Back in Windhoek from Tsumkwe.

Royal has been a big help in navigating his neighborhood. I felt very welcomed.

I've been accepted into the Ju'/hoansi kin system which means that I now have a new name, //'ao. The // is like the noise you use to make a horse go, a lateral click, a the ' a slight pause. As I arrived for the trance dance near to Tsumkwe I was shortly told that it was my new name. I have a namesake there, an older grey-haired man who seemed quite kind. We didn't talk much due to his lack of English and my lack of Ju'/hoansi. I'm getting better though and can at least greet.

The healing went fine. I'm feeling much better about the prospects ahead than I was this time last year. The healer touched me and his arms and legs shook like elastic bands. But at the end of it he pronounced I had no problems.

The ceremony took place after dusk around a fire. The rains looked menacing but quickly stopped, it seemed, the moment the old man appeared. There were three dancers with him, or four if you count Royal who would jump up with a hoot and proceed to tramp around the circle.

I'm still amazed every time I see a Bushman healer pick up live coals. But they all sem to do it with impunity. This night I witnessed the old man pick up live coals and rub them between his hands and at certain points during the healing his body became ice cold.

The old man and the dancers were in full, bare-bummed, traditional attire. One of the dancers had only one arm, the result of an encounter with a snake.

I'd spotted a snake a few days earlier and alerted the nearby bushmen. They immediately reached for large stones to bash the head. The one I'd spotted was harmless though and left to go. Around the corner I saw a green mamba that hadn't been so lucky and had been duly smashed.

I'm making arrangements to ship the crafts we obtained from Tsumkwe back to Canada including three sets of poisoned arrows which I'm very afraid to handle.