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Tuesday, October 19, 2010

You can call me Ray ...

Or you can calk me Jay. It is an old skit from, I believe, the 70's. In the picture is 'the Romanian guy' who lives in the village. I have referred to him as 'the Romanian guy' throughout this blog. In a blog comment a friend from Romania made a good point. Was the Romanian guy's name too difficult to pronounce? Is that why I always called him 'the Romanian guy'? If that was so, I could just call him Bob. I think that is a great idea, so from now on I will call him 'Bob the Romanian guy'. Bob is a great person and we have done a lot of work together for the village. By the way, his real name is Luca and he is from the Moldova region of Romania. But when it comes to names my father said it best. Call me anything, just don't call me late for supper.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Reinforcements ... aka ... new site mate

In the picture is Gretchen my new site mate.
She is here to work at the village school and
from what I've seen, she'll do just fine and I
got this feeling that she will help out the learners
immensely.

She is a brand new Peace Corps volunteer and
when the picture was taken she had been in the
village about a total of 12 hours.

As for me, it is the first time that I've had a site mate
but I guess having the Romanian guy living in the
village kind of makes it like there are two site mates.

For this village having as many good people whom
are willing to try their best to help out ... is really
going to make a difference albeit ... maybe not
earth shattering.

This last week, me and the Romanian guy got together
to help out in fixing up Gretchen's lodgings.

I know that I've mentioned this in another prior blog
but it is real incredible feeling to be working with these
people, it is like the camaraderie of a team as the best
way to describe it.

It was a busy week which is ok by me. I helped someone
with their university homework, helped fix the room up and
we are working slowly but surely with the Young San
Cultural Group to get them organized and ready to try and
get them to the tourist lodges along the Okavango River.

We are still trying to get all the original things together. There
is a chance that we may get some cracked ostrich shells for
making the traditional San jewelry. That should be interesting
to see being made, if we get them that is.

I am having about 6 months left without any changes in the
plan, yet. So, there was this slight urgency that was arriving
in getting the cultural group ready. Things happen slow out
here and I would just like to see their first performance at
a lodge (if they have one).

But I've talked with Gretchen and mentioned that if she
wanted to continue the work that was started with the
group after I am gone, that it would be a good thing. She's
a volunteer at heart and said that she would.

A lot of times us volunteers never get the chance to see any
results of our efforts. This may be another one of those
situations and ... if it is ... well that's how it goes.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

!'guru

That's the name of the instrument seen in the picture. We had it made for the Young San Cultural Group as part of the project of outfitting it with traditional materials. The group's repretoire of dances tend to be in a more modern tone. With things like the !'guru it creates the need to search out the elders so as to have them teach the young the real old traditional songs. The goal is to have the group capable of performing nicely both old and new, which in essence is bridging the past to the present. The !'guru (!' is the way to write one of the four click sounds in the Khwedam language) is made of a special wood with the single string's material being that of the hide of a springbok. There is also a small calabash that serves as sort of a speaker. It has a small membrane covering a hole in it's side. It is a beautiful sounding instrument. Next instrument on the list is the kaworoworo. Haven't seen one yet but hopefully soon we can get one made. Then it is searching out the elders. For a guy from Massachusetts USA, this is some pretty cool stuff.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Coming or going?

In the picture is a trail that a snake
made not more than 1 meter away
from the front of my door.
I've been lucky and have had really
just a few sightings during the 20 months
that I've been here in Namibia. Some of
my fellow volunteers have stories of
snakes making their residence under their
beds.
When I was in Senegal I can remember at
least three young men from surrounding
villages dieing as a result of a snake bites.
I believe that in each case they actually
stepped on the snake while walking through
the bush.
Here, I haven't heard of anyone even getting
a bite, yet.
What I've seen is that in general the snakes
kind of go their own way.
But sometimes at night I can hear a snake
chasing down a mouse on the top of my
roof. The roof is made out of zinc sheeting
so it can get a little loud but, no problem.

As far as the village is concerned everything
is going along and without much drama.
The school is going into their examination
schedule so they are involved mainly with that.
Something new concerning the school is in the
works. Another volunteer should be coming out
here to the village within the next few weeks.
She will be teaching at the village school. She
came out for a site visit about a week ago and
I think that she'll do great here. She has the
perfect personality to thrive in this village.

The clinic work has been slow and I have just
re-arranged the clinic's pharmacy and that was
a fun little project. It looks great and the question
is ... how long will it be in the pristine shape ...
no problem, I'll just keep an eye on it and after
I'm finished here, it's up to them.

The young San cultural group is still at it but at
a slower pace. All but one is in school so they
will be occupied with the exams this month. But
we have this idea to make a sample DVD that
we can pass out to a few of the lodges in the
area (70 km or more away). Hopefully they will
get some calls to perform and I know that the
tourists would just love these guys.

Most of the time now has been occupied with
writing little proposals for things like supplies
for the support group vegetable garden and
most of the actual work is following up on them.

I've found that in many cases that the proposals
are actually detrimental to the development of a
project. Reason being is that people are just waiting
to see if the stuff is going to come instead of just
plain getting to it.

In Senegal I was lucky that the village wasn't spoiled
with proposals or handouts and I spent hours trying
to explain that the only way to do it ... was by ourselves.
In the end they got it and they were making things
happen, somewhat. It was really satisfying to see it
in action, people helping themselves. It wasn't totally
perfect but it was the concept that I really wanted to
leave. People can really do about anything, it is just
the wanting to do. It also isn't just about education
or resources (though they help) but it is about the
concept of helping yourself that changes things.

It has been fairly slow but I have been lucky to find
something to do daily. It is just walking around the
village and usually someone has something that they
need help with. It not only gives me a chance to feel
that I am somewhat productive but I do get to spend
a lot of time with the different people in the village.

One of the craziest thing that's been happening over
the last few weeks is that people are starting to
address me by my name and not just by 'the makua'
(the white person). I don't know where they got
to know my name because I never told those specific
people what it was.

It is the way that it goes, just when it is getting time to
leave is when people start getting to know you. But
better to end on a high note, I am sure that one can
over stay their welcome if given enough time, n'est pas?