24 bathrooms later

24 bathrooms, 15 plane rides, something like 4,500 miles in road miles and five weeks later, we're home. Absolutely fabulous trip!!!
There is just so much to talk about it would take hours and days to cover it all, and even then, things would come back later, things triggered by something trivial which would kick in the memory banks and remind me of an occurrence temporarily buried by the routine of our daily lives.I mention the bathrooms because Carol asked me this morning, "Exactly how many bathrooms did we have to learn." Maybe it's old age, a small bladder, or that extra beer at the boma just before bedtime, but navigating to the bathroom in the middle of the night while out in the bush where it is really dark it behooves one to know the route when there are no lights. All obstacles must be cleared as well. Many places placed wooden pallets on the floor, and I almost broke a toe from kicking one by the loo one night. The learning curve was activated immediately for future situations.
But to the point. Africa is absolutely addictive!

I would advise anybody who ever has the opportunity to go on whatever type of trip floats your personal boat to do so. Luxury camps, adventure trip, self drive vacations, small B&B's, the type of travel is unimportant. You can see everything Africa has to offer no matter what style of travel you want to do. It can be expensive, but it doesn't have to be inordinately so. It is a long way away, 16- hour flight from the east coast, but again that is just something which makes it more meaningful. Simply because the difficulty of getting there puts a lot of people off the people who do go make your trip that much more special. I can honestly say that in the five weeks, there were only five people of whom I did not have really positive thoughts.
One was an American kid (23 or so) who was there visiting his girlfriend who was doing a Fullbright scholarship on the refugee situation in Zambia. When I asked him what he did, he replied: "My parents are rich, I don't have to do anything." Okay, cross you off my list of people I'd invite to dinner.
Two were snobby Brits, the very stereotypical pseudo intellectuals who give higher education a bad name. One was a Namibian shop owner who refused to admit that Namibia was no longer a province of South Africa, and the worst of all, was a South African Woman who was unwilling to acknowledge the apartheid situation, maintaining that it was simply: "A concoction of the western media for publicity purposes." According to her there was never any level of prejudice, let alone inhumanity.
So, with my curmudgeon personality, five people in five weeks speaks very highly, not of me, but the people who do make the venture, and the people who are there living it on a daily basis.

I learned so much!!! People were enormously generous of spirit, teaching me to understand and appreciate Africa. Ed and Tasha set the stage for us early in the trip, and gave us the primer we needed to put later conversations into perspective. Our Servas hosts in Namibia were also instructive. Brian was a prime mover and shaker in developing the peace process for Namibia's independence. He and his wife moved from South Africa to Namibia because they couldn't deal with the apartheid system and the dehumanizing of the spirit. As a university professor he was able to form with ten other friends a group that became known as NPP435, Namibia peach process 435 with the number referring to the UN resolution 435 which was the foundation for independence.
His group served as a liaison between the South African government, SWAPO (South West African People's Organization) and influential whites in Namibia. He has written a book on the process and he gave us a signed copy. It was really educational learning his hopes and fears for this country he helped bring into existence. He has been honored by the UN for his efforts.
All this was not without cost. They received numerous death threats over their involvement. Their son was arrested by the security forces who could arrest anybody at any time if any member of the security force "thought" that a person "might now or in the future" be a threat to the "security" of the territory. He said to me that one of the happiness moments in his life was when he found out that his son was in prison. By being in prison, his son had rights, they were in the system. But for 10 days they were only in "detention," which meant that he could have stayed there for as long as authorities decided to keep him there. By being in detention, he had Zero rights. You could not ask anyone his status, they would not acknowledge or deny that he was in detention, he didn't have to be charged with anything. For all intents and purposes, he was a non person. So when Brian found out that his son had been placed in prison, he was ecstatic. From that point, he could work with individuals in authority with whom he had developed trust and some level of camaraderie, and he was able to obtain his release. But this was the closest we came to being personally involved in the horrors, and it was spine-chilling at that
Lest we feel too superior on moral grounds, it is not unlike the situation today with the political prisoners we keep in Guantanamo who also have no rights and who have languished there for five years.

From Isaac we learned about the realities of village life, which has been chronicled before.

From Cathy and Joe we learned about African on African prejudice. This was confirmed over and over again, but it was the first time we had come across the fact that there is far more prejudice and problems between the various black tribes and nationalities than there is black-against-white animosity. These problems and mistrust go back centuries, and it's equivalent to the situation in the break up of the old Yugoslavia i.e. Serbs/Croatians/Albanians/Kosovo, etc.

From Neil who runs a tire business in Zambia we were given a lesson on how business is done in that part of the world, and the difficulty of doing business in an ethical way. For example: a representative of a company will come into his shop looking for tires for the company vehicle. He gets a price on the top line of tires, then a price on the bottom line. He tells Neil to put the low end tires on the vehicle, invoice the company for the top end, and they will split the difference. He can't refuse to do it or the customer will simply go to any number of other tire supply houses that will be more than happy to comply. I asked him what he does in these situations, and he says that he just turns it over to his sales people, and they "make the deal." Neil's company sells the tires, but he personally is not involved. He admits that he is in effect turning a blind eye to corruption, but "This is how it's done. You take part in it, or you perish. You can't fight it."

From Brian we learned about white attitudes in the "new" South Africa, and how the anticipated problems for the most part never occurred. This is in great measure due to Nelson Mandela who preached from the beginning that there was not going to be any blood bath to redress past wrongs. Mandela remains the only black independence/liberation leader who voluntarily stepped down after one term in office instead of trying to perpetuate his authority ala Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe.

From Dele we learned about the system of fear and intimidation in Zimbabwe under the regime of Robert Mugabe. People are so afraid of the secret police. E-mails are checked, telephone calls monitored, and neighbors turn against neighbors to protect themselves.
A hero to the Zimbabwan people in their struggle to get out from under white rule, he carried the charisma of revolutionary leader to political head of a country, but he was incompetent turning the bread basket of southern Africa which exported food to its neighbors to a country which can't feed its own population. So to deflect criticism away from his rule, he displaced the white farmers who controlled the food production and gave it to poor people with no background in farming.
The economy collapsed and food shortages developed, so when he had run all the whites out of the country, next he had to find a new target and that became the opposition parties and their leaders. The beatings and brutal crackdown on dissidents are well chronicled in the western newspapers. But nothing is mentioned in "Zim" for fear that you will be next. The level of intimidation is palpable. As westerners, people were willing to talk to us, because they knew we were not associated with the status quo.

And so, these and many other situations taught us so much about the culture and people of the area. I would never claim to understand it all, but rather feel that I passed "Africa 101." I'm definitely ready for the next course. It is both fascinating and disheartening to see how many problems there are to be solved, starting with the basic problem of keeping children alive to become adults only to have them die of AIDS.

We know that we want to go back, it is not a place where you say: "Been there, done that." We could spend the rest of our lives learning about Africa, and still not truly understand, but what a wonderful ride in learning about it.
This marks the last letter I will write on the trip. Many of you have commented on your personal favorite incidents: Many people commented on Carol being left alone in the Namibian desert for the two hours. The haircut drew a lot of comments as did backing up in front of the elephants. Many people were very interested in Ed and Natasha and wanted to know more about them. Chico, the car, got a lot of interest. These and many other things that people have said to us make us glad that we wrote these letters. We do it for ourselves, like our own personal chronicle, but we're glad that others enjoy them. For example: The most meaningful statement that was made to me was by a young Canadian friend of mine that I met through the travel business who said that she was so taken by my description of the Zambian children that she sponsored one. Thank you Nina, I couldn't ask for a nicer outcome for these letters.
I'll send photos in the coming days to give you a visual sense to go along with the written word.
Until then, stay safe and live large,
Carol and Jim