March 4, 2022
A settlement community, temporary: construction materials not permitted. Homes of corrugated cardboard or metal, plastic bottles, paper, anything that does not create permanency. For this land in the sand, was first inhabited 21 years ago, by people of farm, dessert, savannah, where they could not sustain themselves. Looking for employment and a place, they have had a challenge finding either. Prevented from creating permanence, on the land beneath them. No electricity, no sanitary services, nothing that would sustain a community, that with I visited 6 years ago, accommodated 20,000 and now 50,000+. Then a I wrote a story about a 7-month old boy I named ‘7’, a third generation child in a temporary community. Now Kristjan is near 7 years old, needing funds to start school a year late, for his age. Christian’s grandmother, Katrina a community activist having grown up as Sans Bush person of the Kalahari, works to create opportunity for her family and community. When we first met, she was managing a kindergarten, an adult arts and crafts center, and hosting tourist to tell the story of the settlement, as she taught tourists the clicks needed to speak their language. With that Katrina and I have clicked, as I have tried to help where and how I can, from afar and anear. This morning we (Kristjan, his activist grand mother, mother, aunt and cousin) had a breakfast meeting to prepare for the week ahead, while they talked in clicks, I clicked photos, as I apt do. 7 now almost 7, took his first clicks of a camera, as I showed him the video camera he will be wearing Saturday afternoon to give a child eye view of events planned for the day. Keep a watch on these posts, see 7’s video work as he helps the capture a first time experience with 100+ children who share the same space. Later we will celebrate the opening of a bakery, Women’s day, catch up with day care, laundry projects and shopleft projects, that have come to fruition over the years of engagement.to learn more got to: Earth Personally
