Worked on crocheted scarf yesterday.

Knitted for chickens yesterday and sold 1 mirror.

Knitted 7 chickens yesterday.

Knitted 7 chickens yesterday.
We received more interesting research papers.

Knitted 9 chickens yesterday. We were informed by another reliable source that nothing concrete has happened concerning the restart of the services in the CKGR. As we understand, there had been promises of health care using mobile clinics, pre school education in settlements, restoring of water points and distribution of food and water if there is a shortage. Whether the ban on hunting will be discontinued, is not clear. Anyway, there is no ban on hunting for the “own pot”, but this does not seem to be known by everybody. The death penalty, which still is in existence in Botswana, will be reviewed. It was taken over, among other laws, from the British judicial system at the start of the independence of Botswana in 1966. It is now considered that views on the subject might have changed since then.

Knitted 8 chickens yesterday and sold 1 parakeet. There has been a slight drizzle again in Ghanzi. Heard from a reliable source that the government has started bringing back some services into the CKGR and that they are having some rain there too.

Knitted 6 chickens yesterday and sold 1 parakeet. From the proceeds, € 5, € 5 has gone to SEMK. Sunday night 3 mm of rain came down in Ghanzi, and yesterday it was cloudy. This message was sent by a citizen of Ghanzi. I discovered that by sponsoring children and youngsters not only their lives become happier. It also can have influence on the parents, because they become proud and happy when they see the improvement their child makes. It also can stimulate them to improve themselves.

Knitted 2 chickens yesterday. I find it interesting to see how a few inhabitants of countries that have been guilty of suppression and exploitation of people in regions outside their own country, are scared stiff at the moment that they themselves might be overruled by foreigners (refugees) who might want to change the culture and way of living in their host country.

Knitted 5 chickens yesterday.

Knitted 9 chickens yesterday. The sale of Henk’s first young parakeets of this year has started. Part of the proceeds are for SEMK, we hope to get a good price for them.

Knitted 4 chickens yesterday. Received two sociological reports about the Bushmen in Botswana and read part of it.

Knitted 4 chickens yesterday and sold 3. Together with a friend sorted out the chickens on color and placed them on letter trays. The friend made a short film about a hungry chicken looking for food on my hand and not finding it, asking friend for food and then finding it on the table. As a thank you it lays a chocolate egg for friend. Very childish of us, but we had a great laugh. We abandoned the plan to do a rain dance, on account of lack of knowledge we might be doing a “no rain” dance. The weather fore cast for the south east in Botswana is: from coming Monday 3 rainy days, 0,3 mm, 2,5 mm and 1,5 mm. In the west coming Sunday 0,1 mm, from the Sunday after 6,5 mm and the next days a bit less. Preparations are being made in the higher regions to lessen the drought.

Knitted 10 chickens yesterday. Weather forecast in Botswana still does not predict rains before 24 February. A friend of mine suggested we should a rain dance for them.

Knitted 5 chickens yesterday. Public transport in Botswana. Most of the tourists will travel through Botswana by (rental) car, because there are too many places you cannot reach by public transport. But if you can use public transport, it will be a lot cheaper. From Gaborone, the capital in the south, to Ghanzi, in the west, roughly 900 km, a single bus ticket costs about € 14. The bus makes two sanitary stops, where also food can be bought. Total journey takes 8 hours. If it is really necessary, the bus will make on request an additional sanitary stop(s). There are always people making use of this opportunity.

Knitted 9 chickens yesterday. No rains have been forecasted for the coming fortnight in Molepolole in the south east of Botswana. In Ghanzi there will be rains from 24 February. There will be a small harvest this year, which cannot be compensated by imports from neighboring countries as they are in the same predicament. Long ago the Bushmen used to burn eland fat on their campfires, it was believed that this would bring rains. Many elands will have to be slaughtered to solve the drought problem in present day Africa.

Knitted 2 chickens yesterday.

Knitted 6 chickens yesterday. Total 212. Last night I was washing the dishes, frying a pancake and thinking about the people in the CKGR, do they have enough water to survive the heatwave. This resulted in a burned pancake.

Knitted 6 chickens yesterday. Sold 3 pairs of socks and received an order of 60 mice. Yesterday I visited the pre school in our village again. I took a thumb piano, a toothbrush (a stick from a special tree) and a wooden “dance” puppet with movable arms and legs, for the children to have a look at. In Botswana the annual drought assessment has started earlier than in other years, from 1 to 22 February. Various ministries work together on this. The objectives of this tour through the country are to assess rainfall distribution across the country, the crop, grazing and rangeland situation, nutritional status of vulnerable people, and magnitude of destitution in terms of distribution as well as implementation of the poverty irradication program (Ipelegeng). At the end of the tour, the team will determine whether the country is drought or not and advice government for appropriate interventions. The country is undergoing its worst drought in 34 years. Last December, government increased livestock feed subsidy from 25% to 50% to further cushion farmers from the excruciating effects of the drought. Incidents of drought are forecasted to increase in frequency and severity as the effects of climate change deepens. The forecast is a blow to the country as Botswana is already witnessing impacts of climate change with constrained agricultural production, increase of food security and increasing water stress, which will worsen with time.

Knitted 7 chickens yesterday. Although the drought in Botswana is not as bad as in the neighboring countries, since November last year there have been little rains. From today a heatwave has been forecasted, meaning temperatures above 40 C. The alarm code red has not been given out, as the Kalahari is well known for its high temperatures and often long periods without rain, people are used to it. The forecast is that on Tuesday 16 February there will be rain, and the temperature will go down.

Knitted 10 chickens yesterday. Continued with clearing the rooms and found some yarns with attractive colors. Chickens with other color combinations can now be made. The beads which the women make from ostrich egg shell fragments also can be used as eyes for the chickens. I have send an email to a friend in Botswana with the question if he can search for the boy with the epileptic fits (see 29 October 2015) and his mother. The social worker at the Ghanzi District Council who is working on this case has not responded. Kuna Festival in Lheebroek, Drenthe, Netherlands, has placed us on the list of participants. The festival is from 21 July until 24 July.

Knitted 5 chickens yesterday. Made a start with tidying 3 rooms. Room one is going to be the storage room, two is for the sale of 2nd hand articles, three is going to be the Mice and other animals room. It will be an exhibition room in which animals are placed in a fantasy world. Plus the sale of the knitted mice and chickens and other knit/ crochetwear. And there also is the cupboard with 2nd hand articles in the passage.

Continued with crocheting scarf and knitted 3 chickens. Sold the first chicken.

Knitted 6 chickens yesterday.

Knitted 4 chickens yesterday. The financial report 2015 is ready and has been placed on the website. You can find it under “documents” on the homepage.

Knitted 7 chickens yesterday. We received an email from Nampol Vocational Training Center. The two ladies who passed their exam for pre school teacher last year have found a job at a government school. The new student motor mechanic course is settling in.

Knitted 2 chickens yesterday. I have read the research paper on poison in beetles and plants. I find the difference in the use of poison on different locations in southern Africa striking. Other plants and beetles, in different stages of development, were/ are used, and different ways of applying it to the spears. I wonder if: 1. In the beginning there was one group which discovered the method. Maybe the group split up and the new groups moved to different locations, and maybe there were not the same beetles and plants, so they had to look for others. Maybe therefore it was necessary to invent another way of applying the poison on the spears. 2. In the beginning there were groups on different locations, and they discovered the methods, independently of each other.

Knitted many chickens yesterday, 12. When there are heavy clouds in the sky (which happens often in this time of the year) it is too dark to see the color of the yarns clearly, making it very difficult to make attractive color combinations. Yesterday the layer of clouds was not thick and in the afternoon the sun appeared. I really should have done something else, but have postponed this until Wednesday. We received another research paper from Robert Hitchcock about poison in beetles and plants, which was/ is used in hunting. This reminded me of what Elizabeth Marshall Thomas wrote in one of her books on the Marshall Expeditions in the 1950th in Namibia and Bechuanaland Protectorate (since 1966 called Botswana). The whole family (her mother, father and brother John) was involved in this expedition. At one time they came into a village and found that a poisoned arrow had accidentally got into the foot of a man. The foot and lower part of the leg looked bad. In the evening the Marshall family decided to take the man, with his wife, the next day to the hospital to have the leg amputated. The couple could not appear in town in their traditional dress, so they looked in their cases for clothes. When they went to collect he couple the next day, the lower leg until the knee had come off. While the couple was being dressed in suitable clothes, the other people were angry because they did not receive clothes. They did not understand that town dwellers would look disapprovingly at people in skins. In the meantime a few men picked up the part of the leg that had come off, took it into the field and gave it a burial proper for a complete human being.

Knitted 5 chickens yesterday. In a research paper on tourism in Namibia and Botswana 2016, written by R. Hitchcock, it states that indigenous people in Namibia share more in the tourist proceeds than the indigenous people in Botswana. Tourism in Namibia is directed towards several types of tourism: maintenance of the traditional way of life is very important. There still are conflicts between the different ethnic groups, the hunters/ gatherers sometimes consider other things important for projects than the people who keep life stock and agriculture. In the caves in Tsodilo Hills in the north of Botswana, where long ago paintings were made on the walls by the San and other groups, guided tours are given by another group, the Mbukushu. They have the advantages of speaking better English than the San, and because their village nowadays is nearer to the Tsodilo Hills. The village of the San used to be close to the hills, but in late 1994 the Ju/'hoan San village was moved a few kilometers away from the hills by the government (the National Museum). If the San approach tourists to offer them a guided tour, they are reportedly chased away by members of the other group. If they are successful in giving a tour, it can happen that they have to hand over their reward to the other group, under threat. In this document the question is raised if it may well be time to employ a diversified approach to conservation, development, and tourism, one that is not based on local people being exploited, but allowing them to benefit from their natural and cultural environments and their cultural heritage. Some people in the Botswana government are against giving the indigenous groups responsibility for their own tourism activities, they would prefer to see the tourism sites privately owned. At the moment there are still 5 sites in Botswana where activities are run by indigenous groups but these, too, are under threat.

Knitted 4 chickens yesterday.