Some updates from Amber

One of our students, Amber, has her own blog.   She's been posting things there, so here are some links to some posts so the rest of you can play along:

Cape fur seals and sand dunes (go to blog by clicking here; photo below!)

Weaver Birds and Klipsringers

We have been off the grid for the last couple of days. So there is a lot to tell! I have been enjoying the peace of being out of the city and into the country. We were at a ranch called Namtib, settled into the beautiful Tierras mountains. We did counts and surveys on the giant weaver bird nests, pictures to come. In the morning I hiked a mountain at 530am and got to see the sun rise over the tips of the mountains. You could see each minute the warm rays lit up the valley below, catching it on fire with golden color. It was breathtaking. In the distance you could see see the smoldering orange dunes lit up by the morning sun. On our way back down we saw three klipspringer hop along the mountain. I don't have a picture so you'll have to google them :) We've seen so many oryx ostrich and springbok. Last night we camped and the stars were amazing. I am so happy! Today at Swakopmund on the dock over the Atlantic I saw dolphins! My friends made fun of me because I was so excited I did a dolphin dance :)

More to come later!! Love and miss you all!

Amber

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Eye balls and mopane worms

"guys, I have eye ball in my teeth and need some floss"
-Amber

What a day! So many new experiences, almost a sensory overload. We had a tour of the slums of Windhoek, named Catatoura. The name means"place where we won't settle" conveying the blacks resistance towards moving during the apartheid. Our expert tour guide Ouapi showed us the diversity of the slum. It was amazing to see how different one area was from another, ranging from concrete brick houses top tin shacks. One thing that was the same thought was the tenacity and ingenuity of the people in eecking out a living.

To end our tour we went to a local resaurant and tried a variety of traditional foods including a "smiley" which is a whole head of a goat or cow, grilled or roasted then boiled, causing it to grin. In our case we were treated to a goat. I have to say the cheek meat was not bad, but Amber went to an extreme and decided to eat the eyeball. Katie was kind enough to extract the eye while reminding us of how similar it was to making a European mount. After some hesitation Amber made good on her promise and ate it. All in all it was an amazing day.
Love,
Ben