Luderitz

A few weekends ago Daisy and I decided that we wanted to do something different. Therefore we decided to go on a little trip out of Tses for the weekend. Our nearest fellow Project Trust volunteers (Sophie and Suzie) are down in Luderitz, which is about a six hour car journey from us. So after school had finished on Friday we hitch-hiked to Keetmans and from there managed to get a place in a Kombi to Luderitz. Unfortunately almost as soon as we got on the bus Daisy realised we had both forgotten our iPods! To make it worse we weren't even sitting next to each other which meant we couldn't even pass the time by talking. So instead we spent the next five hours or so staring out the windows, sleeping and daydreaming.






When we got to Luderitz Daisy and I were pretty shocked to say the least. Here in Tses there is quite simply....nothing. Most peoples reactions when they find out that we live here is to say 'poor you! I would never live there' or 'but there's nothing there!' one man even declared 'I would never live there. You couldn't pay me to live in that place'. Admittedly it can sometimes be boring, but Daisy and I wouldn't change it for the world.

So imagine our shock when we got to Luderitz and there were... buildings with more than one floor, staircases, restaurants, cafe's, there were even parking spaces! I think it was only at that point that Daisy and I realized we really would have bad culture shock when we go back to England - I mean we had culture shock in Luderitz!

The first evening was spent just relaxing with the other volunteers. They took us to a bar where Daisy and I had another shock - everyone was white! It's very different here in Tses. Daisy and I are the only white people in the village and so when we go out everyone knows who we are - even if we've never actually spoken to them. So being surrounded by a group of solely white people felt very strange to us.

On the Saturday we went for lunch in a little restaurant (where the service was so slow it was almost absurd) and did some food shopping - to our delight Daisy and I managed to find proper Coco powder so now we can make chocolate cake!! YAY :D We then asked if the girls could take us on a 'little walk' around the town so that we could see the sights. Instead we went on a TWO AND A HALF hour trek in the sun (i'll point out that I had no sun cream on at this point).. We were taken to see 'the location' and 'area 7' (which I kept on calling 'District 7' by accident). Daisy and I felt like the Luderitz girls expected us to be shocked by what we saw, the way that people lived . But in all honesty, it was still better than Tses in many ways, especially since the 'houses' didn't look like they could fall over at any second!

That evening there was a house party to celebrate Sophie's up-coming birthday. The evening was.... interesting to say the least. Suzie left half way through to visit her boyfriend and Sophie went out with all of her friends. To make sure she got back safely Daisy went with her while I stayed to talk to Suzie. Fast forward to 5:20 in the morning and the girls were finally back in the house. So by the time we had to get up in the morning neither Daisy or I had had more than an hours sleep - yay.

The morning continued to get better however. Opening my purse I found that somebody had stolen over 600 dollars. One of the guests had gone into my room, had searched through my bag and had taken my money -  but at least they left my card! Then, after waiting for our kombi to arrive for nearly an hour we phoned the driver and were informed that she had decided not to leave Luderitz after all. So we had to walk to the hiking point and sat there for over two hours until we managed to get a lift. But finally we manged to get back home. Tired, slightly sun burnt and (unsurprisingly) very grumpy.

But our trip to Luderitz did make us realise something. Here in Tses there is literally nothing to do. That means that Daisy and I are forced to spend nearly every single waking moment together, constantly trying to find ways to keep ourselves amused. But we've realised that that's made us so close. The other Project Trust volunteers had said they thought we would be the most likely pair to fight, since we're both so loud. But two and a half months in we've only ever had one little fight. Every day we have to entertain each other, cheer the other one up if we're having a down day. We already have so many stories to tell, so many funny memories, and we've become so close. And in all honesty, I'm not sure it could have happened like this if we weren't in Tses!