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The shepherdess of the mountains |
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Dressed with a goat skin tied around her hips, Vetjakanena agitates her thin and muscular arms. She tells :
"With my family, I never get bored! It is necessary to keep the fire on, to keep an eye on the cows and the goats, to milk them, draw water and make them drink, look after my young brother... And then, every season, it is necessary to move, and rebuild the hut. Here, I am all alone. I do not know anybody. The professor gave me a pencil, a place in a class and a mattress in the girls dormitory. But I do not want to stay there."
Vetjakanena is the last arrived at Etanga school. Apart from the hours of class, the girls learn how to make the kitchen and the laundry, while the boys will seek wood and maintain fire. Two months ago, Vetjakanena did not know what were a pencil nor a piece of fabric.
Her parents live isolated among the mountains, up north Namibia, with their nomadic herds and traditions. Only the chiefs of tribe and their families are sedentary. Since the end of the war, there are several schools in the area, and the children are increasingly numerous there.
Vetjakanena moves now towards a tree, where tens of green and hairy caterpillars feast on leaves. She explains :
"Yes, I like caterpillars. It’s good in porridge, and healthy. When it rains, they’re born in the trees. I bring them back to the teacher. Then, one makes them boil in water, and one spreads them out over the roofs of the school for drying. I hope that my family have gathered plenty of them. So they’ll have provisions for winter."
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