Bernard and a couple of women gave us a demonstration in the art of using a very primative bow and arrow. The original arrows were just straight sticks with sharpened points.
When I was in the Task Force in 1970, equipped with very young eyes, I qualified as an expert marksman during training at Camp Logan military base in Zion, Illinois. However, I had never shot a bow and arrow before. To everyone's amazement, I hit the little duiker antelope target on my first try. All the Batwa jaws dropped and I acted as if it were expected. Thankfully they didn't ask me to do it again.
We thanked our Batwa friends and bid them goodbye.
Today we walked over an hour at high altitude. We met Batwas Bernard and James—both claiming to be in their 80s—and their two women companions. We saw their huts, banda, tree huts, religious ceremony and we were entertained at the banda. We learned to use a bow and arrow and fire sticks. Although we did not see the solo SilverBack who also inhabits this vicinity, we did see evidence that he had been around. Nate and P.J. came back from lasering the forest around 1 pm. We all ate lunch and then stowed the equipment. Afterwords Nate, Erin & I went back to clean up and pack. we left Buhoma at 4 pm heading to Kihihi for gas and the ATM.
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