They were rocking part II ... but ...

It isn't a nice sequel to the prior blog article
concerning the young San Cultural Group and a
follow up to their tremendous practice performance
they had the other day. The ones they were having
to prepare themselves for the Kuru Cultural Festival
in Botswana.
In fact, from what was supposed to be a great positive
situation came tumbling to a really disappointing ending.
What happened was that the transportation that was
supposed to arrive to bring them to the office where
they could get travel documents or passports, didn't
show. It is a distance of about 540 km or about 340 miles
round trip. Transportation out here in the bush is a
challenge on a good day. So the planning of trans-
portation was supposed to be the solution.
It is how things seem to go out here in the bush. I just
feel so bad for these kids. I am just supporting the man
who is the leader of the group and he did his best to
arrange the transportation. He called, he confirmed and
he stressed when it didn't appear. What else can you
ask from the guy?
Again, I feel bad for the kids but I also wonder how
much motivation and enthusiasm have been taken from
them. I am scared that it may never return and hopefully
these kids are resilient and can somehow have the will
to try again if the opportunity arises. These kids would
have wowed the crowd, that I am totally sure of.

But the rocking part II part (as you can see in the picture
above) is that today they was a triple wedding at the
New Gospel Church here in the village.
In the picture the people are going over to the hut to
get the three prospective brides and bring them to the
area they used for the ceremony.
This place was rocking and the signing and dancing was
fantastic. It was a fun place to be and I participated and
not as the wedding singer but as the wedding photographer.
I just used my little compact Canon camera and out of a
whole bunch of pics, I'd say about 30% came out great.
It was in a building that was like a dungeon and there were
three small light bulbs. It was a challenge to get the lighting
right.
But for the brides and grooms the most important moments
came out well. Like putting on the rings, the kiss and the
feeding of cake and here they add feeding of a drink
(cola in this case, it is against their religion to drink alcohol).
What I considered to be kind of interesting was that
neither the husbands nor the brides smiled even once
throughout the whole deal, from beginning to end. In fact,
2 out of the three new husbands actually had a shocked
or scared look on their faces. I wonder why that was like
that ... maybe us men are kind of the same no matter where
we're from.
So, as I write this article I look back on a day that is just
like a Peace Corps volunteer's tour (most of us anyway),
the proverbial ups and downs. Probably can add round and
round too as it always seems to come in cycles.