From Ohakune to African desert

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 304, 12 September 1989, Page 12

From Ohakune to African desert

Well we have been here in sunny Namibia for quite some time now. It has been difficult settling into a very new culture especially after coming from good old New Zealand.

The New Zealand Contingent as expected has been broken into seven groups. Our group numbering five members have been placed in a place called Rundu. It is situated up on the Angolan border up next to the Caprivi Strip. When I get out of bed in the morning I look over the Kavango river and into Angola. It is only a matter of less than a kilometre. Twice now we have the Unita fighters .doing their border patrol over there. Our days are spent on patrol in series 2 Landrovers with diesel motors. Real grunt machines with a top speed of 105 kilometres an hour. That can be a real pain when you drive on the roads around here. The roads are very straight and you can drive for 40 minutes without going around a bend. Accidents Although they are very straight they are also very dangerous. Only the main road south is sealed. The rest of the roads are sand. Already eight U.N.T.A.G members have been killed in road accidents. You have to concentrate 200% of the time or you are in trouble. Our roster is causing some concern. Our District Commander is a Dutch Superintendent of their military police and he is trying to run the civilian police in a military fashion. I am at this time working as Desk

Sergeant. I started at 0800 this morning and I finish at 0800 tomorrow morning. I have to answer the phones, answer the radios (which haven't arrived yet) and send telex messages (the telex machine isn't here yet either). You are lothing but a receptionist in uniform. To give you some idea of the distances we have to travel here, in five days of patrol last week I travelled in excess of 2,200 kilometres. That wouldn't be so bad on sealed roads but the roads here make that bloody hard work. Together with that you end up covered in dust from head to toe. You soon get sick of that. Hot winter It is winter here at the moment but the daytime temperatures are still up around 20 degrees with it dropping to about 18 during the night. Summer temperatures get up to 47 degrees during the day and do not drop below 28 at night so that is going to be interesting. At least the boys will get a good suntan out of the trip. At the moment work is very slow. The elections are schediiled for November and the campaigning starts in July. There are rallies every weekend but the numbers attending . are not as huge as we are told they will be later on. We have to attend all the rallies to make sure they run smoothly and without any intimidation from the local SWAPOL (South West African Police).

The rallies are usually held from 2pm until 6pm out in the sun and in the middie of nowhere. Very boring and we can't understand a thing they are saying due to the fact they all speak Afrikaans or Portuguese. Local colour The highlight of attending the rallies is seeing the range of colours worn by the supporters. It can be quite amazing. They also spend a lot of time singing at rallies and this sometimes sounds really good. Just like something off the Paul Simon album Gracelands. I bought myself a video camera in Singapore so am trying to get all these things on film. The poverty here in Rundu is amazing to see. The local blacks live in shacks that are made of anything that they can beg, steal or borrow. There are two areas in town that couldn't be called anything more than slums. very run down and filthy dirty. Every second person you see has a defect of some sort and almost makes the stomach turn. All household rubbish is just thrown into the street and left. I wouldn't mind a dollar for every coke can left on the street, I'd be a millionaire in a matter of weeks. Scungy dogs everywhere doing their business all over. The villages that are situated just outside of town are 100% better but still very primitive. Thatched roofs, and they sleep on the dirt floors. It makes you wonder what they have to live for but because they don't know any

different they are quite happy. Black Mambas Have seen several sn;ikes now, all of them Black Mambas which are the most poisonous snakes in Africa. Very viscous and they will not hesitate. to attack human beings. I have been lucky enough to

see them before I have got too close. Have also seen two warthogs and, man, they were big suckers. Both of them would have gone at least 300 kgs. The tusks were at least a foot long and you should have seen them go. You would never cut-run one.

Have seen a small crocodile and a number of baboons but that is about all at this stage. At the moment I am trying to organise a hunting trip into Botswana to shoot a Kuru (Springbok), just to get a photo and to be able to say that I have done it. As I said earlier our rosters are a mess and we only get one day off a week. This week I am rostered to work 72 hours, next week 48 hours and the week after 72 hours again with no compensation for overtime. It is little more

than stupid as there is absolutely nothing to do. All that is going to happen is that the guys are going to get run down and sick. We are working here with the Dutch, Austrians and Jamaicans. Overall not a bad bunch of guys. The Austrians are teaching me to speak German which is of no use to me here at all but it gives me something to do.

Constable Wayne Mills

New Zealand Contingent UN.T.A.G Windhoek Namibia