Life in Nam: Week 4

On the road again…

Transportation in Namibia requires one to employ a creative combination of mission planning and fatalism. I learned this the hard way, when enroute to the Erongo Wilderness we had not one, but two flat tires. On my first day of driving in Namibia (in a manual Chevy Aveo on the left side of the road), we had a tire blowout at oh, about 120km/hr on the highway somewhere between Okahanja and Karibib. Ordinarily, this would not have been a problem, but when our spare tire started leaking, my Irish laborer and travel companion immediately went into MacGuyver/fighter pilot mode and said, “quick, chew gum and we’ll patch up the tire!”

Namibia = 2. Well-trained former Air Force pilots = zero.

Fortunately, sunsets here still look amazing from the side of the road. We eventually made it to our destination (8 hours later) and had a great hike and hearty breakfast.

Because of the distance between places, there’s just no rushing things here. Public transportation in Windhoek is basically nonexistent, so I’ve relied upon work colleagues, friends, a reliable taxi driver named Wendy (kinda like a boy named Sue), and as of a few days ago, a piece of sh$# Mazda I like to call “White Lightning.” Whatever, I have wheels.

Life in Nam: Week 3.0 "Work"

Numbers. Excel spreadsheets will make one think (and dream) a lot about numbers. I’m learning that regardless of the size of the budget, declining resources inevitably force tough decisions...and hopefully prioritization. Whether it's a $5 billion nuclear nonproliferation budget or a health budget in the millions, in the face of austerity, the questions and issues are similar no matter where you sit: how to do more with less, how to plan with uncertainty, and how to manage risk as resources are shifted.

I’m finding that more important than the actual budget numbers, however, is our behavior. How we interact with each other, how we use the processes in place, how we communicate, decide, kick cans down roads, discard processes, lay blame, give up... Our behavior directly affects our investment decisions. Sound processes and rational behavior should lead to smart allocation of resources. So why do declining resources force such dysfunction? And what’s the remedy?

Leadership. Guidance to steer the process and give direction.

(It occurs to me that I could just as easily have been writing about Congress as anywhere else on the globe right now)

Life in Nam: Week 3.2 “Play”

Ahh...Windhoek Weekends. Namibia is not for the faint of heart (nor for vegetarians). Just when you think you have the place pinned down, it surprises you. The past ten days have taken me to photography exhibits by local artists, salsa dancing lessons on a rooftop, a guest farm out in the Kalahari, home-cooked Ethiopian, Indian, and a “braai” with colleagues, and an outdoor concert headlined by an Irish boy band.

To try to compare this town to anything would be like trying to describe a combination of Burning Man, “The English Patient,” and “Friday Night Lights.” Although quieter than most capital cities, Windhoek is an intriguing mix of things one doesn’t expect. Varied languages on the street – from Afrikaans to German to Oshiwambo or San dialects (!Kung San). An evolving identity post-independence: ie. directions to Windhoek’s most noticeable landmark, Christukirche, requires driving to the intersection of Fidel Castro Street and Robert Mugabe Avenue. And you can never tell if a local favors soccer, cricket or rugby. Most locals are cheering for South Africa, rather than Namibia, in the rugby World Cup (sidenote: the South African "springboks" or "boks" just beat Fiji!).

This weekend was the much-anticipated “Hart van Windhoek” (heart of Windhoek) concert, an outdoor festival that brought together Afrikaner pop stars and the band Westlife – the biggest thing to hit Namibia since UB40. Westlife is not very big in America (if they are, somehow I missed it) but they put on a great show to a diverse, all ages, crowd of about 15,000 people. My three lovely guides for our night on the town were Lerine, Charene, and Nadine, who quickly taught me about the country’s obsession with pop music, Jaegermeister, and shots of cherry vodka.

On Saturday some work colleagues and I took an impromptu road trip into the Kalahari. Sightings of baboons, springbok, and Oryx along the way are very common. The Kalahari is surprisingly lush, although the clear difficulty for farming is finding a reliable water source. Farm Kiripotib is a working sheepfarm that boasts a jewelry workshop, carpet weaving, a guest house, and two runways! No shortage of interesting characters on the farm as well. Phinneaus, a master weaver of the San tribe, taught me how to play the traditional game of Ovelo. The farm owner, Hans George van Haus, is a private pilot who has had the farm in his family for generations. Each year, he and his very stylish wife, Claudia (the jewelry designer), host a group of international glider pilots. With any luck, I’ll blog about a glider flight in the Kalahari in a few weeks…

Life in Nam: Week 2

It’s spring here, and I’m loving the sun, wind, and lack of humidity. Given the three-day weekend, it was suggested I take advantage of the dry season and head up to Etosha National Park. I went with a tour group (renting a car by oneself is very expensive here) and we had incredible luck. Just a bit of what we saw: a herd of 20 elephants, a lion pride eating a dead kudu carcass (yuck, but also very cool to witness from about 20 feet away), a black rhino (endangered and typically very shy, that approached our vehicle), countless zebra, giraffe, wildebeest, springbok, gemsbok, spotted hyenas, vultures, etc.

Our group itself was a varied species: two German couples, a group of Scandinavian women, a Dutch guy, an older Italian gentleman, a Scottish medical student, and me, the American mutt.

Aside from the sunsets, the highlight was the Okaukuejo water hole, which at dusk was like a well-orchestrated theater. "Darwin: In Action!" First, the giraffes arrived, followed moments later by the elephants. Then lions, who scared off the giraffe, then much later, the rhino. Tough to pull yourself away from the scene, so I ended up watching for well over two hours. We went on a few “game drives” throughout each day and then camped in the park.

Note: springbok also taste very good as sausage.