Good Day

Today was a pretty good day in the
effort of working with the cultural group.
We are trying to do varied activities
with them. It is part of the strategy to
show them options and give them ex-
periences that kids with resources have
access to.
We are limited with what we have to work
with and to get things done is a struggle
and a lot of finagling but sometimes a
little luck helps.
The planned activity was to take the kids
to the Mahango section of the Bwabwata
National Park. That section is dedicated
strictly for game drives. There was only
a single member of the group who had been
on one before, so it was a first time experience
for 15 of the kids.
We were fortunate to get the assistant principal
to supply transport (as he is the most reliable
option around).
We left the village about 7:30 a.m. and it might
have been a little late to get to the park to see
the animals.
There is a road that is about 4 or 5 km long
and is specifically for two wheel drive vehicles.
The assistant principal's pickup truck (called
bakkie here) is a two wheel drive so we took
that route.
The first pass was pretty uneventful as there
weren't many animals and the main animals
out were the Impalas. They were a lot of them,
more than I've ever seen at this park.
The park borders Botswana so we headed to
look at the border post. The kids never saw
one. It is a simple thing but they now know
a little about what it is about.
On the way back the kids wanted to go back
through the same road in the park and they
made the right decision.
There were a lot more animals but no giraffes,
elephants or buffaloes but there were a few
others types instead.
There were a lot of kudus, baboons/monkeys,
iguana and there was even a hippo with a
small baby out of the water. It made up for
the first pass.
Near the entrance of the Mahango section is
a fisheries institute that works with fish farming
throughout the region.
It is really an incredible place and even though
it was a Saturday afternoon and the place was
officially closed, they opened it up and gave the
kids a tremendous tour.
In the picture you can see a few of the kids with
the assistant principle inside one of the
institute's building. In those tanks are the fish
species that the institute works with.
These are the only kids in the whole school of
310 students that have ever seen anything like
this before.
They were really great and even the guide said
that they were one of the best mannered and
interested groups that he's guided.
That is one of the things about development,
the thought is to work with the difficult but also
I think it is ok to keep the good ones occupied
so that they don't go to the other side (as in
alcohol abuse at a young age).
We also got them plenty of food and those 16
kids can eat so it was a little pricey but it the
end ... worth every cent.
So now we have to come up with another activity
for them to do. The idea is to have them do kind
of a cultural concert / performance specifically
for the elders. After watching the kids dance at
the school building's inaugural event the elders
are asking to see more of the group perform.
So, as it goes, it was a great Saturday in the
life of this Peace Corps volunteer.

Super Sunday

It is not the Super Sunday of American football we're talking about here. But it is our own little version, only bush style. In the picture is action from one of the four netball games played here yesterday. Two teams from a village called Mashambo dropped in to slap our village teams around. They won three out of four games. But that really wasn't a big deal. The big deal was the place was rocking. There had to be at least two hundred and fifty people out on a Sunday going nuts. With the main work here for me being that of behavior change, anything that is good clean fun, helps. As mentioned in prior blog articles, there is a lot of alcohol abuse and it leads into bad decisions and unprotected sex. Of course which may lead to contracting HIV. So activities that eat up time during the day is needed. Good activities that is. But it was really fun and one of the great things to see is the winning team doing their victory dances. Our village team won the last game so maybe the Mashambo team really got tired from dancing all the time and ran out of gas. For me, I never get tired of seeing the small village events. They are grass root without a lot of resources, but excitement filled nonetheless. I guess it is like 'the beauty is in the eyes of the beholder' only that the Super Sunday is also in the eyes of the beholders. Yesterday was super for sure.

Audio mania

I guess putting audio clips on this blog
is like just getting a new toy. So here is
another one.
I've talked about the San (Khwe) throughout
this blog. I am not sure if anybody has heard
any of the San languages spoken. If you've
seen "The Gods must be Crazy" 1 and 2 then
you have heard the clicks that are used in
their speech.
The San in the "Gods must be Crazy" are not
of the same tribe as the Khwe. I really don't
know which tribe of San the people in the
movies are from.
This morning I asked David (leader of the San
Cultural Group) to say a few words in Khwedam.

In this clip (click here) David is greeting you,
telling his name, where he was born and also
lives (Bwabwata National Park). He also mentions
that some of the animals here are elephants and
a few others. Also he welcomes you to the Park.

Big upcoming happenings are that the village is
going to get electric lines coming in. They are
starting to put up some poles next week. We
had a village generator but that has only worked
for about 2 months in the last year.
The electricity coming is good but at first it is
only going to the government buildings. The
school, the health clinic, police station and
the Youth Office. They said it would take at
least another year to hook up the rest of the
village.
For me, I am finished here in about 7 months
and no 24/7 electric for this kid in this village.
That's life and it's ok. We will keep trucking
on with our little camping generator.

Despite the not going to benefit from the
upcoming electric bonanza, I am happy that
the joint is going to develop. And that's tcaka
tceha (good really). 

Getting into hot water

In the picture is what they call here a jerry
can. This one is made of plastic and I can
say that to me ... it is a hot water heater.
It is a simple concept if one doesn't have an
apparatus to produce hot water and doesn't
want to struggle with the fire wood gig.
One of the best things is there are no moving
parts, except the twist cap. So it makes it a
maintenance free system.
Here in Namibia there is about 300 days a year
(average) with sunshine. Since I've arrived back to
Namibia after a month back home I've only used
anything other than sun to both cook and heat
water, twice.
Doing some seat of the pants not so accurate
math I figure that out of about 148 days I used
the sun 98.65% of the time.
It goes like this ... 8 in the morning put the food
in the solar oven and jerry can with water in the
sun, finished. When I come back by noon every-
thing is ready.
Oh, and I got to say, that hot water can get scalding
hot. It can turn someone's cheeks another color
without a problem.

Some Young San Cultural Group info. Today at the
village school the dignitaries came to inaugurate
a new building. The group was on the schedule to
perform and again, they brought the house down.
(Probably not a good thing to do after they just
built it, eh).
When they started everyone came running from
wherever to see. I've seen them do their dances
maybe a few hundred times but the kids never
seize to amaze me as to how well they've not
only improved their dancing but also their capacity
to entertain.
In two blog entries back (the one about the trip to
the lodge) I mentioned how Mavandje (the girl that
impersonates the monkey in the animal dance)
went up to an old man with white hair and acted
out grooming and taking out insects from his hair.
Well, this time when she danced the animal dance,
the old man with the not white hair but balding
nonetheless, was the victim. Yup, it was me.
Man, I knew she was going to do it, it happened
per chance that I was sitting in the front row and
I am like, oh oh. She's dancing next and I am
in a perfect position. Of course it happened, the
people had a great laugh, I probably blushed. It
was just great.
So as the sun is beginning to set over this village
out in the bush in Southern Africa, I will say ...
tcaka kara ee, maka tca ... stay in peace where-
ever you are.

Sound (music) from the bush

Many times I've blogged about the Young
San Cultural Group. It is probably time that
you actually hear them.
I uploaded their harvest song which is one
of my favorites. The language is Khwedam
from one of the several San Tribes.
Here is the link ...

Mara Ku Se

I hope the link works and I hope that you
enjoy the song.

It happened

In the last blog article I mentioned that
on Saturday the 5th, we would be going
out to a lodge with the San Culture Group
to perform.
Well, it happened and it all went better
than expected.
Let me tell you how it all went down.
I went by David's (Cultural group leader)
house in the morning about 8 o'clock, just
before I went to the old airstrip to do some
jogging.
He was stepping out and I said I'd come by
after the run. This took about 40 minutes
and he was there with about half the kids.
They were stringing a few more necklaces
of beads and David and his brother Paulus
were going over the clothes to make sure
there were all the ties ... etc.
The kids were already antsy and saying that
the time was going by too slow.
So after a few hours I went back to my room
and just waited till the arranged pre-departure
get together time of two in the afternoon.
We were planned to leave at three thirty and
maybe two was too early and the kids were
just lounging around. We bought some fat cakes
and the kids ate and had some sweeto which
is equivalent to cool-aid.
At three thirty we met the transport (the school's
assistant principal) and after loading up fourteen
kids and four adults in a small pickup truck, we
were off.
This was actually kind of a big event for these kids
so I was hoping that during the 75 kilometer ride
to the lodge that we would be lucky enough to see
some animals. I felt that this would just make the
experience even better.
We were lucky and within 30 kilometers we saw
a large male elephant right on the side of the
road. To make it even better, in another 20 km
we saw a group of at least 80 elephants
crossing the road. There had to be at least 20
babies within the group. The babies were sur-
rounded by the adults.
We arrived in the small town (gas station, store,
maybe two other small shops ... that's it) and
went to the store to buy the kids some bread
and peanut butter for some sandwiches. We
killed about an hour getting that sorted and then
headed out to the lodge.
The lodge that we went to is situated along the
Okavango River. There are about 6 lodges along
a strip of about 15 kilometers.
We arrived, met the owners and were given
the first basic once over and shown where the
kids could get ready.
It was about 45 minutes before they were to per-
form. The owners wanted the group to arrive
a few minutes earlier to be able to get acquainted
with the layout. Seeing as it was our first time there.
Finally at 6:45 p.m. the kids began.
There were approximately 30 people from Germany,
England and the Netherlands there to watch.
I have seen the kids do their songs many, many times
and I have to say that this time the kids were on.
It kind of amazed me as it was their first time ever
at any lodge or in front of a group that wasn't San.
These kids are ages from 9 to 16 so to me it was
even more amazing how well they just went about
dancing.
But I must say that they took about 4 songs before
they started to interact with the crowd.
It started in the animal dance when the girl that was
impersonating the monkey went up to an older man
and emulated picking bugs out of his hair.
Man, that was funny and he turned red and his wife
had a good laugh.
The picture above shows the group during their
second song.
All in all it was a great night and a great memory.
On the way back home we saw a bunch of animals
such as elans, buffalo, kudu and elephants. So
even till the end it was eventful.
Also, the kids were excited and sang in the back
of the truck all the way home. Usually they sing
for about 5 minutes after leaving and 5 minutes
before arriving. So they were animated.
Another big point was that the group was the first
San group to ever perform at any one of those
lodges.
So maybe we have opened the door for other San
groups.
The owner told David that he thinks that we'll be
back again and as for me, after a year of trying
to get this to go ... I am content.
Yeah, sometimes this volunteer gig has it's good
moments.