Himba Village
Moro, Parivi, Nawa! I spent three days at a Himba Village in Northern Namibia, and those three words were sung around me the whole time. "Hello", "how are you?", "good!" I had children crawling all over me for attention, and as a result, most of my portraits from the village are of the beautiful children that I swung around, smiled and played with.
I also got invited by one of the women into her hut to show us her beauty routine. A translator came with us to explain how she creates her own perfumes with a signature mix of herbs, and to see her bathe in smoke. With so little water near the village, the women bathe in smoke rather than water. The smoke kills bugs, and is also scented with herbs. Their skin is protected by an ochre balm that they grind from the stone, and scent before rubbing it into both their hair and skin.
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Na/an'kuse
Na/an'kuse is a wildlife sanctuary that rehabilitates orphans and injured animals. Some times they cannot be released into the wild because their exposure to humans makes them too dangerous for potential future contact with humans. The sanctuary also supports a San village, and provides employment to San bushmen.
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Elegant Farmstead
Elegant Farmstead is a large farm a couple of hours drive from the airport. The farm also has wild bliesbokken, kudu, oryx and giraffe who roam wild, and a relatively tame ostrich. Because there are no big cats (although I did see a hyena) it is safe to walk un accompanied, and I took at 4 1/2 km hike through the farm amongst the animals.
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