BACK TO WORK

Our Christmas vacation is over. Now back to work. The rain has stopped and the roads seem passable again. So today we drive back from Palmwag to our home base in Opuwo. Here we load thousands of kilos of food tomorrow morning and drive that same day to Epupa, located on the Angolan border. This is where our initiative started exactly 5 years ago. We camped at Epupa Falls Lodge & Camping where we came into contact with Koos Verwey, the owner of this campsite, in the evening. As in practically every conversation we discussed with Koos the problematic situation in which the Himba population found themselves due to drought and poverty. Koos, a white Namibian, had been very concerned about this fate for years and spent most of his time and most of his money with the Himba in this part of Namibia. Koos asked us for a small contribution so that he could buy an extra bag of maize flour for one of the nearby villages. We were happy to give it to him of course. Koos and his stories continued to haunt us and so we wrote him an email last September in which we suggested our plan. In a reply email we received the sad news that Koos had fallen from his balcony the year before and broken his neck. After being transported over bumpy roads to Windhoek, where he was put into a coma, he died a month later. Koos, who was seen by many as the Himba Godfather, was given an impressive and traditional funeral in Himba tradition, with people from all over Namibia coming to take him to his final resting place near Epupa. Koos was no more. But the problems among the Himba were all the more. *

After some research we found his life partner/widow Juanine. As a young girl, Koos ‘adopted’ her when she fled Angola and crossed the Kunene River into Namibia. Together with Juanine, we will accompany the transport to Epupa tomorrow and arrange the distribution to the neediest villages that Koos had closed in his heart and supported wherever he could. We expect a lot of emotion. Gerrit (from De Spar in Opuwo) will make his 16-ton truck available for this, which will make the hours-long journey over roads that were still impassable a week ago. We will also donate the baby food donated by you to the small clinic in Epupa.

And then this: We entered 2025 with the unexpected and improbable donation balance of no less than… € 28,226.45 !!! Thank you, thank you, thank you. (Is there anyone who doesn’t get tears in their eyes from that?)

* https://groups.google.com/g/overland-forum/c/to2Ad-2wxDs?pli=1