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