Page 13 of Sheltering Instinct

“Oh, thank goodness it's you. I didn’t know who was behind those lights and whether I should be relieved or scared.” Grabbing first Tess, then Gwen into a tight hug. Mandy stuttered through chattering teeth, “I thought I was going to freeze. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this.”

Mandy sat to get her boots on. “And thank you for boots and socks. Flip-flops in thirty-some-odd degrees aren’t great.”

While she waited, Tess pulled a tissue from her pocket and blew her nose again.

“Did you come down with something?” Mandy asked. “You keep fussing your nose.”

“Strangest sensation. I’m so dry I’m getting nosebleeds.” She slid the tissue away and then used the hand sanitizer she kept in her jacket pocket.

“Is your nose bleeding now?” Gwen tensed up. “Are you chumming the air for predators? Maybe take a step to the side.”

“Are you kidding?” Mandy’s voice ratcheted up. “Is that a thing?”

“It’s not a bloody nose this time,” Tess said. “Something in the desert gives me an allergic reaction. It was the same inArizona.” Tess reached out her hand as if she could catch hold of the air and roll it through her fingers.

“Every time I come here, I have the same problem,” Gwen said. “I call it a Namibian facial when I’ve rubbed my nose raw. Two percent humidity isn’t my comfort zone.”

With Mandy shivering in her flannel pjs, Tess felt badly that she’d thought of boots but not a jacket.

As they retraced their path to the tents, Tess slid an arm around Mandy to help keep her warm. “It’s just up ahead. I can see our tent configuration.”

Tess was actually enjoying this side adventure.

Walking in the crisp temperature, the satiny darkness of the sky was made spectacular with shooting stars. Under the glittering riot of the Milky Way, Tess felt like she was part of a bigger whole. And that felt good.

The jackal humping and fellow traveler search party just added to the memories Tess was storing away on this week-long vacation from their jobs.

Gwen and Tess were climate scientists for WorldCares NGO. Their job was to watch weather patterns, hoping to accurately forecast where WorldCares should pre-position supplies in advance of a humanitarian crisis.

Their next research project would focus here in Namibia, where a dangerously low rainfall during the last wet season made their dry season calamitous.

The drought was already stressing the production systems in Namibia.

Things had turned dire across the entire country.

Tess suddenly felt self-rebuke flood her system for griping about Otto and the food situation. Then she reminded herself they had paid for all their meals, and the rice was uncooked. If Otto had served the group mopane worms—the caterpillars collected, dried, and cooked as a traditional form ofprotein—Tess would have loved the adventure of tasting it. She’d read that they were delicacies but hadn’t found them on a menu. So it wasn’t the food but the preparation, or lack thereof.

Before this tour, she and Gwen had dined on wonderful foods in Windhoek—fresh oysters and ox tail. But that wasn’t available for everyone in Namibia.

Here, there was a stratification of haves and have-nots, a remnant of when South Africa ruled and Apartheid enforced strict policies. Those regulations had an enduring effect on where and how the people lived.

Things were often lean in Namibia. It took a daily dose of creativity to survive.

But much more so right now.

After finishing up this adventure tour—something Tess called “wonder-wander”—they were heading to Gwen’s parents’ vineyard just to the north, outside of Etosha National Park, one of the best animal preserves in Africa.

There, they’d start analyzing the crop and weather data, developing predictions of what was to come in the near future.

WorldCares had just learned that the government was feeding its people from the emergency reserves. Difficult choices lay on the table. So, WorldCares wanted a report on how the communities were adjusting. Could their tribal knowledge get them through to the next rain, or were the people succumbing to the weather events?

Lives depended on help arriving on time with the right equipment and supplies. WorldCares had been honing that skill for the seventy years it had worked to relieve suffering.

Both women felt the pressure of getting this right.

Even though Tess wanted to forgive herself for grumbling about the food on this trip, she felt the privilege of knowing she could pull something off her shelf at any time, make a meal, and feel full.

It hadn’t always been like that in her life.

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