By Mehdy Ghannad
The day started off with a much needed shower for all of us. I think night two of camping out in the trees was a lot more successful in terms of grabbing some actual “z’s”, as everyone seemed to be well rested. For me, it was all that dancing around the campfire with the San people that made me hit the sleeping bag hard. On tap for the day is a quick breakfast, a Bush Walk and a Village Tour with Moses. I was kind of skeptical about this Bush Walk. Are we going to really just walk into the woods and have a tour of different plants and act like we are tracking animals? Really, how entertaining is that going to be for me and more importantly from a show perspective? Moses did not fail us.
Our first stop on the Bush Walk was the wild asparagus plant. We all were really curious about this infamous plant when we first heard of its powers during the tribal dance the night before. Moses explained to us that the Shaman uses this plant for medicinal purposes to help bring them into a trance state. Apparently, Moses’s uncle seems to be always in a state of trance, from what he expressed to us. I then asked him where we could find his uncle, convinced the crew to make a quick road trip to visit him, hopped into the car and we all headed to make a visit to Moses’s uncle. Ok, that really did not happen, but his uncle apparently does harvest this plant.
Our next stops we talked about a tree called the Tamboti and a plant called Kudu Lily. The sap from both of these is used to make a poison which a San hunter would use to hunt animals. The San hunter would mix the sap from the Tamboti and Kudu Lily and place it on the tip of the arrow. This poison is apparently very toxic and should only be used when hunting larger animals. The poison can be so toxic that if used on a smaller animal, no matter how long it was cooked, would cause severe stomach pains to the person eating the meat. To be on the safe side, Moses suggested that we should consider only hunting elephants when using this poison.
Next Moses shared some hunting and tracking techniques. We learned how to set a trap to catch game fowl then learned how to recognize different animal tracks so that we would know what we were hunting. Finally Moses showed us how to catch his favorite snack, termites. There are three different types of termites in each termite hill; the builders, the guards, and the reproducers which are all ruled by the queen. The termite that is actually caught as a snack is the reproducer. They are the only ones that have wings and can actually fly out of the termite hill. Moses would dig a hole about 10 meters from termite hill and wait until he saw small holes develop in the termite hill. This is a sign that it is time for the reproducers to take flight. They fly out of the termite hill to die in order to make room for the new reproducers and to be eaten by prey. I think I would just stay in the termite hill, and not commit suicide just to make more room for “newbies”. Once the holes are apparent, a small fire is made above the hole he dug to attract the termites. Just like all other insects they are attracted to light. The reproducers fly towards the flame, their wings catch fire and they fall into the hole below the fire. Moses would then get a bag and scoop them up to be fried later and eaten like peanuts or popcorn. Maybe next time when I am on a date or watching a movie, instead of reaching for the Orville Redenbacher, I will just fry up some termites.
We headed back to the tree camp for a few hours, to eat, wash up, and get ready to take a trip to the nearby village. Moses took us a few kilometers down the road where we were able to visit with a few of the local San people who still have strong traditional ties. Just like most cultures, it’s hard to withstand the pressures of the outside world and now more and more San people are shedding the traditional ways. We were able to meet a few families who have maintained the traditional lifestyle more than most. The first stop was a great grandmother whose compound consisted of 5 small huts and a sitting area. We learned that her husband goes into a far town for 5 days to farm and herd goats for money and then returns for two days to spend with her and the family. We then learned how the guesthouse was made. This hut was made of bark, cow dung, and clay. Now that’s what I call environmentally friendly plastering!
The next family we met was the one who danced for us the night before. I was able to ask questions about how to court a bride. Apparently it can be a long, drawn out process as it requires the man to go with his parents to speak with the women he fancies and her parents. It is up to the parents of the bride to give the “thumbs up” for the marriage to happen. The man may have to ask several times to finally win over the parents and get their approval. In Namibia and for the San people, it is very rare for men to have multiple wives. Moses made that very clear to us.
After the meetings with the two more traditional families we walked through another part of the “town” where the more modern San people lived. It definitely was much more modern in comparison to what we just saw, but being from the western world I would definitely not put what I saw into a modern. However there were several bars, a corrugated metal house with a satellite hanging off of it, and the people seemed to be more modernly dressed. Some friendly people waved to us as we walked through and some of the local kids came up to us to check out our camera equipment. Devin actually allowed one of the kids to hold his camera, and to both of our surprise he knew exactly how to operate it.
These are the parts of a trip that make me appreciative of what I have. We all worry about things and make problems a lot bigger than they really need to be. Here I am spending an afternoon with people that seem to be genuinely happy. Not at all what I thought. Just absolutely mind blowing.
Click Here to Continue To Read On To DAY 5 in NAMIBIA
