Namibia... where's that?

Ever since I was a little girl, I always wanted to go to Africa. My dad worked in the Central African Republic for a while when I was four years old, and when he came back, he brought several stories, artifacts, foods, and even a traditional dress for me to wear. It was at this time that I began drawing giraffes and dreaming of this far away continent called Africa. I told myself that the first opportunity I had to go, I'd take take.

And so I did. That opportunity finally came around during March of 2005 when I was in Trinidad. The director of our program (BTT) came back down to check in on us and meet up with our professor to make sure the semester was going smoothly. It was at this time that I first found out about the Namibia trip. Barbara then told me about this AMAZING trip that she was going to be leading during J-term next year, and about all of the wonderful things that had been planned. Immediately I was intrigued, and two months later I was signed up to go! I admit that I had never heard of Namibia until I went to PLU, and most people I tell about it still can't pronounce it right, but I suppose that's part of what attracted me the most about going there. Where... Namibia!!

What made my experience the best in Namibia was definitely the people I was with. In Trinidad, I spend a lot of time by myself because I felt so different than a lot of the people on the trip that I preferred to create my own experiences than try to fit into the ones that didn't fit my interests. Our Namibia group from the start bonded really well, and I can say that I enjoyed getting to know everyone on the trip, as well as meeting many lifelong friends. Sometimes when people ask me about Namibia I begin to talk about how much I loved our group, but then I forget that that's not what people are really interested in hearing about. So, I will do my best here, with that being said.