hey all (16th June) here we go! we went and spent an hour with a himba tribe; one of the drivers from the hostels borther has adopted the tribe and has become chief. he has adopted 18 kids who are orphan or whatever and then obviously the women of the tribe have their own kids I have a couple of pics but there are SO many cultural things that I dont wanna forget I'll start with those. there are all sorts of small things about the clothing and dress styles; it all seems to revolve around when women reach sexual maturity (sm for ease of typing). they were this head dress and do their hair in a certain way, they also wear beaded bands around their ankles partly for respect for the traditions of the past. when the children are young they have particular hairstyles. the boys where two little braids pointing backwards and the girls wear theirs forwards. the jewellery all has a purpose too. the girls wear a necklace with a triangle at the front which when they reach sm is then moved to the back in a beaded fashion and a cone shell at the front in place and a beaded band around their waist. these beads are made from ostrich egg shells and wire beaten into bead shapes. the mean instead of the triangle shape and cones simply have a straight strip and when theyre sm they grow their hair and pile it on their heads and wrap it up in a triangle on their heads in black material. when the young boys are 12 they have a massive ceremony where they are circumsized and have their four bottom front teeth knocked out; sounds weird but trad is trad right?!?! we saw a woman cutting her sons hair and she simplyt used a razor blade she sharpened on her hand with some water; pretty impressive! the cosmetic routine is incredible: it takes 3 hours in the morning every day. they do not use water AT ALL. they do a kinda sauna. they have a small smoking fire in the hut (the chiefs hut only has a pole in the middle; random observation). the women each have their own perfume. this is a mixture of different crushed herbs which they mix with butter paste. they then put a couple of pieces of the charcoal on to make it smoke and they squat over it for 1 hour! this has the same sorta effect as a sauna. they then rub themselves all over with a red paste which is ocre mixed with butter fat. this butter fat they use all the time is made from goats milk which they put in what looks like a giant pumpkin. they hang it on a tree and shake it four 3 hours solid and it turns into a kind of butter and APPARENTLY this never goes off?!?! oh yeh I forgot when the boys have that ceremony they get given an arrow from the father and a pillow from the mother; back to the beauty routine. this red paste does serve a purpose: it moisturizes the skin, it also acts as hair removal and helps keep moisture in. there is also a black paste which some men put around their necks. this promotes hair growth. the womens hair; once they reach sm they grow their hair and they plait it 2 nearly the ends very very tightly and then they cover each plait in the red paste over and over to give it the hard texture leaving the ends bushy; this apparently takes a full 3 days but lasts for 3 months until it grows out, becomes loose and they have to do the whole routine again. in the mornings, as well as the bath and the painting of the red paste, both partners get a full body massage from their husbands/lovers/wives for 30 mins each. nice way to wake up huh.. the ocre which is in the paste is quite rare and v expensive to buy. the routine is that all the women over 55 make a trip to the place where it is founds and they coll.ect it. it is a 6 wk journey by donkey there, 2 weeks collecting and 6 weeks back! each woman will use about 1kilo for body paint and 3 kilos in her hair. the men dont wear this paste. the young children were all so adorable, all of them walked up to you with their hands outstretched waiting for you to shake it and they followed us out etc. their main livestock appeared to be goats and cows as you would expect but it was obv offspring time as there were loads of baby goats and calves, really cute!!!! what else can I remember oh yeh: for washing clothes they have this T-P shape of wood and they put that over the herbal stuff and steam it also! every morning the tribe sit round in a circle and say how they are and how they are feeling etc they are obv VERY close knit as a tribe. while we were there this woman was obv preparing a goat for cooking, was pretty gross!!! it was hanging from a tree and she was using a small knife to cut it open and stuff and all its organs and intestines were hanging out and stuff eeeeeew! thats himbas. i've been in a fair amount of pain all day limping around but i wont go into that all the time!!! we came back in a small truck taken back from there by the adopted cheifs brother lewis. we were taken to the local "hospital". i put that in quotes because it was sooo small and primitive that in a way very funny! the doctor had been called in and although he was hugely fat and looked more like a vet he was very gentle, nice and competent. he took x-rays of gray's foot, vif's neck and poo's back. apart from gray who's broken 2 little bones in his foot there is no bone damage its just muscle and bruising and swelling and stuff so miraculously we're all ok!!! vif came away with a neck brace, ilona with a neck brace and a plaster (band aid lol), monique with stiches redone and cream for a nasty burn in fact just done with boiling tea, andrew and thron were fine and me... well i came out black and blue and my shoulder and neck have now seized up but that'll improve i hope. oh and poo just came away with an x-ray and a sore arse... so thats the hospital done and dusted! we were driven back by lewis to this absolutely GORGEOUS place for lunch (at 3 lol)... imagine - swimming pool, shaded thatched hut, tables chairs, trees, everything! we had a lovely refreshing lunch there and all felt slightly better for it! during lunch there was a bit of a palava! ilona who to be fair had had the worst scare out of us travellers decided she was definitey going to go home whatever... she was being really stubburn, refusing to listen to anybody, wouldnt pay her feesor change of flight because "her insurance would cover it". we were all trying to explain that the insurance works by reimbursing you after... so poor gray had to try and organise everything with ilona and because of her stubburness we were late for our next arrival and gray had to sort that out and everything as well which he did marvelously!!! he really is great even when hopping around like a kangeroo all day. anyway eventually we just left ilona at that lodge with someone due to pick her up and we headed towards etosha NP where we are now. as of yet we still have no vehicle so this guy dorees (grays mate) SOMEHOW piled all of us into his car/van and trailer and we set off... was er impressive to use one word. it was again fairly dark and we were in a game park obviously so we were all a little on edge a bit but we made it safely and its really nice here! there are lots of cabin type houses each with 2 bedrooms (4 beds), a minute kitchen and bathroom and braai outside. that part of etosha we were staying in has a really nice (apparently one of the best) waterholes in the whole area and it sure was nice. we were told to really make the most of it which none of us hesitated to do... we headed down and although its a bit commercialised the animals dont give a damn and you get some really good sitings. we were 1st got down there there were 5/6 elephants there and lots of black back jackals running about and after a while a white rhino came along with her baby (aaaaaw). they were just drinking away but later on this other rhino came along and started trying to have a fight with this mum one. was squaring up and making mock charges but it was a TOTAL wimp. would make all sorts of threatning growling noises then sqeel and run away... was VERY funny but then supper was at 8 as promised: it was a braai - so good as always: it was snoek which is a typical african fish with jacket potatoes and salad... was really nice sitting around the fire eating and talking etc etc! i knew we had a VERY early start the next day so i decided to turn in at 10! this early start btw is to be at 5.30!!! ouch... yeh thats right lol! anyway thats enough for today, will update tomorra m xxxxxxxxxxx