After traveling around the beautiful Tubu area we went just north of Gumare on the main road, turned east to a "lagoon" as they call it (it is really large streams meandering through cattle grazing land from the delta) and set up our Braai. It was a beautiful day! Not too hot, blue skies surrounded us and we could hear the brilliant cacophony of nature's melody. It is quite amazing to stand out in the bush or delta and just listen. It is loud; but not of 80's music, American rap, cars, chickens and dogs, like it is in the village. It is a chorus of hundreds of birds (all different species), monkeys, water and even cows. And nothing else. Going out of a village is a wonderfully relaxing experience! On our drive in we actually saw a family of monkeys and of course all different types of birds. We hung out the whole day cooking, playing cards, playing guitar and exploring for monkeys and other critters.

It was a wonderfully short work week. : ) One interesting thing though- While in the office reading, Amanda met a man from Nxangwa (the 'x' is a click behind your teeth!), about 240K away, who had come to Gumare to sell his crafts. This meant that he had to hitch about 200k from his village to the main road, then take a bus the rest of the way. He was walking around the government buildings going office to office with a bag of handmade decorative bows and arrows- smaller replicas of the real thing used by the San people. They were beautifully made. This man was very humble (a characteristic not commonly seen when I first meet men) and his initiative was inspiring to me. So I took him around to a few people I knew and asked him if he had been to the Basket Weaving Co-op yet. He said he had, but they hadn't wanted to buy them. I had the idea of connecting him and his team of craftsmen to the craftswomen who make and sell their baskets right there at their store front. We have been trying to help the basket-weaving ladies in their endeavourers anyway, and one of their major needs at this point is diversification. So here it was, walking right into our office! The head lady from the Coop is gone until August however, so I told him to come back in a 2 weeks so we can go together to convince them to let these San craftsmen sell their bows and arrows in their store. At this point, I think it will be really good for both parties!

So as you can see, some of what we do here is just thinking outside the box for people…connecting them and their skills to the rest of the village (or in this case, area) in meaningful ways.

We still have no furniture beyond a bed in our house (yes, still!) but we did go to the furniture store this week and get a quote so hopefully we will have a table and couch this next week. We did buy our first basket from a neighbor woman who is part of Amanda's organization (Sekgele Training Home Society), making it our first piece of home decoration.

Our chameleon friend has moved on but the dogs are getting more and more comfortable at our house, making nests in the sand around our house (to stay warm, or cool). We also got a new, rather unwanted houseguest, a cute and tiny mouse. He is about the size of a large marble and as fast as a bullet! Amanda named him Willis J