HIV/AIDS workshop at Heja Lodge

I spent the last week at Heja Lodge, right outside Windhoek for a workshop on the New Namibian Guidelines for HIV/AIDS. Workshops in Namibia are first-rate, and generally last 1 week, with many knowledgable speakers (oftentimes foreigners). I also liked how pharmacists, nurses and doctors always all learn together. It made working on the patient cases more interesting. My first taste of the lodge experience was an enjoyable one. Lodges in Namibia are like hotels, with a building for the main reception then bungalows for guests to sleep in. The food was good, and I learnt A LOT on HIV/AIDS in a developing context. I’ve just been learning on the fly at work the past 4 weeks, and trying to make recommendations and counsel HIV/AIDS patients, but now I really feel I have a solid base to practice from. The best part of the workshop was that I think I actually managed to make a few friends. A critical component of life that we take for granted but really, when you don’t know anyone in a country, you try to make as many (good) friends as possible. I mean, if I go missing off the face of the planet, I don’t want it to be a month before anyone notices! Lol

The second best part of the lodge were the animals. I felt like I was living in a freakin zoo! It was amazing. Every evening, me and 2 other girls would go for a walk through the bush. In the rainy season, the land in front of the lodge fills with water, but now, when there has not been much rain, there is only a small basin of water that has collected on the earth, so the animals gather around it to drink. Especially in the evenings. I saw wildebeasts, ostriches, kudu (like large deer with antlers), spring buck (like tiny deer), monkeys, tons of birds, and more that I can’t think of now. And I got to see them up close, no fence (though sometimes we were so close, I wished there was!), and to see them all in their natural habitat. In the photos, the animals might seem far away, but the camera only makes it look that way, they really weren’t. The only time that I did not enjoy the experience was when we stayed out too late, and ended up being in the bush, in the dark. Not good. You can’t see very well to make your way, and everywhere I looked there were animals charging each other, so we ended up having to make a large detour around them, and then sneaked by the watering hole (in a hopefully non-threatening way for the animals) to make it back to civilization. And that was the same night I discovered the half eaten body of a wildebeest. It made me wonder that whatever could have killed and eaten it, could also make a nice meal out of me. I have discovered I have a fear of wild animals, but really, this fear simply won’t work in Namibia where there are wild animals everywhere (not just in nicely organized parks, but EVERYWHERE). So, this was a good desensitizing experience for me, and I am now eager to explore other areas of natural beauty in Namibia. Luckily, there are many!