A very belated post: Bud & Peggy take on The Land of the Brave

Let me start off with an apology, as is the norm with my posts. This one is a bit more delayed than most... As I mentioned, my parents came to visit Namibia back in January; however, while recently checking through old posts, I realized that I never actually uploaded the post I wrote about their visit to my blog! I wrote it in a word doc on my computer and forgot to upload once the wifi was back up again. So, here's a post I wrote in January about my parents' visit :) I hope you enjoy!

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Alas, onto the final leg of our holiday travels and the final blog post about them! After our fantastic time with the whole family in SA, my parents and I headed up to Namibia for them to see my beautiful host country. Another big plus was that my host family from training was able to join us for most of the trip as well! We flew into Windhoek on the evening of New Year’s Day and hopped in our rental car after a slow start on the morning on the 2^nd. First up: Sossusvlei. The largest sand dunes in the world! The only bummer is that they’re at the end of the longest gravel road in the world. (Not really, but it felt like it at times.)

We arrived a bit later than planned, due to our slow start, and decided to go into the park to catch a glimpse of the dunes, since we only had another half day there. The park gates close at sundown, so the guard was a bit weary about letting us in so close to closing time (to those of you who read my blog post about my travels with Leah, is this sounding familiar?). We went in and drove to the closest dune and started climbing up it. After we got to the top of it, I told my parents that I really wanted to see Dune 45, one of the most famous dunes in the park. Initially, we decided that it was too far to get to in the limited time we had until the gates closed. I was a bit bummed, but it was what it was. However, after getting a taste of the first dune, I decided my desire hadn’t faded and asked my parents if they’d be willing to push it to see Dune 45. They agreed; my mom, reluctantly, and my dad… ready for an adventure!

Mom and I at the top of a tiny dune

Luckily, the road inside the park is tarred, so we could speed a bit and get there quickly. Once we got to the dune, we had about 10 minutes until we had to turn around to start the drive back to the gate. Naturally, I started running up the dune to try to make it to the top. After about 3 minutes running in the deep sand, I realized it wasn’t exactly a sustainable approach and slowed my roll a bit. We all enjoyed the exercise and quickly clambered back into the car for the speedy ride back to the gate. Breathe a sigh of relief, dear readers, because we made it to the gate with time to spare. It was a fun adventure in seeing the dunes!

The lodge we stayed at (Desert Quiver Camp) had beautiful bungalows that blended in well with the landscape. We enjoyed a sundowner outside of one of our bungalows and then headed over to dinner at our lodge.

Dinner consisted, in part, of a selection of meats ready to be grilled in front of you—everything ranging from chicken to zebra to beef to ostrich to kudu to oryx! We decided to be brave and tried most of the game meat. Unsurprisingly, it was all delicious. The ostrich was the best!

The next morning, we were up long before sunrise to meet up with our group that was going hot air ballooning over the dunes. I’d never been before and my parents hadn’t been since shortly after their engagement. It was a really cool experience and an amazingly beautiful perspective over the dunes, though my dad and I kept imagining the worst of the basket breaking out from under our feet! Regardless, it was stunning.

The dunes from above

After the ballooning, we hit the road to Swakopmund to meet up with my host sister, Lempie! After many more hours of gravel road, we finally made it and were received warmly by my fantastic sister Lempie. She let all of us (me, my parents, and her parents) stay with her, which was so generous. It was so much fun to all be staying in a house together and have that every day interaction. There is a bit of a language barrier between my parents and my host parents*, but luckily we had Lempie on our side as translator extraordinaire. My host mom Herodia speaks Oshiwambo, Afrikaans, and a very small amount of English. My host dad Petrus speaks Oshiwambo, Afrikaans, and a fair bit of English. Lempie is fluent in all three. My parents speak English and a teeny tiny bit of high school Spanish/French. My Oshiwambo isn’t good enough to translate conversations, so I was of no help either! (*Note: Namibia’s official language changed after independence in 1990. Prior to 1990, school was conducted in Afrikaans. After 1990, it changed to English.)

All of us in Lempie's backyard

Despite a bit of a language barrier, it was so fantastic having two sets of my parents from around the globe meet! There were lots of gifts and smiles exchanged. It was so great to finally have them all in one room together and seriously there was so much laughter and so many smiles, “I don’t understand”s, and “thank you for everything”s.

Meme and Tate's gift to B&P-- traditional Oshiwambo cups

The two sets of parents together

After the greeting and a first day of resting, we went out to explore Swakopmund the next day. We walked all around the beach and snacked from food trucks. We enjoyed seeing the beautiful sea and chatting. And we got gluten free pizza for linner (lunch + dinner), so life was GRAND!

After a few days in Swakop, we hit the road for Etosha National Park! We stayed for one night at Okaukuejo and one at Mokuti Lodge. Okaukuejo has a beautiful watering hole where we enjoyed sitting and watching the animals come to drink. Etosha is self-driving, so we enjoyed two days of driving around and happening upon beautiful scenery and animals. We saw loads of giraffe, zebra, antelope, etc. We also got lucky on our last day to see a couple of elephant just off the road! (I'm sparing you the wildlife photos, as I've already uploaded many in previous posts.)

Meme and Tate in front of the tower at Okaukuejo. They saw this in textbooks growing up, but this was their first trip to the historic site.

Sunset at the watering hole

Simply said, Mokuti was the most beautiful paradise-like lodge ever. We so enjoyed the luxury it brought and indulges in many nice swims and meals! We also all got mini massages and it was glorious. I definitely need to make my way back there again before I head home!

Sadly, we had to depart from the luxurious life and also part ways with Lempie, Joel, and Herodia. Despite the bitterness of the departure, we had a sweet new destination… Oshikulufitu village, aka my home!

We hit the road and headed for the village. We arrived a bit before dinnertime, stopped by to greet my foster family quickly, and crashed. We were so exhausted that I don’t think we even cooked dinner! It was a common trend during the village portion of the trip to just snack instead of actually cooking. We were all exhausted from our travels and just so enjoyed being lazy, resting, and spending chill time together hanging out. It was also super hot out in January, so the heat definitely makes you lazy too. My parents were absolute champs and managed to sleep in the extreme heat, too, with very minimal complaining. Thanks for toughing it out and visiting my home! J

The next morning was a Sunday, which is quite synonymous with church here. My parents were excited to see a Catholic service here in our village, despite the lengthiness. (They’re typically 2-5 hours). We got lucky with a shorter service and my parents loved hearing the amazing singing. I don’t know if it’s natural talent or what, but Wambos are generally great singers who have an amazing ability to harmonize! We then went to eat lunch at my foster family’s house. We had traditional food of Oshiwambo chicken (nicknamed “marathon chicken” because you have to run a marathon to catch it!) and mahangu porridge. We also had oshikundu, a traditional drink. My parents really enjoyed getting to try the traditional cuisine!

MeeJusty, my mom, me, and the dogs sitting down for lunch

Oshifima (porridge) and chicken

The next day, we went to town and my parents completely restocked me with all heavy items (since we had the luxury of a car!). We also got lunch with a few other PCVs and my parents were generous enough to drive all of them home to their villages—an extremely rare treat! We also got a dress made for my mom in town.

The road into our village

Traffic in Outapi

The meat section at the Open Market

Transport going back to some far-off village

I had to go to school a bit on Monday and Tuesday while my parents were here, as they were teacher institute days. On Tuesday, my parents also came to school to deliver the book donation which my mom organized and collected money for from many friends. My colleagues and principal were all so overwhelmed and overjoyed by the donation. To those who donated and to my wonderful mom for organizing, THANK YOU!!! They are already being well used here. It was so fun for my parents to get to meet all my colleagues and friends here at school. They’ve heard many stories about many people and now they finally had the chance to put faces to the names… and the same for my colleagues!

The staff at Oshikulufitu Combined School with my mom and dad

After visiting school, we just continued our slow-paced life. Gotta adapt to the vibes of the village and sleep when you’re tired, laze about when you’re feeling lazy, etc. My mom and dad were pros at adapting to those village norms J There’s not too much to tell from this part of the trip, as it was a lot of down time spending time together. But it’s precisely for that reason that it was so special and wonderful. I wouldn’t trade that time in the village with my parents for anything! It was one of my absolute favorite parts of my month straight of vacation. Mom and dad, thank you so much for everything. Thank you for visiting and thank you for a fantastic vacation. Thank you for taking so much time off and spending it sweating your butts off in the village! Love you heaps and bushels.