Swakopmund

On Wednesday after internships we drove to swakop- on the west coast of Namibia. It was a LONG drive, like 3 and a half hours! I slept the entire drive with my head in anna's lap, and my feet up in the air against the wall of the bus. By the time we got there it was late so we went straight to dinner at this fancy lighthouse restaurant place, and CGE covered our meals! Then we went to where we were staying, these cute little pink A frame bungalows with 6 people per bungalow (we nicknamed ours the fungalow)! Then on thursday we drove to Walvis Bay which is the main port in Namibia and was ranked the safest port in Africa. We had a speaker explain the economic importance of Walvis Bay, we went to a fish factory and got a tour, and we toured an Export Processing Zone and had a speaker about EPZs. 

Export Processing Zones exist around the world and are also quite controversial. Essentially, in attempts to attract foreign investment and transnational corporations to a country the government will allow for EPZs: this means traditionally that there is a barbed wire/fenced in area that is considered an entity unto itself, apart from the country, therefore the company does not need to pay taxes and can avoid minimum wages. In addition, some EPZs have noted  only been known to be sweatshops, with poor working conditions, low wages, and banned unions, they have also imported foreign workers to EPZs to work for even lower wages. The EPZs in Namibia are not quite the same as the image I had painted. There are no fences or barbed wire, they are EPZs on paper only and not physically separated from the rest of the country. EPZs are all over Namibia, depending on where they get their materials from or where they send their final products. Because of the Harbor there are many EPZs in Walvis Bay. EPZs in Namibia are also forced to hire Namibian workers, so Namibia can benefit from their presence. They are still tax exempt, and there is no minimum wage for EPZs to avoid because Namibia does not have one- however the wages are considered before the EPZ is accepted and allowed to set up shop in Namibia. The EPZs are also Unionized. 

However this is still controversial because these large tax free corporations are saving money in their large scale operations and perhaps preventing local businesses from flourishing. On the other hand they are training locals who have in the past branched off and started their own smaller businesses in the same field. 

So after the discussion about EPZs we went to a granite manufacturer, which was pretty cool and full of beautiful huge slabs of granite (which is essentially tie dyed rock!)

Then we climbed up dune 7 which is 100 Kilometers and insanely steep. 

On Saturday I went paragliding, but the wind only cooperated for a few minutes, so I only got to fly for 45 seconds- but it was really fun while it lasted!

Now it's back to Windhoek for a week before our next trip!