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Susanna
I was born in Angola and speak Khwedam. Since I have begun working in the restaurant‘s kitchen I have learned a lot of new things. The children can attend school and I thank God for this. I grew at !Khwa ttu and !Khwa ttu itself is also growing.
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Carlos
I was born in Angola and am Khwedam-speaking. I work as a tour guide. I think it is very important that I tell the people from far away about our tradition and also the stories my grandfather told me a long time ago. The !Xun, Khwe, !Xõó and ‡Khomani have built !Khwa ttu. There was not much in the beginning and now it is a big centre. !Khwa ttu is also important to the San from other countries. |
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Aletta
I am 25 years old and a qualified Grade R teacher. Since the children attend the Darling Primary School I am now working as a waitress at the restaurant. I like it that I meet people from many other countries. My Engish gets better and better because I communicate a lot with the tourists who visit !Khwa ttu. !Khwa ttu is a good place because it gives me a lot of opportunities. |
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Donika
I came to !Khwa ttu in 2002. For a long time it was my desire to work at the !Khwa ttu restaurant. Now I am working there and I am very proud of this. In the beginning !Khwa ttu was small, then it grew bigger and bigger. That is good as many San people got jobs here. |
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Michael
My work at !Khwa ttu gives me an opportunity to help to make a difference to the lives of my colleagues, to the environment near to us and to offer our guests a memorable experiences. I will continue to play a role to work towards making !Khwa ttu a sustainable project that brings enough income to support itself, to create further training opportunities for many other needy San and to support initiatives so that we will have a continuous impact on the conservation of our land and the environment.
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Andries
I am 30 years old and from the ‡Khomani community in the Kalahari. I have been here at !Khwa ttu since 1999, when everything began. My work as a tour guide is good. I enjoy taking tourists to the field to show them animal tracks and plants.
!Khwa ttu is a very good place because San people can come here to learn. It is very different from other places. The San from other countries must come and see all the changes, which happened here at !Khwa ttu. I am sure they will be very happy when they see them.
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Johnny
I am 28 years old and from the Kalahari in the Northern Cape. When I was young I went with my father to the bush and he showed me the different tracks of animals and which plants we can eat. This is where my love for nature started.
After I had finished school I had completed a few courses in professional hunting and guiding. When I came here to !Khwa ttu in January 2005 I was trained as a field guide and in rock art. All these courses I completed successfully and today I am a registered tour guide. My job here is a local field guide and also the official driver at !Khwa ttu. I also help maintaining the farm.
!Khwa ttu means personally to me that it changed my life. Now I can do things like washing and ironing my clothes on my own and I make my own food. I also learned more about computers. Here at !Khwa ttu there are always new things to learn.
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Maria
I was born in the north of Namibia in 1971. Since 2000 I have been working for !Khwa ttu. I have a good job as a member of the cleaning team. !Khwa ttu is good for me because I found work here. |
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Roman
I am 29 years old from the Khwe community and speak Khwedam. I have been working as a guide here at !Khwa ttu for more than a year. As a guide I take guests on a tour where I show them game and a traditional San village where I explain the life of the San. I enjoy meeting different people, who come to our centre. I learn more things here at !Khwa ttu and I gain a lot of experience in working with people.
One of my big dreams is to become a linguist. I want to study language development and endangered languages to which unfortunately the San languages belong.
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Baba
I was born in 1978 in the Kalahari Gemsbok Park which is now the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. I have been at !Khwa ttu for many years. To work as trainee manageress at the restaurant and now as public relations officer means a lot to me because it shows that people put confidence in me. I take on a lot of responsibilities and that is quite a challenge.
!Khwa ttu means for me an open door, open to go into different directions. !Khwa ttu offers a lot of opportunities. !Khwa ttu is also my home. !Khwa ttu’s name which means waterhole is exactly that for me. I feel my fellow San in the different countries of the southern African region will agree with me that there will always be water for us to drink at !Khwa ttu.
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Magdalena
For more than two decades I have been working with various San communities in southern Africa. As an educationalist I have thoroughly enjoyed working for San education programmes and mentoring young San people from Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. In 2006 I joined the !Khwa ttu team with the task to assist in the area of fundraising, training and of establishing a !Khwa ttu Newsletter. The !Khwa ttu team has welcomed me with kindness, curiosity, cooperation, openness and sincerity. These attributes certainly form a solid foundation for making visitors to !Khwa ttu aware of the San heritage and their future aspirations. |
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Leandra
I am from the ‡Khomani San community. Before I came to !Khwa ttu I received training at WIMSA. Now I am working at !Khwa ttu as a craft shop manager. Another part of my job is answering the phone at the reception, receiving visitors and taking bookings.
!Khwa ttu is a place for tourists to learn more about the San of Southern Africa. !Khwa ttu is a unique tourism project and a work opportunity for us, the San. !Khwa ttu provides training for the staff and many other San from the region. !Khwa ttu provides accommodation for the San community representatives, when they attend meetings here.
!Khwa ttu is a very special place because it cares for our San heritage, culture, arts and crafts! |
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Gila
I was born in Angola, grew up in Tsumkwe in Namibia and have lived at !Khwa ttu since 2000. Willem taught me the work of a bricklayer, I learned by doing things. I liked to work on the bush house because it was an old house. |
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Lientjie
I was born in Botswana 31 years ago. I came to !Khwa ttu in 2002. I am very happy here at !Khwa ttu and like my job as a cleaner. Here I have also learned how to operate a washing machine. !Khwa ttu offers a lot of advantages for me, my family and all the other San people. |
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Margaret
My interest (passion) for accountancy started way back at the end of 1966 when I began work at my first job. Over the years I have worked in an accounting capacity with a few breaks to have my three children and now I am a proud granny of three beautiful grandchildren.
!Khwa ttu means a place of new beginnings, a "peace from within" to me. We are here to help and stand by one another in many different areas of life because our strength lies in unity.
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Paula
I came to !Kwa ttu in 2005. I like the place although it is very quiet and a hiding place for the San people who do not like towns. I am teaching the children traditional dances and songs. !Kwa ttu is the future for the kids because they learn here about their culture and the history of their forefather. |
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Willem
I am 44 years old and a ‡Khomani from the Kalahari. I have constructed a lot of buildings at !Khwa ttu. I believe that my work is important.
!Khwa ttu has a lot of advantages for San people, for example I earn money here. It is also important for the other San as it is a place, where our people learn a lot.
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Kerson
I came to !Khwa ttu in 2001. As a field guide I like to communicate with the tourists. I also like to get information from the tourists and I give them my information about the San. I am very happy with my work.
!Khwa ttu gives me a better life and future. San from the other countries like to have training workshops here and that is good.
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Kondino
I have been living at !Khwa ttu since 2005. I work as a local field guide at !Khwa ttu. I am proud of !Khwa ttu because it is a very different San community project. Here people are made aware of the San and San also become aware of other people. |
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Pieter
I am 28 years old and from the !Xun community. At weekends I work as a tour guide and during the week I give a hand to the builders. I like my work very much because I can tell the tourists about our tradition and the animals. !Khwa ttu is for all the San and we have to keep up the good work here at the centre. |
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Afrida
I am 23 years old and married to Kerson Jackson. I love my work as trainee assistant chef very much because I like to prepare food. I am looking forward to learn a lot from Thomas, the new chef. I want to learn more about cooking skills, how to bake cakes, so that one day I will be able to bake some cakes for my family on special occasions. It is a dream coming true to become a qualified chef because I wanted to work in a restaurant one day.
For me !Khwa ttu means a place to get a lot of opportunities. I think the other San people love this place and would also like the be part of the !Khwa ttu team.
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Thomas
My name is Thomas Portmann (the San are still busy searching for a traditional bushman name for me). I was born in 1976 and am from Switzerland. I am a trained chef and hold a degree of the Hotel Management School of Zürich.
It is my second time here in South Africa and it was always a dream for me to work and live here for a longer time. I have been working for !Khwa ttu since February 2007. My job is to train a group of interested San in all facets of restaurant and kitchen skills.
It is very exciting to be part of the !Khwa ttu team and to be involved in the development of this young project.
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Ollo
I have been here at !Khwa ttu since 2004. My sister Lientjie told me a lot about !Khwa ttu. I take care of the small children in the morning and afternoon. I learned to do that at the Bergzicht College in Stellenbosch where I did an early childhood education course for three months. !Khwa ttu means a lot to me because they made my training possible. |
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Bets
I believe that the strongest foundation for any education system starts with a happy and balanced home. The !Khwa ttu kindergarten and after-school care programme should be an additional support to offer our children an organized structure. I believe that my role as teacher is to help create a harmonious environment where the children could be stimulated intellectually, socially and emotionally to be prepared for a prosperous adult life. |
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