We were broken down in the middle of the barren dessert of Namibia with limited food and water and miles to the next town when I officially completed one of my goals of Peace Corps: reaching Peace Corps Zen.
Peace Corps Zen is this calm that permeates from RPCVs long after service. In the face of any adversity, there is a stillness and calm, like the eye of a storm, that guides them through. When I first met RPCVs I could tell there was more than their experiences that connected them. After some time I started to call the grounded peace in the face of chaos Peace Corps Zen. Any issue was solvable, any problem, minimum.If there was a will, there was a way. Two years of creating change against unimaginable challenges taught them that anything is possible. And that, my friends, is what I wanted out of Peace Corps. In April of 2017 I could finally say I achieved it.
I just returned from a two week trip to Namibia with three other PCVs. We rented a car, packed it to the brim, and first drove South West to spend a night in Upington SA. From there we ventured to Fish River Canyon in Namibia, said to be the Grand Canyon of Africa. We spent two nights camping there. Joiwyn and I shared a tent which we had borrowed. It turned out to be a junior scout tent which was much to small for both of us and led to four nights of very little sleep and me undoubtedly taking up way more than my share. There was also a pool heated by a natural spring. It was fun to cook and play cards and enjoy the campsite.
From the canyon we continued up to Souselvei where the massive sand dunes are located. On the way we ran into a road block: a flatbed truck had fishtailed across the road in the middle of a hill. A bus full of German tourists were already stopped waiting. A pickup truck was backed up to the back of the flatbed with a pole running from the tow hitch to the side of the flatbed, and the flatbed was raised on a crank and some rocks. The pickup would slowly back up until the flatbed shifted enough it was pushed off the rocks and stopped. Then they would set up again and start over. The flatbed moved about 6 inches at a time and a little over an hour later, enough room was made for the (now 6) cars to pass through.
We stayed at another campsite that overlooked a gorgeous mountain range. When we drove to the sand dunes the next day I was amazed at how beautiful it was to see mountains on one side of the road and massive sand dunes on the other side, equal in height and opposite in color. I got to climb up a sand dune, and I was surprised at how hard the sand hit as the wind whipped it around the higher we climbed. It was a beautiful sight.
We then traveled to Swakupmund, and during this bumpy ride we stopped a few times. The first was to see a view point that many other cars and tour busses were stopped at. The next time, there was a strange light on the dashboard, so we stopped and went to turn the car off and on again, only to have the car not turn back on. It was about then, when I was calmly going through the inventory of our car and thinking about possible outcomes, that I knew I had achieved Peace Corps Zen. I had no anxiety and no worries. I knew we would be fine and that we would get through the situation. Something always seems to work itself out.
Luckily, someone drove by about 10 minutes later (we had been going hours without seeing another car before) who knew his way around a car (our manual was in japanese). Apparently our car battery had detached on the road (most of the roads were not paved and were very bumpy). After a quick fix, we were on the road again!. We stopped to have lunch at Walvis Bay, a sea town! Finally! The Atlantic Ocean! We also got to stop and watch hundreds of flamingos in the bay. I had never seen flamingos outside of the zoo before and it was beautiful to watch them in the water.
Swakupmund is also a sea town and, like much of Namibia, is heavily German influenced due to German colonization. We stayed in an AirBnB with an ocean view. It was a cute little apartment and absolutely perfect. We spent four days in Swakupmund walking around, shopping, relaxing, and eating tons of amazing food. Good restaurants are severely lacking in Bots, and we took full advantage of all the variety and sea food!
We also went quad biking (four wheelers?) on the sand dunes! It was incredible. We had a guide and then we all stayed in a line behind him, but we went all over the dunes. By the end we were doing figure 8s on massive dunes and it felt like a rollercoaster. I loved the adrenaline rush and I'm so glad we did it. On our last day we drove up the coast to see a massive seal colony at Cape Cross. There were thousands of seals! There was a boardwalk to separate the humans as we watched in delight as the loud and smelly seals enjoyed their day. It was fascinating to watch them interact, especially the hundreds of 4 month old baby seals.
We then took a turn East and started to head back to Bots. We spent two nights in Windhoek, the capital. It was a small but well planned city where we continued to feast. One night we spent at Joes which is famous for it's game meat. I've eaten a lot of different animals while I've been here, and mostly I like the large antelopes. We also ate at the Namibian Institute of Culinary Excellence, which was absolutely divine.
We attempted to go to the national museum on our second day, but their hours were unclear and it ended up closing 30 minutes after we arrived. Namibia was a German colony until after WWII when it became a South African colony. It only gained it's independence in 1990. The colonization period wrecked the country with wars and a genocide of the Herero and Nama people by the Germans. Going through the little we saw of the museum was a reminder of how much of World History, particularly African History, we are not taught in American schools. I will always have more to learn.
I was surprised at how happy I was to enter back into Botswana. A true feeling of homecoming. Even talking to the customs guard was calming as I could once again use Setswana to build a connection and illicit a smile. We spent one night with another volunteer near the border before finishing our trip. It felt so good to be home.
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