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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Ndingo

In the picture is an above named musical
instrument used by the San people. It is
from the olden days and who's usage has
diminished since 'the change'.

Many of the elders still have the skill and
desire to make music with it but few of the
younger ones do.

It is played with the thumbs and though it
may appear simple, it takes a bit of practice
to produce the right sound.

We acquired this ndingo for the Young San
Cultural Group and it should enhance their
already excellent performances.

We are in the process of trying to outfit the
group with all the traditional materials and
I am hoping to have future blog entries
describing each new item as we acquire
them.

This ndingo was made by a man from one
of the other San tribes ( total of 5 altogether )
who is living in the village. He is from the !xun
tribe while the main population of the village
are that of the Khwe.

The ndingo was used mainly during engagement
and wedding ceremonies, plus for the celebration
of a successful hunt.

We are going to see if any of the Cultural Group's
members are interested in learning how to play
the ndingo and if so, we'll search for an elder who
is willing to teach.

A cultural group is about keeping these types of
cultural practices alive and well, n'est pas?

Friday, September 17, 2010

Sticky business ...

In the picture you can see a bottle half-filled
with honey with a label on it.
This is one of the mini-projects of the past
week. This article ties in a bit to the |an tcaka
one of a little while ago.
This week David and his brother harvested
the honey from one of their 4 beehives. We
talked about putting a label on their bottles so as
to start preparing for marketing at a later date.
We put our ideas together and came up with what
you can see. Of course being out in the bush we
struggled to make and to make do. A little yellow
paper and a glue stick and ... voila!

They do have a ways to go and 4 beehives will
not bring them to the Forbes 500 list for sure but
it is  a bigger deal than one would think.

It lies in the problems that the San people are having
in their need to adapt to a new way of life. As
mentioned many times before in prior blog
articles, the San are in the midst of quite a change
of life style. The older generations, grandparents and
some older parents, came from the hunter/gatherer
ways. The younger two generations are from more
of a static (city type) life style.
The basic concepts of marketing just weren't the
San's way. They didn't have shops or stores, they
lived out in the bush.
So, the idea of making labels and producing and
developing a business idea is kind of a foreign one.
It is difficult to grasp concepts that aren't part of
the standard passing down from parents to children.
The younger generation kind of has to learn on their
own. It has to become a part of who they are.

The brothers that have been working with bees over
the last 4 years or so have learned a lot about the
actual skills of beekeeping. Now that they are more
than well qualified they are ready to take it further.
It is a slow process but the motivation is there so it
is a matter of time and perseverance.

Being in different places and working with different
people in various stages really leaves food for thought.
Working with the brothers brings me back to the days
of my youth where the phrase was ... in this country
of opportunity anyone with an idea or a hard working
person can make it.
Though it has been a while since I've been in the States
I have kept up a bit with the situation of the economic
crisis.
It just makes me think of how fragile a developed
economy can be when due to problem in the housing
sector, that the system is seriously challenged, 
resulting in a lot of pain and suffering.
So working here with the people where life isn't so
complicated and where a person with an idea or
dream, can have the opportunity, is really refreshing.
Nothing is perfect and there is the resources problem,
but there is hope and a chance.

And that is |an tcaka (very good), I would say.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

One picture per ...

It seems that through the years and experiences
that there has been one picture that just seems to
bring me back and sparks memories. They don't
just bring out moments but they rekindle the thoughts,
emotions and relationships with different cultures and
peoples.
From El Salvador, it is a picture of a campesino
family that really speaks of how my consciousness
saw it at the time.
From Senegal it is a picture of two children of about
8 years. They were brother and sister and were
a couple of the neighbor's children. The girl was just
the funniest kid I have ever met. She had the sense of
humor of an adult and her all I want for Christmas is
my two front teeth smile ... added to it. I don't even
remember their names but it just brings back to how
even though times were a little difficult, that there were
a lot of laughs too.
In Romania it is the picture of the man trumpeting the time
from the tower of the Slovakian Lutheran Church. Almost
everyday while walking through town the man would
go out on the walkway and in four directions, blow the
horn that actually resembled the vuvuzela of the South
Africa World Cup 2010 fame.
Above is the picture that will forever bring me back to this
space and time. Even though there is still time left and more
pictures to be taken, I don't know what it is, but this photo
just has just jumped out and will be the trigger to always
bring me back to the life in the bush with the San people.
This picture we used as the background opener for this
San Cultural Group's little DVD.
It even has the kid (second from the right, in the back)
doing his interpretation of 'crazy eyes'.
As I've said many times to some of my fellow volunteers.
When we look back at our time in the Peace Corps we will
be forever young (or in my case, younger).
The only problem will be choosing where to be younger at.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

|an tcaka

It has been somewhat of a slow week but
next week the kids are going return to school
after their week vacation. So it should pick
up a bit.

In the picture is David and his brother Paulus
( left to right ). It is obvious that they are working
some beehives. They harvested and processed
a few liters of honey last week. They have been
working the hives for about 4 years and the progress
is kind of slow. I believe that now they have 6
beehives producing. That is 2 more than they had
last year so it is going in the right direction.

Looking at the honey in those plain jars made
us to decide that it would be better if it had
a label. So we got together and as you can
see below …

put our effort to produce the '|an tcaka dini' label.
The '|' is one of the San (Khwe) language clicks
and I guess the best way I can describe to
replicate the sound is to put one's tongue to the
roof and front of the mouth and pronounce 'ta'
and with an 's' slur to it. Don't know if I described
it to the point that it makes any sense.

As can be seen on the label it means 'very good
honey'. |an = very … tcaka = good and dini is
honey in their San language. I am not sure if they
are totally happy with the name but that is
something that can be changed in minutes. We
are also going to make the label with a yellow
background and black print. The idea is to flow
with the orangy colored cap.

Of yeah, David and Paulus are also the leaders of the
Young San Cultural Group. We also put together a
little DVD of songs to give to David's boss who will
be leaving his organization soon. The boss really
supported the group over the years and the best going
away gift we could think of was the DVD.

Also received a visit from the volunteer who left
as I arrived last year. She was stationed about 80 km
from the village but she did do some work here. She
also rcommended a volunteer be here in the village.
She did say she thought the village had improved
some since she was last here. She said that she
didn't see drunken ladies laying around the side
of the road like before.

She came at a good time as for a few days prior and
with things slow, I was resigning myself to the fact
that despite trying that nothing changed and that it
was better to just accept it. Just keep trying but
don't get any hopes up.

So, her words gave me some rejuvenation to continue
on and let the chips fall where they may so to speak.

Hopefully this week we are back in business and can
work on getting the drunken men off the side of the road.
I think that could be considered working on gender
equality, don't you think?