First Impressions of Namibia

Our plane landed in Windhoek in mid-afternoon, after a 15-hour flight. Most of the places I have been in South America and Europe, the first sight of the country from the plane is nothing special...Everywhere pretty much looks like everywhere else from a landing airplane. But not Namibia. The view from the window showed a dry landscape, with undulating, sandy hills spotted with browning trees and shrubs (July is winter/dry season in Namibia) and green oases of vegetation.

Deboarding the plane, I looked at my new home for the next two years. Rocky mountains surrounded the airport and the sky was clean-lake blue with not even a hint of a cloud in the sky. The temperature was cool enough to wear a jacket, but the sun was strong enough to make me sweat under the burden of my carry-on bags.

The airport is strikingly small for a capital city. There were two lines, one for Namibians and members of countries with which Namibia has special border agreements, and the other for foreigners. Processing took quite a while and was done by three friendly agents. Peace Corps' country director and administrator met us after customs to welcome us and collect our International Vaccination Cards.

We boarded a bus that would take us to Okahandja, a smaller town outside of Windhoek where Peace Corps conducts its pre-service training. We would be staying with host families, but only after a week at the training center. Our trainers and the hotel staff greeted us with singing and insisted on helping us with our luggage as we went to our rooms.

The first thing I plugged into the wall with an adapter (my electric shaver) blew a fuse due to my inexperience with using electricity in Namibia. There are kill switches by every outlet, which must be switched off when you plug in your electronics. Procedure is: make sure the kill switch is on, plug in your adapter, plug in your electronic device, then flip the switch on to make the outlet live.