The South Part 2: Lasers, Shower Burns, and Germans

After the salt pond yoga, we went to have dinner, which the owner- a Herero woman- made for us. Her family lives on the site with her and it was a great set-up. The ground was fine white sand (Anguilla-like) and there was a lot of open space. On the other side of the house is a craft shop, a couple of toilets (!! Luxury !!) and a makeshift shower--more to come on that.

So dinner. Passat sat a couple chairs down from me and was playing with his laser pointer which is an everyday activity. He reminds me of Pa and my mother- always making just a bit of trouble and distracting people with their shenanigans. So he's playing, shining it on unsuspecting people, and then I spot a cat. I asked Passat if he'd ever played with a cat with a laser and he hadn't. So he calls over to the 2 year old girl in Afrikaans and I can't understand what he's saying, of course. All of the sudden though, I see the little girl scoop up the cat which may be bigger than her and put her arm firmly around the belly so the cat is folded perfectly in half and looked quite unhappy. She struggles to bring the cat to Passat- falls a couple of times- but finally makes it. The cat of course runs away only to be caught again by the little girl. Same process all over again. But this time when the girl walked away Passat shined his laser on her feet. She ran away screaming bloody murder and crying---she thought she was on fire. Of course, Passat splits a gut laughing.

After dinner Britta and I decide to check out the makeshift shower. There's 2 stalls made out of stone. There is no ceiling so you can see the sky while showering. Nearby there's a huge pot of water constantly boiling with a pipe running up to the spouts above the shower. The pipe splits so that both showers can get water at the same time and you just have to unplug the pipe plug to start it. This all sounded so great. The stars were out, it was almost a full moon, and we'd never get another chance to take a shower in a place like that.

So we get our towels and toiletries and Britta shows me to the shower. I've learned on this trip that I cannot see in the dark. Not real darkness. Flashlights help a little but I normally need someone to take my elbow and lead me. Otherwise I am completely lost and confused and normally a bit terrified. So by now it's just Britta's duty to lead me in the dark. I get in the shower and the floor is cement but in a kind of dug out bowl kind of way. So the ground underneathy me is uneven but I figure I can deal. Britta goes in the other stall and waits for me to turn my shower on. First of all, the boiling water does not cool down on the way through the pipe. Burning hot water. And it's just a trickle so one part of you is burning while the rest of you freezes. Then Britta unplugged her side. The trickle turned into being a few drops out of my end so I froze more. I told Britta to fix it and she fiddles for a while. Keep in mind there's no electricity-- I can't see anything in the dark.

Instead of fixing the pipe, Britta accidentally tears the pipe divider off the pipe. All I know is that I heard a loud noise and the pipe chose to fall on my side- now it's a strong flow of boiling water on me but I can't see where it's coming from or how to fix it. So I of course crouch into the fetile position--and then Britta's full shampoo bottle falls on my head. If I wasn't confused enough already I was being banged on the head. Apparently while all of this was happening I was whimpering, "I'm naked. I'm naaaaaked" and thrashing one arm at the pouring water.

Britta runs into my shower, pulls me from my fetile position, wraps me in a towel, and gets to work on fixing the shower. Of course she fixes it because she's great at this stuff and there I was in the dark freezing and still whimpering. I finally got dry clothes on in time to remember that Clarke, another student, was brushing his teeth outside of the showers at the sink. He heard the whole fiasco and was now laughing wildly.

I'm better off sticking to conventional showers during the daytime from now on. An eventful evening.

The next day we went on a short hike to a small dune nearby. We learned on the way that the campsite was on an old German army base. This is where they fought and nearly exterminated the Nama people. I had been wondering where these antique-looking sewing machines, wheels, and water cans came from and I guess they were left behind when the Germans left. Also, when the site was being developed and cleared for camping the people found tons of old German guns and ammunition. When they dig now they still find more weapons and German supplies. It's really eerie. The dune we climbed was a lookout point for the Germans- they would communicate with other troops by giving signals from atop the dune and also could see if Namas were approaching. This wasn't all that long ago so it felt really strange to be on that dune.

Another walk on the salt pond and back to Windhoek!