Our first activity for the community elders through the Pensioners Committee was a day trip to Etosha National Park. I was thrilled to have been invited for a free trip to the park. It’s only 100km away but without a car I had only been just the once with my parents in June. Thanks to our donations from FNB, Nexus and OK Food we were able to rent the Outjo Secondary School bus and take about 65 of Outjo’s elders along with some members of the CACOC and the hospital (me, the social worker and a nurse).
I was told to wait for the bus at 6am so that I can go and get the elderly from the old age home where I live when the bus had arrived. I walked down stairs at 6:05 knowing full well it wasn’t going to be on time. For over an hour me and the four elderly going from the old age home waited as the bus traveled through the locations and the squatter areas trying to find everyone who was suppose to join us. It’s not often that I’m up that early and outside but it was nice that the five of us got to watch the sky change from black to blue and the pinkish sun rise over the mountains (still think I would have preferred sleep). Once we were all in and set to go I snapped some photos of everyone packed into the bus, men and women in their Sunday best Damara and Herero outfits, it was truly a great scene.
About 30km down the road a commotion had started on the bus. The driver pulled over and all 65 elders got off the bus (with my help, as it would be for the entire trip) to relieve themselves. For some reason the whole scene cracked me up. Here are 65 people dressed to impress popping a squat in the bush as a group and still insisting on having and English/Damara conversation with me. Sometimes I just think “I can’t believe this is my life.”
After we all boarded the bus again we were finally on our way to Etosha. As soon as we entered the gates Zebras, Gemsbok, Springbok and Wildebeast overflowed the areas. It was awesome to see these adults act like children as they stood up trying to get a better view or pointing to a new animal. I loved that as I tried to take their photo (I was there to document their trip) they got mad and said “Amanda, what are you doing the animals are over there, we want photos to remember what we saw”, oops my bad. It reminded me of the bus ride from camp GLOW traveling north of Windhoek with all the learners as many of them saw their first baboon, here it was very much the same.
The community activist who had worked so hard in arranging this day told me that many of them had never been to Etosha even though they lived in Outjo their entire lives and all anyone wanted to see was an elephant. Namibia’s great massive elephant (larger than most other African elephants) many had only heard about but never actually laid eyes on. And so our mission began, to see and elephant.
We stopped in Okaukeujo and visited the information center which, was actually very educational on the different types of animals they have there and what made Namibia’s elephants so unique. They also had a decent display of animal skulls which was really fun to see the old men get scared of a lion just by looking at it’s skull in relation to a house cat. At the watering hole everyone just sat around looking at all the animals coming and going. As the day got hotter we set up under a large picnic area to prepare for our braai.
While we were all eating and socializing someone had told us that there was an elephant at the watering hole. Some of the older men and I jumped up and raced to the hole. There were only a few tourists there (which I think made the moment so much more special). As the men approached the watering hole they could see the elephant and their smile got bigger with every step. Two men started to cry and I asked what was wrong they told me “look, it’s so beautiful, so big, I’ve never seen one before.” I almost started to cry. I just sat with these men for about 10 minutes as they became awestruck at this elephant. Soon the others would join and many would have much of the same reaction. I couldn’t help but laugh at some of the women who got really frightened each time the elephant would move or raise it’s trunk or ears. I tried to explain that we were safe but my poor language skills and hand motions I’m sure didn’t reassure them. Then another elephant came walking over to the hole and as if the day couldn’t get better everyone looked at me with a smile and started pointing to the new elephant as if to say ‘look another one!’ And so the hours passed with us just watching the two elephants drink and bathe. A truly wonderful afternoon.
The only frustration I had was that many of the tourists saw all these native people dressed in their finest clothing and thought oh a photo opportunity and instead of taking pictures of the animals attempted to sneak pictures of the elders (many only stopped as they saw me glaring at them). People are not animals, if you want to take their photo just ask permission, it’s really rude when you don’t. I am very grateful to the two tourists who did ask for permission and then stopped to chat about what was going on and exchanged emails so that they could send their photos to the group, thank you I’m sure the elderly had no problem with you taking their photo but just the gesture of asking was very respectful.
I will try to post photos on this blog but have had trouble in the past. If you want to view the photos or donate to future events for the Pensioners Committee please email me. We are hoping to plan a trip next year to Windhoek (Namibia’s capital) to visit the old and new statehouses. It should be great as I’m sure many have never seen their government buildings or their capital city.
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