10 minutes with local taste makers

The Face of FlyNamibia - JOYCE NGHIISHILILWA

Before she had the flashy title of Face of FlyNamibia, Joyce was a small-town girl growing up in the north of Namibia. Tsumeb, to be precise. Don’t be blinded by her humble upbringing, though. Joyce has a big-city personality and an even bigger smile – the kind that’s contagious.

Odd, isn’t it, for the ambassador of an airline to have never taken to the skies? Yet, it’s precisely that honest excitement that is so tangible in the air of a Cessna as we taxi to take off on Joyce’s first ever flight. As the steel bird lifts its nose in the air and the back wheels gently lift off the Eros Airport runway, she screams loud enough to shatter the windows. It is pure joy, just like Joyce. Although this trip is just a quick rendezvous to Swakopmund and back, it is monumental for this accounting student, whose days have been filled with non-stop numbers for the past couple of years.

She is the extroverted middle child of three sisters who are joined at the hip, and her stories of clothes-sharing conflict are very relatable. What’s less relatable, however, is the fact that she doesn’t really like pizza. I’m totally caught off guard, but she reassures me it’s because she prefers rice and stew, like a real Namibian girl. All is forgiven!

While her bubbly personality, warm smile and excitable attitude are the attributes Namibia will surely come to love, how she spends her behind-the-scenes free time adds to the facets that make her a well-rounded individual. Joyce doesn’t Netflix and chill; instead she spends her screen time learning about foreign exchange markets from YouTube videos. Joyce doesn’t indulge in the party scene (anymore) but prefers to save up and spend quality time with her friends outside of town, in nature. She is a die-hard fan of South African music, particularly Amapiano, and has got a well-developed sweet tooth.

As if the twentysomething woman isn’t enigmatic enough, the fact that she once dreamed of becoming a lifeguard fuels the intrigue. Joyce says she has always been fascinated with water and learned to swim just recently.

The more time you spend with her, the more you begin to realise Joyce is so much more than just a pretty face. And while you’re sure to see plenty more of her pretty face over the next year (in magazines, on billboards and beyond), rest assured she embodies the spirit of Namibia in more ways than being our airline’s ambassador. Joyce is smart, funny, friendly and multi-faceted. And if you missed her application video for the Face of FlyNamibia, let me summarise: “A warm smile is always a universal language of kindness.”

Charene Labuschagne