djawara project - first day

Today was the first day in the construction of
our djwara/cultural center.
As you can see in the picture, the kids from the
cultural group are getting their hands dirty digging
holes so that we can plant some poles.
What our project consists of, is the building of a
traditional San (Khwe) homestead. It was told to
me that the traditional homestead of the Khwe is
unique from the other San tribes.

To build the traditional homestead we need
a fence made of poles. A few small traditional
huts, a platform and areas dedicated for cooking,
dancing entertainment and other reasons that I
haven't learned yet.

As mentioned in my last blog post, this is the last
major project with the group and unlike the other
projects in the past, this one has a time limit.
Usually everything goes at a slow pace out here
in the bush but I have been impressed with the
fact that they are trying to finish it before I go.

If it is finished in time, we are thinking of having
kind of an inaugural event. Something like we did
last year which was dancing all night, a little food
and some tea. The last time was fun, but this
one should be better because we'll have the
traditional setting. I am kind of hoping that the
elders will come out in numbers and tell us their
opinion of the djwara.

At this point, with one month left in the village, it
is the time that all the other people that have
mentioned things they would want to do, but
never seemed to have the ambition to start,
are coming out of the woodwork. Other small
activities planned are another movie with the
drama group at the clinic and a music video
of religious songs from one of our churches
in the village.

Those little projects I like but the village
generator gave up the ghost the other day and
the news is that they aren't going to fix it this
time. With electricity coming to the village
(typical question is when) sometime this year,
it really doesn't make sense to pay the money
to repair it.

That leaves me with a lot less computer time
to put the movie and the music DVD together.
But I guess with those we will have to hustle
like we need to do with the djawara.

So, I guess the thought I had of just chilling out
in the village for the last month won't happen.
But that's ok, we'll just hopefully get it all done
in time.