Day 2...A long road to Ongwediva

My purpose of coming to Namibia is to work with the MicroLoan Foundation (MLF), an organisation providing small loans to women entrepreneurs in rural areas of North of Namibia, Ongwediva. I have been initially asked to support the MLF team in implementation and strengthening of their financial and operational processes, as they had only been established a year ago. Two volunteers before me had put a lot of these in place and now MLF wanted to make sure that operations run smoothly while they are trying to recruit a Finance manager. Subsequently, the priorities changed, and I have been asked to assist with fundraising as well as financial management aspects of the operations.

In order to be able to do this I will need to split my time between Windhoek, where most of the funding leads are and Ongwediva, which is where the operations are. I will need to familiarise myself with how MLF operates, meet some of the women who MLF lend the money to and support Faith, the project manager based in Ongwediva, in any of the initiatives that take place here in the villages.

So with this in mind, I am setting off to a 10 hour bus journey to Ongwediva... I had been warned that these buses are quite an experience, and I would be travelling with chickens!! Well, there were no chickens!! The bus driver picked me up at 4am and for the next 2 hours we were driving around Windhoek, picking people up...Most of that was a blur as it was dark, rainy and uninteresting, so I fell asleep. When I woke up, we were standing at some petrol station, and everyone was talking very loudly, particularly one lady wearing a very bright knitted poncho. She seemed to look at me every now in then, while saying something, which was clearly not an expression of her happiness! I asked a lady sitting next to me what was happening and she whispered that the big orange lady would like to have my seat next to the window, because she needs to have some fresh air! The lady then whispered "No need to move, first come first serve basis. I don't want to sit at the back!" I was not going to argue with that - I had an advantage anyway - I did not understand what the orange poncho lady was saying and hence, technically nobody asked me to move anywhere.

This must have been probably the most exciting event throughout the whole of the 10 hour trip. May be if there were chickens, it would have been much more fun!! Reading a book on small bus shaking from side to side was not an option. In a word, I was very grateful for Blackberry Messenger and the fact that I was almost in the same timezone as most of my contacts!!

What amazed me was that the road was really good! I know it may sound strange, but this was a road across the entire country leading to small villages, and nobody along the way. All signage was in place and there was not a single pot hole!! And the road was long....

Along the way, once in a while we would see some box-like brick structures...These would be shops, or bars, or generally some sort of hang out places. Like this one...

Or this....

No comments required...

Cows and goats would also cross the road once in a while adding some life and movement to the landscape...Surprisingly, they knew where they were going even though there was nobody accompanying them.

The bus stopped fairly frequently to drop off some passengers, pick some new ones, or just for the driver to pick something up from boys appearing from the bushes along the road!!! How they ever knew their whereabouts was beyond me... " Meet you by the 156th bush from the BP service station in the middle of nowhere...?"

Something more reassuring was the fact that there were police posts every hour or so. Once the bus slows down, they would look at the passengers with very serious expressions on their faces, exchange a couple of phrases with the bus driver and wave us along. This was until we got to the Ondangwa, one of the larger towns. We stopped at the check post, and the policeman did the customary circle around the car....Until he saw me (damn that window!). He asked me where I was from and when I responded that I was Russian, he asked for my passport. This did not happen at any of the 24 check points we had passed! I gave him my passport anticipating lots of questions on why and where and who....The policeman looked at my passport, smiled and said: " We have lots of veterinarians speaking your language!" And with that he returned my passport.... Good to know! I was just about to ask him where I could find these people to practice my Russian, when he waved the bus to move, and our driver happily pressed the gas. Learn something new every day!

Just when I was already about to give up on ever getting to Ongwediva, the driver informed me that it was 10 mins away! At 2.30 pm, after leaving Windhoek at 4am, and having sat in the same seat (by the window!) for the entire time, hope was still alive. As agreed with Faith, I was dropped off at the service station, where she found me trying to hide away from the sun, and offers to go back to Ondangwa from the local taxi drivers - "So you must be Marina!"