In the heart of Kaokoland, Namibija

V planu je bil obisk nove, še bolj odročne vasice Himb nekje med gričevji tik pred namibijsko-angolsko mejno črto. Vodič Owen je po skoraj uri vožnje po lokalni prašni cesti nekako ugotovil mesto, kjer smo zapustili »udobje« afriške ceste in se podali med drevesa in grmovja afriške savane. Vožnja je bila nora. Nobene ceste, nobenega kolovoza – še pot je videl le Owen s svojimi lokalnimi očmi. In po nekaj 10 minutah vožnje se je med vsemi trni in grmovji kot fatmorgana pokazala vasica s tipičnimi slamnatimi strehami. Do avta je hitro pristopil vojščak, na pol nag in z mačeto na rami. Brez problema bi glede na postavo delal reklamo za kakšne steroidne pripravke ali mestni fitnes klub. Iz obraza sem mu lahko brez problema prebral začudenje nad nepričakovanim obiskom. Z Ownom sva izstopila iz vozila in hitro so pristopili še trije domačini – vsi z lepimi, dolgimi, ostrimi kopji. Debata v lokalnem dialektu je bila glede na ton izrečenih besed nič kaj prijateljska.  In priznam, počutil se nisem prav nič prijetno. 🙂 Po nekaj dolgih minutah debate pa je iz avta počasi izstopil tudi Jaka, ki ga domačini do takrat sploh niso opazili. Odprl je oddaljena stranska vrata, obšel avto, me prijel za roko in pogledal domačine, ki so ga gledali, kot da bi padel iz neba. “Moro Moro” – živjo, dober dan, ki smo ga naučili kakšen dan prej, je povzročil plaz smeha med domačini. Kar naenkrat so se vrata vasi popolnoma odprla in pred nami so bile ure, ki jih verjetno ne bom nikoli pozabil. Dejstvo, da so nas kar nekaj časa prepričevali, da preživimo noč kar tam, pove skoraj vse. 🙂 No mogoče več le še izrečene besede domačinov: “če morata vidva odditi, pa naj vsaj Jaka ostane – pa ga pridita jutri iskat” 🙂

The plan was to visit a new, even more remote Himba village somewhere between the hills of northwestern Namibia.  After almost an hour’s drive along the local dusty road, our guide Owen finally found the place to turn right – there was no road, not even a path. Just plenty of african bush everywhere. Driving was just crazy. 🙂
After about 10 minutes of driving through the bushes  we finally saw it – a mysterious himba village with typical houses. As soon as we stopped the car, half naked warrior approached us with a machete on his shoulder. He was tall and well build and he could be a model for a fitness commercial video without a problem. But I also saw from his face, that he was also surprised with unexpected guests. Me and Owen stepped out the car and we were immediately approached by another 3 warriors – all with nice, long, sharp spears. They talked to Owen and it seemed that conversation was not really friendly. And I have to admit that I did not feel very comfortable. 🙂 And then, after a few long minutes of their conversation, Jaka slowly stepped out of the car (they still didn’t see him because he was on the other side of the car). He closed the back door of it, went around the car, took me by the hand and looked at the locals, who were watching him like he felt from the sky.  ‘Moro Moro’ – hi, good day – was the only word that he knew and spoke to them. And it changed everything – locals started to laugh, they invited us to the village and we spent amazing couple of hours together. At the end they tried to persist us to spend a night there. And if not, just asked us to leave Jaka for one more day and pick him up tomorrow. 🙂 🙂