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...