One of the most unique field trips offered during our time in Namibia was a visit to the Ovahimba Tribe in their native kraal (village). Voyagers were flown from Walvis Bay to Opuwo in the northwest corner of the country where the tribe is located. The next morning, accompanied by a guide and translator, the group arrived at the kraal.One Voyager described the experience as “like walking into the cover of National Geographic Magazine.” The Ovahimbas live a life that is for the most part secluded and untouched by modern society, and therefore have retained a mostly traditional lifestyle. The tribe breeds cattle and goats for sustenance. It is a very harsh natural environment though. To protect themselves from the sun, women cover their whole bodies with a red mixture of butter fat, ochre, and herbs.
One of the Semester at Sea Voyagers to visit the Ovahimba kraal was Marjorie Seawell, a lifelong
learner on board for her third voyage. She shared her experience in Opuwo with the community at post-port reflection. “I knew that when I chose to go on this trip, I would be confronted with otherness.” The marked differences between their lives and ours truly struck her. However, Marjorie also found the commonalities that bind us all together. A retired labor and delivery nurse as well as a grandmother of thirteen, Marjorie is a real baby lover. When she saw the Ovahimba mothers with their babies, “it looked the same as me with my kids, and them with their kids. I felt a bond, a sisterhood, mom to mom, grandmother to grandmother…we have relationships of love and caring in our families that are the same in Denver, Colorado as a remote corner of Namibia.”
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