I left my lovely Stellenbosch family on Monday morning after a wonderful week with them – including many long dinner discussions, playing with their five kids, making imovies, trying to help keep their baby duck alive (he died sadly), great faith discussions with the parents, taking the kids swimming next door, delicious freshly brewed loose tea, an awesome movie night (watching The End of the Spear), and a great hike on Sunday afternoon.
On Saturday I met with a member of Stopping the Trafficking of People (STOP) – a faith-based non-profit in Stellenbosch fighting human trafficking. We had a great one-hour meeting and I am now planning to return to Stellenbosch for a few days in November to stay with my host family again and research STOP further!
Since Monday evening we have been enjoying an educational and cultural center of the San people, called !Khwa ttu, on a beautiful farm/reserve an hour and half outside of Cape Town. We are camping in tents and learning about the history and culture of the San people – historically referred to as the “Bushmen.” The San are one of the first indigenous people of South Africa, who survived with a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Over the centuries, they were repeatedly pushed off their land and decimated with disease. Today only 100,000 San remain alive – mostly in Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. !Khwa ttu seeks to educate visitors and the San people themselves about the history, culture, and languages of the San. In addition, to being something of an educational tourist destination, !Khwa ttu has a training center for San people to come and receive cultural tourism training for 9 months. Then most trainees return to their marginalized San communities across Southern Africa and help facilitate community-based tourism. It is quite the unique initiative!! The land is beautiful and as we drive to our campsite each evening we see zebra and springbok just roaming around.
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