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| Some Namibian Hosts for the 2013 Adventure Travel Summit waiting for their guests whose flight just landed. Picture taken by Menesia Muinjo. |
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| Some of the 2013 Adventure Travel Summit delegates at the Hosea Kutako Internationa Airport in Windhoek - photo taken by Menesia Muinjo. |
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| Some of the 2013 Adventure Travel Summit as they arrived at Hosea Kutako International Aiport then - photo taken by Menesia Muinjo. |
Background to the post and why it was compiled:
This post was compiled on 06 October 2013 as a dedication to the Travel Adventure World Summit that was to take place in Namibia then.
The summit was envisaged to host a 600 strong travellers delegation for the pre-summit activities in Windhoek on the 29th October to 26th October' and then for the Actual Summit in Swakopmund to 01 November 2013. Travellers from around the world were to hub in Namibia for almost two weeks, paying for their flight tickets, accommodation, meals, sight-seeing and acquisition of soveniours and subsequently enriching our economy. As a nature and adventure lover, this post has been close to my heart and I am now putting it on my blog for those tourists admirer or tourists sympathizers to enjoy this text journey with me.
Travel meaning
Wikipedia defines travelling or travel as the movement of people between relatively distant geographical locations, and can involve travel by foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, airplane, or other means, with or without luggage, and can be one way or round trip.[1][2] Travel can also include relatively short stays between successive movements. The same site also states the reason for travelling as including recreation,[4] tourism[4] or vacationing,[4] research travel[4] for the gathering of information, for holiday to visit people, volunteer travel for charity, migration to begin life somewhere else, religious pilgrimages[4] and mission trips, business travel,[4] trade,[4] commuting, and other reasons, such as to obtain health care[4] or fleeing war or for the enjoyment of traveling. Travel may occur by human-powered transport such as walking or bicycling, or with vehicles, such as public transport, automobiles, trains and airplanes.
Wikipedia further states that travel includes pleasure, relaxation, discovery and exploration,[4] getting to know other cultures[4] and taking personal time for building interpersonal relationships. Travel may be local, regional, national (domestic) or international. In some countries, non-local internal travel may require an internal passport, while international travel typically requires a passport and visa. A trip may also be part of a round-trip, which is a particular type of travel whereby a person moves from one location to another and return.
Travel exposure a university of diverse culture
Now that travelling has been defined, I would like to focus on the fact that travelling especially in terms of cultural diversity exposure is a university on its own. And if persons were considered for qualifications in that regard, one would indeed be able to qualify and graduate after relevant travel exposure.
From my own limited experience, as someone who has travelled the world, visiting almost all continents, mainly in line of duty (and I thank my employer, the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation especially my supervisors who saw the potential in me to successfully complete the assignments and the Namibian Government in general for my maiden international trips), travelling has broaden my horizon. It contributed to the way I see things and my reaction to them.
I have met so many people, heard so many languages, have seen and tasted so many food types, cultural attires, etiquette and behaviours and geographical set-ups. I have learnt to respect people for who they are and why they say or behaviour in a certain fashion.
While travelling can have its own challenges especially for first timers, such as its demand for energy and strength to be able to travel, need to have correct personal documentation to avoid immigration traps and hussles, means to afford the trips and stay in a particular location, jetlag, fatique and all after moving and flying up and down, I am one of those travellers who will encourage you to find the fun part of it, turning the travlling challenges into opportunity of adventure. You just become rich in travel knowledge.
All you need is to know how to travel, plan how to travel for instance by packing the permitted content in your suitcase to avoid unnecessary delays due to unauthorized items in your luggage, with prescribed weight to avoid extra payment and the authorized hand luggage which must be very light to make it easier for you move freely as some airports can be big with far boarding gates. One key tip is to avoid receiving or looking after other travellers’ luggage at the airports or to allow them to put things in your bags as this is a security risk. But you don’t have to worry as this message and others will be announced at the airport. You have to know what time you are boarding, from which gate, your seat number on the flight and where and how to store your hand luggage in the cabin. You have to know the emergency measures inlcuding the emergency exists in the plane. The cabin crew is anyway there to guide you – such as how to buckle up and all safely related matters. It is a lot of fun, some airlines offer great food, drinks, movies and reading materials.
Boarding your flight alone is enough to kick-start your excitement. Meeting people on the plane who are seated next to you is the beginning of cultural experience, in terms of language, hospitality and warmth or lack there of to receive a fellow traveller and much more. Some nations are really so friendly and welcome visitors to their countries, just like Namibians do, showing off their hospitality skills.
My travelling passion is hidden in the languages – expression and meaning thereof. I am so fascinated by the ability to directly compare the various language and word texture and context if I may call it that way and their different or same meaning to that of my country vernaculars.
For instance, during my visit to Congo Brazzaville in June 2012, I met some passionate young men who were so hospitable and were interested to know where I was from and how long I would be in their country. After interesting discussions, the gents told me, “matondo mengi madam”, (spelling might need amendment). While that expression was meant from the bottom of their hearts, it immediately stormed up the “cultural and language meaning difference” in my body language and facial expression although I tried to control it. Matondo mengi meant something else in two of my indigenous languages back home. Omatondo in oshiwambo if directly translated refers to a part of a male sex organ (testicles). Mengi or omengi word in Otjiherero if directly translated refers to something that is a lot or more. And if you put the two together in my the Namibian local languages I refered, you can arlready imagine what that might have meant to me.
And having been a traveller for years, I had to ask them what they meant by Matondo mengi and they said, it was referring to “thank you very much” (matondo- thank you, mengi -very much). From that day on, I have never forgotten that word, meaning I have mastered it.
In Lusaka, Zambia, while in a big Southern African Development Community, SADC meeting that was discussing the DRC conflict, someone rushed in to make an urgent announcement and he said, “Mr. Matondo”, and repeated himself, Mr. Matondo, please remove your car from this and this parking area as it is blocking some emergency vehicles". And while those of us from Namibia who understood oshiwambo were looking at one another trying to understand the meaning of the name, other delegates to the meeting, not only from Zambia but also neighbouring countries seemed not alarmed by the name Matondo. This is (if I may borrow from the Congo-Brazzaville experience) might have meant, "Mr. Thank you or Gratitude" or related meaning. Again that was a big lesson for me, to know and understand other cultures and respect them for what they are. A challenging tertiary level of study indeed in an open and free fashion.
During my trip to Kenya in the third week of September 2013, I encountered yet another interesting cultural diversity. Kenyan’s are among those nationalities who are so welcoming and you will usually hear them saying to you “Karibu or Karibusana” which means welcome. And while we were in a shuttle with other travellers, the driver played the well-known song which usually refers to welcoming of visitors to Kenya in Kiswahili. And the song chorus was saying”hakuna matata” meaning "no problem in Kenya, there was no problem". All of us were singing and moving to the tune of the song until one of the travellers from Zimbabwe said “hakuna what, hakuna matiti?” And someone said, not hakuna matiti, but hakuna matata. After his remark, I saw most men (as they seemed to have understood the meaning) looking at me and laughing (I was the only woman in the vehicle). But not knowing what hakuna matiti meant as I was only informed about hakuna matata, they said hakuna matiti meant “no breast or teaties”.But to me, if they had not explained the meaning, I might have probably misinterpreted it linking it to my own situation at home. Omatiti in one of Oshiwambo dialects refers to the clay bowls usually used for sauce and relish. Therefore, I could perhaps have twisted the meaning as that is what clicked immediately I heard the word matiti. Again, that was another learning curve for me, the practical university campus of adventure travel.
During my journalism studies in Cape Town, some of us were warned to stay away from local boys that side, especially the zulu ones (and I believe this was pure prejudice as not every person is the same as the other). As young girls, we were told, “watch out for those boys, if you hook up with them, they will never want you to be free or break-up with them and can follow you back to Namibia”. We were told the boys were naughty and aggressive. Well, with my pre-conceived mind after that warning, one of our late class mates, Sipho (let his soul rest in peace) was walking toward me in a bus when his friend called him. And Sipho replied, “Ag suka, ngikufuna kuluma noMenesia, man” (spelling might need amendment as I am not an expert in that particular language). Having stayed only a few weeks in Cape Town then but understood the word “suka” which is usually used to say go away or stop it, I did not know what the rest of the words were meaning apart knowing that he mentioned my name. But, the hearing the world directly spelled out fear in me because if directly translated in Oshiwambo, it would have a terrible meaning, so I was almost in tears and moving backwards as he approached me. I was about to call the driver when he all of a sudden said”. I am your friend, I am here just to be with you and protect you. To me, walking to me and expressing himself that way implied he wanted to have sex with me – that’s a close direct translation in oshiwambo (oshikwanyama). And mind you, we were told that the Zulu boys were notorious – therefore being on the bus or not would not make a difference. if they wanted to do something. But, my friend was innocent, he just meant, his other friend must leave him or give him a break as he wanted to talk with me. Kuluma – meant talking, but that meant the act of having sex in my language (sorry for the explicitness of meaning – but that is the reality of travel adventure). I hope my expressing of the meaning directly does not offend any of the readerss or follows of this blog, but my writing is meant to share the truths of travelling experience.
And the list of this interesting learning experience actually continues – in Paris, France, I went into a restaurant and actually saw the various food types whose names and prices were on display. While I knew that "poulet" meant chicken and "beuff "meant meat, I did not know what the meaning of fish in French. And to my surprise, I saw the word “poison” next to it which meant fish although pronounced differently as in “pwaso” if I have to write it direct and in an easy way to say it. To me, the spelling of poison in English meang the poison we all know and ot fish. I will not forget one day I went to buy food from another restaurant, and the lady asked me if I wanted to eat there and take away my food. My goodness, the word, “take away“ sounded something else like “angporte” (the spelling might need adjustment but I wrote it deliberately that way for the purpose of the context of this content) as in importer” It took me up to 20 minutes or more because I could make out what she was actually saying and worse of all, no one was coming to the restaurant to help out if indeed he or she understood English as most people I met then were strictly speaking French.
In Gabon, during one of the OAU summits then, we wanted to have a glass for our drinks, and when we asked the waiter for that, she brought us ice, apparently glass sounded like the word for ice in French. My colleague Vincent Spiegel as a result of our trip to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso up to now can’t stop referring to the “poulet”, chicken that we had to order, but took ages to be ready as it appeared that you order the poulet le curry, or chicken curry or chicken tandori as some called, but they have first to slaughter it which was a long process not only for any hungry person, but also due to work deadlines we had to meet. And mind you, we were on a mission with the State leadership with strict official programmes, so we had to leave our “poulet” even though we were so hungry. But, I learnt to respect other people’s situations as these were different from ours.
My MBA Marketing Module trip to Telaviv, Haifa and Jerusalem in Israel – was another interesting travel adventure university experience. As you all know, the “peace sign” is that part of the country refers to the pointing of the index and middle fingers in the air. But, in Namibia, that is a sign of one of the opposition political parties, the Democratic Turntable Alliance, DTA. So, if you are not careful, you could point the two fingers in the air, meaning peace, which other people, especialy in Namibia could intepret differently, One continues to learn and learn – while having fun.
A professor, who came to Namibia to facilitate our MBA Human Resource Module residential two years ago, asked me if he could look me in the eye when greeting or talking to me because he knew that in some cultures, men are not supposed to look women in the eye.
During my MBA Operations Module classes in Stuttgart Germany, time management was so critical mainly to European students and lecturers, not only as professionals, but also as part of their culture. But some students including those from Africa, coming a minute late was not seen to be a big deal, but you know what? That one minute delay was a serious matter to the lecturer because she said, time was important as all the activities that were lined up had to be started and finished within a particular time frame and based on a schedule. For instance if we finished our class at 15h00, at 15h03, we had to catch a train at the nearby station which required a three minutes walk – and we had to be on time in order to connect and board the next train – otherwise, we might be late for practical classes in the next thirty minutes. We had our breakfast strictly for 15 minutes and after that, we had to be on the bus for a two hours drive in order to be in time for the next business session. That was a bit different from some of our local situation at home where a joke is usually made saying“, the leader is not late, he or she is just delayed”.
It is not only through international travel that one gains a lot of knowledge and intellectual cultural exposure. Local tourism has a lot of interesting aspects to show case too. If you for instance travel to Oshana, Ohangwena, Oshikoto and Omustati, you will find ladies bending their knees when greeting elders, visitors, respected people or receiving or giving something. If you move to the Zambezi region, the people there will clap their hands in a particular fashion when greeting seniors as a sign of respect.
My husband (Baby Muinjo) usually with some German traits complains of time management at for instance tellers talking to shoppers in the queue, some even at the back of the queue instead of assisting the person next in line. This situation is experienced mostly in some part of northern Namibia. But, then he has learnt to understand that for the Oshiwambo speaking persons, greeting another person is so important, even if you do not know him or her. Therefore, it becomes necessary to greet the person you know even if that person is far away in the queue which can irritate the person who is supposed to be served next. But again, it is cultural difference at its peak and one has to be tolerant and accept that various situations have different actions.
Coming back to the Travel Adventure Summit delegates, they too have what they enjoy from the broad tourism concept – Namibia’s wide open skies, the extreme Namibia we know, oldest dunes in the world, the rivers, the natural, unpolluted air, the star-gazing opportunities as Namibia offers some dark skies allowing people to see the stars clearly... and there is a lot to see and to experience, our traditional attire among the ovahimba and ovatue communities, Ovaherero, Ovawambo, Nama/Damara, Afrikaans, Batswana, German speaking, Rukavango and Silozi and many more. While some of us still want to spend a night in brick houses, there are those who want to experience it “open air” by just putting up a bed, mosquito net and sleep facing any direction, whether in the dunes or in any part of Namibia as its weather condition allows that especially during summer. The country is safe and there is not really much to worry about apart from wild life that might disturbed but that part of human animal conflict although posing a challenge in some parts of the country is being managed. And our food too is another area which makes up the country’s diversity in traditional food, kapana, matangaras, eembe, eendunga (palm fruit not dates), eengongo (marula fruit), oshikundu, vet koekies, smilies (goat and sheep heads) , omavanda omakaka (dried spinach) etc. And mind you that ekaka could mean something else to a person for instance from SA or Holland if he or she takes it from direct pronunciation which might sound close to “kak” in Afrikaans which is “shit”. But, we have also learnt that one of the key soccer players in the world is called “Kaka”, and when I heard that name for the first time, although yet to know its meaning, I respected the name and did not jump to conclusions as a seasoned traveller.
If you put your mind to it, you will understand that tourism has so much to offer, at home and beyond. Just make time to join this universal university of unending culture wealth, and you earn yourself a qualification in your own adventurous way.
I have had my chance of travel adventure. It is now you who must experience travelling, even if that means travelling in your own village, constituency, district and region. That effort alone can kick start your travel adventure which will subsequently see you beyond the country’s border’s one day. I bet you, your whole world will change for the better for the sake of travel adventure. And I will be the one to say, “safe-take off from your current travel mind set and safe-landing to your whole new travel adventure experience”.
Compiled by Menesia Muinjo
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