Djwara update

The djwara project continues and today we
finished the platform which you can see in
the picture.
David the cultural group's leader is in the
forefront with Mavandje (one of the girls
from the group) in the back with the pink
shirt cooking on the fire.
The platform isn't exactly authentic and that
is regarding the height. The one in our djwara
is about 6ft of 2 meters. Normally it would be
something like 3 meters.
The platform's purpose was to store food/meat
and when the young members of the San/Bushman
group would go out to hunt or gather, they would
put the elders on top.
The reason for the elders staying on the platform
was for protection against hyenas or lions. From
the platform they had an advantage as the could
thrust downwards with their spears to ward off
the attackers.
We still have the house to build and hopefully
tomorrow we will be able to complete it.
The djwara is starting to come together and is
really looking good. With that house it should be
just about complete.
Then I think it is the going away get together. Only
a few days left.

It's the little things

That seem to pop up kind of frequently that just
make being in these villages and living within
different cultures, interesting.

Today when we were working on the djwara
project I saw a few of the young girls fastening
a few vines together then all of a sudden, they
are jumping rope (or vine).

I just enjoy seeing these little innovative things. No
need to spend amounts of money to have fun, just
got to think a bit.

the vine (above)
after stripping leaves and fastening several together ....
the girls are jumping vine (below).

Djwara progress

The time is really winding down now. There is just
about a week left.

The only activity left to do is finish the djwara/cultural
center project. It doesn't look like it will actually be totally
finish as I mentioned in the last blog post.
But it will be finished enough for me and I will leave
content.

As you can see in the picture, the fence of poles are
almost all installed. In the back there is a section that
needs to be completed but all the poles are there and
it is a matter of just planting them.

Today is Friday and it is the last weekend for me in the
village so ... if anything is going to happen on the
djwara it will happen this weekend.

The big hope that I have is that tomorrow we will be able
to construct one of the traditional huts. So, I guess
'we'll see' is the mantra for that hope-wish.

There have been some pretty good changes going on
in the village over the last few months. One big one
is that they installed two 10,000 liter water tanks for
the school. The school had been struggling for a
decent water supply for years. It took a demonstration
from the students to get it fixed.
It was really a combination of efforts by the school's
assistant principal and the students that got it the
attention it needed to get action.
But it was David, the leader of the San Cultural
Group who talked to the students and told them, that
if they wanted to get something done then they
had to get active, to light the spark. It worked and
the students refused to go to classes for 3 days,
threatened to contact the TV station and the newspaper.
It got it going, miraculously it got priority from those
responsible .

With a week left I am feeling pretty good about the
village and I am very optimistic about it's future. There
seems to be more people discussing the issues
concerning the development of their part of the
world.

It is a gift to see this, I can leave feeling good
about the future of the friends I will leave behind.

A couple weeks left

There is more or less two more weeks left for me
here in the village. It really has been busy and at
least the people are taking advantage of my help
before it is too late.
In the picture you can see the djwara project and
it looks like it's not going to be finished before I
go. But I think that we will be able to build a hut
in the traditional style though. That is programmed
for next Saturday and with fingers crossed ...
Also in the picture you can see the dancing tree.
I guess I don't have to explain that the tree
doesn't dance but that is where the kids do their
practices and performances for the village.
I do have to say that when you are under that tree
it just feels like it has some special energy.

Also, with two weeks left there is still real life that
goes on. This morning we attended a burial for
a girl named Atalia. She was in one of my first
blog articles way back in May 2009. If you click
here it will bring to the page and in the photo with
the four girls in it, she is the one on the left in the
back.
HIV is never very far away here and she passed as
a result. During my time here I've worked side by
side with a few people at the clinic that have HIV
but it took over two and a half years to find out.
They are taking their ARVs and I never knew a
thing.
Well there are those that take it and those that
don't seem to understand, I guess. Atalia was
one that took ARVs then stopped for no particular
reason. Then she became pregnant and then
started taking them again as part of the PCMT
or prevention of mother to child transmission.
She had a miscarriage and then stopped taking
them again. Then after a while she got pregnant
again and the same thing happened.
About a month ago she comes into the clinic and
looks totally terrible and it was too late at that time.
She weighed about 100lbs when healthy but
weighed a little over 60 at the end.
Just wonder what was in her mind about the ARVs.
Did she really want to live with HIV or ... She had
all the info about it and ignorance wasn't a factor.

It is what happens out in villages. It does
kind of take the luster off the ending of my Peace
Corps tour. But it is the reality and she's not the
first to have passed as a result of HIV since I've
been here. It just seems that many of the people
just decide to stop taking the ARVs.
I am hoping that some of her friends have learned
something so that she didn't die without  leaving
something that could maybe save others.

Sometimes this is the reality of life in the Peace Corps.

One less last minute project

Today the New Gospel Church Choir finally got
together to make their music DVD.
In the picture you can see the interest it created as
a bunch of people showed up at the airport to
watch some of the filming.
When we first got there I noticed that there was
about 5 or 6 extra kids who tagged along. After
the third song I happened to turn around and
then saw all these people. It was ok and upped
the intensity of the choir.
The photo was taken as we were moving to
another location after filming four songs.
In total we filmed 11 songs and each got better
as they warmed up.
I now have all the clips, pictures and songs I
need to compile into a DVD for them.
With an hour and a half of electricity a day it
should take me a few days to get it all set.
I filmed it with a generation 1 Flip camera so it
isn't a Hollywood production by any means but
it actually is, ok.

The djwara project still has some to go and with
two weekends left, I am getting a little concerned
that that project may not be finished enough
(like totally) and we won't be able to have the
inaugural festivities while I am here. So, I am
hoping tomorrow we can plant another bunch
of poles and make progress.
I am really wanting to take a few pictures of
the building of one of the San (Bushman) huts
that is programmed for the djwara project.
I want to write about it and add it to this blog.
Other than that, time is going too fast and it is
time to start throwing out junk and thinking
about packing.

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.