Life in the Fast Lane

Early Sunday morning, Ohangwena region loaded up into two bakkies (pick-up trucks) to head up north with all our luggage. The morning was filled with unexpected tears and sad goodbyes, but great excitement for what was ahead – village! community! school! settling! We knew what we were in for: an 8-10 hour ride north on the B1 with a Ministry official and getting drop off one by one.

The day turned more and more shambly as time went on. It included:

- listening to the same pro-SWAPO CD seventeen times in a row. Imagine listening to your favorite CD seventeen times in a row. Now imagine listening to the cheesiest Fourth of July CD you can. Think Lee Greenwood synthesized and on steroids.

- consistently driving 40-60 kph over the speed limit.

- crossing the Red Line only to discover that every guide book was correct: farm animals rule the land up here.

- watching a cow look you in the eye and decide to mosey in front of your 160 kph car anyway. Think speeding down I-65 and having an elephant plop down in the middle of it.

- braking way too suddenly for cows, goats, donkeys, and other wayward animals

- driving over double the speed limit down dirt/gravel roads...fishtailing the whole way, swearing the car’s going to flip or the tires will pop

- exchanging very heated words with the driver because apparently insisiting that he “slow down” doesn’t translate into Namlish

- us unloading all the luggage ourselves while he stood around, tapped his foot, and sighed

- successfully thinking on my toes and agreeing when he asked if I had a boyfriend in America; that made him jealous enough to slow down and protect my life a little better

The difficult thing about being in a foreign country and car-less is that you have zero control over your safety on the road. Of course you could insist that someone stop and let you out if they’re not driving safely, but a lot of times that will leaves you in the middle of the road in the second most sparsely populated country, where the next ride might be several miles out.

This year will be full of a lot of prayer that the animals become less stupid and the drivers become smarter. And patience in realizing when I’m too cautious of a driver and need to just relax because we will survive; so many people do. Just a little cultural adjustment, that’s all.

Rejoicing in being ALIVE!