Life down south

Living in Mariental for the time being is certainly different from living in Northern Namibia.  For one the north is more or less homogenous with mostly the Owambo people living in that region.  Where as the south is pretty diverse with representation from nearly all the Namibian tribes.  For this reason you hear more English as it is the language that everyone learns some of while in school.  It’s also different because I think due to its proximity to South Africa and the Afrikaner and German influences the towns look more like westernized towns with town centers and many roads and multiple story buildings and garbage cans.  The towns however are much more spread out, for example you can drive 200 km before you see another petrol station.  In between the towns it resembles West Texas with sprawling desert lands of nothingness and mountains off in the distance.

I think one of the most noticeable differences too is the flagrant racism.  I first noticed it when we went  to a local hotel in Mariental and every single picture of the bars patrons on the wall were white, despite the fact we were playing pool with two black people and a coloured woman.  Then the following night we went to the same place (one of the few safe places to go out on a Friday night without locals) and the bar was filled with entirely white people.  However if you walked a few steps around the corner you would find a bar without a single white patron only black people.  Then over the weekend we took a day trip to the Quiver Tree Forest (they have aloe plants that grow over 8 meters tall), on the way we were lucky enough to be given a ride by a nice Afrikaner.  He was concerned though because we had no ride back to town and he was driving us 15 km from town.  We asked him if he knew the name of a taxi driver and he said unfortunately no.  He then proceeded to tell us that the problem with taxi drivers is that they are all black in Keetmanshoop.  We told him that was okay with us because we think black people are pretty cool, and that silenced him.  We then arrived at the Quiver Tree Forest and asked to woman at reception if she knew the number of a taxi driver and she proceeded to tell us that Keetmanshoop is a small town and they don’t have taxi drivers.  Which was funny because an hour ago while we were in town there were taxi drivers everywhere.  It’s just bizarre because in the US we strive (most of us) to be politically correct when it comes to race and so few people would admit to being racist, but it’s not the same here.  I remember in training our training manager told us that was one of the first things he wondered about each one of us when we came if we were racist and it made no sense to me what so ever when he said that. All of us signed up for the Peace Corps wanting to see Africa, but it makes more sense when you start to meet people here and see the blatant racist remarks made by some.  Life in the south is just a reminder that the Apartheid was not very long ago.