Nature is Beautiful

This past weekend I went with three other volunteers, Julia, Megan, and Kyle (this group has become a pretty regular foursome) and two Namibian teachers to Ruacana Falls near the Namibia-Angola border. The falls apparently are not as impressive as they once were before the construction of a hydroelectric power dam (when they were considered one of the wonders of the world), but to give you an idea of their scale, this “NamPower” plant provides approximately 50% of the power used in all of Namibia.

Julia and I bought two allegedly six person tents at the inexpensive China Shop in Eenhana and then caught a cab ride about 30 minutes west to meet the rest of our group in Ounona. From there it was about a 5 hour journey west and north to the falls in the back of a truck. Since the truck belonged to a member of our party, there were only four of us with the luggage in the back. Also, the truck bed had a top and a mattress on the bottom. In hitch-hiking terms, this was borderline luxurious.

After camping Friday night (only two people fit in each tent), we arose bright and early Saturday morning to check out the falls. Maybe I was tired and pessimistic, but for whatever reason I was expecting to just snap a couple of photos, stare for a few minutes, say “Wow this is nice”, and then leave. Happily, the falls offered much more than that. Next to the falls are abandoned buildings speckled with bullet holes where some of the combat in Namibia’s fight for independence took place just a few decades ago. There is an excellent view at the top of the falls where we took several pictures. And then, there is a stairway (497 steps) down to the falls’ bottom. The stairs took us closer to the falls, and closer, and closer, and closer. At the base of the stairway we arrived at some large slippery rocks. We decided to climb out on them, farther, and farther, and farther. When we finally reached a point from where we could progress no more, we were sitting on a bunch of rocks in the dead center of the mouth of the Kunene River directly at the base of the falls. Many more pictures were taken. Many, many more minutes were spent staring. The two losers of a game of “One Potato, Two Potato” then had to trek back to our car to fetch some food because we decided our little rock peninsula would be a fantastic place to relax and snack. We sat eating, talking, feeling the spray of the water, and taking turns sitting in a perfectly shaped natural rock chair in the water’s current for hours. On top of that, we were completely alone. Absolutely no one else had decided to visit the falls that morning.

Even the best English speaking Namibian teachers have relatively small vocabularies, which is to be expected. What has surprised me though is how the constraints of these limited lexicons force Namibians to express themselves with combinations of words I have never thought to link together. One instance of this occurred when a learner told me that I have excellent “underwater English”. When I asked him what he meant he replied that my English is much more than a surface understanding of the language, it is deep; therefore it is “underwater English.” I loved it. Another consequence of these constraints is the use of simple sentences. “Nature is beautiful," our Namibian friends kept saying all morning. "Nature is beautiful." This little equation isn’t exactly poetic, but it certainly gets the point across. And I agree.