Almost Over

I'm surprised you are still checking back after all my lengthy posts!! ;-)

I'll keep this one short, I promise.  We have now wrapped up all of the work side of things.  I delivered my final recommendations to the Chief, and everything is now in their hands.  It was all received positively, and all indications are they will follow through with them.  It will be rewarding if they manage to implement everything.

We managed to get a little shopping in today, and tomorrow is our last full day here and a designated "shopping day".  Awesome!!! Because I love shopping, .....or not.  Either way, lots of little items to buy for family etc. It will be nice poking through all of the shops and markets here.

On another note, I haven't slept well here either. It has been very hot and my room is like an oven.  I miss my central air conditioning.  Oh, and not to mention the rogue spider in my room.  Just like the one I posted a picture of last time.  I can't believe how fast these things run! I spent half the other night on the couch downstairs because of it. (no laughing Stacey!) After a few hours of no sleep, I convinced myself the spider actually died after I nuked it with bug spray. At least that is what I choose to believe! That said, ....not sleeping well, lol.

Last night we went to the infamous Joe's Beerhouse.  Hard to describe, but it is quite the place.  They serve all of the game meat there, so I tried an assortment on a skewer. I won't mention them all, but the crocodile kind of tastes like chicken. (but dipped in fish sauce???) ...not my favorite.

Tonight we are all invited to join Albertina at her house for dinner, it should be a lot of fun. For those of you who don't know, Albertina is from NamPol and was part of the deligation that visted APD just a few weeks back. Then on Saturday we embark upon our 42+ hour journey home. (egad, don't know how I will handle that plane ride).

Fortunately, we have a 12 hour stop over in London. We plan on taking the Hethrow Express train into the City and seeing a few sites.  (don't worry, I promise I won't start a wayneinlondon blog!)

It has been a lot of work, but a lot of fun.  I've had a chance to reflect on our Department, and the way we do business.  I have a new level of appreciation for all of the amazing work everyone does in Support Services.  For those of you from work that are playing along, you guys rock!  ...All of you.

Look forward to seeing everyone next week. But most of all I can't wait to see my wife and children. ...wish me luck with my pet spider, and the flight home.

Wayne

Experience of a Lifetime

We had a wonderful and extended long weekend trip with our wonderful hosts.  We did talk some shop, but the main focus was showing off this incredible landscape and culture, and having some fun.  We were all very tired, as we had been putting in some long days, so this trip was most welcomed.

After a nine hour drive, our first stop was in Opuwo.  It is in the North West part of the country, fairly close to the Angola border.  The main reason to visit this area is to see people from the Himba tribe, and there were a lot of them.  Our hosts hired a guide to take us to one of their villages.  Wow, hard to believe they choose to live the same way they always have for so many years!  Once receiving permission to enter, we met the head of the household.  It was an elderly gentleman. At least he looked that way, though it may be hard to tell as we learned he has five wives and 46 children! (I think that would make anyone look elderly).  We were treated to some very special insight into their culture and traditional ways. Way too many stories to share, but it was incredible.  They choose to live their traditional lives, which apparently includes not being counseled in family planning.  They said their form of birth control is age! As usual, there were lots of adorable children.  Tracy managed to teach a whole group of them to “pound fists” and high five.  Everyone is in love with them, but especially Tracy.  Quote of the day from Tracy; “Next time I come here won’t be for work, but to adopt a child”.  Very cool.

From Opuwo we drove the Chief’s “home” which is also located in the North, about a 3 hour drive away.  Along the drive we experienced some of that great Namibia landscape, which included some wildlife and huge termite nests every 200 feet.  You won’t believe the size of these things! The photo below isn't anywhere near the size of the really large ones. Anyway, we were told before we started that they all have a house in Windhoek, but their “home” is in the North.  We were treated to an incredible two nights in his traditional Oshiwambo home.  Oshiwambo is the predominant tribe of Namibia, accounting for more than 50% of the people.  They still adhere to many of their traditions.  The Chief’s home recently had running water piped in, and he now has a flushable toilette.  That is as modern as it gets.  Still no electricity, and the “kitchen” is located outside. The picture below shows a few people sitting under the Lapa, and the little round hut to the left was my bedroom.  It was an unbelievable experience to be welcomed into their homes.  Tracy and I were laughed at as we wanted to sit under the hot African sun so we could get a tan.  None of the local people could believe it, so they all laughed, pointed, and took pictures of us. Once again, way too many stories to share.  Some of the highlights however were meeting the Chief’s mother, and we all received Oshiwambo  names.  Mine is Tupopcheny (still not sure of the spelling), but I’m told it means “Let’s Talk”. (no unkind remarks Jane and Elaine!)  And I can’t leave out one more little tidbit.  The Chief’s home is a traditional farm.  The main food source is meat, which I've mentioned before.  The main course for our big party meal was goat.  Which meant two lovely fresh goats would have to be slaughtered. (Jane, don’t read this part).  Tracy was given the honour to complete this task for one of them, and …..well I’ll leave out the gory details.  On another note, I asked one of them how a vegetarian would survive here, ….I was told there aren’t any vegetarians in Namibia!

Last stop, Etosha!  It is a wildlife reserve approximately 2/3 the size of Vancouver Island.  Wow, what an experience.  It is probably easier to tell you what animals we didn’t see. ….which would be Cheetah and Leopard.  We spent two nights there.  The first night, we stayed at one of the lodges where Rick had been before.  Rick had told me a story about a spider he found in the bathroom the last time he stayed there.  So, he decided to “clear” the room for me.  Suddenly he yells, “not again”!  OMG! …Stacey may not want to look at that photo below.

One of the interesting (and somewhat disappointing) things I learned is that the entire park, all 23,000km of it, is fenced in.  The animals are essentially trapped.  Once you enter though, you realize they are still wild and living in a huge area. The fact is, most of Namibia is privately owned.  In other words, there is very little “Crown Land”.  Most of the wildlife (not all) is either on private game farms, or in Etosha.  The Chief’s home up North is surrounded by wood stakes.  They serve a number of purposes, however one function was to protect them from the wildlife.  The fact is most of the animals were being killed for a variety of reasons. So in the 60’s, they created Etosha.  They drove all of the wild animals, using helicopters, over hundreds of kilometers and herded them into Etosha to protect them.  And that is how it is today. In fact, I am now aware that this isn’t unique to just Namibia, but other parts of Africa as well.  That said, it was still truly incredible and an experience of a lifetime.

I’ve posted lots of pictures of our journey for you, and I apologize for the long post but it has been a while since I’ve updated this.

We only have a few days left, and a couple of long work days ahead. It has been a great trip, but a long one.  I don’t mind sharing with you how much I miss my wonderful wife and family. It is very tough being this far away from them.  …..I’ll be home soon sweetheart.

Once again, sorry for the long post.

Wayne

Progress

Hard to believe so much time has passed since we arrived.  It has been a good week, with lots of productive work.  I have over four pages of recommendations to provide them with so far, and was pleased with some of the progress we made.  At one of my presentations today, I received a lot of positive comments about my observations and they seem not only receptive, but eager for change.  All great stuff!

Last night we went to the trade fair.  Essentially their version of our PNE, except without the rides.  It is still a true agricultural fair. I figured that out when Tracy and I saw two very large sides of beef hanging near one of the entrances with a sign indicating they won the slaughter competition!

One exhibit we really enjoyed was about snakes.  We got to see all the deadly snakes of Africa, and a few others as well.  One of the highlights was Tracy getting her photo taken with a snake around her neck! How cool.  ....the low part of the day was arriving back to our residence, and finding a very large, and extremely fast spider on our wall!  Poor Rick, I made him kill it.  He was suffering from a cold, which is the excuse I'll allow him to use for jumping two feet off the ground when the spider made a run for it! ;-)

Among other work related stuff, we took a short trip out to a local school this afternoon.  The Chief's wife works there as a teacher.  It is in the Northern part of the City, and most of the kids attending the school are from the "informal settlements".  Beautiful kids...  The principal said they have almost 1,400 students from grade 1 - 7.  Grades 5 - 7 attend in the morning, and 1 - 4 in the afternoon.  Each teacher has appx. 40 students in their class. 

They have a meal program there, and we were there as they were serving food.  For many of the kids, it is their one and only meal of the day.  They were so awesome though! And very happy.  I would take their picture, dozens of them in the photo.  They would all charge at me wanting me to show them their picuture on my camera!  So much so, that I had to tell many of the kids to stand back because they were pushing each other out of the way, and I would make sure all of them would get a chance to see their photo! Once again, they were all so happy.  The best part was after one of my mini photo sessions, this little six year girl came up and gave me a big hug on my leg.  I knelt down, and she gave be the biggest hug you can imagine, and told me I "was the best visitor ever".  ...note to my wife, I want to adopt about 200 children!!

We spoke with the principal, and he is going to get back to us with something we can do or contribute to help out.  It is tough for them to keep the school going, ...you can only imagine.  Last year, Rick and others pitched in to buy them a stove to cook the hot meals on.  Hopefully we can help out this time as well.

So, the next time you hear from me will be with some photos of our safari and trip up North!  Hopefully the anti-malaria medication that I started today won't give me any of those dreams!

Wayne

The week so far

It is turning out to be a busy week this week (again), which is good.  We are really getting down to some good work that should go a long way to helping our friends.  We spent yesterday morning over at Nampol to get a perspective on how everything fits in with the City Police.  They have some great plans ahead with their E-Policing project.  That said, it appears everyone is trying to go from the Flintstones to the Jetsons all in one go.  The current practice and system for both departments is very much a manual one.  In fact, it doesn't paint an accurate picture describing it like that.  At Nampol we also saw their Records room, which is actually just fingerprints classified and filed away manually. We also saw their main Communications room for the area.  As they transition into E-Policing, they will be making some great strides.  Great work on their part for sure.

I had another presentation in the afternoon, and I'll have another one tomorrow morning (Wednesday).  We have been compiling a long list of recommendations for them as well, as we start to understand their business processes.  In some ways, I wish we had more time here to work with them.  They are very willing to accept ideas, which is great..

As the Chief mentioned last night at dinner, they are the youngest Country in Africa, and they are a very young police force.  They have done an amazing job here given where they have come from, but they certainly have a way to go as well.

The work side is rewarding, I'm hoping we make a difference.  As I've mentioned earlier, we have had some long days between work and some of the dinners we have gone to, but it has all been good.  They've made sure we get to soak in some of the culture, and the sights. 

I'm really looking forward to this weekend as we head up North, and into Etosha.  It will be a very cool experience, and we are fortunate to get a couple of extra days off to experience it.  Great hosts, and extremely nice people and culture....

From Baboons to Dunes

We had some R&R this weekend, and a lot of fun.  Namibia is the most diverse country I've ever seen. As we left the City bright and early yesterday morning, we managed to spot our first real wild life.  We saw quite a few baboons, that seem be a menace on the road.  Over the entire weekend, we also managed to see warthogs, kudu, ostrich, and flamingos.

We got a lot in.  After spending a full morning driving, we made it to Walvis Bay.  A very bizarre change in scenery indeed.  From the arid hills and flat lands around Windhoek, through a vast desert, ending up in the worlds largest and most golden sand dunes, that fall away into the sea. In Walvis Bay, Rick was insistent on eating at a restaurant where he had lunch on a previous visit.  ....after about an hour of driving around, and the rest of the passengers wanting to lynch him, he finally found it.  Though he did redeem himself because it was one of the best seafood meals I've ever eaten!  Not kidding, and I've had a lot of seafood in my life.  The town itself was, errr.... weird.  Never in a million years would I have guessed we are in Africa.  It looked like a seaside village in Central America. ....by the way, did you know that fishing is Namibia's second largest industry?  1st is diamond mining, and 3rd is tourism. Also, Namibia is the only country in the world that has sand dunes that go right to the ocean. (pretty neat stuff)

From there we ventured out to "Dune 7" where we took a guided quadding tour of the dune filled desert.  Too cool.  From there, we went over to Dune 7 itself, and with Tracy on Rick's back (I won't use Tracy's comments, at least not in print!) we hiked part way up the dune for a spectacular view.  From there Rick and I hiked the nearly 1,000 foot dune to experience a once in a lifetime view.

Back at the residence now, and ready to get back to work.  Which I'm sure will include some more of that fabulous Namibian hospitality in the evenings.

We'll have s shorter week as next weekend we'll head up North for another adventure.  I believe it will be a very busy week, so I'm not entirely certain when I'll be able to blog again, but I promise I will.  Oh, I promised Tracy I wouldn't post the picture of her on Rick's back going up the Dune. ....so you'll have to see me when I get home. ;-) (sorry Tracy)

Wayne

Copps 94

Had an interesting day yesterday, got some good work in.  Last night we were invited to participate in Copps 94. It is a weekly radio program they started about 6 months ago.  It runs from 8:00pm until midnight.  We go out in a long procession of vehicles, emergency lights on, and respond to the various calls throughout the City.  In between songs they interview the police to educate the community on various crimes going on around the community and how to stay safe.  ...maybe it was working because it was very quiet.  We participated in a road block where they had ALPR set up.  Interesting.  Running plates against the 50,000 outstanding warrants they have.  Mainly moving violations and parking tickets.  I have some interesting observations, including how officer safety is well, ......different.  We all wore bullet proof vests, without a trauma plate in it! Lol, guess it won't stop an AK47 anyway :)

Weekend is here, and it is bright and early. We are heading to the coast, to stay overnight in Walvis Bay.  We will be renting ATV's near "Dune 7". Should be very awesome to see some of the world's largest sand dunes.  Stay tuned for photos.

Wayne

Protein, Guns & Culture

I re-read my post from yesterday, and boy doesn't that sound depressing!  I said I didn't want to share anything else, and I still feel that way as it was such a humbling experience to visit that area.  I'll try and share some of the more fun stuff with you today.

On the work side, it has been going well. Although the funny part is, I never seem to know what we are doing.  We had quite the intensive schedule that was pre-set for us.  Rick told me not to worry about it, as it will change by the time we get there. And boy has it changed!!! By the minute.  We never seem to know where we are going next.  It is quite funny actually, but we are getting some great work done.

The other day we visited some members out in the field practicing their drills. Some of you may already know this, but Windhoek has adopted the Russian style of drill, and had formal training from Russia on it. ...hmm, never quite expected to see this in Africa!!!  I've posted a couple of pics below...

The other evening Rick and I were out doing some shopping.  There was a group of women from the Himba tribe selling their crafts in the open market.  I ended up purchasing some items from them.  It was a hilarious bargaining session!  At the end of the day, I think I ended up paying too much but they said I can get my picture taken with them! So I've posted that below as well.  The picture of me taking money out of my wallet appears to be rather incriminating I have to admit, but it was great fun. ...You don't see this on the streets of Abbotsford that's for sure!!!

Today we were out for lunch with one of our colleagues from the Police force.  Have I mentioned their entire diet seems to consist of meat??  Seriously, I've never seen so much protein served over three daily meals.  We were having a conversation and I mentioned that my family doesn't eat a lot of red meat.  When I said that, he appeared to be in shock!  I said we tend to eat a lot of fish and chicken, to which he replied "but fish and chicken isn't meat, you need meat with your meal!". Too funny.

So I get back to my room after my presentation in the afternoon and I get a phone call that they are sending a driver as there has been some confusion with the schedule. We are to meet with some media people at the Hilton.  Once again, another change to "the program".  A traffic member showed up to drive me over to meet the rest of the group.  Oh my, I was so happy to see the hotel parking lot by the time we arrived!  I guess the fact I'm still alive to update my blog is indicative that all my prayers worked during the drive.

When we finished with that, we got back to our room to get ready for our dinner with the former Mayor.  .....so jumping back a few days, we were woken up in the middle of the night by somebody screaming outside.  Rick warned me the next morning that he was surprised it wasn't accompanied by gunshots.  .....so as we are getting ready, I realized I need a needle and thread to sew a button back on.  I figured since Tracy was staying at the Hilton (and we definitely aren't, which is a whole other story) she may have a sewing kit in her bathroom.  So I decided to call her and ask, and just as she says "hello" gunfire erupts outside of our complex!!  And I'm talking a lot of gunfire!! My immediate reaction was to exit my bedroom towards the stairwell, at which time I figured it can't be a real gunfight because there have been too many shots fired! Since the rest of my day appeared to be an episode of faulty towers, I started laughing.  I also figured Rick would likely stick his head out the window to see what is going on.  In other words, if he managed to escape his bedroom, everything must be ok!  I start laughing hysterically as I'm on the phone, gunfire in the background, and Tracy yelling at me "OMG is that gunfire? Stop laughing, WTF is going on!".  Just then Rick comes around the corner, laughing so hard tears are coming from his eyes, but composes himself long enough to yell out "I've been hit!!!".  I think Tracy ended up being most scared by that one! ...as it turned out, it was an ERT exercise in the grounds outside.  I choose to believe it wasn't a live fire exercise as there were children playing nearby out back. ....at least that is what I hope!!

After that we had an amazing dinner with the former Mayor.  They put on a traditional Namibian/African meal for us.  Spinach, porridge, ....and lots of meat!   We were also treated to a traditional tribal dance from a group of people that were from the same tribe as one of the other colleagues we have been working with.  Amazing!!! I swear if you closed your eyes, it sounded like the sound track to The Lion King!  Now that is Africa, how cool.  ....The best part, and it will be if you read my last post, is the group is sponsored as part a program from the area we visited yesterday (the informal settlements).  They perform at various events to earn a small amount of money.  It also keeps them focused, as they have to practice a lot to hold true to their tribal traditions.  Once again, truly amazing....  Time for me to get some rest, it is after midnight here and it has been some very long days, but very cool ones to say the least.