To Nanibia With Love

To Nanibia And South Africa With Love

On this current trip we had a medical emergency when the better half of The Intentional Travelers suffered a heart attack.

Occasionally you come across an individual that goes out of their way to offer assistance or provide a helping hand, but it is very unusual to find a whole city full of people like that. Walvis Bay, Nanibia was just such a place.

Early on the first morning in Walvis Bay, Nanibia the better half of The Intentional Travelers, my wife Judi suffered a heart attack and was rushed by ambulance to a Walvis Bay hospital.

The ambulance crew and the ambulance owner

After my wife was admitted to the hospital the ambulance crew waited around to make sure she was being attended to. Realizing that we probably had left something behind I asked if someone would call me a taxi. The ambulance crew said they wouldn’t allow it and they would take me back to the ship. While I was getting my backpack they got called away on another emergency but left behind a note. It explained what had happened but the director of the ambulance service would be by soon to take me back. I told her she didn’t have to wait for me but she wouldn’t have it.

The hospital receptionist

Two days later at the hospital I needed a taxi to take me to my hotel and the receptionist said she would call one. Asking me if I had cash to pay I showed her a Nanibian 100 dollar note and she said not to use that for the taxi, it was way too much money. When the taxi arrived she took me out and gave the driver the hotel name and reached in her pocket and paid the driver with her own money. The next day I tried to pay her back and she wouldn’t accept it.

The couple at the hospital

One evening in the hospital parking lot a middle aged couple came up and asked how my wife was doing. They had seen us come in with the ambulance and watched me often hanging around like a “lost puppy”. They said they understood how hard these situations were on the spouse and wanted to take me home and cook me supper…

Car service Sim card

I was assigned a local car service to take me back and forth from the hospital to my hotel but communication was very difficult. Nanibia has its own cellular service and it often has problems connecting to foreign cell phones. Text message mostly worked but when they didn’t I’d be stuck. Twice the driver was dispatched to the wrong location, so one morning he picked me up, took me to a cellular office and insisted on providing me with a Nanibian sim card to contact him directly.

A street vendor/artist

(this is as much about an entrepreneurial spirit as an act of kindness) On our first walk along the Walvis Bay waterfront we encountered numerous vendors displaying wares on blankets. A common souvenir here is a hand carved Makalani nut (a hard, brown nut that when carved reveals a beautiful, ivory colored layer beneath the surface). This man seemed more interested in where we were from and how we got here than selling us and he wanted Judi’s name. An hour later we passed him coming back and he showed us a Makalani nut carving that included Judis name. Who wouldn’t want to buy such item?

A tour operator

For our second day in Nanibia we had booked with a local tour for a full day tour that included the coast, the famous Nanibian dunes and more. Were were to meet at 9 am. By 9 am we were in an ambulance arriving at the hospital. At 10 we got a text message from the guide wanting to know how much longer we’d be? He and four other people were still waiting for us. After we replied that unfortunately we were at the hospital and we were sorry we held everyone up. He responded with how sorry he was to hear this and that he would refund our non-refundable money before the day ended.

(Carved Makalani nuts are iconic Namibian souvenirs. Sourced from the indigenous Hyphaene petersiana palm, the hard, brown seeds reveal a beautiful, ivory-like interior when peeled. Local artisans expertly hand-carve intricate miniature designs—such as elephants, cheetahs, and the Namib Desert landscape—directly onto the nut.)

This amazing kindness didn’t end with Nanibia. An air evacuation team that came to transport us to Johannesburg also went way beyond what was required or even expected.

The flight crew and the luggage

It seems that because of very limited space on the aircraft it is policy not transport peoples luggage on the flight*. As the evacuation crew was getting organized to leave the “boss” realized that all we had were two carry on suitcases. He told us that he was going to break the rules and fit our suitcases onboard somewhere.

The doctor and the paramedic

The medical evacuation team included a young lady doctor and a lady paramedic and late that evening after my wife was settled into the Johannesburg, South Africa ICU their day was done. Still they insisted on taking me to my hotel, helped my check-in and settled me into my room before they headed home.

The hotel staff in Johannesburg

I cannot say enough about how great the hotel staff was both while I was alone and after my wife joined me after her surgery. Without saying anything they knocked on our door one afternoon with a try of snacks, birthday cake and a bottle of wine (it actually was my wife’s birthday)!!

Forgive me for the starkness of this post but I’m doing it on my cellphone with a magnifyer in one hand…