Dec. 1, 2012 - Swakop and Mondesa

Dec. 1, 2012 - Swakopmund and Mondesa

I went on a tour of the township of Mondesa.   Its just outside Swakopmund about 10 minutes drive.  This is where the locals live.  Its the tourists and German settlers that live in Swak.

Our first stop was at the home of a Hereo women.  She was dressed in her traditional clothing.  This is a poofy long colonial dress of bright colors and a hat that matches the dress but has two "horns" at the front. The hat symbolizes the cow.  A very important piece of the Hereo culture as the depend on the cow for survival.   The house was very small.  It consisted of a small kitchen/living area, a bathroom and a sleeping room.  We sat on the couch and got to ask the women questions about culture and traditions.  Once our questions were done the men left the house and the women told me the secret of her hat and her age.  She also let me try on one of her dresses and hats.  We posed for photos outside her house.

The next stop was at a Nama women's herbalist shop.  We passed around smelled and tried all the plants, roots, dung, and rocks she collected to remedy different ailments.  Here we also got a click lesson.  In this region are the people that speak in clicks.  There are several dialects and even variations of the clicking.  The bushmen have 7 different clicking sounds that they use in their language.  The Nama and Damara use only 4 clicks in their language.  Our lesson let us practice these sounds and we learned a few words used these clicks.  Basically, there are words they use and then by adding a click it changes the meaning of the word.  For example, we started with the word om, you had one of the 4 clicks to the front of the word and the word changes meaning.  Words have 5 different meanings based on which click or no click is used. Interesting!

The next stop was at Damara home.  We got to meet one of the regional chiefs.  The chief is voted for every 4 years by their people.  We met Ouma Lina, and 87 year old women who has been chief for 9 years.  She is the first and only women chief of the Damara people.  

The last stop was at a local bar and dining room of the Ovambo people.  Here we got to try the local home brew which tasted a bit soured, mopani worms (large caterpillars), bean soup, prig (thick maize based doughy paste sort of thing), berries, and makalani nuts.  The people here eat with their hands.  So we all washed our hands and sat around the table.  They showed us how to eat the stuff properly.  You take a little wad of porridge roll it in your hand and then use it to stick the other foods or dip it in.  I had to psych myself up for the mopani worms.  They were quite large and scary looking...but of course I had to try it.   It was a little crunchy and a little tough to chew but it was surprisingly tasty.  Once I got over the texture it was enjoyable.  It tasted a bit like sauteed kale greens.  I had about 4 or 5 of em.
I did have to eat some mexican food for dinner just to wash away the caterpillar feeling.

I forgot to mention, the other day we stopped at a roadside shop in the middle of nowhere.  Here a Himba women was dressed in her traditional tribal outfit.  This consisted of a bit of cloth/leather covering the minimum of her bottom parts, no top, and her hair wrapped in leather and her entire body painted in a reddish brown paste made from pounded minerals.  The paste served as a natural sunscreen and insect repellent.

What I have learned:
Always take your doxycycline (anti malarial) with lots of water.  Otherwise you end up with a really really sore throat that feels a bit like acid reflux and makes it painful to swallow for about a week.