Namibia!

Friday morning, we boarded a tiny little plane that eventually landed in Walvis Bay International Airport in Namibia. As the captain came over the intercom to announce that we would be landing soon, all we could see out the plane window was desert. About one minute til landing, we were still seeing desert without any civilization... We were about to touch down and nothing was in sight until literally two seconds before we landed where a narrow strip of tarmack eventually showed up! We literally landed in the middle of a desert- all you could see was sand! The rest of the day, we got settled into our bungalows and had lunch at a local restaurant. We went shopping at the grocery story and just chilled. Saturday morning, we woke up to have class before heading out to take a tour of Swakopmund, Namibia. We drove past lots of sand... but don't worry because there were signs that clearly marked the sand, complete with exclamation points. We visited a local food market, the smallest museum I've ever seen (1 room), a salt factory (it looked like piles of snow!), and the various housing locations. We also entered a small settlement of houses that were made of scrap from the nearby dump. This experience was probably one of the hardest ones for me- I felt very overwhelmed by the extreme poverty. Many little kids would run up to us, and I felt so out of place. It did lighten up a bit when our tourguide tried to teach us multiple words in one of the click languages- we sounded pretty ridiculous! After this, we went to a local bakery for lunch before heading to Dune 7. Dune 7 is the biggest dune in the area, and it is pretty difficult to climb. All of us started out running up the hill and quickly realized that we were getting nowhere fast... We eventually had to crawl up the sand dune! lol Once on top though, the view was stunning! We could see so much more sand :) Also, going down the dune was quite an experience as well- one of our guys almost wiped out a small child due to his crazy rolling skills. After this, we showered quickly before going to a braai with other students in the CGE program. We visited this group of 23 at their location, and it was really fun to heart about their experience in Namibia. Sunday was our free day, and a group of us decided to go sandboarding! This was SO fun! We traveled out to a random set of sand dunes and geared up (helmet, elbow pads, and gloves) for our sand-sledding experience. We climbed to the top of the dune with our slabs of thick cardboard, which we learned how to wax, and got to sled 8 tuimes down the various parts of the dune. You went down head first, and the feeling was absolutely awesome! Our guides clocked us on some of the hills with a radar gun, and we got to do tandum rides as well. This was by far one of my favorite things we've done! Unfortunately, our group has been hit with a nasty sickness that has affected at least half of us in some capacity. It hit me yesterday, but I recovered this morning in time to go to the local fish factory. We also visited the port today and saw flamingos and jumping fish! We're in Swakopmund for the next two nights, and then we leave for another part of Namibia!
P.S. Taylor Swift has been playing over the loud speaker the entire time I've been in this internet cafe... lol