Namibia

Our last lesson in September goes to our 31st African country, Namibia. That's NA-MIB-EEE-AH. Not to be confused with the non-existant NAM-BEE-AH. Just you know, for anyone (ahem, our president) who might not know. 

Namibia has only been a country since 1990, at the end of a long war with South Africa, which had occupied the former Germany colony since 1915. It's most well known for it's diamond mining industry, you might have even heard of the 'Forbidden Zone' aka 'Diamond Area 1'. It's official name is 'The Sperrgebiet', and it's a diamond mining area in the desert that covers about 10,000 square miles. Only about 5% of it is used for mining, but the public is prohibited from entering much of the area (even after part of it became a National Park in 2004). Diamonds in some parts of Namibia used to be so plentiful that in 1910, they could be picked up with your bare hands. 

But Namibia has much more to offer, than just it's diamond mining. 

It's the 35th largest country in the world, at nearly 320,000 square miles. But, population density is low. There's only about 2.3 million people living in Namibia. That's thanks in part to two deserts: the Kalahari Desert, and the Namib Desert (one of the oldest deserts in the world). The Namib desert is a coast desert that runs along the Atlantic coast of Angola, Namibia and South Africa. 

The cold water from the Atlantic collides with the warm, dry air of the Namib desert resulting in a cold, dense fog that extends out to sea. The fog is just part of what makes our landmark, the 'Skeleton Coast'. The wind and the currents force everything toward the shore here, making conditions so dangerous, seafarers began to call it the 'Skeleton Coast'. 

The whole area is a graveyard of sailors and captains who's ships lie in the shallow waters off of some of the world's harshest terrain. It's desolate, with no signs of life. Many of the shipwrecks have been completely destroyed by the sun and the salt, but a few are visible and can be seen up close. 

The Namib desert is also has the world's largest sand dunes. Many of the sand dunes top 1,000 feet (and people come from all over the world to ride the dunes, sort of like snowboarding). 

Namibia itself is a country of harshness. For anything to survive the sand dunes, along the Skeleton Coast, or in the rocky canyons (Fish River Canyon in Namibia is the 2nd largest canyon in the world), it has to be pretty unique, and pretty extraordinary. 

Nature's answer comes in the form of elephants, lions, and rhinos that have all adapted to desert life. Namibia is also home to the rare-mountain zebra. 

Insects are equally impressive in their ability to adapt. They have the gold wheel spider which literally does cartwheels away from it's predators. As a spider who doesn't make webs, and as to hunt, it adapted to the harsh conditions of the sand dunes of the Namib desert. 

There's the fogstand beetle. It too lives in the Namib desert, where the only way it can survive the dry climate is to collect water on it's bumpy back from the early morning fog. 

Oh, and if those two don't freak you out, there is the black-hairy tailed scorpion, which are the most poisonous of all the scorpions found in Africa. Oh, did I mention it's the largest and eats mice and lizards? 

Plants also have to be tough to survive in such an environment. The Welwitschia mirabilis does grow in the Namib Desert. But, the thing is so tough, it can have a lifespan of up to 2,000 years. As such, it's referred to as a living fossil. 

The boys made their Namibia post cards. 

Calib's featured some people colored in redish/orangish. That was a nod to the nomadic Himba people who live in northern Namibia. They cover their bodies in butter, and ochre (a natural earth pigment) as a sort of natural kind of sunscreen. 

Peyton's featured the giant sand dunes of the Namib desert. 

And Hayden made a nod to the Hoba meteorite in his postcard. Somewhere around 80,000 years ago the largest meteorite  (as a single piece) crash landed in Namibia. It wasn't discovered  until 1920, when a lucky farmer stumbled upon it. It's never been moved from where it landed, because the thing is 66 tons. It's the most massive naturally occurring piece of iron on the earth's surface. 

What you eat in Namibia is largely dependent upon where you are, and what tribe you are having a meal with. It's a meat heavy country with everything from giraffe meat, to kudu to warthog to zebra steaks (a delicacy!). I hear the barbecue there is delicious. 

But we aren't eating giraffe or zebra here. So, we're going less with tribal food, and more with food you'll find in the cities, though the biggest city is the capital of Windhoek with a modest population of 325,000. 

For lunch we had curried mince sandwiches, along with pineapple (though fruit in Namibia is expensive, because not a lot grows there. Mango probably would have been a more accurate choice). The recipe actually tells you how to make Vetkoek, the bread the sandwiches are to come on, but we don't do breadmaking here, so we just put it on buns.

Namibians also really, really like mayonnaise. They love macaroni salad, and potato salad WITH AN EXTRA SPOONFUL OF MAYO ON THE SIDE! I had a recipe for South African Potato Salad, which would have been more accurate as they put in sugar (this recipe calls for sweetened condensed milk) to make those salads sweet, but I ended up just buying some from Publix when Asa forgot to make it the day before and I knew there wouldn't be time before we had lunch and he went to work.

For Peyton, who not only doesn't like mayo, but HATES it, he was given cheetos, because that's a thing they really like in Namibia too. Oh, and soda aka 'cool-drink' is also popular. 

If you don't like any of this, you could always put ketchup on rice or pasta (for real, that's a thing), or put russian dressing on an uncooked hotdog too. I don't know, the food here seemed a bit weird. A more traditional meal could have been Oshiwambo, which is a spinach and beef mixture. 

We colored Namibia in red. It borders light blue South Africa to the south, teal Botswana to the east, and dark blue Angola  to the north. 

That is 125 countries down, 71 to go.

And now, I am all caught up with the blog, and all our September countries. On to laundry it is for me.

Next Up:  Moving on to our October countries with Grenada.