Two weekends ago we went to Drimiopsis, a neighbouring school (by that I mean only 50km away) for the Omaheke Regional Culture Festival. The school at which I'm teaching is made up of about 60% San Bushmen, so the San culture group here are very good. Most of the traditional songs and dances are about ordinary parts of traditional San lifestyle - hunting, gathering food, etc. They competed in the primary school category and won first prize. We went there late morning, but the sun was unbearably hot for us white folks, so we hitch-hiked back to school in the back of an ambulance, as you do. Thank goodness we did because the children didn't get back until after dark. As usual we were stared at quite a lot, being the only white people at the event, and sometimes the stares are a bit hostile, but if you smile or say hello, almost everyone is very friendly. They also find it amusing if you greet them in their own language. This is the culture group in their traditional dress, including the unfortunate Simon, who is dressed as a springbok.
On Wednesday we went to Harnas for the Grade 7 farewell trip. Harnas is a Wildlife Foundation which houses lions, cheetahs, leopards, wildcats, baboons, meerkats and various different antelopes. Despite loading myself with sun cream, I managed to get a slight t-shirt burn. Nothing serious, though.
Friday and Saturday night were spent at one of the teacher's farms, the one which we visited before. The farm's name is Eensaamheid, which is Afrikaans for "loneliness". A fitting name considering the farmhouse it bang in the middle of 120 square kilometers of, well, not very much really. There has been some rain recently which is good for the farmers, but it was only 8mm and it's the first in 2 years. We went on another mini safari round the farm and managed to see all of the animals again, including a giraffe pretty close up.
And here is a photo of me holding a crocodile in Otjiwarongo which I didn't manage to upload last time.
