Namibian sojourn

No curves in Namibia

I was excited when I was selected to attend a course on human-predator conflict management in Namibia. A country I knew very little of, but was sure that it abounded with wildlife. The course would take place in the remote regions of Northern Nambia.

After a long journey (Bangalore-Mumbai-Johannesburg-Windhoek) the aircraft landed at the Hosea Kutako International airport about 45 km from the capital city Windhoek. I wondered if the airport would qualify as an international airport as ours was the only flight that was there. After filling in the necessary swine flu declaration (that I was not carrying the infection with me) and necessary visa clearances, my taxi headed towards my destination: Chameleon Backpackers, that's where I would stay before I would head north for the learning.

The drive from the airport to the city amazed me. The road was so straight and the landscape was dry with scrub forests all along. Signposts of warthog and Kudu crossings were common! The taxi driver Henry, a colored (of mixed race) spoke to me about Windhoek and his regular taxi life. Finally a 30 minute drive brought me to Chameleon.

The capital city had a population of 200,000 inhabitants, and the entire country two million! No wonder the streets of Windhoek looked empty. I spent the next two days strolling around in the city. Though the country does not have too many Indian faces, surprisingly I met Routrey and Firoz, two Indian Air Force technicians maintaining 'one' helicopter HAL had sold to the Namibian Air Force. Four IAF personnel have been staying here for the past 15 years training Namibians to handle this chopper. Routrey asked surprisingly "the high commission does not know of your visit?". He was under the impression that I had come from the Government, fortunately no, I thought. They updated me that there were fewer than 50 Indians in Windhoek, Taal was the only Indian restaurant in the whole of Namibia and other local issues were part of the introductory discussion. I felt they were also looking for someone from homeland to talk to. How long would they be talking to their team members of four!.