Under the Milky Way

In the kitchen where I’m sitting drinking my morning tea, a salt-stained, fishy breeze enters and wafts across the room. Today it is unusually warm for this little coastal town with its mild weather. I arrived back in this place yesterday evening after a four-hour drive through a constantly changing landscape. Over the course of the drive, the large, desert trees and shrubs slowly give way to sand and dunes, and the distant mountains and valleys flatten out to a solid yellow-orange tinted vastness. I recognize when we were getting close to our destination by specific landmarks that I always remember.   Randomly spaced, crescent-shaped, baby sand dunes appear along the side of the road just a few kilometers before we reach the eerie ghost town of Kolmanskuppe and the tiny, local airport across the road from it. At this point, if it’s not too windy, you can see the blue ocean expand and blend into the horizon behind small rocky hillsides. After 10 kilometers, you reach the ...

It’s been over three weeks since I returned to Namibia, and I’ve already got quite a few updates to share. First of all, I am wrapping up our first plastic crochet training in Keetmanshoop, nicknamed the capital of Southern Namibia, but which is actually a very tiny, home-y town about 2-3 hours north of the South African border and four hours east of the coast where I live.   I am working with the group of ladies with whom I met previously. Primarily, this group is a sewing/tailoring small business. They make traditional Nama dresses as well as everyday wear. The group consists of about 10 ladies who work in a small warehouse room with various sewing and embroidery stations set up around the space and walls lined with small plastic bags full of customers’ orders and fabric.   They have been an enthusiastic and hardworking group for the most part. Last week we began by learning how to make “plarn” or plastic yarn. After that we focused on the different types of stitch...