Landing on a tiny air strip just before dusk with a beautiful light making the vast landscape look so vivid and colourful. Once the noisy little plane stopped it was so quiet, no traffic noise at all as we walked from the plane to the terminal building, a one roomed place. We’ve arrived in the Eastern Cape. The drive to Mthata from the airport was fabulous, so much open space in all directions. Small houses some round, some rectangular, all painted bright colours (green and pink a popular choice) dotted about randomly, each with its own bit of land. Some growing a few crops, some with goats, sheep or cattle. It feels great to be in open space I really feel like we’re in Africa now.
After a much needed shower and change we visited The Arts and Crafts Hub, a building filled with colour and creativity. Almost an exhibition space but also a kind of shop that is filled with beads, traditional outfits, scary looking dolls, pottery, and other fabulous arts and crafts. The arts hub represents local crafters from the villages and gives them a place to advertise and sell their art. They receive training workshops in pricing and marketing and have an outlet to avoid exploitation and to make sure their craft is being valued. There is no mark up on the prices as the hub receives funding so all the profit goes to the crafter
No comments:
Post a Comment