But one Thursday afternoon we (and by "we" I mean 15 of my closest friends (Volunteers, Maasai, people just coming along for the ride) and I all cuddled together standing up in the back of a Ngorongoro Conservation Authority (NCA) Ranger's Land Cruiser as we accompanied him on his afternoon tour. So we shoot down the side of the mountain (and as are all thing in the NCA) it was a friggin' "bumpy bumpy" ride. We made a couple of stops along the way and then headed into the bush. Well, low and behold there they are. They speak their own dialect and are (by their own volition) separated from society. They live and breathe on their own and function as their own people. It was truly a remarkable thing to see. Usually bushmen walk around naked with cloth covering the necessary body parts, but these guys were all clothed when we came. The ranger knew the native tongue, so communicated for us. As we arrived they were making steel arrow tips for their arrows - as they hunt with either the bow and arrow or a spear. They were sharpening the steel with rocks. They will then poison the arrow tip to slow down the animal so it doesn't make it to far after its been shot. There was a fresh Zebra leg hanging from a tree as we walked by. One of the bows was actually made from Baboon Hair. They wanted to sell us some Bow and Arrows but it might have been a wee bit tough to get back home!! They then brought us to a large opening and let us all practice shooting!!! It was absolutely incredible - we were shooting bow and arrows in the middle of the forest with Bushmen. But believe me we were just happy they didn't line us all up :)
Next they showed us how to make fire from scratch with 2 sticks, a knife, and lots of dry grass. The funny part was the guy demonstrating was smoking weed from his home grown plant.
This was definitely like something out of a movie....the whole experience was unbelievable!!! Amazing can't even describe it :)
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