Thursday, September 17, 2015

Adventures in Africa: Part 6

Once in a while we stumbled upon small villages during our wanderings  in the truck They are really just comprised of one or two thatched huts with a family per village, but I thought I'd give y'all a peek into village life and the very gracious, hard working people who live here. No 40 hr weeks or overtime pay here:


We had taken some candy and stopped to hand some out to children we saw standing on the side of the road.Muza began to converse with one of the men and he invited us in to their village and yes, we did ask permission to take photos and then thank them for their hospitality:

                             

So many children!

                             

Roy noticed an unusual trait on one of the little boys:

                                       

This is an autosomal dominant gene from the Vadoma Tribe and it is very rare outside the tribe. He was a sweet little boy who wasn't hindered one little bit by his handicap and here he is so you can see his dear face:


One of the ladies was making beautiful pots and I so wanted to buy one from her, but they were not fired and I could not think of a way to bring it back in that fragile state:

                                           

These people lead such a simple life. A hard life. We often saw villagers walking along the road.


 Almost always carrying something on their heads with a precious baby piggyback:

                            

This was just after 6 am and I didn't see a village anywhere close:

                                     


And 90% of the time, it was a woman. :)

                  

We also took 2 soccer balls along and handed them out:

                 

We drove by one isolated hut, next to some crops that had a solar panel on it! That was certainly not something we expected to see, but the man had his radio blasting. LOL

                   

We also discovered a brick factory on the side of a road we were traveling on our way to another mountain. :)
                   

The young boy was actually doing the work. They had bricks stacked up on the opposite side of the road:

                    

and had built a kiln for firing the bricks.I should have gone back and purchased that pot and brought it here for firing. :)


                    

On one of our mountain descents, we came upon a man working under a thatched roof:

                    

He was making axes

                    

and DH...all of us really...were mesmerized.

DH has a forge and has enjoyed working with it. He generally uses it for horseshoeing and it was fascinating to watch this gentleman's ingenuity in implementing the same set up.We took a video, but I can not get it to load properly. Madere was interested as well and asked if he could take a turn in working the bellows:

                      

The gentleman had a grain sack and was pumping it up and down in order to heat the coals, that in turn heated his metal scrap that he was cutting for an ax head. The two pieces of wood he is holding are strapped together with a root and he uses them for tongs to remove the hot metal from the fire. He had an old car spring that he used for an anvil to cut the metal once in was hot. His innovation was impressive and we were just so excited to have had the opportunity to watch him work!

I didn't even fuss when we walked 10 steps from his fire, saw buffalo tracks, and headed back up the mountain for the second time that day. :)

See why I had such a difficult time plugging back in when we returned? This trip just made me see things from an entirely different perspective and I think I'll be processing it all for some time to come.

9 comments:

Dorian said...

How very, very cool Karin! What interesting things and people you were able to see.

Unknown said...

Please share some more..

Tired Teacher said...

Kudos to you and your husband for taking the time to visit with the people in their villages and to see and appreciate their ingenuity.

Judy said...

It makes you realize what we have. They live so simply with almost nothing. It makes me stop and think about how much I have. Thank you for this story. Those women and children work so hard to live. I am amazed.

Dar said...

Another interesting post. Thank you.

Pauline said...

What a terrific adventure! I am fascinated by the feet of the little boy and plan to do a bit of research on the Vadoma Tribe. I didn't notice any other people with the same feet. Another thing I find interesting the the color combinations the women use and the beautiful material you sometimes see. I'm glad they don't use that silly "color wheel" I see so highly recommended in most art schools. I find it terribly restrictive and have refused to even begin to try to understand it much less use it. I wonder if that thick grass roof I see in your first picture makes the inside of the hut cool during the day? I guess that might also depend on how much of a breeze they have. I am loving these African post!

Lindah said...


No, no, not at all tired of your Africa story. Please continue as long as you can. I'm playing catch-up today. I so appreciated yesterday's comments on the political issues. As you mentioned, the media outside of Washington DC has not heard of Africa. I lived in DC for many years and appreciated the media's broader world perspective. Today's post with your interactions with the African folks is precious. Thank you so much for sharing.

juliehallfeldhaus said...

You have to see this life in person to really believe it!!! Or read your blog you tell it all so well. Thanks for taking us along for the ride:)

Alycia~Quiltygirl said...

So interesting... I bet you had a hard time plugging back in...It is an entirely different world isn't it?

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...