No Namibia, new chapters, hand

Hello subscribers!

… and so it has happened now. Namibia, where the figures for coronavirus cases are currently going through the roof, has now, as of 20 June, been classed as a virus variant high risk country by Germany. This means you can’t, coming from Namibia, transit through Germany into another Schengen country. And since we were set to fly with Lufthansa via Frankfurt, this now makes our Namibia trip impossible, unless by some miracle the outbreak and the virus variant suddenly go away within the next two weeks or so. That seems unlikely, though.

The photo above, by the way, does show Namibia. I took it from the plane that flew us from Johannesburg in South Africa to St Helena in the summer of 2018. The flight had a refuelling stopover in Windhoek and shortly after taking off from there we were over Namibia’s barren desert coastline. That was the only glimpse of the country I’ve so far ever had. And now it will be at least another year before I can see it properly.

The situation is such that we could still get to Namibia now, but: we couldn’t come back to Vienna – they either wouldn’t let us board the plane in Windhoek, or we’d get stuck in international transfer at Frankfurt airport. Both are not things we could afford to let happen. Moreover, because of this escalating outbreak, some crucial places I’d intended to visit in Namibia for my DT fieldwork are currently closed, or accessible only by special arrangement, because of the pandemic. This means that much of the whole point of going has also been taken away. So we will have to defer the trip by yet another year and rebook our flights for 2022. I was so looking forward to finally travelling to a faraway exotic destination again after all this time, but it is not to be. Blame the bloody virus variants (and the RKI).

Instead we may now use the summer break for going to some inner-EU destinations for which travel restrictions have been lifted. Estonia would be good. A return trip to Tallinn for a long weekend had been another casualty of the various 2020 travel cancellations, so we could do that now, and more leisurely, and maybe combine it with Riga. In both cities new places of interest to DT have opened (or reopened in a new form), so it would be useful. And both cities are superbly enjoyable places in any case. If possible we could also try to make it to Sobibor in Poland to see the new memorial there that opened only recently. Slotting in a family visit or two would also be good, though the British lot are also still in a virus variant country so that won’t be so easy, if at all possible. We’ll see.
  

In my enthusiasm about the prospect of that Namibia trip, before that was crushed earlier this week, I had already drafted a few new Namibia chapters for my website, and these have now been uploaded. There are also a couple of new ones for neighbouring Angola. They’re all only stubs, of course, but Namibia has also been given a comparatively longer stand-alone chapter about its history. Proper place chapters will have to wait until I’ve been there.

  
On the blog, no new post has been added this week, as I was giving my freshly operated-on left hand an easy time without so much typing. And typing single-handedly is slow and awkward. Tomorrow I’ll have the stitches removed and should also have the opportunity to ask some questions, especially: will my ring finger stay this stiff for good now or is there a chance of it regaining its full flexibility over time? At the moment I still can’t bend it enough to make a fist, nor can I straighten it as much as I can on my right hand. It’s also still a bit painful inside, strangely most so in the end joints of the finger furthest from where the op incision was made. If this doesn’t get any better, it also means I won’t be able to play the guitar properly again. I picked my electric guitar up the other day to give it a go, and indeed, I lack sufficient control and strength in my ring finger and it’s even painful to play certain chords. Oh well. It’s not like I’ve been playing much in recent years anyway …
  

OK, so much for now.

Have a good week – and, as always, stay safe!

Best,

Peter