10 minutes
with local taste makers
I
n the sweltering Saturday sun I meet Emily Kandanga at Eagles Beer Garden – her hip-length braids and massive hoops are the only flashy thing about her. She’s barefaced and in booty shorts and we’re having a beer. Or three.
Her reason for bringing me to this peculiar place on the outskirts of town befuddles me. But soon enough she explains: the fitness empire she’s slowly but surely building, all started on the lawn we’re looking out on. Or at least it was a lawn when Emily and her business partners began training a handful of clients here. Luckily, Sweat Fitness Namibia relocated. Strenuous exercise and subsequent heavy breathing don’t pair well with the expanse of dust that She is once was a lawn. Emily got into fitness in her late teens. The catalyst being the fear of getting fat, as that was rumoured to be in her genes. She quickly sweated away her projected love handles and fell in love with fitness. So much so that she now spends a fair amount of her time in the gym, training herself and the people who have sought out her coaching. When she isn’t training, she’s thinking about training, reading about training, resting and eating for training.
She’s an exceptionally balanced woman. The fact that she’s a self-proclaimed fitness freak, a Miss Namibia 2019 finalist and an articulated, global citizen, and we are parked on a yellow festival bench eating deep-fried potatoes, should give you an indication. When I ask her about her experience with the prestigious pageant, she tells me that 2019 was her 4th and final attempt. Not only was she a finalist, but she also rose to the occasion and competed with the same spirit that she practices at Sweat. I rack my brain to think of any woman who can handle that rejection and still show unwavering resilience.
without doubt a pillar – literally and figuratively – of power, persistence and purity.
I’m out of breath from the mere thought of it and the hyperventilation (or karma) causes me to spill half a draught on Emily’s lap. I wish the dusty plane would swallow me whole. What a friggin amateur I am. But the gracious goddess that is Emily laughs it off and later thanks me (I think) because the cold beer offered relief from the high 20s heat. Luckily it evaporates and we share a plate of chips, ketchup on the side.
She is without doubt a pillar – literally and figuratively – of power, persistence and purity. With Sex and the City being her chosen pregame for nights out, you will know that the kind of woman who gets fired up by Carrie Bradshaw is unstoppable. But she does, in fact, stop. To binge-watch series with a six-pack of Windhoek draughts. Again, balance.
This amazon of a woman is as Namibian as they come, so her undeniably American accent has had me puzzled since we first met roughly a year ago. I believe accents are contagious, so my initial assumption was that she liked the sound and has adopted it. As with any assumption made about Emily, I was wrong. You cannot assume anything about her, because she’s going to surprise you no matter what. When her family moved to New York City, she could barely speak a word of English. Learning the language in the States cultivated the twang in her tongue. So no, she is not pretentious. On the contrary – her presence is synonymous with selflessness and serenity. Charene Labuschagne 17
