Blog July 2013 ABCs 3

Blog 7 – July '13 - Namibian Rebecca's ABCs Part 3

I read a quote by blogger Israelmore Ayivor that started “Once you can write an alphabet, you can write a book of 100 million pages…” I didn’t realise at the time that he must have left out the part about how tricky it is to not write the full 100 million pages. But alas, with this final instalment, my Namibian ABCs are complete.

Q is for Queen (the band). Normally I am not a betting person but when I found out that a fellow researcher had not heard of Queen, or heard Bohemian Rhapsody, I bet her that she was the only one in the bar that hadn’t heard of them. In Australia, I would like to think this is the smart money. As it turns out, it isn’t here. There were only about 15 people and she found one that didn’t know Queen. He was the first person she asked. I am now on a mission- by next week I hope that when we say Queen she thinks of Freddie Mercury and not Queen Latifah

R is for Recon. Many of my days look like a bad Hollywood spy movie. I sit at waterholes for hours waiting for wildebeest to arrive and if they do, out come the binoculars, the camera with a 400mm zoom lens and even a sound recorder with a directional microphone. The only things missing are a witty, yet useless sidekick, and McDonalds wrappers on the dash.

S is for Sunrise/set photos. There seems to be a never ending proliferation of photos on facebook of someone or other who is showing everyone that they love their city and like to exercise. It is usually a picture of a sunrise or sunset with numerous exercise related hashtags. I see those photos and I raise them #African sky #sunrise #savanna #morning walk.

T is for Thorns. Every tree here seems to have thorns and on most days at least one of my fingers has a splinter as a result of an altercation with one of these trees.

U is for Understanding. So far my Afrikaans is not really progressing. I can introduce myself and I can understand a few useless words, none of which will help unless I want to convey, without joining words, that ‘this morning I had a pleasing dream that I found a cloth on my tyre and it was near a drum’. This lack of understanding has, on occasion, had people trying to trick me into saying yes when presented with a question in Afrikaans, such as ‘will you shout drinks for the whole night?’. So far it hasn’t worked, I might not understand the words yet, but tone and the look of someone trying to pull one over are universal and I wasn’t born yesterday.

V is for Visa. Getting, and maintaining visas here is an ongoing saga and if for some reason I end up back home in October rather than November or December as planned, it means that my third visa of the year hasn’t been approved.

W is for Wakeup Call. Most days I am literally awake before the birds so I have to settle for a digital wakeup call. However, the ever helpful guineafowl in camp are always around on a Sunday morning to make sure I that my one day of rest begins at 7am and not a minute later.

X is for Xeric. If you look up xeric in the dictionary you will find that it means an environment containing little moisture, but I think “Etosha” needs to be listed as a synonym. It is so dry that bread becomes stale in minutes and I have all but forgotten what humidity means, let alone feels like. Summer back in Brisbane could be interesting!

Y is for Yum. When you live in the bush you get excited by little finds, or at least I do. So when mum showed up with Milo, Japanese and Thai curry pastes and Wagon Wheels the day after I discovered a supermarket (400km away) that has international goodies like Thai sauces, noodles, sushi rice and seaweed, I got excited. My pantry is so full that closing it requires determination.

Z is for Zebra Crossing. As cliché as it is, I have traded in the painted zebra crossings of the city life for real zebra crossings. These ones are infinitely better looking, although the pedestrians move no faster.