Daisy's Namibia Trip
Daisy went to Namibia in July with her school, De Lisle College. She spoke to the parish at Mass on Sunday 27th October and told us about her experiences. The text of her address can be found below.
Firstly, I’d like to start off by saying a massive thank you to everyone within our community at church. It means so much how involved and encouraging everyone was in the contribution of my trip to Namibia, and how generous so many of you were to help support the cause, so thank you so much for that. My trip to Namibia was absolutely phenomenal. I have a fascination with sociology and the study of different cultures, so to be able to be welcomed into what was such a contrasting culture to ours was so beautiful to experience.
We arrived on Thursday 5th July, after an eleven hour flight followed by a two hour flight to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. On approach to the primary school we were working with, it was surprising how remote we were from the rest of the country. Flying into the capital, everything was extremely commercialised and seemed rather western. However, after travelling to the primary school, life was very different in the neglected areas. We passed through extremely isolated areas that were swamped with litter and decay. Each area that resembled a village that we passed had a bank dug up in the sand, about as deep as the bank in Sileby that was stuffed with plastic and waste. It never dawned on me that they wouldn’t have a bin system out there, but the sheer amount of rubbish and plastic was shocking. When we arrived at the primary school, it was the same: a huge bank where all the waste went and was just buried in the ground.
We arrived on Thursday 5th July, after an eleven hour flight followed by a two hour flight to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. On approach to the primary school we were working with, it was surprising how remote we were from the rest of the country. Flying into the capital, everything was extremely commercialised and seemed rather western. However, after travelling to the primary school, life was very different in the neglected areas. We passed through extremely isolated areas that were swamped with litter and decay. Each area that resembled a village that we passed had a bank dug up in the sand, about as deep as the bank in Sileby that was stuffed with plastic and waste. It never dawned on me that they wouldn’t have a bin system out there, but the sheer amount of rubbish and plastic was shocking. When we arrived at the primary school, it was the same: a huge bank where all the waste went and was just buried in the ground.
Nevertheless, this appeared the norm to the children at the school, as how ridiculously excited they were to meet us was amazing. As soon as we got off the overlander, a swarm of children ran toward us just wanting us to play games with them and to speak to us. Being the only ginger there as well was quite interesting, as the children were so fascinated by someone with such fluorescent hair.
When we were setting up the tents, we found there was a lot of broken glass, so we started to pick it up so it wouldn't pierce through the tents. The children wanted to help in anyway possible so began running round among all the glass in bare feet picking up as much as possible, which was very sweet, but also very surreal. These children had little or nothing but were going out of their way to help us all in any way they could. We found this later on in the week as well, as when we had to empty the classrooms for painting, before we knew it, there were swarms of little smiling faces coming from all directions watching what we were doing and carrying out tables and chairs that were twice the size of them. Their selflessness was incredible, and the fact these children didn’t even need to be asked to help, they just knew it was right to offer a hand, was so lovely.
When we were setting up the tents, we found there was a lot of broken glass, so we started to pick it up so it wouldn't pierce through the tents. The children wanted to help in anyway possible so began running round among all the glass in bare feet picking up as much as possible, which was very sweet, but also very surreal. These children had little or nothing but were going out of their way to help us all in any way they could. We found this later on in the week as well, as when we had to empty the classrooms for painting, before we knew it, there were swarms of little smiling faces coming from all directions watching what we were doing and carrying out tables and chairs that were twice the size of them. Their selflessness was incredible, and the fact these children didn’t even need to be asked to help, they just knew it was right to offer a hand, was so lovely.
Getting to know the children as well was one of the highlights of the trip. The school only had around eighty students, so whenever we’d finished painting for the day we’d go outside and teach them games and they’d talk to us in English as we attempted a poor Herero, which was their dominant language. All they wanted to do was have piggy-bag rides and races, and to learn new games. We played a game of "duck duck goose" on one evening, and then woke up the next morning to them playing it with about twenty odd children.
What was shocking to me was the amount of water we get through. Namibia as a country is in a drought, which was having a detrimental effect on the livelihood of the village. Crops were dying, there was a shortage of drinking water and it was clearly becoming a struggle. We had a barrel of water to last us a week for drinking that had to be purified with tablets we all brought, and we got through it in a day simply through negligence. That was when we realised we needed to clean up our act and ration our water. The water we were using for paint water and washing up water had to go in the back of the toilet basins so we were reusing water for flushing the toilets, meaning we had interesting purple toilet water. When we turned the tap off after filling up a bottle up in the morning, someone would shout something like “get your toothbrushes” so we could collect the dribbles of water left from the turning off the tap onto our toothbrushes. This obviously meant no showers for a week as well, which wasn’t even a priority when we think about how little water they had
However on a more positive note, for me personally, the best bit was definitely getting to spend my birthday out there. My birthday was on a Sunday, so we went to a church service. There was this beautiful tree that cascaded over quite a stretch where the children had benches to sit on and we bought our camping chairs along. The central focus of Mass for them was the singing which was amazing. The children knew so many songs that were a combination of English and Herero and were so passionate about their faith. The head teacher of the school then asked if we would like to perform any kind of singing, so we gave a poor rendition of “Shine Jesus shine”, but it was still well reviewed. The children were all dressed in their Sunday best, and their Father made us all feel so welcomed and was so grateful for us all attending his service.
I came away from this trip with so many amazing memories, but I also found that I came back wanting to make a change of some sort. Unfortunately, these children don’t have fresh, clean, running water on demand. They have to be economical with the amount of water they use. The amount of waste they have littered around them is enough to fill a landfill site, and these aren’t conditions any child should have to live in. So in dedication to the children in Namibia, I’m asking a small pledge. If everyone here starting from today tried their best to cut down on the amount of plastic they’re using and water they're wasting, we would be helping so much. It might not directly be helping these children, but we would be benefiting the planet in one way or another. It’s as simple as buying a reusable shopping bag or a bag for life so you’re not generating mounds of plastic bags to just go in the bin, recycling plastic, cutting down on the amount of single use plastic you use such as plastic straws, plastic knives, forks and spoons etc. In terms of water wastage, it's things as simple as taking shorter showers, turning the shower off when you apply your shampoo etc. Like I say, it may not have a direct effect for these children, but every little helps, and if we all work together, we can make the world a better place.
