics we’ve discussed in our History, Politics, Environment, Religion, and Development classes.



My family for the week. Grandma Christa was the head of the house and the farm.



Following our week on farms in Khorixas we spent two days at Etosha National Park. This visit was capped by the sighting of a leopard that came right up to our van and let us follow it down the road for a few hundred feet. We were incredibly lucky to see such a rare animal (there are only about 600 in Namibia) at such a close range. We also saw lions, rhinos, many giraffes, zebras, springbok, and more! A visit to Etosha is a quintessential Namibian experience and it was great to get out there and see it with our group. I’m looking forward to our Fall Break next week and to catching up with everyone once we return to hear stories of their travels.

 

Not Windhoek, Inhoek

By Maddie Dilday

This week we took on the rural homestay at 2 different farms outside of Khorixas. The farm that I was staying on is known as Inhoek Pos. I had 2 host sisters who lived with us, one being 6 and one being 5. They were 2 amazing highlights of the stay! Whenever I was home, the girls were with me. We would play games, and run around the farm playing with the other children on the farm. The girls were my guide for the week! One of our favorite games on the farm was called Owella. We learned Owella on the very first night at the farm. Here we also learned how Damara chiefs used to use the game in order to solve conflict. The first game ended in a draw, but by the end of the week, Adelina had become a pro! I on the other hand am still in training.

The girls would also often visit “the dam”. This was where they got their water, swam, and provided water for their cattle. The dam also provided water for the wild animals of the area, specifically the elephants that would often visit. The dam was peaceful at times, especially when we would just be collecting water for the day. But the dam could also be lively! For example when the kids went swimming! They would climb into the dam and splash around, cooling off in the midday heat.

This is one of the open areas located within
Cornelius Goreseb school grounds.

When I wasn’t running around the farm with my host sisters, the students would be exploring and experiencing Khorixas. Of these experiences, the best was getting to speak with the students of Cornelius Goreseb High School. Having the chance to speak to students slightly closer to our own age was something different and interesting that many of us had not had the opportunity to do yet. The students were exactly like a high school student in the United States would be! They loved to hang out with their friends, liked missing class to talk, and were just beginning to realize how exciting their future can be. Many of our students were physical science focused students (In Namibia, in 10th grade you pick either hard sciences or social/historical courses to focus on and then continue on those specific courses until graduation and often times after.), which I found very encouraging as a current university science major. Aside from talking about classes, the students really just wanted to compare everyday life between here and the United States, which I think they found to be surprisingly similar. Overall, the exchange allowed us to have a new perspective when viewing Namibia, and the world around us. While personally, it made me think on the United States education system, and the differences, both good and bad. 

A picture of my host family during the end of the week party we had.
We all dressed up and had a great time.

My favorite part of the week was every night when the entire farm would come together. During these moments, the kids would calm down, and the adults would all come together as well. We would talk about the Damara culture, sing songs, tell scary stories, and share constellations in the beautifully clear night sky. These moments are the ones that will stay with me through the rest of my life, because these are the moments when we all actually felt like a family. Laughing, sharing, and having a great time together.