Life in Okahandja

In Namibia you have cities, towns, and villages. Windhoek is a city and is as urban as it gets here. Okahandja is a town. In many ways it is similar to a town in the US. It has a main strip with grocery stores, convenient stores, banks, churches, the post office, town hall, etc. Like any place there are good parts and bad parts, but I’ve yet to feel unsafe. The biggest grocery store here, Spar, is quite good as it has pretty much everything that a grocery store in the US would have. The bar we volunteers frequent, Rhino, is also similar to a townie bar with a projector for sports games and serves decent food. Our version of Starbucks is The Garden Café. This is where we all go for a cup of coffee and WIFI. In a sense, we are pretty spoiled living here during training. Some of us will be placed in similar towns throughout Namibia, but many of us will be placed in rural villages where the nearest town could be hours away. Most of the countryside is savannah, tall grass with short trees and shrubs. What was suprising to me was the rolling hills. Namibia is not as flat as I had imagined. I’ll speak more about the countryside and wildlife when I actually get to experience more of it.

The majority of Okahandja residents live in suburbs which surround the town. Those who actually live in town are typically wealthier. There are also suburbs which are sometimes referred to as the ghetto where the houses are mostly tin shacks. However, the suburb that I reside in with my host family is in the middle. My suburb is called Veddersdal and is the farthest away suburb from the town center. The majority of the houses are cement flats. It’s pretty uncommon to see a two story home here. There are paved roads in my suburb, but many of the streets, including my own, is a dirt road. All houses have some sort of fence around it. For my home, you walk in the front door to a living room with couches and a small TV. Only 2 channels, but they love their Soapies here (soap operas). To the left is a bathroom and 2 bedrooms. To the right of the living room is a kitchen and the garage which is used as a bedroom and has a computer used mostly for games, videos, and music (no internet). Through the kitchen is a make shift room used as another bedroom. There are windows in each room, and the all windows have iron bars to prevent break ins. Overall, it is small, but very homey and I do feel safe in it.

I also can’t complain about amenities. We have electricity and running water (tap water all over the country is safe to drink). The kitchen has a refrigerator, stove top and oven.  There is also an electric kettle which is essential considering the hot water geyser is broken. This means no hot showers! To wash I pour hot water from the kettle into a bucket and take it to the bathtub. I add cold water and then proceed to wash by dunking my head in, splashing water on myself, and using a face cloth. It’s different, but honestly not as bad as it sounds. The same goes for not having 4G and WIFI at all times. It’s different, but surprisingly I really do not miss it as much as I thought I would. It is kind of nice not being connected 24/7.

Overall…Ek kan nie kla nie (I can’t complain). I have everything I need and can get pretty much anything I want here in Okahandja. I have clothes on my back, a roof over my head, and food to eat (and don’t worry, I’ll be sure to blog about the food here).