Lessons Learned in Namibia

As many of you know, I spent the last week in Namibia helping to train coaches on the new curriculum designed for Special Olympics Namibia and it proved to be one of the hardest weeks I have had since I have been here. There is a reason for everything and I believe that there are positives that come from life’s tough experiences (as me and my grandma call it “Character Building”).

There are a few funny things/experiences that I had this past week in Namibia that I would like to share. First, driving on the other side of the road is a little tricky. Additionally, a majority of the cars in Africa are manual transmissions, which I have known how to drive for almost ten years. Though coupling these things together made for and interesting first day of driving. We also had the cheapest rental car, so it is not like the newer manual transmissions that are easy to shift. I had a hard time getting the car in second gear, so most of the time I would shift from first to fourth. One time, I actually started the car in third gear which is pretty amazing if you ask me, but not really the best way to do it. I also almost pulled out into moving traffic because I was looking the wrong direction. Let’s just say, my first 45 minutes of driving were pretty rough! However, once I was by myself, I really figured it out.

A couple things that made it easier was when there are other cars on the road, or there is a stop sign when you turn, so you know which side to drive down. It is just pretty difficult in parking lots because people drive all over the place and I never knew exactly where to go. Also, the taxi's honk at everyone walking down the street, so as you drive down the road there is constant honking . It is hard to tell whether people are honking at you, but most of the time its at someone else. I did get a few angry honks and one of those times was when I gave up my right away to let pedestrians cross the street. Apparently, you don’t do that!!

Another funny driving experience is I ran more orange/red lights that I ever had. There is only two lights or “robots” as they are called here, that have arrows to help you turn. A lot of the time you have to inch out and then wait till the light is yellow or red to turn. The other difference about robots is that when the other drivers see that the light for the cross traffic changes to yellow or red, they instantly go. So when you are at a red light the vehicle next to you has already crossed into the intersection. It really does take some getting use too. It did feel good to be driving because that is something that I enjoy so much.


Secondly, I learned that it is bad to play with little kids and rub your eyes at the same time. I got the worst case of pink eye, I have ever had. On Friday I wore my sunglasses all day because of how gross my eyes were and how bad they stung. I was lucky because two of the volunteers that we were training were from Germany and they had eye drops for eye infections in their first aid kit. One of the guys I work with here in Cape Town is a doctor, so Monday morning at work I am going to have him write me a proper prescription. I definitely learned my lesson about being more careful about rubbing my eyes!!

And finally I learned that in Windhoek you had better not get sick Saturday at two o’clock as all of the pharmacies close at one pm, and they are closed until Monday. Even the ones at the hospital are closed. So it is really important to only get sick during the week, or you won’t get any medicine :)

I really learned a lot about the city of Windhoek and met some really great people. The training we had was for volunteers to pilot the HIV/AIDS curriculum for kids with disabilities. It really is a unique program and I look forward to going back and working with the coaches/volunteers to help in there delivery of the programs.

This week there is a holiday camp going on in Cape Town, so I will be pretty busy all week with that, helping out. I am just going to spend Monday in the office, and then I should be out in the Townships helping with the camp the rest of the week. I am positive that I will have a ton of picture and good stories to share with you.

With Love,

Sarah