'I have fallen in love with Namibia'

| Friday April 9, 2010 00:00

I don't know where to start because I have been here for only a month, too short a time to say much about this town. My flight landed in what seemed like a bundu with no sign of civilisation. I was with another freshman, who also seemed to be out of his wits.

We were soon told that a taxi to town would cost us ND120. At first we thought it was a joke, only to realise it was either that or spending the night where we were, the Hosea Katuko International Airport, a smaller terminal than our Sir Seretse Khama International or comapred to OR Tambo in South Africa, the the busiest in southern Africa and possibly on the continent.

The airport was probably built here because it is the only place flat enough to accommodate such a facility, the rest of the surrounding country is undulating.

Our taxi drove for over 40 kilometres before the town - an attractive landscape to behold in a fortress of hills - finally emerged. We did not have an address for the taxi to take us; so we asked the taxi driver to take us where we could spend the night. He took us to a place called Gammums, a crowded ND120 a night bed and breakfast.

We actually breathed a sigh of relief when the nightwatchman told us the place was full, even though we had nowhere to go. We jumped into another taxi that took us to one backpackers' outfit where we stayed for the night, five of us in a room with as many beds. We slept soundly despite the endless mews and groans of cats outside.

The next day it was registration for all first year students and I was there at 0900 hours. I found a long queue marshalled by a security man who wielded battery-powered stun baton. I realised that I was in for a very long wait before I could go hunting for accommodation. In the end, the wait was three days, four, considering that I only got my student card and in the evening of the fourth day. My portrait in the student card is a perfect picture of my frustrations.

The university is situated on the outskirts of the city, a taxi to get there from town costs ND7.50. It is quite a beautiful institution, but, not an architectural marvel, nontheless good enough to inspire learning. UNAM has beautiful gardens to make one forget that it is situated in a desert, but it could do with a touch of repainting and bit of decorating here and there. Despite all this, the good news is that UNAM is ranked number 21 out of 100 African universities in the just released 2010 Africa University Rankings.

A 340ml Coke costs about ND8 and lunch at the cafeteria ND20 usually spaghetti with roasted beef or chicken. The question that begs an answer is how long a student can stretch the measly allowance at this rate? VAT is at 15 percent and foreigners can claim it back from the Ministry of Finance, which means keeping all the receipts!

The hunt for accommodation was disturbed by the slow process of registration that five days later, we still found ourselves at the backpackers' outfit where the gruffy voice of the proprietor told us to settle our bills.

They provided breakfast and we made a point not to miss it because we did not know where our next meal would come from. Hunting for accommodation was a painful process, one had to wake up very early to buy the local newspapers to scan through the adverts.

Some people were lucky and got good accommodation. For my friend and I, it meant having to literally go house to house to enquire. We actually got to know the different neighbourhoods of the town, among them Hochland Park, Pioneer's Park, Dolado, Academia, Rockie Hillcrest, Concodia, and of course, the famous Katutura, Namibia's version of our own Old Naledi back in Gabs.

A striking contrast I observed is the level of cleanliness in Windhoek, including its residential neighbourhoods. It is a far cry from Gaborone, Francistown, Johannesburg and Durban, to mention just a few of the cities I have been to. It reminded me of good old Bulawayo and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. Much as I hesitate to say this, I wonder if it has to do with the presence of more whites or a legacy of the colonial era because South Africa was much cleaner during the apartheid era. Moving around town I could not help but smile at the orderly arrangement of the malls - the Wirnhill Mall, the Maerua Mall and the others. I visited Namibia's Parliament Buildings next to the old State House.

I finally found a bachelor's pad in Komasdal Street in Pioneers Park by the help of a friend of a friend. In due course, I discovered another airport just a kilometre from UNAM, which does not only receive domestic and international flights but also has a pilot training school. The planes make quite a noise, but the greatest danger is of accidents should a learner pilot miss some operational step.

Namibia will be celebrating its 20th independence under the theme 'A Nation On The Move Towards 2030', which is also the nation's vision. There is a lot of importance attached to this celebration. Alongside other ambassadors, Botswana's ambassador here, Duke Lefhoko, was recently a guest at the local TV, Namibia Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), to narrate the countries' contributions towards Namibia's independence.

He acquitted himself well, but to say '...Botswana cannot be used as a launching pad...' is still difficult to explain. Hopefully, people will understand why it had to be so some day; or if the statement is true to fact.

The language barrier is the biggest problem. The lingua franca is supposedly English, but not many speak it well enough to communicate meaningfully. This limits my social interaction.

I do not understand Afrikaans, but owing to apartheid South African occupation, the language is spoken by the majority here. As for OtjiHerero, Nama or any of the other native languages here, I am hopeless.

I believe it is significant that since my arrival here, I have never been stopped by the police, searched or asked any questions pertaining to my nationality or asked for a document. It seems peace reigns supreme in Namibia and I have fallen in love with the country.