MORGONSTUND HAR GULD I MUN...

Äntligen har jag kunnat ta en morgonpromenad varje dag! Veckan lider tyvärr mot sitt slut och det är time to say good-bye till vackra upptäcksfärder i ottan, i Oshakati i norr som är tillräckligt säkert för att njuta friheten... 

What do you think about the African version of 7 Eleven? ;)

Walkabout in Oshakati

I want to buy one of these traditional, northern Namibian dresses! So beautiful and big and comfy :) If anyone of my lovely friends - boys or girls - back home want to have one too, hurry up and tell me and I'll buy for you before I leave for Windhoek on Sunday!

Die Sonne Scheint und alle sind Froh!

A Beautiful Blowout in the

Wilderness

(somewhere between Mariental and Windhoek)

To Believe or Not To Believe

Diana, to the left, is a member of the local WAD Community Voice in Mariental. She's taking me to her local church one night, with a strong mission to create a true Believer out of me. The church is build up from Christianity values but are more like a Free Church which I realize first after a while. The members open the two hour long ceremony with dances and gospel songs and continues with prayers, whereby the people start to scream, cry and ask Jesus and God for blessings. Hallelujah! and I have goose bumps all over my body. I try to understand and perhaps let the spirit take over my soul, but oh my Godness this is scary!

Diana can't understand my choice not to let God into my life. She says it's like a knife in her heart when she hears that Swedish people pay less attention to the religion. And how can I explain this? Diana goes to Church three times a week, each session lasts for 2-3 hours. Why am I not doing the same? Are we spiritless people in Sweden? Do we not care about our fellow human beings? How can we neglect God? All my explanations sound silly. I don't know what to say. 

Gloria

Being 9 years old in Namibia.

Gloria is Elaine's oldest sister's daughter. She goes to school monday to friday, from 7 am until 1pm. The mornings are early; she wakes up at 6 every day and her mum, who's a teacher in another school in Mariantal, makes sure that Gloria washes her face and maybe brushes her teeth, if she didn't do it the day before. Before 7, her aunt follows Gloria to school and she has time to play with her friends for a while before the day's work starts off.

Gloria's favorite subject is art, because she loves to paint. Before I went back to Windhoek, we spent hours looking in her drawing books and all the colorful pantings within. Many, many pictures shows a house, a garden with trees and flowers, and her mum, dad and herself. I ask Gloria where her father is. "Oh, he's not around. I never talk to him, I don't know where he is. But I know his name! It's Zok." Zok is in Gloria's paintings and he's smiling in every one of them!

Gloria thinks it's fantastic that I am from Sweden. And I am her very first white friend. The relationship between white Africaaners and the black population is tensed, with or without good reasons, but the history makes itself reminded even in present time. No matter what conflicts going on between black and whites in Mariantal, Gloria is certain about her thing. She explains: "Jonna, only because you are white doesn't mean that you should be badly treated. Everyone are the same, black people, white people, people from Africa or from some other countries. Everyone must be respected for whom they are! And God loves everyone!"

We are taking some walks around Mariental during the week. And this day, the day before I am going back to Windhoek, Gloria wants to show me the beautiful restaurant they have. We are walking and talking, but every time a car is passing by or some men are coming in our direction, Gloria looks worried and I ask her if she's afraid to walk around in the small town. Yes, she is. She says that Namibia is a bad, bad country to live in because women are being raped all the time. And small girls are easy victims. That's why their mum tell them not to wear skirts, because it makes the rape much easier. A common misunderstanding in Namibia is that a man can be cured from HIV/AIDS if he has sex with a small girl. And then Gloria tells me to never ever take a taxi by myself, because the taxi drivers can kidnap me, rape me and steal my things. I should never trust anyone! She's telling me about all kind of horrifying things; murders and about how some girls in her school are being sexually abused by their fathers. 

My heart is bleeding when I hear Gloria describe her life as a nine-year-old. To me it sounds like the most brutal way of experience a childhood - to be afraid when walking the streets and not be able to trust people around. Why does she have to know about all these things? She's just a child... But maybe her awareness has been her blessing. 

We are forgetting about rapes, abuses, kidnaping and lack of trust and do what a nine-year-old does best: we eat a massive hamburger, frensh fries and finish with a chocolate milkshake with whipped cream on top :)

THIS IS AFRICA...

The town in the desert. 

MARIENTAL IS A SMALL TOWN in the southern part of Namiba, 4 hours drive from Windhoek. I came here with Elaine on Saturday afternoon and experienced the most beautiful landscape on the way down in the small mini bus. Mountains and sunset. We are here during the whole week to conduct a workshop in "Civic Education" - everything about the Namibian constitution, laws, politics, lobbying and advocating. I'm living together with Elaine's two sisters and the sisters' children, 2 and 9 years old and the sister's aunt. I'm asking Elaine were all the men are. "Oh, that's the 1 million dollar question, my friend", she says.

Yesterday afternoon, Elaine took me out to see the Mariental's mainstreet, just behind the railway. I got a mission from Robert, and as I wrote to him in my email afterwards: "We sat down in a shabby bar and I tried to get as much information about the city as I could; Traditions? Culture? Who are the people living here? Elaine and the owner of this dark little pub tried to help me, but as the owner said when I asked how they would advertise Mariental to a foreigner: "Aha, so what I would LIE about to put Mariental in a good light?". There's nothing here to see, according to the people living in the town. The unemployment is immense, alcohol abuses everywhere and a big, big misery is characterizing the place. Sorry hun, I really tried to get a positive picture and something worth seeing, but without success."  Moreover, some parts of Mariental was destroyed by disastrous floods in 2006. No one longer wants to invests in the city and it seems like Mariantal slowly disappears away...

Luckily, I've had two sweeties taking good care of me during these days :) Maybe the new future for Mariental? 

WELCOME TO AFRICA!

The Country

NAMIBIA IS NOT DEFINED as the least-developed country but as a lower-middle-income country. On the one hand, some of the 2 million Namibian inhabitants have a high level of development with an average per capita income of 2,000 US dollars per amnum. On the other hand, these indicators involves great social disparities. Namibia ranges the top of the list when it comes to inequal distribution of national wealth. 1% of Namibia's riches population earns more than half of what the most poor households earn together. Nearly 25% has HIV/AIDS. 35% unemployment. Corruption, lack of efficency, mismanagement and low productivity decreased economical and social progresses. 

The National Anthem

CHILDREN ALMOST MELTING AWAY in the heat on Saturday, when the Road Blablabla Department encouraged children to learn about how to behave in the traffic. My supervisor, Mrs. De Klerk, composed a song which was later performed by the most popular rap-artist in Namibia, Gazza:

"Before you cross the street,

don't move your arms and feet

Look right,

look left,

look right once more

That is our country's law"

Gender Equality?

UNFORTUNATELY NOT. Helena's boyfriend shows a wonderful example how it could look like, if Namibia was a more gender equal nation. The patriarchy is still dominant all over the country, and the culture gets stronger the further away from cities one goes. Women are oppressed by men through cultural values and a strong conviction about the female sub-ordination. Women lack benefits, education and job opportunities. They do not have economic independence and they do not have right to their own bodies. They are - more or less - men's property. 

Women's Action for Development Head Office

ELAINE (LEFT) AND LETHA (RIGHT) are two of 13 employees in WAD's Head Office in Windhoek. WAD works in all 13 Regions in the country, through groups called Community Voices. Members from these Community Voices are being educated by people from the Head Office, or by external trainers, in areas such as "Civic Education", "Gender Based Violence", nutrition, hygiene, HIV/AIDS, computer literacy, office administration etc. - everything depending on their needs in that particular region. The main purpose is to empower women to take control over their own lives. 

Mmmm, Hong Kong var en härlig tid. Och mamma, pappa och Ralle kom. Vilken jäkla stad! Goda drinkar i skyskrapor med utsikt över skylinen. Dumplings. Dim Sum! Underbara föreläsningar. Trygghet och aldrig, aldrig behöva vara rädd för någon eller någonting. Shit, det tänker jag på nu när jag sitter ute i Windhoeks förorter, klockan är 20.55 och jag undrar om jag kan gå och lägga mej redan...        

Och så avslutade vi kalaset med Thailand och Koh Lipe, och jag vann första pris!