Special Days V: Recreation, with SWIMMING!!

In Peace Corps parlance, which is rife with acronyms and initialisms, the initialism PST means Pre-Service Training.  However, some of the PC staff informed us it might also stand for Pretty Stressful Time.  Every now and again, they make an attempt to alleviate the stress.  (The stress-alleviation effort, beginning with Group 42, the one right after mine, has taken the form of a much shorter classroom-based PST with a much longer site-based component.)

Stress-reducing scenery.

Thus, one lovely Saturday (pretty much all days are lovely, at least in terms of weather, in the Namibian winter, so that was nothing special and yet of course wonderfully special), we gathered at the training center and took seats in the combis (vans) for transport to Gross Barmen, about 25 kilometers from Okahandja.  The combis had to make three trips, I think, so some folks got longer at the resort than others.  There was some discussion, during the wait, as to whether spending many more hours in the company of the same 50 or so people (31 trainees plus about 15 staff and trainers) would really reduce any stress.  There was plenty of space, though, and a lot of those 50 people are just wonderful.

Otjiherero trainer Remsey works it, baby, by the small pool.

Gross Barmen is the site of a natural hot spring that was once a gathering site, presumably, for the San people, and definitely for the Herero people as they migrated into the area in the 16th century and pushed the San farther to the drier parts of the region.  Sometime in the late 19th century a group of Germans built a mission there as they worked to convert the Herero to Christianity.  Eventually there was also a police station, and remnants of buildings still exist, though the Europeans seem to have largely abandoned the site with the outbreak of the genocide against the Herero in 1905.

Nowadays it's a resort, run by Namibia Wildlife Resorts, which is similar to the US National Parks Service or the National Trust in the UK.  From what I understand, Gross Barmen is much too expensive for most Namibians to visit.  However, presumably the funds from fees paid by wealthy local and foreign visitors, plus corporations and organizations like Peace Corps, go to help support social services and other initiatives for the poorer people of the country.  So, conscience salved.


The big pool.  I just got in there and more or less stayed.  For hours.

The hot spring has been channeled into a small pool in an indoor facility, which also contains a steam room, sauna, some photos and information of historical interest, and a starkly beautiful spa-services area offering massages, skin treatments and the like.  None of those services was affordable on a Peace Corps allowance!  However, PCN did cover access the the spring and the big outdoor pool for us, and people used them as they saw fit.  The hot spring was toasty but never uncomfortable, and the outdoor pool was sublime.  I did laps and laps and pencil rolls and dolphin dives and hung out in the wet, chatting with other water-centric trainees.  I vaguely recall teaching someone to dive, sort of.  Hmm.



Trainer Rachel, who lived in Scandinavia for many years, took charge of lunch.

At some point we had lunch.  Potato salad, greek salad, chicken and maybe some beef.  Who cares?  Water was the point.