The way to Walvis Bay
02NOV2004 :: 10:25pm :: Okahandja, Namibia :: Bedroom
Today was an interesting day of travel and dealing with the Namibian government. Hein, Peter (who is the principal in the Ark here at Okahandja), and I drove over to Walvis Bay, Namibia's deep water port to turn in some paperwork and handle some issues regarding importing a container full of clothes and other goods donated by some CHIers in the Netherlands. We left here at around 7am and headed west on the B2 highway toward Swakopmund (I really need to put a map up on this website). Okahandja is at an elevation of about 1200m (~4000ft) and so we were on a long, rolling run down to the Atlantic Ocean. The first part of our drive, in the Okahandja region, is pretty scrubby, with short trees and termite hills abounding. After about 100 km the area became more mountianous and had less trees. Another 100 km later and the mountains lessened and is became more desert-like, with less plant life and sandier ground. Once you finally get to Swakopmund, which is on the coast, you are pretty much in the desert, with nothing but sand all around and dunes up to 100 ft high. It is a fascinating transition of landscape and geology; I tried to capture it with a few pictures (which i'll post sometime soon), but i'm sceptical about how they'll turn out (i've not had the best of luck shooting from inside the car). What i'd really like to do is take some panoramic pictures and stitch them together into one image (anyone know of any good freeware?). Anyway, we had a pretty uneventful drive, and enjoyed some good conversation regarding the local church and the Sabbath. We stopped in Swakopmund, which is about 30km north of Walvis Bay; Hein had to swing by a bank and an architects with some plans for an Ark they'd like to build. Swakopmund is basically a cute little German tourist town, perched right on the Atlantic at the northern end of a particular section of the Namib desert dunes. We headed south after another quick stop at a bakery (backerei) for some breakfast snacks. As you head toward Walvis Bay you can immediately see large container ships and fishing vessels in the bay. The road itself follows the coastline south, and is a really cool road, with the ocean on one side, and big sand dunes on the other. We made it into town and made our way toward the Namport (they like to add the prefix Nam- to things here in Namibia) and found the customs office. We had to submit paperwork declaring the contents of the container and pay some taxes. We were filing the paperwork ourselves, since we are cheap, and didn't use a shipping agent like everyone else apparently does. After several attempts at filling out the form properly, we finally produced an acceptable copy and submitted it to the customs people, who told us that we would probably have to pay aproximately 145,000 Namibian dollars (~ 23,000 USD) to import the 6000 kg of used clothes on the container. I guess that for some reason there is a Namibian law that you must pay an import tax on all clothes imported, although almost everything else qualifies for a tax rebate voucher for humanitarian aid organizations. Hein had heard of this happening before, and told the officials that we wouldn't pay, and that they could remove/confiscate all of the clothing when they cleared it through. Their policy is that they hold the goods in a warehouse until the declarant can pay the tax; if it's not paid in 6 months, then it becomes government property and is auctioned off. What we're hoping and praying is that the customs people are too lazy to open the container and remove the six tons of clothes, and that we will end up getting it. Anyway, after that fiasco we went and talked with a man who Jos knows who will handle the paperwork from here, as we still need official port documentation, to pay the shipper, and arrange for overland transport of the container to Okahandja. After this all day hassle, we got back on the road again, bound for home. We stopped at a campground along the coast to pay a deposit; there are plans in the works for taking the older kids from all of the Arks there for a week of summer camp in December. We made it home at around 7:30 pm, after having been in the car for around 6 hours and in the customs office for a couple more. We had some dinner, visited with some of the people hanging out, checked our email, and retired to our suite. Kate was feeling much better today, and had a good day of getting a few things done around the office, relaxing, and going to a different grocery store here in town with Nadine. Read a cool verse that is an excellent summary and reminder of our duties as believers: "Be on your gaurd; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love." (1Cor16:13-14) I love how is wraps so many fundamental concepts and principles that we need to live out in daily life into two short verses. I should memorize this one.
Today was an interesting day of travel and dealing with the Namibian government. Hein, Peter (who is the principal in the Ark here at Okahandja), and I drove over to Walvis Bay, Namibia's deep water port to turn in some paperwork and handle some issues regarding importing a container full of clothes and other goods donated by some CHIers in the Netherlands. We left here at around 7am and headed west on the B2 highway toward Swakopmund (I really need to put a map up on this website). Okahandja is at an elevation of about 1200m (~4000ft) and so we were on a long, rolling run down to the Atlantic Ocean. The first part of our drive, in the Okahandja region, is pretty scrubby, with short trees and termite hills abounding. After about 100 km the area became more mountianous and had less trees. Another 100 km later and the mountains lessened and is became more desert-like, with less plant life and sandier ground. Once you finally get to Swakopmund, which is on the coast, you are pretty much in the desert, with nothing but sand all around and dunes up to 100 ft high. It is a fascinating transition of landscape and geology; I tried to capture it with a few pictures (which i'll post sometime soon), but i'm sceptical about how they'll turn out (i've not had the best of luck shooting from inside the car). What i'd really like to do is take some panoramic pictures and stitch them together into one image (anyone know of any good freeware?). Anyway, we had a pretty uneventful drive, and enjoyed some good conversation regarding the local church and the Sabbath. We stopped in Swakopmund, which is about 30km north of Walvis Bay; Hein had to swing by a bank and an architects with some plans for an Ark they'd like to build. Swakopmund is basically a cute little German tourist town, perched right on the Atlantic at the northern end of a particular section of the Namib desert dunes. We headed south after another quick stop at a bakery (backerei) for some breakfast snacks. As you head toward Walvis Bay you can immediately see large container ships and fishing vessels in the bay. The road itself follows the coastline south, and is a really cool road, with the ocean on one side, and big sand dunes on the other. We made it into town and made our way toward the Namport (they like to add the prefix Nam- to things here in Namibia) and found the customs office. We had to submit paperwork declaring the contents of the container and pay some taxes. We were filing the paperwork ourselves, since we are cheap, and didn't use a shipping agent like everyone else apparently does. After several attempts at filling out the form properly, we finally produced an acceptable copy and submitted it to the customs people, who told us that we would probably have to pay aproximately 145,000 Namibian dollars (~ 23,000 USD) to import the 6000 kg of used clothes on the container. I guess that for some reason there is a Namibian law that you must pay an import tax on all clothes imported, although almost everything else qualifies for a tax rebate voucher for humanitarian aid organizations. Hein had heard of this happening before, and told the officials that we wouldn't pay, and that they could remove/confiscate all of the clothing when they cleared it through. Their policy is that they hold the goods in a warehouse until the declarant can pay the tax; if it's not paid in 6 months, then it becomes government property and is auctioned off. What we're hoping and praying is that the customs people are too lazy to open the container and remove the six tons of clothes, and that we will end up getting it. Anyway, after that fiasco we went and talked with a man who Jos knows who will handle the paperwork from here, as we still need official port documentation, to pay the shipper, and arrange for overland transport of the container to Okahandja. After this all day hassle, we got back on the road again, bound for home. We stopped at a campground along the coast to pay a deposit; there are plans in the works for taking the older kids from all of the Arks there for a week of summer camp in December. We made it home at around 7:30 pm, after having been in the car for around 6 hours and in the customs office for a couple more. We had some dinner, visited with some of the people hanging out, checked our email, and retired to our suite. Kate was feeling much better today, and had a good day of getting a few things done around the office, relaxing, and going to a different grocery store here in town with Nadine. Read a cool verse that is an excellent summary and reminder of our duties as believers: "Be on your gaurd; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love." (1Cor16:13-14) I love how is wraps so many fundamental concepts and principles that we need to live out in daily life into two short verses. I should memorize this one.
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