Sundown on another week

The picture you see is that of the sun
going down with the Kavango River
in the foreground (or is that forewater?).

The photo sets the mood ... the end of another
week out in the middle of the bush 70 km
from anywhere.

For every good week there is a bad one. This
one would go under the category of ... not too
great. It isn't like everything was rotten, it just
stunk.

It was a lot of barriers and hurdles to overcome
with little to show. But that is the roller coaster
ride we go through. 'This too shall pass' is the mantra
for this week.

I almost forgot to wish everyone a belated
Happy Thanksgiving Day. I am from New England
and I would have to argue, one of the best places
to be on that day. It is a little difficult to feel that
Thanksgiving vibe, even in the realm of nostalgia
when the temperature is about 95 to 100 degrees.
But I guess that that vibe really should come from
the heart. I guess if the week went better I'd be
feeling it.

The support garden is in kind of a floundering mode,
after electing a new management board, maybe it
will get moving. This one has been challenging lately.

The choir is going along and soon will have their little
DVD together. Yesterday was a little bit of a bad day
as they filmed about 5 songs. Take a guess as to how
many came out good. None of them, due to a couple
of crying babies that basically wailed throughout the
whole thing. Just one of those great volunteer days.
But you know, I am kind of immune to it all now.
Oh well, we'll just do it again tomorrow or never,
who knows in this gig.

One pretty positive thing was that the San Cultural Group
is on their way sometime next week to the national
dance competition. They are not competing but going
as sort of a demonstration entity. There is really no
category for the San styles of dancing, yet. So I guess
that this group is on the pioneer side of it at the moment.
It should give them some great exposure and also allow
them to be court side for the national dance competition.
A great experience for them.

The San are really trying to find a new way since they've
had to abandon their hunter/gatherer ways and to
best describe the situation, they are trying to find their
place in the Namibian society. Participating in the
national events should help get them better accepted.

There were a lot of other little irritations that I kind
of brushed aside.

Well, next week is a new week and maybe a new
energy. To repeat, this gig is all about this ebb and
flow jazz.

Elephant art

That's what you are looking at in the picture above.
It was given to me by one of the other two white people
here, one of the Romanians, in fact. I just need to sand it
a little to make it smooth.
He works with art, carving and drawing/painting.and this
he received from some artisans that live in a town called
Kongola. The Romanian guy lived in that town for a while
and was able to make contact and learn how to do that
type of carving.
It is a possible project here in the village but at the moment
no one either has the skill or the desire to work with
those types of carvings.
This is where we come in as volunteers to try and give an
option to some of the younger people in the village. Over
the years as the San people have left their hunter/gatherer
ways behind, it has been mentioned many times by the
young, that they do not know the skills of their fathers.
All this happening within a matter of a generation or so.
With collaboration between the Romanian guy and me,
we hope to be able to grab the attention of a few younger
people. More of an awakening or bridge to their past.

In general the past week was a fair one. We have a new
organization sponsoring the HIV/AIDS support group
and it appears that it has energized the group. So that
is a step forward and more activity for me in the process,
that's what I'm here for.
The school finally received the computers promised to them
about 6 months ago. They aren't new ones but they run
fine. It is also a little bit of a challenge to get them up and
running in a network system. They have two different
operating systems so the work to integrate them is a
little bit of a challenge. I have been able to get about
half of them going in the right direction. It is a challenge
for me and I am really liking it. I have at least 7 weeks
to get it up to the highest standard, with luck ...

The choir group has made a series of songs that we are
going to put on a DVD. The group was just started up
a few months ago and I think that they are still in the
process of finding their way. There are members
coming and going, but I can see the core forming.
The reason for making the music video is so that they
can see themselves and critique their performances.
In a perfect entertainment world (I think, never been in
one) they would have a wall of mirrors to be able to
see themselves. So the video will be their wall of
mirrors for now. Some songs, they have sung well and
a few others they may want to re-do. But all in all, it
a fun thing to do and it keeps a group of young people
out of the bars for a few extra hours a week.

Actually somewhat of a miracle happened. I believe I
mentioned in a prior article that we had a solar system
radio receiver transmitter for the village. It hadn't worked
as it was designed to do for over almost 6 years. One
reason being is that the people in the village didn't quite
have the experience they needed to request the system
to be repaired.
Again, these are the San people and all the elders have
no experience to fall back on. They were living out in
the bush where there was no need of writing request
for repairs of anything. This is something that is going to
have to fall on the shoulders of the younger generation.
Within the San community there is still the respect for
the elders and village headmen. So, it is difficult for the
younger go take action because they feel that they may
usurp the authority of the elders.
What happened was that I discussed this with a young
man who has some responsibility to work with such
issues. Together we wrote a solicitation for repair and
he submitted it to the headmen. They approved and
then the young man submitted it to the company
supplying the service.
Personally, and also a few of my colleagues told me,
well, we all thought that I would be long gone
(in another year and a half) before anything was even
looked at. I was shocked to hear that the company
came down and fixed it within two weeks of receiving the
solicitation. Wonders never cease and I was actually a
little giddy upon hearing the news.
Sometimes things just go right and it makes ya feel pretty
OK for that day.

I may be leaning towards the glass being half full instead
of half empty, but, I am feeling that things are kind of
wakening up in the village. I can't put my finger on it and
maybe I am delusional about this, but I just have a sense
that things are getting a little more energetic. Hopefully
I am not too 'crazy' as far as this goes.

So that's it for another week, as far as giving a mark I
would say that it was a 7 out of 10.
I'm OK with that.

66 Impala and the real thing

In something like1976 or so, I had a great looking
1966 Chevrolet Impala. It was a beautiful mint
green color. It needed a little work but with a
few hundred dollars, at the time, it was like brand
new.
This weekend I went to the Buffalo Game Park.
I've been there before a few times and it was probably
for the last time as my colleague who has been there for
the last year, is winding down her service.
Today, we went on a game drive at a park across
the river from her location.
It was a pretty decent day and we saw a lot of
animals. But didn't see elephants or giraffes
or lions.
There were warthogs, kudu, tsessebe, buffalo, sable,
roan, hippos, baboons, vervet monkeys, zebra,
wilderbest. reed buck, water monitor, african fish eagle,
wartled crane and of course impala.
In the picture above you can see a female impala,
really a beautiful animal. Two of them ran by the
front of the vehicle and it was a tremendous sight
to see them jump. It was so graceful an action.
The best part was that the animals were in herds,
so, it wasn't isolated instances here or there.
It was a herd of buffalo here and 100 yards later,
a group of baboons and so on.
It was a great way to spend the time with a good
friend before their departure.
It is funny that even when I had that '66' Impala
it was just a name that identified a car. After seeing
the real thing, I can see the similarities and just like
the animal itself that '66' was just a sleek old
girl.
It was kind of crazy that when I saw the herd of
impalas and the first thing I said to my friend was ...
I had a '66' Impala.
Over 30 years later I got to come face to face
with ... the real thing.

One library forward and one house back ...

I took a picture while I was in the library the other day.
It is a difficult place to take a photo of and it
is impossible to get a true representation of
the interior.
The picture may give you a decent idea as to
the transformation that has gone on so far. There
is a before picture in a prior blog article ...
Long term something to do
In the photo you can see that the walls received
a little freshening up. Also, that is the extent of the
book shelves and books at the moment. In the
foreground you can see a few boxes of books
that we've received from a colleague who is in the
process of completing his tour here in Namibia.
The books are of good quality and are a mixture of
stories and educational material. They are a very
welcome and appreciated addition to the school's
library. The books are more geared for younger
students and now there is a big imbalance of material.
A rough estimate is that the books are about 85%
that of for younger than older students. But that is
ok as it brings the challenge to get books for the older
(teenage) students. We will do our best and never
give up and hopefully we will continue to grow the
library and as an end result, the minds of these kids.

It also is the end of another week and it was a good
one, all in all.
We showed a short film on teenage pregnancy at the
school last evening and it was the first time in over
7 months of struggling that they allowed us to do it.
You know this development thing isn't always about
the physical resources. It is more (a lot more) about
the mind. In El Salvador and Senegal it was about the
physical resources. In Romania and here, Namibia, it
is more the lack of mind resource that is the barrier.
Here, there are a lot of things to work with. We have
limited (about 9 hours) of electricity to use.
We have a few computers and there is a person or
two whom are capable of teaching. But ... the problem
is that, for example. The school's principal is not computer
literate and therefore, he has no interest in them. Worse,
he doesn't support a program so as to teach computer
literacy in the school. So, unlike El Salvador and Senegal,
where we could see why we couldn't teach such
things, which was due to not having electricity or computers, it
was understandable as to why not. Well, here, where we just
about have it all ... man ... it can be frustrating. Especially
when the people want their children to learn how to
use a computer but will not take the principal to task on it.
This is just one of about another 10 similar situations with
the same theme.

As I have mentioned in the past, this village/town's biggest
problem is alcoholism. It is really taking out the society as
the youth (especially young men from about 15 to 35) are
virtually totally controlled by it. The only activity they do
all day is to get a dollar or two to go to drinking.
It even got to the point for this one young man of about
23, in which he took the roof off his house and sold it so
that he could get a few dollars for alcohol, really.
This village/town is an old military base and the majority
of it's houses are what could be considered small barracks.
They are of some sort of wood for the walls, cement floors
and the roof is made of corrugated zinc.
The zincs (as they are called here) are a pretty hot item
to sell.
So the other day as I was walking by this young man
who was in the process of knocking down his walls ...
I was thinking, why.
The house was actually one of the better little ones and
it just didn't make sense.
So upon asking and receiving a reply, the word was that
he sold the zincs and that no body knew where he was
going to sleep
Just an example and the most extreme I've seen since
arriving here at the end of April.

Another instance of the damaging effects of alcohol
has to do with what happened to the San Cultural Dance
Troupe. They had gotten invited to the regional dance
competition in a town called Rundu. They actually went
in more of an entertainment capacity. The competition
was more for the Mbukushu people and their traditional
dances.
The San haven't a dance category specifically for their
cultural style. In fact the troupe from here is just about
the only one of the San culture in this region that is
somewhat active outside their village.
So, upon doing their dance demonstration in Rundu the
troupe received N$ 300 or about 35 dollars US.
The group decided to take the money, put it on the side
and later, buy some beads that they would use to enhance
their traditional attire.
Well, what happened was the Youth Officer was given
the money by the event organizers and said that he was
going to hold on to it. He did hold on to it ... for about
the time it took them to return to the village. Then he just
plain took the troupe's money and used it on alcohol. This
was after he went through his own not too shabby pay check.
So now the troupe received another invitation to go to the
National Dance Competition in the Capital, Windhoek.
This is really quite a chance for the troupe itself and also
for the San people in general. I am not sure if they will be
the only San Cultural Troupe performing there but I know
that they will be the only one from the northern part of
this country.
When the troupe heard what the Youth Officer did with
their money they said that they didn't want to go to the
Nationals. I don't blame them for thinking so. But the
person whom should be working with the dance troupe
spoke with them and convinced them to not lose their
big chance to be in front of a full stadium and also the
chance to get some notoriety. Finally they agreed to go
but will not go if the alcoholic Youth Officer goes.
So, again, alcohol comes in to the equation of ruining
something.
So that was the week, despite the setbacks as a result of
the drunken bumbs, there were some progress. But the
progress never comes easy.
That seems to be the end of the week same old song.

Building a monument

That is one of the things a lot of us do, even
if we don't plan it that way.
While we are in our villages and towns we try
our best and in cases at the end we leave the
'old monument' standing as a testament to our
time there.
What you are seeing in the picture is the
beginning of the building of my monument.
This morning I put the sign over the door of what
I have dubbed ... 'my project'.
I've written about this library project that I decided
to make it my own personal unsustainable endeavor.
Well, the unsustainable part is not quite as cut and dried.
As far as the actual activity of this project, as of the
moment, heck, it's as unsustainable as unsustainable
can be.
Reasons being, I've thought of it, I bought the paint,
patched all the walls, searched for shelves, screws,
wood, did all the work except that a teacher
actually painted the sign that you see above the door.
So why in the haides do it if it doesn't fit the model
on how to build and nurture sustainability and self
reliance?
In this case, I am throwing all caution to the winds
and just rolling the dice, so to speak. I am just investing
into what I hope will become sustainable by the
knowledge that the school students may acquire.
If you later continue on to the Pando Project blog ...
link is in the upper right hand corner of this blog ...
you'll read a bunch of introductions from students in
the 9th grade English class here. The last entry is
by a girl named Rosemary and in her section, she
mentioned that the library was kind of weak and
lacked resources.
I am taking this as there are some kids who are
willing to make use of this library. The impact on
them should be related to the quality of the tools
they have to use.
So, despite the unsustainable side of it till the present,
there seems to be a possibility that sustainability
will come in the form of intelligence that they
will carry with them throughout life.
Do I think that the people will maintain the library
and keep it progressing after I leave, heck no.
So maybe the window of opportunity to make
the impact that will make all the investment worthwhile,
is limited to my time here, that's ok. I think it goes
under the ... it's better than nothing ... category.
Over the nine years, there have been successes and
failures and that's normal in all our lives. But even
after the years I feel pretty good because I've never
lost the ... ant can, move the rubber tree plant ... hope.
I've learned that it really isn't all that bad to throw
out the supposed (sustainable) model (that if it really
worked I wouldn't have been where I've been over
these years trying to make things better) and just go
by the seat of your pants, that gut feeling.
So, that's my monument, probably more of a monument
to flying by the seat of my pants than anything else.
But darn it, an ant really can move a rubber tree plant,
it make take a few generations but just by teaching the
child ant to keep trying, well, that could be called
sustainability.
I hope no matter if it all comes apart after I leave that
a few kids will have noticed this old guy just trying
to make it better for them. And if they do the same
for their future generations ... then that rubber tree
won't stand a chance of staying put.
.

Art - bush style

When I am in the States I live by the coast so when
taking walks, it is the norm to come across many
beautiful pieces of drift wood. In the case of the
picture ... what are you looking at is kind of the same
concept only from the bush. So I guess one could call
it ... bush wood.
Almost daily I take a walk out into the bush (not too
deep, two weeks ago a man got killed by an
elephant, he was deep in the bush) and of course
there are many things to discover.
One of them being that piece of bush wood. It has
become a mantle piece for my table. If you look at
the center of this piece you can see a shape that
resembles a dragon. It is one of those meant to
be/fate things as my Chinese astrological sign is the
dragon.
But as this is Saturday and the end of another week
it is kind of a recapitulation time.
The week went well and there was some progress and
of course regress. But I think that it appears to be
arriving at the point where the progress is greater than
the regress.
The netball court situation is still up in the air. One of
the poles broke and that's another challenge to overcome
(getting it fixed).
The women's support group garden had taken a little
back step as the people were occupied with other activities
but it is back to normal again.
The library continues to develop. The shaky shelves are
now actually able to stand on their own. Well, if they
are bolted together in a cross configuration. The shelves
were actually nailed to the wall and when we took the
nails out they actually collapsed like they got hit by a
George Foreman right hand. The reason that they
collapsed is that the metal shelves usually come with
some pieces that are bolted to the sides but of course,
aren't here. Also the shelves normally would be bolted
together with about 40 small bolts with nuts and washers.
Well, these had about 15 bolts and no washers.
So using the old engineering degree I somehow managed
to obtain, used the old noggin and also had about 10
bolts hanging around and lo and behold, it stands, holds
books and people are amazed that it functions while
not having to be crucified to the wall.
Another progressive situation is that with an ex Romanian
Peace Corps Volunteer we have been able to start up
a cross cultural blog. The link should be or will be in
the upper right hand section of this blog. The blog's
name is 'The Pando Project'.
We thought of this last year when we were both in
Romania and what it's goal is is to bring schools
together from different countries with the intent for
the students to ask questions and discuss points of
difference and interest.
This has been slow to start due to various reasons but
finally it appears to be gaining momentum. We hope
that once it gets up to speed that the countries represented
will be ... The United States, South Korea, Argentina,
Kazakhstan, Romania and of course, Namibia. So after
almost a year since conception, it is pretty cool
to see it come to life.
The debating clubs had a little snafu this last week and
didn't get to do their weekly debate, but we ironed
some points and it seems that it may begin to be easier
to get it to be kind of like it should be, easy.
Also had a sharing of my culture experience that worked
out well.
One of the goal posts at the new soccer field was basically
held together with bubble gum. The upper right hand
corner where the two pieces of tubing joined, had it's
welded joint broke. So what the people did was put in
a short (too short) piece of smaller tubing to
hold it together. It worked except for the fact that if
you hit, knocked or ran into the upright pole, it
would come crashing down. This was a dangerous
situation, that with the right circumstances, could
actually kill someone.
So, I found a longer and bigger piece of tubing and
then asked anyone at the Youth Office (responsible
for fixing the goal post) if they've ever heard the
term ... beat the s__t out of something. Here they
don't have all these colorful sayings like we do in
the States. I am sure they do in their local languages,
but not in the English they use.
So I said that all we needed was a strong hammer
and I will demonstrate what beating the s__t out of
something was.
So we went to the soccer field, found out that the
tubing that we wanted to use to fix the goal post
was long enough, but was too wide.
By beating the s__t out of that tubing and also
demonstrating and sharing of my culture, it worked.
The goal post is as stable as if it was welded.
I asked the guys if now they understood the meaning
of that phrase, beat the s__t out of something. They
said that now, they did. Let me tell you, I really had
to beat that tube to get it to work.
I guess there were other minor successes this week
but too small to mention.
It was a good week and of course that the hope
is that this is the beginning of an upward spiral.
Ciao

simply rice

That's all you're looking at in the picture. Nothing
spectacular with that batch of rice except ... that it
was cooked in the solar oven we made a while back.
The picture of the solar oven is in a prior article. Click
here to see article and photo of oven.
It isn't a big thing, in many places it is old technology
and has been used for a while. Again, except, here it is
the first time anyone has seen anything like a solar oven.
As mentioned in the prior article, it was made by me and
the guy from Romania. He said that he's never seen one,
while I was in Romania I never saw one either. He
wasn't so sure that it would work but today he came
and showed me the cooked rice.
It is a beautiful Sunday here and it has been the best day
yet.
It started with the church choir just get better by the week.
They have 3 songs that they are really incredible at. So
that went well.
The test of the solar oven finally happened after 5 weeks
and that worked.
I took a walk into town and saw the lady with the new
brick oven's bread. And it was just beautiful. Cooked
almost to perfection. This is the third day that she's used
the oven. The first day, it was under cooked, second,
over cooked but today ... voila.
Also saw the OVCs (orphans and vulnerable children)
playing soccer on the new soccer field. Then saw
a bunch of young girls playing netball on the court we
made.
Then saw a notice on the wall telling of the upcoming
debate on Wednesday between the school kids and
the younger adults. The topic or motion will be ...
Are the parents important to development of child and
society. We know this is true but it is a topic never
discussed out here and hopefully it will start spreading
food for thought. Many parents here are alcoholics.
Also, I met a few of the San girls who are participating
in a theater group that we've started. The interesting
part is that they are not just mimicking other plays.
We asked them to write their own and there are
four topics. Malaria, HIV/AIDS, teenage pregnancy
and my favorite ... the lazy husband.
For us the most important part is that they are writing
it and it will give us a better insight through their
interpretations. The San (Bushmen) think differently
so the standard messages don't work as well as they
do with other peoples. Hopefully they can tell us how
they see it.
We will be looking for clues as to how to prevent and
deal with those issues.
So, it has been the best day yet but to keep the feet
on the ground, I remember that it can all come crashing
down in a New York minute.
But for today, you can keep New York, I'm liking it
here 70 km from anywhere.

Surfacing

What you see in the picture is the guy from
Romania beginning the base for what will
be ... for the lady who cooks bread in a hole in
the ground ... an above ground quasi traditional
oven. So, the whole effort is surfacing from a
subterranean time, to a time of what I am kind
of hoping will be, enlightenment.
We started it yesterday and today we finished it
and it looks pretty good. I will post a picture later
on that will show the finished product churning out
it's first in what hopes to be ... lots of bread.
To describe the oven ... it is not so tall, square and
has two shelves to cook in. Really kind of nice.
So this is some type of progress though it is not the
only traditional oven in town. There is a huge one that
was made for a ladies project. Another group project
that failed because they either , ate the goods or gave
out credit to the moochers whom never paid back.
Again, same old story in a group setting. Everywhere
I've been it has been the same.
That's why this lady's above ground oven is a good thing.
She's been cooking pretty inefficiently in a hole in the
ground that consumes gobs of wood to heat up the space.
But she's been in business for the last 6 months. She's
smart enough to know that she needs money to be
able to buy more materials to make more bread.
The hope is that this oven will at least cut down her
consumption of wood by half. Speed up her cooking time
and who knows, with the added free time she may be able
to try cooking new types of things to sell.
Also, tomorrow should be the the debating event between the
learners and the youth who have completed school. It will
be in the newly painted library and it may be not a bad
little activity. Of course in this gig one can't count the chickens
before they hatch, but, also despite that factor, you gotta
have a little hope to keep ya going.
All in all it's getting a little active now and it is one of those
cyclic things, will ride the peak of the wave this it crashes.
Right now in this time of activity I am just hanging ten but
always have the mind open for that possible ... wipe out.

Update

It has been a little while since I last posted an
article and I guess that it can just be said that I
just got lazy.
But, that isn't how it has been in the village since
the last posting. Not that it has been crazy but it
has been somewhat active and for me, a surprise
or two.
Starting with the support group's garden expansion
plan ... well ... we did about 85% of it but to get the
men together for that last 15 ... well ... it has been
at least a month of no shows. The other day I went to
the garden and it was funny because something just
seemed off. The I realized that someone actually worked
on expanding. I was totally surprised that someone
actually took their own initiative, surprise #1. So now,
there is about another 5% to go to finish the whole job.
If the greater forces can roll a lucky 7 for us, then maybe
that last 5% will be finished before the end of the month
or year.
The soccer field is totally done except for one thing. The
thing being that the village's teams would play on it. It has
been completed in full about 2 weeks ago, still no action.
But the orphans have been using it at times and for that
it isn't all too bad. There is a rumor that today the big guys
may finally play, we can only hope.
The Youth Officer has put out notice that the sign ups for
a debating club and a theater group are in effect all next week.
He did that on his own initiative and that is surprise #2 for me.
I have been knee deep into the building/re-building of the
school's library. It is my private project ... I've done the work
... bought the paint ($20 USD) and I have to say that despite
the fact that there is another 2 days work left, looks great.
I know that it doesn't seem to be sustainable as described
so far. The sustainability will come when the students have a
solid clean library/resource center to use. If I waited for the
adults to participate in this project, these kids grandchildren
would still be in the same dingy room. One on my colleagues
has sent me 8 boxes of books, so, the place should be looking
pretty nice and actually have some books too.
Another thing is that the gauntlet has been thrown in regards
to debating. The school's fledgling debating club has accepted
a challenge from a few of the younger people in the village.
This activity will be the kickoff event for the refurbished library.
It should happen either Thursday or Friday. This will be the
first debating event of it's kind.
Also, started working with a church choir. I have just filmed
their practices so that they can watch and hopefully critique their
performances.I am hoping that it will open the door for youth
activities such as AIDS/HIV education and discussions of
behavior relating to it.
So, it has been a fairly productive few weeks with a lot of potential
and hope that things will move is a positive constructive direction.
I have to end here, got to go to work on the library, it has to be
ready for the kickoff debate. I like it, it keeps me busy.

A day of firsts ...

Today was the first day that it's rained since I
arrived here in Namibia at the end of last February.
It was getting kind of old the hot dry days.
Here it is two seasons the dry and the rainy.
Namibia is one of the driest countries but we are
up in the northern region where it rains a bit more.
It was really refreshing as the rain cooled us down
and washed away the dust.
It will make gardening a lot easier and turn all the brown
to green. It should be interesting to see the transition which
I heard comes pretty quick.
So for me it was the first day of experiencing rain in Namibia.
But I think that it was also a day of firsts for a lady from the
village. While I was walking along admiring the rain and watching
the lightning bolts, a lady whom went out in the bush to collect
some natural ingredients for her lunch, got struck by lightning.
I doesn't appear to have been a direct hit because she is
alive and they brought her to the hospital for basically, observation.
I am thinking that this was her lucky day, not by getting struck,
but by surviving it.
It is amazing to think that in about the 3rd or 4th lightning bolt
of the new rainy season, someone gets zapped.
I know that I am living amongst the San (Bushmen) people
but is this a 'The Gods must be Crazy part 4 or 5'?
But all joking aside it is good that the lady survived and it just
seems like that's the way it goes out in the bush and it is just
probably all in a day's day.
A funny thing comes to mind. That is, is that there is probably
a better chance of getting struck by lightning out here than
getting a two hour project completed in less than six months.
So today was the day of a few firsts, but out here in the middle
of the bush one always has to be knowing that another first
is just around the corner.