Meanwhile, back at Ready! Set! Go!

So the darnedest thing happened last week. Lance and I went to Namibia! For those of you who had a Euro-centric education like m'self and are still bewildered by this whole Africa thing, this is where Namibia is and probably will be for quite a while unless South Africa gets all possessive again.
We got an early start on Tuesday morning. Departure time was important because we (and by "we" I mean "Lance") was driving and it is not wise to drive in Southern Africa while it is dark. Those lovely and large animals don't always stay on the sides of the roads. We think this is the origin of the term "dumb ass" but can't prove it with anything other than anecdotal evidence. Lots and lots of anecdotal evidence.

So the border was no big deal. Passport people always seem to say, "Americans? Obama!" Let's hope he stays on their good side for the next few months because it often leads to good conversations.

Not a lot of people or development on the roads from Gaborone to Windhoek. As mentioned above, there are plenty of four legged animals. We didn't hit any of them. Many moths and butterflies however died for the sake of our travels though. Possibly one bird.So for three of the four Windhoek days, Lance had meetings and power lunches with embassy folks, leaving me to my own devices.

Early Morning of Day 1: research.
Mid-Morning of Day One: Hit all the fabric stores I can find.

What? You were expecting I would run to the mall or something? That was in Day Two but I digress. More about the fabric in the next entry.

We stayed in a nice enough B&B very close to the embassy. The hot water was hot and the sheets looked clean so that was good enough for us. No air conditioning so we cracked the windows in the evenings. A week later I still have the welts from the mosquito bites. The one welcome visitor was a little grey kitten (5 months give or take). I woke up the first morning and there she is, sitting on one of the chairs like she owns the place! A few rubs behind the ears, food denied and I put her outside. She came back in. I put her outside on the other side of the building. She came back in. I put her on the far side of the parking lot on the other side of the building and shut all the windows. The neighbors must have loved watching this. What is it with us and kittens?!?!?

In the evenings we took advantage of the great restaurants in town. A favorite was the Namibian Institute of Culinary Education, or NICE, which serves mediocre dinners but the best creme brulee on the planet. Lest you get the impression life on the FAO trail is all shopping and eating... which was kinda true for me this time : ) ... here is photographic evidence that Lance took every opportunity to do research. Doesn't he look responsible? Someone should make him a Colonel someday.
Windhoek itself is a small, clean, familiar feeling city. Two small "malls", plenty of museums, grocery stores, lotsa German tourists and people trying to sell them things. Crime is a little bit of an issue but I didn't have any problems. The Namibian dollar is 1:1 with the South African Rand so that was very helpful in figuring out how much things cost when negotiating. Which brings me to the subject of fabrics!