Turns out Swakopmund is taken from the Nama word Tsoakhaub, which means "excrement opening" describing the Swakop river. The town sits along the Skeleton Coast, so named coz of the thousands of shipwrecks along the coast due to often foggy conditions. The town also borders the Namib desert, which is called, "the land God made in anger." Early Portuguese explorers called the region "the gates of Hell," due to its harsh conditions. Does this sound like a great place for a Peace Corps conference or what? HA!
Anyway, it was kind of weird being in a former Germany colony, as both RSA and Lesotho are both former British colonies. The difference? Those rule-following, more polite(!) Germans left behind a legacy of better drivers who actually follow traffic laws, stop at red lights, and yield to pedestrians. Score: Germany 1, Britain 0
The architecture was better/more interesting, too! Score: Germany 2, Britain 0
"Unfortunately," both Swakopmund and Maseru have the same "non-consumer-friendly" hours for shops. That is, 9-5, M-F and then 9-1 Saturday, with some shops also (or either) being open Sunday 9-1. In a way, it's kind of cool coz it "de-emphasizes" consumerism, but I was bummed since we arrived Friday evening, and I was hoping to do some souvenir shopping after the Sat. morning "pre-conference" meetings I had scheduled. Luckily, I did manage SOME shopping. Whew!
BUT, in Swakopmund, a few, random shops did have Sunday hours where they were only open 5-7 or 6-7. This is actually kind of cool since it gives you that chance to go to the drugstore if you absolutely need something but allows employees/owners to not have to be there all day. So, final score: Germany 3, Britain 0. Sorry, Bex!
Other random/fun fact about Namibia: after Mongolia, it is the least densely populated country in the world. Although the size of Alaska, the population is about the same as Lesotho's (about 2 million), which is the size of Maryland. Rwanda, on the other hand, which is also about the size of Maryland, has 12 million people.
In other news, I added two animals to my "animals I have eaten list." Kudu and Oryx. The Oryx was a little better, but that could be because I had it in a restaurant, and had the Kudu at one of the hotel's mass-produced lunches. At the end of the day, they both looked like beef, and the tastes weren't very distinctive from beef, either. Had I not known ahead of time I was eating a different animal, I probably would have never known.
One ultra-cool thing about the hotel/entertainment center we stayed in was the fact that it housed the town's only movie theater - a small, two screen affair that rotated between 4 current releases. One of which was always a local/RSA flick. I managed to see "Jurassic World," (awesome), "Spy" (fun), "San Andreas" (so-so, but it's my duty as a California native to see all earthquake flicks), and "Mad Max" (fun/a trip).
What made "Mad Max" more interesting/fun for me is that it was filmed in the Namib Desert, where I'd spent the morning 4-wheeling before going to see the movie. The Namib desert is the only real desert in the southern half of Africa and is thought to be the world's oldest.
It was a trip being out on the desert. The vastness, the silence, etc. Coming across ancient, dried up sea/lake beds. (Bonus for you, Llu - I snagged you a very pretty white rock from one of those sea beds, so you can promote it as a rock from the land God made in anger). The other interesting thing about the desert was the changing color of the sand depending on where you were, what time it was, what direction you're facing, etc. If you haven't seen them, check out the pics I posted. Pretty awesome stuff.
Definitely feeling "blessed" to have had the opportunity to go to such a cool/unique place thanks to being a part of Peace Corps. Yay!
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