Tsintsabis (cont) and Treesleeper

I forget where I left off about Tsintsabis, so I'll recap my accomodation. Like I think I said, I'm living in a failed bakery that now belongs to the community. I have my own largish room where I keep all of my stuff and also my own bathroom that has 2 showers, a toilet, and a sink. I feel like I'm walking into a locker room sometimes, but having the space is actually quite fun since it allows me to spread my stuff out and be somewhat of a nudist.

 

There are two other large rooms in the building, one of which holds the village's traditional leader's muhangu crop. The other houses maintenance and building supplies for Treesleeper Camp. As of tonight, the muhangu is being moved out, our stuff will be moved into that middle room, and an HIV/AIDS project will move into the last room. I'll have a new neigbor, Antonias, who has a pool table and ambitions to turn the bakery into a fashion outlet of sorts. The proceeds from the pool and clothing will go to community AIDS workers in the area. The project is in its incipient stages right now; only time will tell how successful it will be.

 

So that's my immediate neighborhood. I'll write about Tsintsabis geography more generally later. Now, I'll tell a little bit about Treesleeper. Treesleeper is a community-based tourism project, meaning that it is a camp run by the community meant to attract tourists. The draw is the combination of camping and opportunities to experience Bushman (Kung and Hei-nom) culture through guided activities offered by camp staff. Stasja, my friend and the project manager, has technically been working on Treesleeper since the beginning of 2004, though much of that involved working at a bar in Windhoek while wrangling with bureaucrats over purchasing land and working with the Bushmen, who have been the object of a government resettlement program. Ground was broken at Treesleeper in March of 2005 and since then, a camp has materialized in what used to be a big plot of land in the middle of the bush. There are 6 campsites, each about half the size of a hockey rink. Three of these have their own private showers and toilets; all of them have a water tap, a grill, tent sites, and a tree stand, which is a platform about ten feet off the ground that could probably accomodate 2 or 3 small tents. A reception buildind, a large tree stand for wildlife viewing, and a site for traditional dancing completes the physical camp.

 

I've worked at the camp for the 4 days I've been in Tsintsabis and have enjoyed getting acquainted with it. I've done a little painting, installed a solar pump, caught lizards and squirrels, climbed trees, cleaned toilets, and built traditional huts. It's a cool place. To me, a kind of little African playground. Plans are to build a new building on the camp, a cultural center, which will house some traditional bushman tools and clothing. There will also be crafts and drinks for sale. In a couple of weeks I'll be working on a project to make glass beads from recycled bottles. The plan is to sell these beads at the cultural center. More on that when the time rolls around.

 

As you may have guessed, traditional dancing is one of the cultural activities offered at the camp. Depending on the night, either kids from the village or a smaller group of adults demonstrate traditional dances for tourist groups. They dance around a fire behind which stand four different types of traditional dwellings, one of which I helped finish today (putting on the bark roof). The adults are paid N$15 (about 2.50) for each night they dance and a the village school recieves a donation of N$150 each night the kids dance. Tomorrow night I get to see the kids dance under a mostly full moon, which should be cool. An aside- last time they danced, the kids made a little faux pas when they greeted two Dutch tourists with the Nazi salute. They had learned that day about Hitler and had come away with the impression that he was a great man. What better way to greet the tourists than with a salute worthy of Hitler? Oops.

 

The other two activities are the bush walk and the village tour. The bush walk is a 2 hour walk through the bush during which the guide tells stories about the plants and amimals that have traditionally been used in Bushman culture. I think I'll be going on that later this week. The village tour begins in a village on the outskirts of the Tsintsabis city limits where a really poor and fairly primitive Bushman population lives. For the tourists, this is an example of a traditional village. The tour continues on through the bush to Tsintsabis proper and covers some of the contemporary issues concerning the lives of the Bushmen.

 

Its almost 9, which means it's almost time for bed. More to come later...

Tsintsabis

Driving north from Windhoek, mountains gradually give way to volcanic hills, which give way to boulders and terminte mounts that fade into the vast flatness of the Kalahari. At one point, the highway ascends the shoulder of an old cinder cone and reveals just how featureless the scrub of the desert is. Luckily, I live on the northwestern edge of the desert in a village on the banks of a seasonal river. It's the end of the rainy season, so the grass is green, the birds are singing, and the village goats are nibbling. In the village, kids run around, music thumps, gospel choirs sing, old men yell BS at passing kids - life in Tsintsabis seems to be pretty peachy.

 

When I drove through town for the first time, I was impressed by the solidly built houses and the water taps that spring up in each front yard. The one-acre plots on which people live and farm seem relatively adequate for living life. They're big enough to house some goats and chickens and to grow a little maize. The green grass that grows all around the village also helps to lighten the atmosphere. Honestly, I don't feel the poverty the way I did in Kenya where the grime, the smells, and the urban disintegration bring it is so close to the surface. But I think you have to look a little bit beyond the obvious signs here in Tsintsabis. I'm starting so see some signs in the thin women, the kids with distended bellies, the homes with a hundred healthy maize plants and a dozen mouths to feed. I'm sure I'll have more to add to this list in the coming months.

 

I've settled in rather quickly. I live in a building that was intended to be a bakery, but it failed when the Germans funding it realized that people in the village had no money to spend on bread. Now, it serves as a storehouse for Treesleeper maintenance materials and as an appartment for me. I live in one biggish room with access to a toilet, a sink, and two showers that were apparently intended for would-be bakers. I also have a double bed. Yes! Despite living in a concrete room with fiber board ceilings, I have managed to make myself feel at home. Its amazing how comforting your "stuff" can be. My room now smells familiar, with a Namibian flare of course.

 

I want to say more about the basic setup in Tsintsabis, but I need to get off the computer. More to come soon.

In Namibia

I'm in Namibia and have 5 minutes to post. I arrived a couple of days ago to find the desert landscape green and blooming. It's been a very wet rainy season and the desert has exploded.

I met stasja at the airport and drove into town to find a friend of mine who runs a Cuban bar. I found him, said hi, and then got some much-needed rest. Ysterday I went out with some friends for sundowners at this reeeally nice guest house that overlooks the hills north of Windhoek. Then it was on to O Portuga, a portugese restaurant. Today Stasja and I head south to a friends house to hang out and then tomorrow we go north to Treesleeper.

I'm reallyu excited to be back in Namibia. It's much more comfortable than Kenya was. MOre on that later. RIght now I"m bracing for a much slower pace of life, albeit a life with access to satellite TV. That;s right, I'll be able to w3atch the world cuop this summer!

Gotta go

Note

Hi all,

I've reached Namibia safely and am settling in quiclky. I heat to Treesleeper with Stasja tomorrow and am excited to get started. I just wanted to let you all know that if you waant to email me, you should use this address:

info@treesleeper.org

instead of my gmail or blitz address. I will haev a personal account soon and will let you know what the address is when it goes online.

I hope this email finds everyone well. Take care and let me hear from you!

Will