It’s a funny thing to be stuck. You keep doing what you always do – talking, laughing, breathing. And yet you know that something is obstructing you, keeping you put. And when you suddenly decide to accept that you’re stuck, you begin to look around and realize what you’re actually stuck in. This is the […]

Because of all the CHEETAHS! But actually… Namibia has the highest population of cheetahs in the world, at around 3,000 of the estimated 12,000 left. That’s about 25% of the world’s cheetah population. However, 90% of Namibia’s cheetahs live on privately owned farmland, which creates conflict between the farmers trying to “save” their livestock and […]

“Olie, olie.” Laban dips a toothbrush in an old Stork fat spread container filled with chain oil and motions toward the bike chains. He then hands me both items.   For the first three weeks of the seminar, I, along with one other student, volunteered at the King’s Daughters bicycle shop in Windhoek. On the […]

When telling my family and friends that I would be going to Namibia over the summer, one of the first things that always came up was “Isn’t that country a complete desert?” And without fail, after I had more or less affirmed their suspicions, they would ask about water. How would I get any? How […]

Images shape our perceptions of places and post cards shape our preconceived notions. Upon arriving in Windhoek, there were plenty of different shops where right at the register would be an array of beautiful, scenic postcards of breath taking sand dunes, lions waiting in the bush, traditional communities dressed up in bright pink clothing, and […]

For the first three weeks of the global seminar, we were based out of Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. The fifteen of us were divided amongst four different volunteer internships where we went three afternoons a week after our seminar class. I, along with four other Princeton students, volunteered at KAYEC Trust, a Namibian non-profit […]

There is a particular pleasure in long bus rides on unpaved roads with eighteen other people. It is the sort of pleasure that isn’t like many other pleasures. It isn’t the simple pleasure of a cool, creamy ice cream on a hot desert day, sweetness dripping down the rough sides of the cone as the […]

Downtown Windhoek bustles on most afternoons. The sidewalks are crowded, store doors flung open, scents and sounds propelled by the people in motion. It is hard to take it all in at once; the city moves with people come in from the widely-splayed residential sectors of the city to conduct their business in the middle. […]

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