The last week of May marked Ghanzi’s fifth annual metal music festival and my first metal concert. Initially when my friend invited me to the event I thought, “Oh fun, I love crafts!” It was not until weeks later that I discovered I had actually agreed to go to a metal music festival and not a craft fair. Knowing that I may not have agreed to attend, however, I am so glad I did. The festival draws bands and metal enthusiasts from all over Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa (as well as an unsuspecting peace corps volunteer). The weekend was also quite informative as the mystery of what constituted a metal cowboy, was unraveled. From what I saw a metal cowboy wears leather chaps, fringe, and a whole lot of studs.
During the day we were doing HIV/AIDS education and
community outreach and by night we were all just a few metal enthusiasts. Highlights
for me included the march across town, in the name of ending poverty however
more like an excuse for the metal cowboys to strut their stuff. The march was
very informative for me as I also learned the appropriate way to strut, even if
my bright orange shirt did not exactly match the leather body suits, I did
learn to strut with the best of them. Although I am still partial to crafts I
am also excited for next years metal music festival.
Ghanzi is a village in the northern part of the Khalahari
desert on the western side of Botswana, not far from the Namibian border.
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