June 20, 2009

Today we got up rather early and went to visit a tribe that spoke in click— The Hadzabe tribe. We went on a few hour long hunt with them after they let all of us try out their bow and arrows. It was really crazy because all of the men were smoking pot before we went on the hunt. They were all totally stoned out of their minds, shooting arrows all around us and up in the air. A little crazy. However, I was totally into the hunt. Right away the men spotted a bush baby. He was so fast. They were all running and click clicking at each other to catch him. When they shot at him it was intense. To get him to move- when he was hard to see or shoot, they threw rocks up into the tree at him.
Okay, the lights are going out- I will have to finish writing tomorrow--at least everything that I can remember.
Continued....
On this tour, we had another guide join us. It was interesting because he really could have been a model, seriously. His face structure was insane and he was very nice. Along the hunt a little further, the bushmen spotted a monkey, a couple really, up in some palm trees. We were really close behind them when they were shooting up at him. Then they killed him. One of the guys climbed up the palm tree...all the way up to get him--INSANE. Before, when they killed the bush baby, Christina flipped out. She began crying and couldn't stand it. It really upset her. It was really interesting because the bushmen didn't understand why she was upset. This is how they live and survive. They have to kill animals in order to eat-otherwise I wouldn't have been so excited about them killing a monkey. But, I was really into it. I was so excited for them-especially when they killed the monkey for some reason. Seemed like a good kill, important. As soon as they got it from the tree, they started a fire (the old fashioned way) and laid the monkey right on top of the fire, still breathing a little. It hurt a little to watch, but it was an awesome experience to witness. I wouldn't change it for the world. We all got some amazing photographs of these people, but I really felt like these photographs were insane. I really haven't ever loved photographing people, but I felt connected with these people because we had been out on their turf with them. I was really getting into the groove of being out in the field working freely and constantly and openly on whatever and everything that came into view. There was no specifics really on what I "had" to photograph. I grew to love photographing the people of the land and felt sure I would come home with many photographs of the people that I would want to put into my portfolio. And hopefully would continue to love photographing people in the future more.
We headed back after they cooked the monkey and we had all tasted it. It was surprisingly not so bad. One man was even eating the skull!! Once we got back, they did a ceremonial dance and song for us. We then went back to the lodge for lunch and lounged around for a little while by the pool and exchanged journals with each other. Then we headed back out to see a blacksmith and his tribe. This was really interesting to see because it takes so much time to make things. He sat there banging on the metal for the entire time we were there. And another person had to pump this bag with their arms in order to blow air into the coals to make fire. There was a lot of work that went into making one single item. He made bracelets and knives among other things. Everybody bought bracelets and Christina and I bought Knives.
After we left there, we headed to visit another tribe. The head man had 3 wives. They were really impressed with my 5 finger shoes. It was weird because they laughed and laughed about it and wanted to keep me just for my shoes. They got us to dance with them-jumping up and down. We got to walk through their house. They have such low ceilings and their house is made from dung (elephant poop).
From there we left and went back to the lodge for dinner. We leave this lodge in the morning.