My First Hiking Experience

Saturday, April 26th
The main mode of transportation here in Namibia is "hiking" which is essentially paying for rides by taxis, combis or personal vehicles. The head trainer at PST set a ride for myself and three others with this Otjiherero man. We paid the driver up front because he needed gas for his car. It was about an 1.5hr trip to Otjiwarango which we all slept most of the way.
After we dropped off one trainee in Otjiwarongo, we thought we were good to go, but he drove around for a bit and we thought that he wanted to pick up one more passenger to help with costs. We picked up this one man, but we only drove a short distance and were told the man we picked up would take us to from Otjiwarongo to Outjo. We informed the new and old driver that we paid up front for the whole trip and they said they would work it out between themselves.
So, we switched vehicles and were on our way. The new driver apologized for the mess in his car, but it was not dirty in the least. This driver spoke better English and was a lot nicer. I sat up front and he said his name was "come" in Otjiherero, but it sounded like Ninja. He nicely joked about several things. He asked how much we paid the other man and I told him we each paid $220 and he said the man jipped us. The man only gave him $200 for all of us and he was supposed to get $250. He seemed honest and kind. He said I was too beautiful to hike for rides and it would be unsafe, so I should call him. We dropped the two trainees off at the hospital in Outjo for they are shadowing the volunteer that works there and he took me to a gas station outside of town where I was to meet the volunteer I was to shadow. She  was not there when I arrived and he insisted that he wait until she did as I should not wait by myself. We exchanged numbers for anytime I needed future rides and he promised to not call me and he has not yet. So, now I have Ninja Driver who I trust to take me where I need to go safely.

This first hiking experience was on Wednesday and we just ventured yesterday (Friday) to Khorixas from Outjo. The volunteer and I wanted to try to get to Khorixas by 10am, and my driver was in Otjiwarongo so we went to hike. There are two main hike points in Outjo to get to Khorixas- one in town and one right outside of town at the turning point to Khorixas.
We first went to the one right outside of town because you can get cheaper hikes. When we got to this hike point there was a man there who said he travelled from Okahandja and was trying to get to Khorixas and was hoping to not have to stay the night in Outjo. He looked normal enough. There were only a handful of cars and none could take us to Khorixas. There was one small truck that had some men picking up trash. They picked up some trash, but the driver came back and told us it was unsafe for two ladies to be hiking on this side of town and showed a lot of concern. He then said the man that was at the hike point has been hanging around this area for a while and that it was rumored he already raped three women. He may of just told us this information to scare us, but it worked and we went back into town to catch a ride. We had one man offer, but he needed to find two more people. Then, one vehicle was leaving right now and we took this one to Khorixas and arrived safely where we met the male volunteer that has lived there for a year now.