Tourism Namibia

I knew there was something special about this land when the immigration officer at a wind-swept border crossing asked me for a pen. "Sorry, I don't have one," I said with surrendering hands, looking to another tourist for help. "Well," replied the civil servant, "if I don't take your details, I can't let you into the country." His smile gave away the joke, but it was true: He was pen-less.

Gunmen ambushed a family of five French tourists on a road near the border with Angola, killing the three children and seriously wounding the parents. Namibian authorities blamed the Monday attack on the Angolan rebel movement UNITA. The family, with children ages 10, 15 and 19, was traveling in a rented car on the main road between the towns of Rundu and Katima Mulilo, police said.

The soldiers appeared on the road out of nowhere and began shooting. The oncoming minibus swerved left, then right. The driver stopped and ran for his life. Theodora Chizabulyo, 16, was seated next to her aunt, Noreen Kwala, who pushed her and two school friends to the floor. The woman then crept on top of them. "Don't cry," whispered Kwala. "Keep quiet and pretend to be dead." Theodora felt the sting of hot lead in her back. She held her breath. The men grabbed everything.