Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
ALEC Abroad

Namibia Translated

by Josh Hardcastle

Studying abroad in an English-speaking country has been quite different than my last study abroad experience. In Guatemala, a simple conversation could have taken 30 minutes and might have consisted of a three-language (English to Spanish to Ixil) translation. Conversing in Namibia has been quicker.

While speaking to Namibians has been easier, our group has noticed several phrases here that are much different than what we would find in the United States.

In case you ever decide to travel to this beautiful country, Brandy Dangelmayr, Samantha Alvis and I have composed the following list of Namibian phrases and their U.S. counterparts so that you may have an even easier time conversing than we did.

Food

Chips = French fries

Braii = Barbecue

Coke light = Diet Coke

Spur’s = Chili’s

Wimpy = Denny’s

Pick ‘n’ Pay/Spar = HEB

Crackers = Cookies

Youngberry = Blackberry

Transportation

Land Rover = Jeep

Robots = Stoplights

Petro = Gasoline

Engen = Exxon

Housing

Hostel = Dormitory

Toilets = Restroom

Communication

SMS = Text message

High Five = Match.com

Education

To sit for an exam = To take an exam

Learner = K-12 student

Student = College student

Diploma = Technical degree

Degree = Bachelor’s degree

Occupations

Farmer = Rancher

Time

8:00 a.m. = 8:30 a.m.

Gone in 60 Seconds

by Amy Heartfield

Porsche, Ferrari and Cheetah? On Thursday at the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), the Texas A&M study abroad group got to see the speed equivalent of a high-end sports car: cheetahs.

The morning started with watching the cheetahs exercise, which means watching large cats run as fast as a NASCAR!  The cheetahs chased a small flag attached to a pulley system, or “Namibian Playstation” as the interns fondly call it.  This pulley is set up in a square shape in an enclosed field.

After being only feet away from these high-speed animals, it was time to get down to business, and we continued to work on promotional posters and take-home materials for CCF. As the day came to an end, we presented the material to Dr.Marker and received supportive feedback for the projects.

For one of the last sundowners in Namibia, we  headed out to a secluded field to watch the cheetahs run one more time.  Seeing cheetahs run against the pink sunset is personally one of my favorite experiences of the trip.

 

Cheetahs and Dogs and Goats … Oh My!

by Beth Alexis

Our first day at the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) was busy and full of new experiences. When we arrived (after traveling on a very bumpy road, we were greeted by several CCF staff members including Dr. Laurie Marker. Dr. Marker founded CCF, and it has been working to protect the cheetahs of Africa for over 20 years.

The whole group was given a tour of the facilities and had the chance to see the research lab, veterinary clinic, and education center. There was also a demonstration where we watched a dog that was trained to locate cheetah scat for research purposes.

Dr. Marker’s passion for protecting cheetahs is evident and infectious.

One of the reasons that cheetah populations have declined is because they are often been killed by farmers who are trying to protect their livestock. Although cheetahs have been spotted on farmlands seeking food, evidence has shown that cheetahs are often accused for other predators’ kills.

CCF understands that farmers need a form of predator control in order to protect their livelihood. To help promote a human-wildlife resolution, the organization breeds livestock guarding dogs to give to farmers in Namibia. These guard dogs protect livestock from predators and in turn protect the cheetah because the farmers no longer feel the need to kill them to keep their livestock safe.

After our lunch, we got to watch some cheetahs eat their lunch as well. The cheetahs ate meat out of large bowls, and the enthusiasm with which they ran to their food reminded me of my own cats.

We heard a short talk on individual cats during the feeding. My personal favorites were Harry, Ron, and Hermione. 

While at CCF, we are making educational materials about goats and guard dogs. We learned a lot about the animals from the staff, especially during our milking experience.

Several of us wanted to milk the goats, so we “helped” with that in the evening. Our time spent learning about goat nutrition and production will be helpful when it comes to creating the educational materials.

It was a pleasure to work with Dr. Marker and the rest of the staff, and I am looking forward to another day at CCF!

MARUculous Women

by Brooke Brock

Tedious work, but none the less unique – this is what comes to mind when I think of the Eudafano Women Cooperative’s Marula Factory.

Marula is an amazingly UNIQUE fruit is essential to this women’s cooperative. Used down to the seed, the marula fruit (Sclerocaraya birrea) is first picked and juiced. The juice is later consumed after it ferments. The marula nut is then taken and laid out to dry for three to four weeks. Next, The nuts are cracked open by hand, one-by-one, to extract its kernels, its main source of value.

This is the process that some 1,400 women complete each year, receiving 23 Nambian dollars per kilogram of marula kernels; that’s less than 4 U.S. dollars for 2.2 pounds of kernels!

I know that some of you are reading in disbelief, thinking you would never do such TEDIOUS WORK for such little money, but this annual cycle is a part of these women’s lives… And their families’, too.

The cooperative is comprised of various subdivisions that have grown from nine associations to 22. Women of the area have been making use of Marula for years, but the cooperative started in 1996.

The marula factory officially opened on March 11, 2005. This is one of few, if not the only, sources the U.S. and France has for marula oil for cosmetic use; other small buyers also use marula oil for cooking.

Now before you think, “Wow,” think about this tedious process.

A) The women who pay N$30* to N$40* for membership, annual fee and new membership respectively, whether rain or shine.

B) The women, who pick the fruit by hand, wait three to four weeks for the nut to dry (because it cannot be cracked until dried) and crack the nut one-by-one with something similar to a hammer, only to get about four kernels per nut.

C) The women hand inspect the kernels.

D) The men and women, who use a machine to hand press 40 kg of kernels daily, only get about 10 kg of oil.

This is a long process, and that’s only part of it!

Thanks to the U.S., France, and mainly The Body Shop these women have a job to support their families because of marula’s promising market. The Marula Factory has also started processing kalahari melon seeds for oil as well and hopes to market it for uses similar to marula.

As we finished walking through the Marula Factory and saw men and women using a hydro press to hand press the oil, I think of how tedious their work is. I am unsure if I should be upset or fascinated by the whole process.

Then I think this Marula Factory is one-of-a-kind and before the cooperative started these women were doing this same tedious work for not much of a profit. I can only be joyful that they are able to better support their families now.

Help these women continue to support their families and keep the market strong by running to the nearest The Body Shop and stocking up!!!

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* $1 US is about N$8.5.

Different Yet the Same

by Brandy Dangelmayr

Being at the University of Namibia’s Ogongo campus has been quite the change for all of us. Traveling through Namibia from the Neudamm campus to Gobabeb to Etosha, we had not had a lot of one-on-one interaction with people from Namibia, until we got here!

The campus was quiet the first day we got here, but as the students got back from their four-week holiday, there has been constant music, basketball and soccer games, talking, and laughing. 

Don’t get me wrong. We have been blessed the whole time we have been in Namibia. The hospitality has been wonderful! BUT it is nice to finally talk to college students who are going through the same everyday things that we are.

In Ogongo, we have learned quite a bit! We now know that it is rude to simply say “Hi!” when passing someone. Instead, you should great each other with a “Hello, how are you?” and from there start a conversation.

They even taught us one of their games, netball, which is only played by girls. They explained that “it’s the opposite of basketball,” though I’m not quite sure what that means.

I could name about 50 differences between students in the United States and students here in Namibia, but instead I want to focus on one specific similarity, which is that we are all trying to become better versions of ourselves. It doesn’t matter what language we speak, what village we are from or what food we prefer; it boils down to our end goal. 

As I talked to a fellow student, I quickly learned that we are looking toward our future and trying to learn as much as we can in the little time we have in college.

All of us have a passion for agriculture and the benefits and opportunities that it offers. That is one huge surprise that I have found on this trip, and it is probably the most comforting. 

We don’t need to be intimidated of each other, because, hey, we are in the same boat. It’s really amazing how people from across the globe can be different yet the same!

Tradition and Transition

by Samantha Alvis

I’m excited to have the opportunity to share this country with my fellow students. I was lucky enough to travel to Namibia last summer and promptly fell in love with this country.  With a landscape that reminds me of my native Arizona and wonderful, welcoming people, what’s not to love about Namibia?

When I opened the map in front of the group and traced our journey over our first 15 days, I think it’s safe to say that everyone was surprised by just how much of Namibia that we have seen in our time here.

Currently, we’re in a region I was lucky enough to visit in 2011.  Three days ago, we arrived at the University of Namibia Ogongo Campus*, in the far north of the country.  It’s quite the change from some of our earlier locations.  We viewed the city life in Windhoek, the desert life at Gobabeb, experienced a bit of the seaside in Swakopmund and had a taste of tourism as we journeyed through Etosha National Park.

The north is different.  Most of Namibia’s 2.1 million people live in the north.  We began to notice this as we drove through towns like Ondangwa and Oshikati and experienced rush hour for the first time.  We saw it the number of people enjoying a beverage at the 100s of tiny shabeens (bars), with names like New Paradise and New Life, that line the highways and towns.

A large majority of the north is communal lands, with a communal farming and ranching system. Namibia’s north country gives a new meaning to open range … we realized this as we stopped multiple times for cattle, goat and donkey to cross the highway.

And in these communal lands, you also see communal living.  We stopped at the Nakambale Traditonal Homestead and Museum on our way to Ogongo to learn about life in a traditional homestead.  In a homestead, you may find 3-4 generations of a family living together.  Different family members have huts to sleep in, the kitchen is outdoors and at night, the livestock are brought in for safekeeping.

As you drive along the roads, you’ll find that many of the homesteads are in transition.  Among the traditional thatch huts and wooden fences, you’ll find cinder block structures and aluminum fencing.

Tradition and transition – these are two common themes I see in this country I love.  While Namibia is a young country (gaining independence from South Africa just 22 years ago), it is still a country rich in tradition.  It’s also a country in transition, trying to set an example for the continent in how to manage lands, educate people and create opportunities for future generations.

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*If you’re trying to follow us on a map, find the Angola-Namibia border and look for Ogongo along the C-46 highway between Outapi and Oshakati.

Gobabeb, My Love

by Jessica Guerra

When family and friends asked what excited me the most about studying abroad in Namibia, I always mentioned being able to study outside the classroom, being immersed in a different culture, doing meaningful work, and of course, being on the African continent.

Although those are still true, the unexpected has happened; that is, I have fallen deeply in love with the Namib Desert surrounding the Gobabeb Research and Training Centre.

When we weren’t working, we were exploring the Gobabeb grounds. We got to go on a nature walk with some Namibian high school students participating in Gobabeb’s training program. Being a horticulture minor, I was thrilled to learn about a tree teeming with ants inside it; the ants provide protection from herbivores, and the tree provides a habitat for the ants.

Sitting with about twenty other high school students, we used the scientific method to come up with a way to compare the plants and animals living at the intersection of three different ecosystems at Gobabeb – the gravel plains, the sand sea, and the riverbed.

Though I enjoy the challenging, fulfilling work we are doing in Namibia, something else will draw me to this great country again and again; it is the Namib Sand Sea, or the countless sand dunes stretching across the entire horizon.

As we made our way up the dunes, each step sinking into the deep red-orange sand became increasingly meaningful. Though we may have been panting, barefoot, and grasping our water bottles as we reached the top, the trek was absolutely worth it.

All the photographs of sand dunes featured in National Geographic and on your computer desktop could not compare to standing atop the crest of a Namib sand dune at sunset. With outstretched arms and wide smiles, we stood on top of the world and soaked in the last of the African sun.

I will have fond memories of Namibia, but I know this will be one of the fondest.

Until next time…

The Namibia Phenomenology…

by Dr. Tracy Rutherford

This trip has been filled with -ologies, much more than any of us anticipated: anthropology, paleontology, archaeology, geology, technology and zoology.  Brooke has had many opportunities to demonstrate that she paid attention in class while many of us wish we had done more than memorize the information for the test.

That’s what I have learned on this trip – it is about the experience and applying what you’ve learned, not the grade on your transcript. Neudamm reminded us of the importance of agriculture, Gobabeb challenged our research skills, and Etosha brought Africa to life (as the elephants blocked the path of the bus and later intimidated a young lion pride), I can only wonder what lessons we’ll learn in the final days of our adventure.

Jack Elliot told me Namibia is his second home because it reminds him of Arizona. I think all of us appreciate the similarities between this country and the United States, while enjoying the hospitality of our hosts and the abundance of excellent chefs. We have definitely received the red carpet treatment, and I am grateful that our students have the chance to give back to this country – the chance to leave a legacy that will guide this program for years to come. 

My hope is that the legacy of this program is for our students to learn beyond the book, apply beyond the test and do something with their education.

We started this experience with the study of agricultural communications and leadership at Neudamm preparing to translate scientific information based on the research at Gobabeb. Now we are fine-tuning those skills to emphasize education about science as we prepare to work with the Cheetah Conservation Fund.

We are still exploring all those -ologies and have added two more, sociology and psychology, as we continue to learn about ourselves, our group and the people of Namibia.

The Wonderment

by Gary Wingenbach

Thank goodness for youthful reactions! 

Sometimes we (the royal “we,” for all those 29 and older) aren’t impressed by the unusual because we’ve “been there, done that.” Then, along comes an opportunity to watch someone young see something so extraordinarily unusual, that you can’t help but be excited for that person. Maybe it even causes you to think about your own extraordinary circumstances.

And so it was that I came to own a truly unique African experience, vis-à-vis, Beth’s reaction to a troupe of baboons. Baboons are, for argument’s sake, interesting creatures, but not the warm and fuzzy beings I’d go out of my way to see. They certainly don’t measure up to Black Jack and Holly Brown, two smiling, laughing Labradors who are tearing up my back yard while I’m away.

Yet, Beth didn’t care about equating baboons to lovable labs. She was in the moment, as it were, and I couldn’t help but laugh at her enthusiastic praise for the lowly baboon.

Namibia 2012 isn’t my first, and I hope won’t be my last trip to somewhere cooler for the month of July. Yes, it’s been very cool, even cold, here as southern Africa grinds through the steely grip of winter. Texans suffer July’s increasing furnace, but here in Namibia it’s cold enough that my good friend Dr. Martin Schneider had to loan me his trusty sleeping bag. Ah, a reprieve from frostbitten nights at the University of Namibia’s Neudamm Campus!

Anyway, back to the baboons.

Beth Alexis is a dedicated graduate student at Texas A&M University. She has a bright future, as do many Aggies in the ALEC Department. Like other graduate and undergraduate students participating in the Namibia 2012 study abroad program, Beth is a first-time visitor to Namibia.

We all braced against a rough and dust-laden trail on the Neudamm Campus, when a troupe of baboons thought it a good idea to jump not one, but two fences, to cross our path as we made our way back to the Neudamm farm’s headquarters.

I saw the baboons running through the brush to beat our oncoming vehicle. Beth saw them as they scaled and/or jumped the fence in single bounds.

“This is so wild!” Beth screamed. “This is AWESOME!”

Her words were ringing in my ears as I watched the last baboon scurry safely into the brush.

I hadn’t really thought about it before that moment, but Beth’s words hit me like ton of bricks – “we’re in Africa!” You’re right Beth, this isn’t some sad zoo or game farm in Texas, WE ARE IN THE AFRICAN WILD! Scream it! Shout it out! Remind yourself and those around you about the wonderment of it all. Your experience is truly unique to you, but your reaction to it helped me remember the same feelings, thoughts, and reactions I had so many years ago in South Africa.

Thank you, Beth, for sharing your baboon enthusiasm. Thanks for making me smile and laugh. Thank you for reminding me why the wonderment of this experience should be shared, even the wonderment of encountering the lowly baboon in the African wilds.

A Brief Explaination

Howdy, all!

For the past few days, we have had little Internet connectivity, and our students have been busy creating posters and a brochure at Gobabeb. As a result, we are now just getting to post blogs from the past few days.

We hope you enjoy the two following blogs by Brandy Dangelmayr and Tray Heard and thank you for your patience.