Attached letter from Namibian volunteer …..
Well.... I knew it would be good but it was way beyond any expectations I had held before going! It was amazing fabulous great splendiferous wonderful marvellous ohmygoodness amazing! We arrived at midday last Friday and left mid-morning Tuesday. I had the best time ever during those five days. The kids we took became my new best friends, the staff my new family.
We had extremely early mornings, at the type of hour I like to 'stupid o clock!' We needed the early mornings to give us driving time to our destinations. One day we climbed a mountain and went swimming in the mountain lakes! And baboons came down from where they were sitting and ran all around us. The water was ice cold, crystal clear and we could see right down to the bottom, it was so deep and I helped one guy learn to swim! After swimming we walked back down the mountain and by the time we arrived back we were bone dry.
Another day we climbed 'Big Daddy,' the highest sand dune in Namibia - I think they said the highest in the world! It was so much effort but the feeling you get when you reach the top and the jaw-droppingly astounding view was completely worth it! I felt like I was standing in a postcard! And when someone jumps down it, it makes huge rumbling vibrating noises which sound like a plane flying low overhead. Lucy and I decided to roll down - it was only when we got to the bottom that we realised why exactly it was that no-one else had done the same! The sand was an inch thick on our faces and was in every single pocket or space on everything we were wearing.
We also did activities like tracking and I took a drama workshop to enforce ideas about keeping the environment clean and tourism and stuff. On the game drives we spotted warthogs, zebra, hyaenas, baboons, kudu, oryx, springbok, klipspringer, ostrich, goats, horses, and cows. It was absolutely fantastic to be so close to nature.
Each night a few girls from my tent slept outside underneath the stars. It was so unbelievably breathtakingly beautiful. I had many moments where I wondered what on earth I, a little 18yr old from England, was doing here in such an amazing place having the most amazing time possible. What have I done to deserve this wonderful life-changing experience?
The kids were totally wonderful as well. We swam in the pool the camp centre every day and from shy retiring girls who dipped in their toes and insisted they couldn't swim they blossomed into individuals with personalities who laughed and smiled constantly and who we had to drag out of the water the last day!
The last night at the camp brought the talent show and boy, was there talent! It was so inspiring to watch them performing cultural singing and dancing and some of the boys had such fantastic talents I wanted more than anything to see them succeed by the time we left them.
Leaving was so difficult! It was an emotional farewell and tears had to be held back during the awards ceremony where each kid was given an award for something they did well over the week. They then came round and shook hands with all of the staff. I wrapped each one in a huge hug and knew I would miss them forever. I'd met some of the most amazing people I will ever know.
The past five days have changed me in a way that nothing else has ever done. It's made me feel feelings I never knew I was capable of. It's made me learn things about myself I never knew existed. It's opened my eyes to a world outside of me. And it's helped me decide what it is I'm doing here and what I want to do afterwards.
Laura Maisey, Project Trust Volunteer, December 2003