Moving to and cooking in Namibia

[dougal]

dougal, you'd be surprised... ... ....hopefully fliplap will be at a school with computers and power, but in Africa it's not a given....

←

Having spent a while in Africa myself (albeit some years ago, and not in education), believe me - I wouldn't be surprised!

In Africa, its usual to "expect the unexpected".

Any info directly relevant to the specific location would be very valuable.

Particularly so for Namibia, where there are both year-round dry deserts and year-round swamps, national parks and vast open-cast mines - it is a big, largely empty country of dramatic contrasts.

I think the basic premise that you must take stuff with you to avoid a monotonous diet of "rice and ketchup" is way wide of the mark.

Perhaps you should contact the Namibian Embassy in the USA to determine Government policies on foreign mail order, and imports in general (and their taxation), and specifics relating to import of food items and seeds (for example) - such things would be very good for you to know in advance.

http://www.namibianembassyusa.org/

I'm sure you've already done the basic research and noted that taxis aren't necessarily the safe way to stay away from street crime, and that the HIV rate is a staggering 22.5%...

Some links for you here http://www.expats.org.uk/countryinfo/namibia.html

[insomniac]

dougal, got to agree with you about taking stuff with you, I've never found food in Africa to be 'boring'. I'd rather stuff my bag with books (and some sort of weapon) ......only joking, just keep your wits about you and sit facing the door

[MelissaH]

I'd try to find other volunteers who have been there, and get advice from them about what's available there, what you can bring, and what they wished they had. I'd also make a point about finding out what the local specialties are, and trying them while I was there. (Forgive me for going here, but isn't Namibia where Tony Bourdain ate warthog anus?) It's a large enough country that the foods/condiments available in one part may differ from the things available elsewhere.

MelissaH

[fliplap]

dougal, you'd be surprised...I've been to schools in certain African countries with IT depts and NO computers, and schools with a computer and IT lessons that cooked the food for their students outside over a fire....hopefully fliplap will be at a school with computers and power, but in Africa it's not a given....

←

Hah! The Peace Corps that came with my invitation actually mentioned that there's a chance I would be teaching computer science at a school with no computers at all. Part of me hopes that isn't true, but then another is intrigued by the challenge of explaining a computer without one in front of me.

Any info directly relevant to the specific location would be very valuable.

Particularly so for Namibia, where there are both year-round dry deserts and year-round swamps, national parks and vast open-cast mines - it is a big, largely empty country of dramatic contrasts.

I think the basic premise that you must take stuff with you to avoid a monotonous diet of "rice and ketchup" is way wide of the mark.

Perhaps you should contact the Namibian Embassy in the USA to determine Government policies on foreign mail order, and imports in general (and their taxation), and specifics relating to import of food items and seeds (for example) - such things would be very good for you to know in advance.

I'll have already been in Namibia for a couple months for training before I head to my final assignment, so I have no idea how remote my site may be. Opportunities to head into the city might be few and far between for me. Like you said, Namibia is a big place and PC prohibits volunteers from owning a car. Motorcycles are sometimes approved, but only if you live very very far from your assigned site, a bicycle is more likely. As a teacher I've been told I will probably live at the school.

I really appreciate the wide variety of suggestions and opinions. Bringing along spices to break up the monotony sometimes present was suggested to me by a few previous volunteers. I knew eGullet would be the best place to come for ideas! I have no doubt there will be some great culinary experiences while I'm there and I'm looking forward to them. I'm looking for suggestions for those days when the Namibian equivalent of a frozen bag of peas is the only thing on hand!

Edited August 26, 2007 by fliplap (log)

[nathanm]

Namibia is a beautiful country. Most of it is very arid - it makes Nevada look lush by comparison. There is no river in the whole country (except on the borders) that runs year round. Most of the country is so arid that there are no plants. From the air it looks a bit like the moon.

The exception to this is a narrow strip of land called the Caprivi strip, which is on the Zambezi - there the probelm is the opposite - the river floods and there can be too much water.

Namibia was historically colonized by Germany, and to this day has a lot of very Germanic customs and a lot of contact to Germany (German tourists, German companies...). Cities like Windhoek and especially Swakopmund have strong German influence.

Most meat and produce comes from South Africa, with some beef coming from Botswana. The South Africa vegetables and meat are pretty good - oryx and eland (ranched, not wild) steaks can be excellent. The avocados are great, as are most vegetables. There are a lot of South African sausages available, as well as local renditions of German sausages.

Most food brands are South African - Black Cat peanut butter (like Skippy) or All Gold ketchup (very good, but a bit sweet). These date from the bad old days of apartheid when international brands could not do business in SA. More recently they have spread through Africa.

It can be amazingly and blisteringly hot in Namibia. Like living in a convection oven. In my last trip it was 45C (113F) for three days straight, with a howling wind, blowing fine sand. It is called the "East Wind". you'll experience it at some point.

Take some knives, cutting board, perhaps some spices. Mostly, take a sense of adventure - you should have fun.

[NimaCooks]

I would say a good chef's knife and small sharpening stone would be worth their weight. Just be sure to have them in a checked bag for the flight to avoid any friendly discussions with TSA personell at airport security. Also, some kind of outdoorsy-type or minimalist kitchen cookbook might come in handy. Good Luck

[kellytree]

I would bring some fruit teas and some sort of dried drink mix like lemonade or tang or hell, even koolaid!! Not things you may normally drink but it may be "refreshing" once in a while to down a pitcher of something sweet with a taste that you know.

[v. gautam]

Rashid,

It also matters what your ehtnic background is, i.e. what were the foods you were raised on or are apt especially to crave.

An Indian definitely would lug along along a 6 quart pressure cooker and a chapati rolling pin. With the cooker, a really wide variety of whole and split legumes can be cooked in exciting ways, with and without vegetables and meat. As there is a South African Connection there will be an Indian tradesperson somewhere not toofar.

The cooker is an excellent device, at least to Indians who are very comfortable with it, as a one pot element to cook excellent braises and curries from the fowl, goat and beef you will find. Stews and immensely satisfying soups and broths can be prepared very quickly and easily. Tough, gelatinous, bony cuts will yield super results.

ALL this, ultimately, depends on personal preferences and comfort levels with food choices and equipment. If cooking over wood or dried dung, cover the bottom of the cooker with a slip of liquid clay after yo wash it out. Let dry. Then the soot will stay on the clay which will wash off easily.

Wood and dried cowdung fires impart excellent flavors to food. Cattle there consume fodder higly enriched in lignins and fiber, unlike the sharp ammoniacal smell of US cattle fed absurd, non-ruminant diets. Observe the fresh dung and you will see healthy peristaltic waves of a healthy, functioning rumen reflected in the coils of the cowdung.

When burnt, there is a pungent, sweetish aroma, and wheat bread can be roasted right on the embers with excellent results. Try roasting tomatoes on such embers and making salsa, after peeling the skin, and see for yourself. Try to see the world there through your students eyes, as someone has said. They are just as wonderful humans as people from NYC, with their own sophistication to offer, perhaps in different ways!!!

[fliplap]

I feel like I should probably update this. I finished Peace Corps in December and have been travelling since, I write from Taiwan now. Peace Corps was a wonderful experience that I would encourage anyone with 2 years on their hands to give serious consideration. Just don't believe the packet of information they send you: I wasn't a teacher, I didn't live in a village. I had computers, but internet only though my mobile phone, thus no egulleting.

They were right about the food: Its terrible, there were a few exceptions, but most of it was pretty bad. I did try everything I could: from corn porridge, to mopane worms, to "smiley" - a whole goats head braised in an iron pot over a fire. Common Namibian food was fairly close to described. However, Namibia's proximity to South Africa and its oddly large German population meant that lots of western ingredients were available and purchased only by westerners. We lived in a fairly large town, by Namibian standards (pop 17,000-20,000), with two small grocery stores and a produce store. The capital, 500km away had almost everything else we needed, including a small Taiwanese grocer.

I lived with another volunteer and over the course of two years we explored avenues of culinary curiosity I may have never wandered down at home for lack of time, motivation, or both. We had a small fridge to keep things fresh, but we had only a counter top toaster oven with 2 hot plates, so we had to be inventive with dishes and methods of keeping thing warm.

Despite this obvious oven deficiency, we baked every loaf of bread we ate. From white, to wheat, to rye, sweet and buttery to sour and chewy. We maintained a sourdough starter that went into pretzels, pitas, pancakes, pizza and wonderful airy inside, crusty outside rolls and loaves baked on a huge piece of flat stone I found one day. We lived where we worked, all day projects were no problem, we could pop over to the house from the office to check on things throughout the day.

The produce shop would often take in oddball items, like 3 kilogram zucchinis. Yes, you can get sick of double chocolate zucchini cookies. We once found young ginger and watched in awe as it slowly turned pink when we poured hot sweet pickling liquid over it. When they took in a batch of jalapeños we bought so many we had to give out jars of pickled jalapeño rings to keep them from going to waste.

As suggested, we had an herb garden, though the only things that grew in the Kalahari sand were basil and cilantro. The basil made mounds of pesto. We'd carry the hard cheese back from the capital and the lack of pine nuts making us inventive with almonds, sunflower seeds and macadamia nuts. The cilantro, combined with the jalapeños that were frozen instead of pickled, became liters upon liters of salsa frozen in old yogurt containers. It went great with all of the homemade tortillas.

I could go on and on, but the last 2 years have been, culinarily, the most enjoyable of my life. Some of my concerns were confirmed, some weren't, none were insurmountable. Though the stewed goat nose was close.

Edited May 20, 2010 by fliplap (log)

[nakji]

Awesome! And thanks for coming in to offer closure for us. One of the things I've loved the most about living overseas is the way that you get to experience food in a different way. It makes you go back to the drawing board in many ways and learn to make things from scratch that you had only ever bought as convenience or pre-prepared foods.

We'd carry the hard cheese back from the capital and the lack of pine nuts making us inventive with almonds, sunflower seeds and macadamia nuts

I've also hd to get really creative and learn to use what I have on hand, not necessarily what the recipe calls for. So I've gotten intimately acquainted with substitutions! Like, pretty much every veal recipe Marcella Hazan has ever written I've made - with pork.

I live in Suzhou, China, and we too have an oddly large German population. From a food perspective though, it means we have access to some good beer, and at least one bakery churning out decent ryes and sourdough breads.

When they took in a batch of jalapeños we bought so many we had to give out jars of pickled jalapeño rings to keep them from going to waste.

I have also had the experience of having to deal with a sudden glut of something very exciting. One week when I found Greek yogurt, every meal we ate contained it - we used every bit up except a small spoon I used to start my own. Really, I don't think I ever could have learnt as much about food as I did without having had the experience of living in another country.

[helenjp]

Indeed, thanks for the detailed update! My nephew is about a year into a 2-year stint as a volunteer teacher in Namibia. Since he's Japanese, I've never heard him complain about too much rice, but must ask him for more details.

[fliplap]

I keep coming back to this post for some reason.

Now that I've been back in the States for a year I'd like to reflect on my original question: What should I have brought, food-wise, to Namibia?

Not much. Ingredients were available. They might have been 400 miles away, but they were available. There is a Taiwanese grocer in Klein Windhoek that has many of the Asian items you crave, from Thai curry pastes to fermented tofu. The Super Spar near Maerua Mall in Windhoek has an impressive selection of imported items, for example, Cholula hot sauce. They also have some things that can be hard to find in the US, like 2kg bags of rye flour. Fresh cilantro is unobtainable, however, coriander(aka cilantro seeds) is used to make biltong and wores, so you can get it in large quantities at Agra, a farm supply store. They also have lots of other common herb seeds. Peri-peri peppers are widely available, you may know them as birdseye chiles, or Thai chiles.

The mass market beer is decent, with Namibian Windhoek and Tafel being better than South African Castle or Black Label. Brewed-under-license Heineken is widely available. The Tops inside the Super Spar has a decent selection of import beers (Guinness, Pilsner Urquel, etc). Liquor of every variety is widely available, including several brands of tequila. Wine is plentiful, very good and very cheap. Several very drinkable red wines are available for less than $3 a bottle, though avoid the Tassenburg, yiles. I kept a lower quality white wine in my fridge in the summer, it was ~$8

for a 5 liter box.

I did actually bring a good knife with me, though it never made it to Namibia. Like many things it was stolen from my checked luggage at the Johannesburg airport. . No worries, good knives are available at the kitchen store next to Mr Price Home in Wernhill mall. You might have to travel a great distance, over a long time, to get what you need, but someone told me this once in Namibia: We do not have much here, but we have time.

So what would I have brought?

2 17oz bottles of Sriracha. (Impossible to find)

1 32oz bottle of Tapatio (the Cholula at Super Spar is very very expensive)

Powdered versions of various chiles.

Thats about it. Separated from familiar flavors, Tapatio makes everything taste Mexican. Sriracha makes everything taste like, well, Sriracha, which can be a good thing. Anything else I wanted I found, or quickly forgot about in a haze of cheap wine.

Indeed, thanks for the detailed update! My nephew is about a year into a 2-year stint as a volunteer teacher in Namibia. Since he's Japanese, I've never heard him complain about too much rice, but must ask him for more details.

I assume he was a JICA volunteer?. There's an excellent chance that I met your nephew, or that he knew my roommate, Nori. I met lots of JICA folks, and if he ever traveled to Keetmanshoop, he probably stayed at my house.

Edited July 7, 2011 by fliplap (log)

[jrshaul]

If you're teaching comp sci in an area without a computer lab, I'd suggest going to the nearest state university and asking about their surplus department. Around here, you can pick up a dozen low-end laptops sans hard drive - say, Pentium 4 1.8s - for under $100 a unit. Identical PCs means easy disc imaging, and you can cannibalize one for parts in order to repair the others.

As for food, I'd go nuts with Penzey's freeze-dried garlic - it's fairly good stuff, and keeps for ages. They also do a fairly good orange and lemon flavoring. And you can't go wrong with a big bag of peppercorns.

Edited July 7, 2011 by jrshaul (log)