My experiences as a childcare and wildlife volunteer in Namibia

After graduating from high school, it was always clear to me that I wanted to take a little break. So I decided to go abroad. I have always been very interested in Africa and since Namibia is considered a fairly safe African country, I decided to go there. After a short search, I found two projects on the RGV website that appealed to me. I decided to go to the soup kitchen in Windhoek for 8 weeks and a wildlife project near Gobabis for 4 weeks. The booking went smoothly and so I flew to Windhoek on January 19.01.2018th, XNUMX.

I lived with 17 others in a small house and was in a quad room. I got on well with the other volunteers right from the start and we had a lot of fun together. Everything is very easy to get to by taxi, which was very cheap. I don't miss out on my free time either, so I went on a few trips. I booked all of these myself. With the other volunteers this is also not too expensive if you share the prices. I've been to Swakopmund (that's by the sea), Sossusvlei (that's a desert) and Victoria Falls and Chobe National Park. What I advise above all is to pack your clothes for going out, because you do that more often than you think.

The work in the soup kitchen

Tuesday was my first day at the soup kitchen. The soup kitchen is in a poorer part of Windhoek. You drove there with Mathew, the taxi driver. I received a warm welcome from all employees. The children immediately ran towards you and wanted to be picked up. I started work at 9am and was picked up around 14:30pm in the afternoon.

First we fetched water from the waterhole. After that we played with the children and painted, danced, cuddled and built. Around 10:30 a.m. the food came and all the children lined up to wash their hands. After washing their hands, the children sang, counted and prayed. The main task of the rest of the day was to distribute the food. The portions were quite small, but at least there was usually enough for all the children. However, there were usually so many volunteers that you didn't have to hand out food all day, but could also spend time with the older children who came at lunchtime.

The poverty of the children there was very appalling, but that made it even more admirable how happy the children were. It was really a lot of fun to spend a lot of time with all the children and to get to know them. The behavior of the children among themselves was also very impressive. The big ones always looked out for the little ones, whether they knew them or not. You take the children very close to your heart and that's why saying goodbye was also very painful.

The work in the national park

The transfer to the national park worked well and smoothly. Again I was in a four-bed room, but this time it was a simple wooden hut without electricity. The toilets and showers were reminiscent of a campsite. Nevertheless, these were always clean and hygienic (except for the spiders in every toilet). On site, you were divided into groups, which in turn were assigned to animals.

Every morning each group got a task. Everyone was allowed to choose one, except for the person whose turn it was for the group animals that day. When it was your turn you had to prepare food for the animals, bring them to them and clean their cages. Other activities were, for example, farm work or taking care of the baby baboons. Once a week there was a farewell party for the volunteers who left the farm for the week. At this festival the food was a little better and people danced and sang together.

My time in Namibia was indescribably beautiful for me and I would recommend it to anyone! I would do it again anytime.

My experiences as Childcare and Wildlife Volunteer in Namibia, by Jana S., August 2018