Follow Me Around the World

Today the drive was a little long and we got to the campsite near where the Himba tribes live around lunch time.  Hank, Jele, Rob and I played a version of handball, but using a soccerball against a part of the mountain near where our tents were.  That was a lot of fun and killed time before lunch.  After lunch two local guides took us to see these himba tribes persons.  It felt like a zoo to me.  We were taken around seeing these men and women topless, covered in ocra, living the lifestyle that they have for centuries.  I personally feel this is a set up for tourists to see these people when in reality this place is nothing more than a farm where they have animals including Himba tribesman.  This lasted a few hours and in the end I bought several extremely priced and overly priced bracelet, anklet and necklace.  I probably put one of their kids through college.

I left the farm early, in disgust as I felt that these people were being exploited and were fake and just doing this for money from tourists.  Anyway after a brief talk with Jabu and Mike, we all killed time before dinner by playing different types of card games.  I played BS, speed and then a few of us decided to play some Texas Holdem No-Limit Poker.  I came in late and played a few hands before dinner.  After dinner Jin, Hannah, Hank, Jele, Liz and I went back to playing.  At one point I was down 84 rand or a little more than 10 USD, but after being patient and catching some good cards I ended up plus 400, but because Linda and Sarah who were trying to keep score of who was up and down, messed it up, Hank proposed that we all settle on certain amounts. I agreed to take 300 rand or a little more than 40 USD.  Not bad for a few hours of playing.  After poker, Hannah told us all speed which is a two person game.  She beat me the first game, I beat her the second and she beat me the third.  After that Jin and Hank learned how to play and became addicted and the three of them played several games throughout the night.  I was having several drinks, and walking back between the firepit and where people were talking and chatting to be social and work the room.

Once again a few of us decided to sleep outside which was really nice.  It was a little colder than the night before, but less windy which I was OK with.  Oh I totally forgot to tell a story, the night before in Spitzkoppe where there were no real toliets, just disgusting longdrop toliets, I decided to use the bush as my toliet.  I went out a few hundred meters dug a ditch similar to the shape of a hotdog and did my business.  Afterwards I wiped using my biodegradable toliet paper I brought special for this trip and then buried the ditch with the sand surrounding the my homemade toliet. 

When I went back to the truck and was about to leave, I remembered that I had left my camera next to the bush.  I started to panic, running around looking for the camera.  Of course every bush looked the same and luckily I remembered the general facility of where I did my business and of course found my camera!

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