On the Okavango River

In the picture you can see the members of the older
San (Khwe) cultural group from the village. Today
we had what is best described as an outing. For
all but one of the group, it was their first time ever
in a boat.
The village we come from is about 70 kilometers
from here and directly in the bush, no rivers around.
It was a real good experiential day for the group as
we also visited 3 lodges along the river as a fact
finding, motivational and life experience exercise.
The boat was generously provided to us by Nunda
Lodge.
We went out for about an hour an a half and the main
animal attraction for the day was the hippos.We saw
a family of about 7 with what looked like at least 5
babies. Also there were plenty of birds to see too.
We then ended the day at the local fisheries center.
It is an impressive place and is a research, resource
and informational hub for fish farming in our region.
It is well done.
The importance of all this is that the village has barely
radio service, no television and newspapers rarely
surface. There is just no real consistent source of
information for these kids.
So, activities like these are eye openers and hopefully
motivators. The least, the group is a little bit more
intelligent for the information they've received.
Out here without sources of information it is like
building a house one brick at a time. Every bit of
information is a building block for development.

Update 13 February

Life 70 kilometers out in the bush is moving
along at it's usual pace. The work with the
cultural group continues (picture - group
working on list of songs) and the kids are
not only getting better but also becoming
extremely creative. They've made about 5
more new songs. It brings up a point about
culture. Culture is really an ongoing process.
As the kids have learned old songs they are
also making new ones.
The main part of my work has been in the
direction of behavior change. Working with,
for example, the cultural group, the goal is
to keep the kids engaged and hopefully down
a good path.
It has been almost two years since arriving in
Namibia and in the 3rd week of April it will
be the second year anniversary in the village.
I have asked for and received one more year
in Namibia. So, this time next year I should be
writing about a third year anniversary.
There are quite a few things that can still be
done here in the village. So I decided that I'd
stick around and continue to hopefully help out.
So, there is another year of blogging ahead.