Katutura

  • From the Township to the Championship: The Amazing Story Behind One Photo

    This is Sofia Simon, a fifteen-year-old, in Giza, Egypt.  She’s on a layover in Cairo, on her way to compete in the World Biathle Championships in Cyprus.  Never heard of biathle?  Eighteen months ago, neither had Sofia.  Eighteen months ago, she couldn’t swim, either.  And tomorrow she will represent her country in a sport that

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  • Namibia: Street View

    I don’t think we really have Google Street View in Namibia just yet.  In fact, I don’t believe they have worked out where the different house numbers are on the streets – GPS systems just get you to the right street, and the rest is up to you. So I took a drive through Windhoek

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  • Just Like Riding a Bike

    Sometimes it’s easy to take things for granted.  Like learning how to ride a bike.  Among other things, we teach sports at the Resource Center, an after-school program for kids under age 14, at the Jakob Marengo School in Katutura, the poor and predominantly black township in the northern edge of Windhoek, Namibia. Usually we

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  • Video: the Home of Good Hope

    Every now and then I get an opportunity to take a break from filming bugs and upside down chins and silly stuff, to making a video with some social value.  I heard there was a need to show overseas donors a bit more about a cause they were supporting – a soup kitchen in Windhoek’s

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  • Windhoek’s Informal Settlements

    According to some statistics, 60 percent of Namibia’s urban dwellers, 25 percent of all Namibians live in so-called “informal settlements.”  They come to Windhoek in search of jobs, opportunities and a better life.  And in spite of the fact that Windhoek enjoys a reputation as a city which has taken better care of its newest

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  • Running Barefoot for Charity in Namibia

    Last weekend, I joined a hundred or so other runners in Windhoek’s northern township, Katutura – which means “place we do not want to live” – to run as many laps as possible for charity.  As I wrote in a previous post, the event was “Namibia Runs for Charity”; and as a barefoot runner since

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