San Bushmen

From Etosha park we went up North a bit into the middle of nowhere to visit the San Bushmen. They are one of the (many) local tribes in Namibia and have only started a year ago to live of tourism. Although I was looking forward to this encounter I also felt a bit weird about it. It is a bit like intruding into somebody elses life. However, when we arrived (after we got stuck on the sandy road with the truck) we had about 30 children around us helping to set up our tents, wanting to take pictures and going round the place looking very cool with our sunglasses. It felt normal then and was real good fun.

We found ourselves visiting a kind of living museum rather than actually intruding into their homes, which made the whole trip far more relaxed. With the local guide "Henrik" (who was dressed in skin only) into the forest and were actually stuck in one of those little "wood and grass" huds for bout 20 mins as it started to rain heavily. One would not believe it but 16 people did fit into it! Very cosy indeed ;)
Once the rain stopped, we got a tour through the forest and learnt bout all the herbal remidies that were (and still are) used. Everything from curing a headache ("just slit the skin on your temples and rub in the powder of some local tree root") to roots that would be cooked as a tea and would make pregnant women have their baby straight away and without much pain to birth "control roots". It sounded very interesting, specially as everything would help "immediately". Maybe should go back and try some of the remedies myself. Would be a great business idea, hehe.

We also took part in a couple of dances. Not too keen on the rain dance, as it worked too well... But we are working on the rehearsal for the antidode - the sundance - momentarily.

All in all a great experience and especially the children made it very relaxed and "real". Btw, as we were having dinner, they were still hanging around the campsite and were waiting for the leftovers of our Spaghetti Bolognese. After Simon, our chef, made them queue to wash their hands everyone just grabbed a handful out of the pot. Life seems full of simple joy.