Hunting with the Bushmen

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>> Unbelievable. I've probably used that word in previous posts but I
>> can't imagine that it will be used more appropriately than to
>> describe our day yesterday with the Bushmen and the Datoga tribe.
>> The picture above hardly does it justice but thankfully we have a
>> lot of great shots on the camera and some video.
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>> We left the tented camp at Lake Eyasi well before dawn and picked
>> up a local guide named Fanu on the way. Fanu speaks the Bushman
>> click language, has a good relationship with them, and tracks their
>> location as they move about every 2 or 3 months.
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>> We arrived at the Bushmen camp just as the sun was rising. The men
>> were beginning to emerge from the small temporary stick and cloth
>> houses where they live and we watched them build a fire. They were
>> friendly and greeted us with hand shakes. Most wore some form of
>> modern looking shorts and sandals, combined with traditional wear
>> such as a baboon skin vest (still with tail), animal hats, and beads.
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>> After their morning smoke (tabacco and marijuana), 5 or 6 of the
>> men picked up their bows and arrows and started running down the
>> adjacent dried-up river bed while one motioned urgently for me to
>> follow. We spent the next 3 hours doing our best to keep up with
>> them through thorned bushes and rocky hills as they spread out and
>> tracked animals. The boys loved it and Heidi was a trooper. They
>> ended up shooting two birds, one of which was still alive impaled
>> on the arrow until the man who had shot it bit it's neck. They said
>> it was an unlucky hunting excursion, but I suspect it was more a
>> function of us slowing them down and making a lot of noise.
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>> Back at their camp we met the women, and the men gave us a shooting
>> lesson while a baby walked around the camp with one of the recently-
>> caught birds in his hand, taking the occasional bite. Grant hit the
>> target twice and I hit it on my second try, which was probably just
>> luck. Their skill with the bows was impressive and obviously a
>> source of pride and when one of the women said something along the
>> lines of 'the white guys won today' one of the men took the bow
>> from me.
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>> We bought some beaded bracelets and a bow and some arrows and one
>> of them gave us a 'tour' of his house. They were very friendly
>> people and we enjoyed joking around with them. One of them put his
>> furry baboon-skin hat on my head, as pictured above, and they all
>> thought it was great fun when they tried to get Heidi to hold a
>> baby, who proceeded to pee on Heidi's pant leg.
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>> This is already a long post but I can't close without mentioning
>> our visit to the Datoga domo. They are a blacksmith people and we
>> enjoyed watching them melt metal to make jewelry. The highlight,
>> however, was watching Monica connect with the 8 or 10 Datoga women.
>> They were very pleased with Monica's Kiswahili and crowded around
>> her to ask questions and joke with her. They seemed almost like
>> old friends, or at least new friends living in the same culture.
>> They were very interested in having their pictures taken with
>> Monica and Heidi and made us promise to mail some prints to Fanu so
>> he could deliver them.