Did you miss the first parts. Read them here: Part 1, part 2
On the last day in South Africa we were told where we should spend the next year of our lives. My destination was Khorixas in Namibia. During my training in Norway I was told great stories from Khorixas by a previous volunteer there and I was excited to go there. Namibia was also the destination of the man telling me about this oppurtunity 6 months earlier.
Before heading out for our destination we had a few days in Windhoek with introduction to SCORE Namibia. We got the stamps needed in the passport (work visa), polio vaccination due to a outbreak of the disease in the country and introduction to the country spesific programs. The country manager was on Norway Cup so we were led by the head of the entire organisation. It was amazing to listen to his speaches (I think every volunteer have cried at least once by his words.)
I also remember we got a task to walk around in Windhoek trying to translate a list of words into our tribal language of our destination. My language was Damara. It was easy to find people speaking it, but very difficult to get someone to spell it. After a while I found a person knowing a professor in the language and he called him to help me out. I’m not sure that would happen in Norway, that someone called an acquaintance and spend a lot of time to help a stranger. We had been told that Africans never say “no” and that we had to figure out how to feel the difference between yes that means yes and yes that means no, but in most cases yes means yes. I’ll tell more about this in later posts.
We also got some introduction to the culinary treats awaiting us this year. We were taken to a local restaurant to eat “smiley” in a backyard and to a nicer restaurant in the city center to eat “mopane worms”. For those interested the “Smiley” is similar to the Norwegian “Smalahove”. It’s a goats head fried on open fire. When the skin shrinks due to the heat of the fire the teath apears and it looks like it’s smiling. The “mopane worms” is basicly dried and spiced caterpillars.
After experiencing Namibia as a far more quiet country and living a few days at Namas house (A house used mostly by Norwegian volunteers) three volunteers set of in the SCORE car with Stefan (the boss) to be let of in our communities.
Read the next post about arriving in Khorixas here
Or read our travel guide for Namibia here
