Acclimating to a new environment

June 7, 2009

After almost 20 hours on the plane and one night in Johannesburg I have arrived safely in Windhoek. My "boss" Christa picked me up at the airport with her sister-in-law. Christa was as nice as could be and instantly made me feel at ease. I of course managed to get car sick on my way into town, almost vomiting on the lawn of this woman with whom Christa and her sister-in-law had to stop to do business. Classy, Brooke. I was happy to arrive at the guest house to unload my luggage and finally get a bit of rest. My attempt at rest was unsuccessful though so I worked my way into the communal area of the guest house. I met a young Namibian woman who was also a guest at the guest house. She asked me if I wanted to go into town and I thought "what the heck, I need to get groceries sometime." This young woman dressed to the nines to go into town and I kept insisting that I only needed to visit the grocery store and the cell phone store. She had a purple satin shirt on with a tight jean skirt, stiletto heels, and some serious bling. I finally ditched her by convincing her that I had to get back to the guest house to work. But boy, did it take some convincing!

The city center was interesting. It is dominated by strip malls and people loitering around, especially teenagers. It was also horribly loud and people were driving like maniacs. One thing is for sure - pedestrians do not have right away! I definitely started to get a bit of culture shock. The languages around me were not English, I was the only white person and I'm sure I looked like a tourist. Upon getting back to the guest house I definitely wondered what I had gotten myself into.

Saturday morning I woke up feeling a bit better. I met a young German woman at the guest house and we went into town together to a museum and to the craft center where there are lots of local crafts. That afternoon I had plans to meet friends of my professor for dinner-Gwen and Reid. They picked me up with their three kids and took me on a tour of the city before we stopped at Heinitzburg Castle for an adult beverage. An old German castle on a hill, it has a great view overlooking the city. After that they took me out to dinner at this busy eclectic restaurant called O'Portuga.

Gwen and Reid were gracious hosts again as they picked me up Sunday morning to take me to the private game reserve, Daan Viljoen, just 20k out of the city. It was wonderful to get out of the city. The sky was bright blue (I haven't seen a cloud since I've been here) and I could not hear anything except for the chirping birds and the kids chattering away in the car. This was also my first time seeing some of the native wildlife. Our first sighting was immediately inside the gate to the game reserve. There was a line of about 8 giraffes following each other over a ridge in the distance. Later on the drive we saw the giraffes close up and I got a picture of the baby. We also saw warthog, baboons, blue wildebeest (photo on right), some kind of mongoose, and eland. There were also a couple of different kinds of antelope-like animals--I have no clue what they were! At the game reserve you can also get out of the car and walk around. We did a couple of small walks and Gwen and Reid kept saying "this is prime snake territory." I was terrified to be walking at the end behind their littlest girl. God knows she wasn't going to hold me when I jumped up on her back!! We successfully made it out of the park seeing only the animals I wanted to see.

Driving out to Daan Viljoen I got a better view of Windhoek and its vast disparities. The city itself has a small city center and is surrounded by different neighborhoods and further afield, township-like communities. Some of the neighborhoods close to the city center are quite wealthy and home to expatriates who work for the CDC, various embassies, and USAID, among others. As we moved further from Windhoek the houses became tin settlements where I am guessing there was no electricity. People were walking along the side of the road--to where, I don't know. Tomorrow marks my first day of work. My exposure to these disparities will become increasingly evident. But I am excited to jump in and learn more about the work that Mount Sinai does and how I can best help my boss.