Katutura Quest

Thursday was our day for the "Katutura Quest."  Katutura is a black township that was created by forced removals and forced settlements in the 1950s.  Twenty five years after the end of apartheid, it is still all black, and shows the long lasting legacy of forced segregation.  The students spent the day in Kautura and many will be in Katutura for the weekend homestays.  

The day began when groups of 2-3 students set off about 9 am with a guide from Kasie Adventures (young Namibians from Katutura) to visit an NGO, go to an outdoor market, have lunch, use a taxi...  This is a great experience where the students get to interact with a person their age and start to get a feel for the culture, foods, and and lives of people in Katutura.  

Many similarities and differences--all striking at first.  From their guides our group learned that college life is pretty similar in Namibia.  They found they like similar forms of recreation, listen to a lot of the same music, have seen many of the same movies....  The differences are small and large, like the shape and size of milk cartons, few busses but lots of taxis, eggs aren't refrigerated (since their protective layer of oils is not washed away as we do in the U.S.), meat can be butchered in an open air market...  

The groups visited locations such as Hope Village Orphanage, an Old Folks Home (yes, that's what they call it), the Katutura Youth Enterprise Centre (KAYEC) (a vocational school), a state hospital, a Community Art Center, a Lutheran church that has several outreach programs, and a clinic of the Namibian Planned Parenthood Association.  Lots of examples of people and organizations focused on addressing the needs of the community.  

When asked for one word to describe the experience they said: fun, spectacular, eye-opening, enjoyable, connected, different, refreshing.   Many came back now connected with their guides on Facebook.  

Many of the group have remarked at how surprised they were that countries in Africa are so developed.  The view we get from the media (from National Geographic to CNN to movies) is that Africa is a place of wildlife, rustic villages, starving children, and rebel militias wreaking havoc.  And that it is one thing, one country, rather than a vast continent with the large variety of different countries, each with large cities with downtown skyscrapers and suburbs.  If the 'developed' nature of South Africa and Namibia is so surprising to Americans, then what do South Africans and Namibians think they know about the U.S. that is equally mistaken?  Perhaps we'll find out during the homestays this weekend