Knitted 6 chickens yesterday.

Knitted 8 chickens yesterday. Like on many other days, new ideas for our participation at the Kuna Festival in July came up. The theme is "Mice and other animals".

Knitted 9 chickens yesterday.

Knitted 6 chickens yesterday.

Knitted 5 chickens yesterday and finished the purple/ pink scarf. In the Botswana newspaper Mmegi there was an article about the government going to make life a lot easier for the people in the CKGR. The article will be placed on our news page. Because the people have been treated in a disrespectful manner for so many years, there is distrust about the reason(s) behind the relaxed rules. Although the general expectation is that the changes are genuinely well meant.

Continued with purple/ pink scarf yesterday, and started on a new one.

Continued with purple/ pink scarf yesterday.

Knitted 2 chickens yesterday.

Knitted 7 chickens yesterday. Makes a total of 99.

Knitted 2 chickens yesterday. I went for a visit at the pre- school in our village to get inspiration for the teaching at the pre-school training center in Botswana coming August. What a difference with the pre- school my children attended and especially with my pre- school period, from 1947-1949. I have great respect for the teachers. They have to teach the children to adapt to an already existing group and the knowledge to pass the reading, writing and other by the government set tests. The difference between The Netherlands and Botswana is even greater. Computers, electronic schoolboard, good quality tables, chairs, cases for books, puzzles, handicraft, a gym with attributes especially designed for their age, it is a bridge too far for Botswana. The toddlers also are taught too to be responsible for themselves. Creative thinking by me and the students will have to be done, to prepare the toddlers of Botswana to be as self- supporting in their life as possible.

Knitted 1 chicken yesterday.

Knitted 4 chickens yesterday. I have signed us up for the Kuna Festival in Lheebroek, Drenthe, from 21 untill 24 July. The theme is Mice- and other animals world. We will know in March at the latest if we can participate. We have received interesting information about the situation of the Bushmen in Botswana during 2015. This topic will be continued later on. Sold an old fashioned churn, the one that used to transport the milk to the dairy factory..

Knitted 5 chickens yesterday, which makes it a total of 85. The next sale will be at 18 and 19 March. The number of chickens shall be unequalled to the number of mice in November 2015, however hard I work. We keep thinking about other sources of income, as there are still many early school leavers in Botswana who would like to follow a vocational training. Good suggestions are welcome.

Knitted 4 chickens yesterday.

Knitted 5 chickens yesterday. Misunderstandings. 3. When the first white people came into South Africa, the Bushmen probably wondered what kind of things they were. At the same time it was unclear for the white people what kind of creatures were hiding behind the bushes. They were, quite understandably, seen as animals. But when poisoned arrows were flying from the bushes, they must have understood there were people behind. They were hunted down in several raids, many of the men were killed and women and children were taken to the home steads. The women and girls were given the important task to look after the household duties and children, the boys were given tasks around the house and on the farm. Then the Apartheids regime came. On the one hand the Bushmen continued with their important jobs, on the other hand were they "and all people with a dark coloured skin" seen as so much inferior that they were not allowed to mix with the white people. Incredible. In 2013 we sponsored a student. In his thank you letter to us he wrote: "I am very thankful with the help you are offering to me and this shows me that to some people like you I am a human being not a wild animal". The misunderstanding is not completely cleared up yet.

Finished socks number 8 yesterday and knitted 5 chickens. We have the suspicion that there are traders in second hand articles who try to buy our articles for a small price. It cannot be the intention of people who give us things to sell, that traders also gain money from it.

Knitted 1 chicken yesterday and continued with the socks. There has been no answer from the Pier Scheveningen yet, to let us know if we can sell our knitwear on the Pier. At the Jumbo food store in Beilen we may sell our chickens and mice on Friday 18 and Saturday 19 March.

Continued working on the socks yesterday. I made an appointment with the local pre-school to visit them on 21 January, to get inspiration for my teaching period in Botswana.

Knitted 2 chickens yesterday and started to knit a pair of socks.

Knitted 7 chickens. I have sent an email to the organization of the Pier Scheveningen to ask if there is a space for us to sell our knitwear on the Pier.

Knitted 6 chickens yesterday. Like on many other days, I thought of which places would be suitable to sell knitwear. No useful ideas came up.

Knitted 7 chickens yesterday.

Knitted 8 chickens yesterday. Misunderstandings 2. In the aeroplane to Johannesburg I got into a conversation with a young South African woman. She wondered why black people wanted to kill the white people in South Africa. "Maybe because it is their land and they feel pushed out of it?" The answer was: "When we came here, the land belonged to no one". To this, I had no answer, but I did have a few thoughts. Before there were people, the land belonged indeed to no one. The first people became automatically the owners of the land. But because there were in the beginning no written (and unwritten) language, pen and paper and laptops, no laws and lawyers, the right of ownership never was put into writing. How stupid can one be not to understand this. Let us call it a misunderstanding.

Knitted 5 chickens yesterday. One mirror has been sold.

Knitted 6 chickens yesterday. There has been no message yet from the social worker concerning the admittance of a boy into a SOS Childrens Village.

Knitted 7 chickens yesterday. An extra €475 has been transferred for Marica's schoolfee, because the earlier transferred amount was not sufficient. Yesterday I read in the Sunday Standard Botswana that Minister Tshekedi Khama, brother of President Lt Gen Ian Khama, is questioning the wisdom of awarding a mining license to explore the diamond mine in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. President Khama's reaction was that the people who are against the exploration of the mine are against development of Botswana. Personally I think this was a correct argument many years ago, but no longer. Not only dropped the price of diamonds due to the financial crises, but also the large quantity of synthetic diamonds that have flooded the market made the price go down. Another point is the large amount of water which is needed for cleaning the diamonds and that in a time of water shortage and temperatures above 40 C. People are advised to drink more water than usual, while in some places there comes no water out of the taps. The mine will leave at the end of its productive live a large wound in the earth, which might never be healed. Read the full article on our home page.

Knitted 6 finger chickens yesterday. Misunderstandings. 1. If you have seen the film about Third World development on our website, or Survival Internal's website, you will understand that good intentions are by itself not enough to help people. Before help is offered, it has to be discovered what the problem is, if the people experience it as a problem and if they want to be helped. But even then things can go wrong. During my last trip I wanted to pamper people by making them Dutch pea soup. Not that there was much interest for it. Which I should have known, as I knew that in Botswana pigs are not popular as food. When I made it, I run into a few problems. The people did not eat pork, so beef and beef sausages had to be used, which totally changes the flavour. Celery one cannot buy in Botswana and the carrots do not have a nice taste so pumpkin was used. The split peas were expensive, €4 per 500 gram, so half the amount that was needed was used. The flavour was not as we are used to in The Netherlands, for them it was rather tasteless and barbeque herbs from a packet were added. But the biggest gaffe I made, was that I had forgotten that cooking in Botswana is done with wood, bottled gas or electricity, in this case electricity. So this pot of soup became rather expensive, because of the long cooking time.

Knitted 3 finger chickens yesterday. The Christmas holiday came to an end last night. We have to get up early again and work hard.

Knitted 2 finger chickens yesterday. I have not tried out if they are, like the slogan of a well-known company that sells fried chickens says, Finger licking good. I think they will be a bit tough.

Knitted 2 finger chickens and 3 mice yesterday.

We wish everybody who reads this, and everybody who does not read this, a happy, cosy, comfortable, healthy and prosperous 2016. May there be tranquillity and peace all over the world, that people try harder to understand each other so conflicts will end and new ones will not be created. That people who are living in unbearable situations which are not of their own making will be supported by people who are able to do so. That people who are sitting on a mountain of money, this money are going to use to give their fellow men a better chance in life. However, we are realistic enough to understand that this will not happen in 2016. In the pessimistic moments of our thoughts we even think this probably never shall be reached. Even so, we shall continue to make steps to make part of it come true, how ever small our part in it is. We do hope we will be able to make a lot of knitwear and that we can sell much of this and the 2nd hand articles. That people will give us again knitting yarn and 2nd hand articles, offer us a place to sell the knitwear and will support us financially. So that in 2016 again children and youngsters can be sponsored to attend school (and preferably more than in the past). Our thanks go to everybody who has supported us in the past. For some time we have not reported on the situation of the people in the CKGR. Firstly, because we know nothing about the present situation. Secondly, the Basarwa (Bushmen, San) are a sensitive topic in Botswana. So, if we do not want entrance to Botswana denied, we have to know for sure that what we report is the truth. As soon as we have trustworthy information this will be put on our website. Knitted 3 finger chickens and 1 mouse yesterday.