Back in the US.

Sorry for the lack of updates. Ive been in the bush (no electricity) then I had to get ready and leave for home. So I haven't been able to update the blog as much as I hoped the last couple of weeks but I'll update everyone on what I was doing last before I left.

At TOCADI economic self-reliance and independence is an essential component. The Culture Hike is a specific component of this. The aim of the hike is to facilitate economic growth in neighboring Sekondomboro communities through tourism. At that TOCADI hopes to promote and educate the tourists on different people’s traditions and create pride amongst the communities for their unique cultures. This is not an unforeseen way of seeking economic development for these peoples.

Tourism in is of a growing importance in Botswana. With 17% of the country defined as protected areas and an additional 22% dedicated to wildlife management Botswana has been steadily attracting tourist to the country, helping employ around 10 thousand people. Also, in the last 20 years the San have become a popularized topic for books and movies. Therefore, promoting tourism in these communities through the Culture Hike appears to be a logical means of economic build up. For several years TOCADI has been putting on different cultural Hikes offering a glimpse at traditional practices and peoples.

Around 28 Canadian and University of Botswana students took part in the hike as part of the World University Service of Canada (WUSC). They were guided on a four day hike through different San communities along the delta and got the opportunity to see different villages and traditional performances. The different traditional dances, songs, and stories were all performed by the local peoples in each different village.

The tour took surprisingly only a week to organize and finalize. TOCADI and the Culture Hike team would communicate with each community through their designated VTC (Village Trust Committee). Then with the help of the VTC, TOCADI helped organize the different performers, guides, cooks, and manual laborers needed to complete the hike. Prices were negotiated between TOCADI with the VTC and the performers, with the payments being made after the completion of the Culture Hike.

The Culture Hike was well organized and always managed to stay on schedule. It moved through many different communities which included Kaputura, Lakao, Sekondomboro, Ngarage, and Nlôâxom. The students stayed in Kaputura, Sekondomboro, and Nlôâxom where the students viewed the different traditional performances.

An important part of the Culture hike is how it employs and includes different community members who are not performers. For example, community members were employed to help guide the tours and help the students. The students hiked around 15km a day and would stop for lunch and dinner in different communities.

In addition, the team, community members, and I woke up early every morning to help take down tents and cook food for the students. The meals and the camps were all prepared by the communities and many community members came out to greet the students. The VTC and community member who helped on the hike received money from TOCADI for there efforts and participation in the Culture Hike.

However, the tour didn’t bring in as much money as I expected, as the Canadian students only paid 3 thousand pula for the entirety of 4 day hike. Nevertheless this is more than the communities would receive through any other needs, and within the communities there are little opportunities available for employment or jobs.

The performances were usually at night around the campfire, and there was always a crowd of people from the communities singing and dancing along with the performers. The visitors which added an important element of villiage life to the performances with all ages and sexes came out to see the performances and. The atmospheres of the performances were low key with no elaborate dress or settings. The students definitely enjoyed the performances as well, and they got to see a variety of different traditional performances by different peoples (San and Hambukushu). This was important because they saw how diverse the population was out in northern Botswana. They were also allowed and able to take pictures of the performances and performers if the lighting allowed.

The picture above is of one of the San's traditional healing dances. Throughout their history the San have healed the sick through dance and song. The sick person would lay down and the doctor would do whatever he needed to heal the person while performing a dance or song. Then the person would rise and be healed. Below is a picture of a traditional hunting song. Before going on a hunt you the hunter makes a fire and then throws some dirt, clay, or herbs into the fire. Following this the hunter sings a song with his bow and arrow TO the animal he wants to kill, asking it to come to him. The San are somewhat famous for their arrows, which have a poisin that paralyzes and kills the animal no matter how big or small. In the north they make their poison from crushed worms they get from rotting fruit in the bush. Other San peoples use scorpions or other poisonous animals to make their arrows.

Personally I was skeptical of the idea of cultural tourism. There are inherently some ethical dilemmas surrounding the voyeuristic nature of tourism. The idea of large groups of people coming in with cameras, vans, and tents seems not only invasive but deprecating towards the people and their way of life. On the other hand, after completing the hike I have since warmed up a little to the idea of the Culture Hike. A sense of pride created in the locals because the students showed such interest in what they were doing which was not expected. Many of the students were more than willing to try and learn the local languages and customs which was something I personally saw as important to their learning experience. Most importantly the hike is putting money into very small and impoverished communities with no other means of economic growth. Also, the students were very respectable and carried themselves very well for only being in Botswana for several weeks.

The excitement and interest for the communities amongst the students; specifically the arts and crafts at the TOCADI office was an important result of the hike. After the hike, students jumped at the chance to own a part of what they partook in. TOCADI sold the vast majority of their baskets, and earned around 2.5 thousand pula in just basket sales. This almost doubled the amount of money received by TOCADI for the Culture Hike. Sadly, the office was out of cd’s and many of the students were disappointed they were not able to buy any of the music they heard in the villages.

This will not be the last Culture Hike put on by TOCADI. There is already a new hike scheduled for January of next year. The TOCADI culture Hike is still something new the organization is doing and it’s still learning how to organize it appropriate.

So I guess that about covers my last couple of weeks in Botswana. Its good to be home now though. I want to say thank you to everyone for reading and putting up with my bad spelling and grammer.
Travis

Back From The Bush

Spent the last week in the Dobe (or G/hui!'han) area (right next to the Namibian border in the middle of nowhere) doing some project work with TOCADI. The Ju/'hoansi people have acquired land from the government and are starting there own San communitied there. TOCADI is trying to help these people become self-reliant so the Ju/'honsi people will be able to live how they want to, away from the influence of the predominate Tswana culture of Botswana.

The G/hui!'han area is extremely rural, sparse in population, and poor. The Ju/'honsi people there are no longer hunters and gatherers but they are still deeply tied to their traditions and heritage. While I was there I learned about how to get water from a dry water hole, what you can eat from the bush, and a bit about traking animals. Some of the elderly people around Dobe are former hunter and gatherers themselves.

To make these people independent, TOCADI has been funding different projects to make the sommunities self-sustaining and well educated. TOCADI has helped build several wells (like the one pictured below) and has held several educational seminars on how to read and write Ju/'honsi. This past week TOCADI was helping elephant proof a water pump for a future settlement.

When their water holes dry up the elephants smell the water from the pump miles away in the sommunities. When they get there there usually pretty thirsty and like to pull the pumps apart to get to the water inside. Therefore its important to make sure to elephant proof the wells before people start settling there.

To elephant proof the water pump we had to dig a meter wide/sholder deep trench around the well and place poles around center. The idea behind the trench is the elephant will look down and be to afraid to cross. Then the poles keep it from reaching in to the pump. (However I was also told if an elephant really wanted to it still can get in there to the pump and break the poles).

The work was extremely hard to do for a number of reason. We only had a few tools, three shovels and one pic axe, and we were in the middle of the African wilderness which meant sweltering hot days and freezing cold nights.

Our crew was comprised of 5 community members, the TOCADI Dobe team (Joyce, Damo, and Myself), and our driver Charlie. It took us three days to complete the digging. After that we went deeper into the bush to cut down a tree for poles. However we didnt have enough time, energy, or resources to put the poles up so we concluded there. This was what it looked like when we were done.

The trip to the Dobe area was a long one. It took around 400 km to get there, 200 of which were rural dirt roads. After taking such a beating forging through the African bush our Land Rover decided to stop working 60 km away from the main road. Luckily we were able to hitch-hike back into Shakawe on the back of an old rusty flatbed semi-truck which spewed gas and exhaust fumes all over us. Dont worry. Im now safe and sound in Shakawe.
Sala Sentle
Travis


ps here are some b+w's i took of people and stuff. i thought they looked kind of cool.

In Shakawe

I've made it safely into Shakawe, a small town on the Northwestern border of Botswana next to Namibia. The villiage sits along the Okavanga Delta, an inland delta filled with hippos and crocodiles. The homes here are made mostly of reeds, grass, and mud from the delta giving the villiage a unique personality in comparison to my previous stays. I'm at the TOCADI office now, which I was supprise to find has electricity and the interenet (however, the electricity seems to go out at least once every day). Right now I'm helping organize an expidition out to different San communities where we will collect information and help out the local people. TOCADI does a wide variety of work dedicated to helping the San. Yesterday, we invited different communities members to watch us plant a garden in order to teach people how they can do the same. Saturday, I'll be helping with a fishing expedition along the river. The goal here is to make the San communities independent in the modern world but at the same time maintain their unique cultural heritage. The organization provides communities with the means to make traditional baskets, art pieces, and at the same time educates people on their traditional language (teaching how to write all the clicks) and different life skills. Since its creation TOCADI and its parent organization Kuru have helped publsihed a book on San oral hisotry (Voices of the San) and an annual traditional San dance festival. For more information on the San here is an ok website (I have some problems with it though).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushmen

I've attached some pictures of the Delta, the office, my kitchen at home, the TOCADI garden, and a sot of a typical home in Shakawe. Enjoy.






ARE (love in Ju/'hoansi)
Travis

Saving The San

So its been a while since I've posted anything only because there hasnt been anything really new to report. The last couple of weeks I've been in Gaborone learning more Setswana and attending different lectures. On sunday I will be leaving for the Okavanga Delta in Botswana working with an organization called TOCADI which is trying to help different minority groups, specifically the San. For more information i suggest you check out the links below.

http://www.kuru.co.bw/Tocadi.htm
kuru.co.uk

Sala Sentle
Travis

Chobe National Park Part II

More Pictures.
Enjoy
Travis

Chobe National Park

I just got back from Chobe National Park. Spent several nights camping while on safari in the park. I was able to take some amazing pictures so Ill just let the pictures do the talking for me. My favorite animals there were the lions. Our guides refered to them as the "golden eyes". Looking at the pictures you can see why. The lions wondered into our camp sight one night and woke me up, which was exciting to say the least. Besides that, i went into Zambia to check out Victoria Falls (one of the seven natural wonders of the world). I'll try and post some pictures of the falls later. All i have to say about that is the falls are big, very big.
Travis

Odds and Ends

Here are some things I ve been meaning to post for a while now. The first being the pictures of the traditional doctor. The one below is of the doctor wearing his “uniform”, which consists of several strands of beads that went over both shoulders and around his neck. Also there is his horse hair whip which he uses to brush away evil spirits. Behind him you can see some jars against the wall which contain his herbal remedies and cures. At his feet there is his cat skin bag where he keeps his bones. The other picture is a close up of the bones he reads. They are goat and cow bones but the weird thing is there is also a seashell (Botswana is landlocked). Its hard to tell but each bone has its own design carved into it, making each piece unique. During my visits the doctor would usually just throw the bones at random, read them, look at me and laugh. He would never tell me what they said though so I hope it wasn’t anything bad about me.


The picture below is of me and my host mom from Manyana named Bogadi .We are posed next to the families corn stalks which were in our yard. She had just gotten back from a funeral and wanted a picture of the two of us.

Finally these last two are of my neighbor Karabo (means 'answer') form Manyana. He would come over from time to time for food to eat. Id ont think his home life was a very stable one. He was always very quiet and reserved but very kind and photogenic.


Travis