WEDNESDAY 2^nd JUNE (by Pauliina)

Meeting the Namibians

Having landed at the airport of Windhoek, we were taken to the house of Mr. Fredericks where we rested for a couple of hours. Then we drove to the camp center, Youth With A Mission. During the afternoon the Namibian students came in groups. Everyone introduced themselves, but it will take time to learn everybodys name. After all, there are over fourty of us here.

Our group:

The Finnish:              Laura, Katri, Lilli, Liis, Venla, Lauri, Iitu,Anna, Lotta, Anu, Laura, Riikka, Anniina, Hanna, Kata, Senja, Pauliina

The Namibians:     Adriaan, Llano, Ben, Wayne, Susanna, Cermoné, Charmain, Loretta, Vanessa, Renate, Zeno, Clerance, Kores, Maria, Salomon, Hugo, John, Collin, Yolanda, Revona, Dawid, Carlon, Norah, Steven, Jonas, Kailin, Martin, Sandy, Herwin

THURSDAY 3^rd JUNE (by Laura)

The second day! I still can’t believe I’m here… but I’m getting used to it, little by little.

Today was the official opening ceremony, which was nice. We got a little taste of the Namibian culture, with the help of some Namibian students and a great choir. There were also people from the embassies and the press, too. Many – quite long – speech were delivered to us too. The ceremony convinced me, truly, that this camp will be a success, if not more!

There’s a song by the Beatles that keeps popping in my head today, and it’s telling something about this day and the whole camp: “I was alone, I took a ride, I didn’t know what I would find there. Another road where maybe I could see another kind of life there.”

FRIDAY 4^th JUNE (by Riikka)

In the morning we woke up quite early and at first we had a “circle time” with Sammy, in which we divided into four groups and each group had to come up with a group name and a song. Then, after breakfast we formed two groups. One group had a media workshop with Heidi and the other art workshop with Krista. I was in a media group. I especially liked to draw the map of the world from memory and also the conversations of world crises were fruitful and interesting. In the afternoon we had an opportunity to whatch and learn pottery making by a cheramist who was working at the campsite.

Tonight the long waited Namibian evening was arranged by the Namibian camp members. Both, the Finns and the Namibians, seemed to enjoy it a lot. Namibians gave us different kinds of performances, like comedy acts and poem reading. Still I think that the best part of the evening were the different kinds of dances they performed. I could read in everybody’s faces, that the night was enjoyable for all of us. Now I can happily lay my head on the pillow and wait for tomorrow.

SUNDAY 6^th JUNE (by Hanna)

Sun was shining brightly right from the beginning of the morning, as it usually does here. After breakfast we took a schoolbus to a local church for a Sunday Mass. We all had our bright-white camp shirts on, that we got yesterday.  We received warm welcome from the church members, and the minister even came to shake our hands while the rest of the people were applauding to us. There was a big screen on the wall where people could see the words of the songs. It was like beeing in karaoke. The minister’s sermon was much more lively than those I’ve used to hear in Finland. The ceremony lasted two hours. After the ceremony we came back to the camp site.

Action started straight away at the camp site when the Namibians went to the art and media workshops and we Finns started to practise for our Finnish evening program. After dinner almost everything was ready for the forthcoming Finnish evening – pictures from Finland were hanging on the wall, skies and ski poles were prepared, sauna was built and the joke-stories were planned. (We still had to open our voices at Krista’s and Heidi’s house. Soon the Finland’s national anthem echoed there loudly and high.) Then it was time to invite the Namibian guests to the ceremony hall. We started our journey into the Finnish culture from the winter season and it’s activities. After representing all four Finnish seasons along with other things ranging from tango to boot throwing, it was winter again, and, of course, Santa Claus arrived with his gifts. Everyone had a chance to sit on Santa’s knee and get their presents, and also taste some Finnish food like rye bread, reindeer’s meat and salmiac. Singing Finnish karaoke songs was funny but difficult for the Namibians, and a song called “Sutsi satsi satsaa” became a hit. I went to bed with smile on my face.

TUESDAY 8^th JUNE (by Lauri)

After the normal breakfast and the morning program, we started to study theatre and improvisation. We were lead by a young Namibian actor who insisted that we shouldn’t call him sir or mister. So, we played warm up games and then we got to the business. Everyone had their own paper and own group. The idea was that everyone in the group would write a new sentence to the story. Most of the stories came out completely insane and hilarious. So when we all got finished the stories we were divided into new groups and in those groups we started to plan how would we play the stories. So eventually when all got ready, the groups played the stories to everyone. It was fun to see what the others had got out from the stories.

So, after lunch we were joined by a teacher from the local arts school. He had a grey beard and a pony tail. He looked like a stereotypical movie director! The subject was script writing. We talked about the differences between scripts and novels. We were again divided into groups and given an exercise. The teacher gave us a scenario, there is a man who’s lost in the desert. He is completely exhausted and ready to give up. But then a raindrop falls into his cheek. He starts to feel hope again. So the idea was to write a script, so basically a story without adjectives, from this scenario. And well the stories came out pretty nice. The best stories got some sweets as prizes.   

So came evening again. But this evening was meant only for hanging out. So most of us were at the canteen for play scrabble or just to chat. We were joined by the leader of the campsite, who seemed to be a very passionate scrabble fan!

WEDNESDAY 9^th JUNE (by Liis)

I think we were supposed to go to Katatura, but the workshop came to us. And it was a lot of fun! We really got to make something to bring back home with us.

So we coloured fabric. I really looked forward to it because I hadn't had a chance to do it after.. first grade? =) First we drew a picture of a mask, copied it to a cloth and let it dry. After that we gatherd some small stones and coloured another piece of cloth with them. When the first cloth was dry enough we coloured it and had to wait, again, that it would be dry enough for us to scratch the white stuff off =)  And that was the most difficult part of the day. We also had to remove the stones from the second piece of cloth. Naturally there was music playing all the time we did all of this. Do even have to mention that, it should be obvious =)

After we got something to eat it was time for our movie evening. We got to see movies such as Mr. Bones, the Last Samurai and the Troijan. Whole day was a lot of fun and we really got to be creative and enjoy making something that will last for a long time.

THURSDAY 10^th JUNE (by Laura)

Today was the last day at the campsite, so we were completing our unfinished artworks and writings, giving newspaper interviews, taking sunbaths, cleaning, packing… So the day went by cheerfully.

Before the start of the evening program everything had to be packed. Only one backbag was allowed for the weekend trip to a coastal town of Swakopmund. The backbag contained only necessary things for the weekend trip, and the rest of the stuff were packed into other luggages that were left to the school over the weekend. Tomorrow we will be travelling through a real desert – exciting! Packing in the small four-people room succeeded without any bigger problems. You just needed to choose how many and which colour the t-shirts, trousers, shorts, bags, long-sleeved shirts, hats, scarves and other essential things you are going to take with you. With the help of the roommates these problems were quite easy to solve.

These past ten eventful days have been the most colourful days of my life! It is so difficult to put all of these feelings of this trip into words.

SATURDAY 12^th JUNE (by Kata)

If I had to describe this day somehow I’d say that for now it has been the best day of the whole trip. We were able to spend the whole morning shopping in Swakopmund or just spend time relaxing. I paid a short visit in the city centre with a group of camp members, and after that we went to the beach to fool around and have fun. Finally we were a group of people with wet clothes on but big smiles on our faces.

In the afternoon we headed towards Walvis Bay, a coastal city nearby Swakopmund, and the Dune 7. After sleeping fluently the whole bus trip I suddenly saw a huge heap of sand before my eyes.

Everyone started climbing up to the ridge. Those who had the best physics made it quite smoothly to the top and the others including me were heading slowly but certainly towards it. After few stops and desperate swimming in the sand I also reached the ridge of the dune. Then I realized that a bottle of water has certain charm to it, especially in the desert, despite how warm the water in the bottle might be.

I don’t even know how long time we spent on the dune, but every moment of it was worth gold for me. I don’t know anymore whether the best part of this experience was the moment when I finally reached the top or when I was just lying up there on the warm sand. Or was it after all the moment when we were rolling and running downhill back to the bottom of the dune.

On the way back to the youth hostel we could see the sun setting into the see and a group of flamingos standing in the water near beach. We stopped, and those who wanted, captured the moment with their cameras. Because it was our last night as a complete group, we got together at the end of the evening and performed our self-made camp songs. My group’s song was called “Summer oh summer oh camp”. We also played a game in which everyone had an empty paper sheet taped on his or her back. We started to roam around the room with pencils in our hands and wrote to the paper something nice of the person who was carrying it in his or her back. At this point feelings were quite down. After everyone had wrote something to everybody, we red some of the funniest ones aloud. After group-hugging it was time to clarify the following day’s schedule and to assign host families for the Finnish group members, where they were going to stay the last nights of the camp.

After a nice but a little bit sad day the campers started to move slowly into their dormitories. I think that no one had difficulties to fall asleep after such an eventful and physically tiring day.

SUNDAY 13^th JUNE (by Katri)

Today is a travelling day. Fortunately not to Finland yet, but from west coast-city Swakopmund  back to the capital-city Windhoek. Right now I’m sitting in the school bus; from the backseats I hear some of our camp members singing loudly some catching Rhythm ‘n’ Blues song. And in the seats in front of me couple of Namibians are teaching Finnish students to count in ten in Damara language.

In the morning some of the camp members went to swimming pool in Swakopmund while the others were walking around in the city. Before the journey back to Windhoek the last group pictures were taken, because today the Finns will be accommodated in the Namibian camp members’ families and the big group will fall apart. I feel sad.

After three hours of travelling we stopped to make some souvenir-shopping in Okahandja, where there is a huge market of carved wood. I bought two big wooden giraffes, one for me and one for my brother, and a wooden fruit vase for my mother. Now I hardly have enough space to sit on my seat in the bus, because the bus is full of souvenirs and bags. There’s still one hours journey to Windhoek…

Now I’m lying on a bed at Collin’s house and finishing this story before I’ll fall asleep. I’ve had a nice evening. My host family members are really warm-hearted people. Unfortunately we didn’t have much time to chat though, because Collin and I were really tired and wanted to go to sleep early. We have to wake up at half past five tomorrow morning to go to school. Goog night.

WEDNESDAY 16^th JUNE (by Venla)

The Departure

This was the day; presents packing, hugging, have-to-get-their-addresses –day. The day we had to leave Namibia.

There were still so many issues to solve, sights to see, people to meet and places to visit. Unfortunately, the time was running out.

The last day was a little bit chaotic. There were so many things that were supposed to be done, but no one knew what they were, how to handle them or from whom to ask for advice. So either nothing happened, or I just didn’t pay enough attention.

There were no things to separate and divide us anymore. There were things only to unite us. It made the departure little more easier, because those things we had in common were there to remind us about the beginning of something new.

Finally we managed to get to the airport. Almost everybody was crying. It was dark and chilly night in Namibia. Our airplane took off and the last thing we saw was a beautiful view of Katutura and the golden lights of the city. Good bye Namibia, the smile of Africa.

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