Settling into Shakawe - Sept 18th

This was last week's blog, sorry for the delay. Another blog coming tomorrow!

September 18th

Since the last time I wrote, Heather and I have gotten somewhat settled into out houses where we will live for the next 7 and a half months. We actually have two little houses, mine has my bedroom which is spacious ( but I am still waiting on a shelf or something to put my clothes on). I also have a washroom, with a toilet and a shower, so no need to worry I am not using a hole in the ground. Then there is a room that is supposed to be a kitchen, but it just has a sink in it. Needless to say, we do all the cooking at Heathers. Heather's house is only a few steps away and is one round room with a bedroom kitchen combo and then an attached washroom. 

My co-ordinator told me to make sure I leave the outside light on at night when I am walking between my house and Heathers house. He then proceeded to tell me it was important ecause they have been known to get pythons there and you wouldn't want to walk into one of those...

Our houses are located on the same property and both of the cordinators for our two organizations. It is about a 40 minute walk to work, which wasnt too bad this morning because we left at 7 but I think the walk home will be toasty because it will be around 5 and by then it is hot!

The offices are located right on the banks of the Okavango River. There is a fence to keep the hippos and crocs and other wild animals out but when you walk towards the fence you can see local people fishing, collecting the reeds and many other activities. It is sign of how important the river and the Delta are to the people around here. 

As for my mandate (what I will be doing while I am here) we started to talk about that yesterday. I am helping to revive a local craft and basketry project that TOCaDI owns and operates. The craft shop buys baskets from women in rural surrounding communities and then sells them in the shop. They buy the baskets directly from the women and the aim is to help these women escape poverty and improve their livelihoods.

I will be helping to create a marketing plan to allow the craft shop to sell more baskets and then be able to support more women. The idea situation is that the craft shop can continue to buy baskets and supporting the local people while being financially stable and not reliant on outside funding and funding from TOCaDI.

I am excited to get into the shop next week, but until then I will be doing lots of research and reading about baskets and past projects.