This is the kitchen. Many nights, 5 or 8 of us would all contribute something and cook a big meal together.
I met lots of great people. For example, this past weekend I met a student named Chris, who wants to become a foreign correspondent in Africa. We hiked about 10 km in the hills outside Windhoek. Here's us near the end of the hike.
And last night, I had a long chat with two guys who are staying here. One was an Australian doctor named Mark who had his car shipped from Australia to Chennai, India in 2004, and has driven from there to here, in Windhoek. He stops when he needs to earn money. He stayed in Sierra Leone for a year, and in Pakistan for 3 months, and he’s been home a few times in between. He just finished over two months in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He stayed in Kinshasa for a while, then got a motorbike and rode all over the East. Someone there told him he was the first tourist they had seen in years. He saw silverbacks (like 2 meters away!), rebels (almost as close), and lots of other stuff. His car is falling apart, and he will remain here until he fixes it. He has a policy of not paying bribes over $2. If asked for a bribe at a border, for example, he'll just ask where he can pitch his tent, and wait until he's allowed to pass. "They don't like people pitching tents at borders," he says. Here's a shot of Mark, taken from my tent.
The other guy was Frenchman named David who has driven here from Paris. He left on January 7 of this year. Both Mark and David made it through Angola in 5 days on a transit visa -- which is apparently only available at one border crossing from the north. Here's a photo of David's spectacular car. He says people were especially nice to him because they were so impressed with it. One problem: It's so old and rare that nobody in Africa seems to have tires that fit it.
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