Oshivelo First Report

Ongepi!
Now I have been in Oshivelo for 7 days. I live in Mr. Marthinu’s (Barney) house; he is a teacher at the only school here. His wife and children live in Grootfontain, about 150 km from here so he often goes there in the weekends. He has one of the finest houses in Oshivelo, with electricity, TV, video, gas stove and running water (only cold). Barney speaks Oshivambo, the most common language in this region and the largest tribe language in Namibia. The other language in Oshivelo is Damara, recognized for its four different click sounds. Oshivelo is very poor and many people live in small huts made of trees or sheet metal. The people here are very friendly and there are lots of kids who want to play with me. The other day I went to the playing field with my equipment (2 soccer balls, 2 volleyballs, 2 basketballs, 1 netball, 1 freesbie, 1 volleyball net, 4 tennis balls, 15 cones and 1 skipping rope.) and many kids came and played. In school they are having an examination period followed by a holiday (18 aug – 4 sep) so the PE won’t start until the 5th of September. I am going to Cape Town for university 1 – 10 sep so my work in school will start after that. I have met with some in the local “SCORE-committee” (witch was formed two month ago) and I will have formal meeting with all of them on Thursday. On Friday I was introduced to all the students at the school (more tan 600). They were singing for me and they all laughed when I told them my surname; it is very hard for them to pronounce “Rosengren”.

The landscape here in Ovamboland is very special; totally flat with small trees and bushes on a floor of red sand. From Tsumeb, the nearest town, it is 96 km straight road with nothing but bush to see. After 96 km there is a control station with a few houses and huts surrounding it – welcome to Oshivelo. The road continues straight ahead towards Angola.
Yesterday we were going to get some Omahangu, the kind of corn they crush to meal and then cook to a hard porridge. Barney had traded a bed that he welded for 5 big bags of Omahangu. We tied the bed to his pickup and off we went – two in the seats and me and three other boys in the back standing with the wind in our faces. After going north on a totally straight road we turned right on what first looked like a road but soon became a 20 m wide strip of sand, also this totally straight. We drove on that sand strip for about 40 minutes, sometimes stopping so Barney could try to shoot some birds! We left the wide sand strip for some smaller tracks and soon arrived at the homestead. This was truly “The bush”. The homestead consisted of 5 huts surrounded by a fence made of branches. One of the boys (who go to school in Oshivelo) showed me his room, his hut. The Omahangu was kept in a giant basket large enough to stand in. When we later returned to the car with our filled bags the big red sun was already setting over the vast landscape.

Over the weekend I went with Barney to visit his family in Grootfontain. He has two wonderful children; Brandon (6) and Vicky (2). His wife Consetta is Damara-speaking but at home they mostly speak Afrikaans. (They all know all the four languages Afrikaans, Oshiwambo, Damara-nama and English.) The family is very important (and very big!) here in Namibia. Before Barney and Consetta were married she used to live with her family in “the location”, a township a couple of kilometres from their house. It is easy to see the connection between small material assets and a strong family. Consetta told me that she was bored in her house and went down to the location almost every day. Here they often don’t make a distinction between brothers or sisters and cousins; they are all brothers and sisters. A big part of everyday life here is visiting family and friends. I have said hallo to many mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, cousins and friends the last couple of days.

I tell you more soon! Internet is 96 km away so I’m not online every day :) Have a wonderful day!