Welcome to Windhoek!

This week is our first week in Windhoek. We flew in and moved in on Wednesday, August 25^th. Moving in was a very chaotic, but very fun ordeal. I have never lived with 22 other people in one house before, so that was definitely something to get used to. I have 5 roommates, which seems like a lot (especially as a person going from no roommates to this many) but it isn’t bad. Most of the time we’re not in our room anyway.

On our first day, we got a tour of Windhoek. The next day we took a tour of Katatura in small groups with a guide who was from Katatura. Katatura means “the place where we don’t want to live”. Although it isn’t like the shantytowns in Soweto, it is by no means great. The meaning of the name describes it pretty accurately. It isn’t a place you’d want to spend your life, but that is what happens to many people there.

This past weekend was the first time where we had nothing pre-planned for us. We were able to relax and get a feel for the city. We spent some time by the pool that is in our backyard, spent a few evenings enjoying some “Cokes” up the road at the local backpacker’s hostel, and just get to know each other better. It was great to be able to just have some down-time and finally be able to settle in to our home for the next three months.