The Gated Community

After many hours of driving, and an exhausting day, both physically and emotionally, we finally arrived at Frans Dimbare Youth Centre. It really felt like it was in the middle of nowhere. We had been driving a long distance on the paved road without seeing anything but small mud hut villages and many herds of cattle. Then we had turned off the main road and drove a distance on a dirt one with even less to see. And then at last, there it was, away from any city or town, hidden in a remote corner of Namibia, in the African bush, my home for the next 2 years.

I have to admit that I was a little surprised at first. On the drive I had seen so much poverty that I didn’t expect the youth centre to be so nice. To enter Frans Dimbare we had to pass through an entrance gate and sign in with the security guard who was sitting in his booth. It all seemed very official. The rest of the perimeter of the rather large property was maintained by a tall razor wire fence.

After driving further inward, we approached what looked like the main building. Since it was a weekend, the offices were closed, and we were having difficulty figuring out exactly where I was supposed to go. So I texted my future roommate, Chris, the other Peace Corps Volunteer who was already currently working there, and then he left to come and get us.

While we were waiting I looked around at the place I had been assigned by Peace Corps. It really was beautiful, with lots of trees and lush vegetation; everything was so green (which definitely changed after rainy season ended). There were some Baobab trees towering above like giants. It was right on the mighty Kavango River which was full of many different and beautiful rock formations.

Frans Dimbare really is a special place and an extraordinary youth centre. It has a well groomed camp site, with bathrooms fully equipped with hot and cold running water. It has classrooms for computers, tailoring, hospitality, auto shop, and metal working. It has an extremely nice health clinic, which I am in charge of (Qualifications? ...Ah, who needs ‘em). It has a small cultural museum and library in the admin building. And it has an orchard of mango trees, guava trees, banana trees, and I think lemon trees, in addition to a massive garden where a variety of crops are grown and sold by the local youth.

Then there is my house. It is a somewhat western style house, with two bedrooms, two half bathrooms (one has a toilet and sink, and the other has a bath, shower, and sink) with hot and cold running water, a fully equipped kitchen (that includes a microwave), a large sitting room, a small courtyard with a small plot of land for gardening, and lastly, a patio with a hammock about 15 ft from the river.

This was definitely a place I could get used to. I was really looking forward to vacationing, uh, I mean working there for the next two years of my life. So when Chris arrived, I said goodbye to my driver and the PCT I was traveling with, Paul, and we began walking towards the house on the river, where I would be staying the first night of many in this gated community known as Frans Dimbare. Everything seemed so perfect…