Back from Eiseb & Gam

For a small week we have been living in the bush amongst wild animals such as jackals, black mumbas, scorpions, spiders, cheetas and leopards. Luckely it’s not summer yet in Namibia so most animals are still pretty far away from most settlements and villages and vast asleep.

However, our trip with Henk Olwage was amazing. We have been living in a Herero settlement just outside of the small village of Gam, in the middle of nowhere where people are still pretty much self relient from hunting for survival and for example herding goats and sheeps. Using the Herero settlement as our basecamp (Henk Olwage had work to do here) we explored Gam & Eiseb sometimes on our own, sometimes with Henk and the others. The reason we came here was to create an image for ourselves and possibly for the film to realise what makes people move away from areas like this in the region of Omaheke and their decision to move to Gobabis for a new life. The main reason, we came to learn, is that people want a better future by going to the city. This is obviously something that happens everywhere around the world. However, most people end up in the slums of Epako. And this ‘better future’ thing is not so much meant for the parents themselves, but mostly for their children so that they can go to pre-schools, primary schools and one day to university.

The San

Especially the San people are still considered the lowest people on the list, and not many chances are being given to them. In fact, just one San child in the whole region (the region is twice the size of Holland) has ever made it past class 7 before dropping out because of various reasons such as obvious financial problems in the family, are being unable to get along with the education because of cultural differences and simply because they are considered the lowest people on the planet and therefore don’t get enough attention. I would like to add a quick note that one day I hope I can enter or start a project myself in or out of Gobabis to give San children a better future with education. The important thing (I think) is to realise where they come from originally, and how their culture works and start to build things up from there. They have been forced out of their hunting grounds and have been enslaved for many years by the Herero and others. And now they have to find different ways of living, but they simply don’t know how. Henk Olwage told us when we met arrived at a San settlement not far away from eiseb, that in the old days the San people had so much respect for nature, that they would actually talk to the wild animals before killing them for their survival. They were connected to everything in nature and understood it better than anyone (they still do). They would tell the creature “Sorry my friend, but I have to kill you because I have to survive too.” and more things like that. They would calm the creature down. It would would not run away from their presence anymore but the talking of the San soothed them somehow (almost hypnotic?) and would just sit down before they would kill it. Now that’s nature!

But now that they have lost all of their hunting grounds and their ways of life, they are suffering and considered more primitive than basically anyone or anything else on the planet, which off course is ridiculous because each and everyone of us is unique as a person and no better or worse than anyone else. Just different.

Starlight

The nights were great! I loved it. you sit there at the campfire, eating your dinner that had been caught and prepared that very same day and you share stories with the people. Even though some of them don’t understand English at all, some things are so universal that it just makes sense to everyone. Nothing else matters…

I also spend a lot of time with Henk while sitting around the fire and during the day. He told interesting mythical stories about Namibia ranging from voodoo and miracles up to tracking wildlife and learning to guide your way around using the stars for example, while doing so. We shared some direction finding techniques with each other and for me this is always an interesting subject. And when you look up at night here at the southern hemisphere side of the world and you see all those billions and billions of stars – including the milkyway – brighter then you can ever imagine it because there are no city lights while in the background listening to Jackals and other wild animals, just ask your self: what can be better in life than this?

A quick reminder of the wild

About a week earlier a black mamba (deadliest snake in the world) with a length of over 3 meters came in one of the settlement houses and was killed by one of the elderly kids of the camp. He took us out to the place at night where he had put the snake after he had killed it. It was just a quick reminder to always close your tent in these areas. A bite by a huntsman spider, black widow or a black mumba, or cobra, or a black scorpion for example is not something to look forward too! Also consider that the neirest hospital is over 500 km away and you’ll be driving over various gravel roads.

The long road home

Furthermore it might be interesting to know that this will be our last week in Namibia. Therefore most likely this will also be my final blog post while I’m still here. We will be flying from Windhoek airport on friday the third of september at 19:00 (local time) and we will land at 05:45 (local time) in Frankfurt, before taking the train back home where – hopefully at the latest time we will arrive around 14:00 (waiting time included) but probably a little bit earlier.

So, enjoy the last pictures below that I have taken in and around Eiseb & Gam.  I put the full collection on Facebook and a smaller collection here below. Next blogpost will most likely be from Holland!

I love Africa!