A Day with the Bushmen

Last Thursday (May 12th) was one of the coolest days I've ever had in Africa. I spent the entire day with a San (Bushman) family in the Kalahari Desert. The Bushmen are the oldest culture/civilization on earth - these are the mother fuckers that speak click! They live throughout Southern Africa but the largest population today is found in the Central Kalahari. They live off of the things that they find around them - plants, roots, fruits & nuts, animals, etc.
We spent a few hours in the morning walking through the desert and they showed us how they live. As we walked we collected nuts, berries, pods and jewel beetles. At around noon we stopped and they built a fire out of sticks and grass in about five minutes. As the kids ran around and played the women cooked - roasting all that we had collected in the open fire. As the women cooked, the men were busy getting the drinks - they dug up roots and bulbs of specific plants and showed us how to get water from them. They also strategically bury ostrich eggs (which are huge) filled with water throughout the desert; this is so they always have water in case they can't find the proper plants. Lunch was served. Some of the nuts were decent, others gross, and I can safely say that was the first and last time that I'll be eating jewel beetles...

In the afternoon we continued with more activities. They showed us how they track animals and hunt, including setting up traps and shooting small poison tipped arrows.
Then it was time for fun and games. We played traditional bushmen games and they did traditional singing and dancing. Their games were fairly basic but incredibly fun. I definitely made a fool of myself at first, but after awhile got the hang of it and was able to hold my own. The best game was a mix between cricket and javelin - after a running approach to a mound of sand and grass you throw a spear so it short hops the mound and then takes off. This was extremely difficult but I managed a couple of decent throws and it was incredibly fun. After playing for quite some time the family sang and danced as the sun set. The perfect end to an incredible day that I will never forget.

I'll post some videos from the day once I'm back in the states...