blog about it...
On my mokoro trip, there was a girl that drove the supply mokoro. She was
in training to be a "Poler" and Guide. She most likely won't ever make it
as a Guide as her English is next to nothing. She may not even make it as a
Poler. But she's nice enough, and a welcome presence in a see of male
guides (who aggressively court their female patrons).
Anyway, she makes bracelets by weaving grasses. They're nice enough, but
it's not like you would ever actually wear one. So Rachel, Mita and I all
declined.
So I tried to think of something she could make that people would actually
buy, and I remembered my Tapa picture frames from the south pacific -
EUREKA!
Now here's where I had to get creative...to explain the idea to
her....Luckily, Rachel had an actual 4x6 picture. I snagged an empty cereal
box and used the cardboard to trace out the picture, and where the frame
would be. Then I put the picture in the middle of the frame and showed her.
We took off for a little sunset mokoro trip with our main guide, and when we
returned she excitedly ran up to me with Botswanan Picture Frame 1.0 in
hand! For this one she had simply taken 4 bracelets and cut them to fit,
then with the grasses "sewed" them onto the cereal box frame. How exciting!
We had to make a slight adjustment to the sizing of it so it held the
picture better, and she got to work on the 2nd one (for Rachel). The 2nd
turned out much better. She said they were P$20 (USD 3.50), and we happily
paid. I asked the guides to explain to her how much more likely people
would be to buy these over the bracelets.
Rachel and I mused...in a few years some of our friends are going to travel
in Botswana, and come home with a very cool picture frame made of woven
grasses.... and we'll smile and know a good deed was done :-)
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