Namibia: "Proud of their country"

"Back to Africa for the second time in a year, but this time to Namibia…

When I visited Ethiopia, I was struck how peaceful a country it was in a continent which is sadly experiencing the rise of rebel fighting in many of its countries. However, Namibia was just as peaceful as Ethiopia, if not more, and it was wonderful! Perhaps this is because it is one of the more recently independent countries and has such a small population spread over a vast amount of land.

Namibia is a hot, dry country. The words hot and dry are small, but the effects of these words are massive! I found myself, on a few occasions, waking up in the middle of the night, gasping for a drop of moisture.

The vegetation of Namibia is desert, so a lot of sand means that taking in a deep breath while taking a regular stroll down the road is probably not the best idea. A useful piece of advice given to me by a colleague was to take a pocketsize tube of E45. It saved my skin!

The SOS Children’s Village in Windhoek was just as I expected: Clean, well looked after and full of smiles. From the Village we teamed up with Philip (the SOS Children National Director) and Martin (the Child & Youth Development Coordinator), who “lived in a world of his own” according to our Chief Reporters Zoodes and Flora.

Traveling around and learning about Namibia from Zoodes and Flora was a joy - they were a very optimistic bunch with great ambitions for their futures. As regular teenagers, they found a few things boring and bribes of chocolate were required to keep our relationship ‘cool’, but this wasn’t the case at the ‘Heroes Acre’. From nowhere came bursts of enthusiasm and eagerness to tell me all about their countries leaders and forefathers. They were either, high on chocolate and fizzy drinks, or they were just extremely proud of their country. I think the latter!

Take a look…"

'Our Africa'

‘Our Africa’ is an ambitious project which sets out to let children across Africa film their lives the way they see them. Our teams have been travelling throughout Africa to capture children’s thoughts, opinions and ideas to present a new perspective on Africa through their own eyes.