Special Day: Handover Ceremonies

Looking back to August 2015:


In 2013, Rössing Foundation supported Dreamland Garden and the Ûiba Ôas Crystals Market, both in the Erongo Region of Namibia, to apply for and win a grant from Namibia's Social Security Commission Development Fund.  The SSC is similar to the US version; employed people pay a small portion of their salaries, and employers pay a small portion of their payroll, into an account that pays out on retirement or in case of disability.  In Namibia, SSC also provides financial support to women on maternity leave, as that's not typically covered by employers.

The SSC also has a mandate to support employment creation, and the Development Fund grants are directed toward that effort.  Thanks to a thorough and well-development application, the Garden/Market won the 2013 grant, two years of financial assistance for identified needs to make the business more robust and sustainable.  The Garden was able to pay for construction of a greenhouse to provide shade and wind protection for its produce, as well as some tools and equipment for expansion and a solar-powered automatic irrigation system.  The Market got a machine for cutting and polishing stones and crystals, and some more of the toilet blocks that its target market - tourists - values so highly.

On the 18th of August 2015, the grants officially closed and the resources they provided for the two projects were officially handed over to the project owners.  There was a great deal of pomp and ceremony attached to the events, as is the norm for official occasions here.


We started at the Dreamland Garden in Arandis, arranging chairs and head tables.  The gardeners were gussied up in their best duds -- no overalls today!  (Overalls here are not what they are in the US -- just a work uniform of poly-blend trousers and long-sleeved shirt/jacket top, often with reflective safety stripes somewhere.) 

Gardeners, gussied.

The dignitaries arrived, including the governor of the Erongo region, the mayor of Arandis, a couple of town councillors, an executive officer of the SSC, the managing director of Rössing Uranium and the executive director of Rössing Foundation.  Whew.  That's some star power.

His Worship the mayor wears an impressive badge of office.

We open ceremonies like this with a prayer, and usually with some kind of cultural performance.  In this case, three of the gardeners sang -- beautifully.  Then we toured the garden, briefly, and head gardener Elizabeth explained about the soil they use, the water-conservation techniques they employ, and the vegetables they grow -- mostly spinach, lettuce, peppers, tomatoes and parsley.

Praise music, in Kavango.

Then we had speeches -- five of them. As is the protocol, each speaker thanked each of the other speakers, plus a non-speaking dignitary or two, plus a specific group or two or three ("all councillors", "the Dreamland Garden team", "members of the media"), plus the generic "honored guests," and then says, "The protocol is observed." I don't know whence this protocol stems.

Elizabeth began her speech by saying, "Pando kanomvenye maweesa tampandura. I say to each of you, Welcome, and thank you for being here. I spoke first in my mother language, Kavongo, because that is the language I use most when I speak to the plants. Be certain that, like all good Namibians, they also like to hear English – and Oshiwambo, Damara-Nama, Afrikaans, Otjiherero and many others!" She was nervous about speaking when we first discussed it, but she aced it like a born public speaker.

"Growing anything in the desert is not an easy task but a challenge!"

After the speeches, we stepped outside and the governor and SSC officer formally handed the keys to the greenhouse to Elizabeth and her fellow gardeners. 

This is why it's called a 'handover.'

We raced away to Mummy's Restaurant for lunch, and then piled back into cars to race east toward the Ûiba Ôas Crystals Market, and did much the same thing again.

My boss & avid photographer; RUL MD, RF ED, SSC EO, and RUL GM

Damaras dancing

This time the cultural performance was Damara singing and dancing, by the members of the market co-op.  And the first speech was by co-op chairperson Diana, who gave her many thanks and then said, "I am pleased to greet you, and to welcome you all in the name of rural development. I may confess, though, that most days I myself, like so many of my brothers and sisters here, I would rather be out there, in the field, prospecting and mining. This is the work I know well, and love.

"My grandmother was a miner. For many decades, she worked with a hammer and chisel on and around Spitzkoppe, bringing beautiful gems and crystals from the rocks and the earth. I think of her often as I work, carrying on this tradition of our people.
"I think of her, too, and a hundred years of small-scale miners, when I stand in the stalls here and greet tourists who ask, Is it really Mother Nature who is doing this?  Even without cutting, or polishing, our stones are beautiful.  Of course, we are all accustomed to the many beauties of our Namibia.  But ladies and gentlemen, for we who stand in this wonderful market, sharing what nature has to show with people from Windhoek, from the north, from many parts of Africa, and from Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific -- our work is an honor, and a joy."

Everyone applauded spontaneously when Diana said, "We are ambitious."

After the remaining speeches, the grand finale was a ribbon-cutting on the cutting-and-polishing workshop, and a demonstration of the whizz-bang new cutting-and-polishing machine.  There was also food (a fancy ceremony like this is a great excuse to feed a lot of people who don't see many calories in a typical day), and then a bit of dancing amongst us hoi polloi whilst the dignitaries departed.  I got to quick-step around the market with a couple of folks I hadn't met before; we observed the heck out of that protocol.

I couldn't get close enough to get a good shot of the ribbon-cutters...

Many of us did not fit into the cutting-and-polishing workshop for the demo.

Congratulations to Petra, Rössing, and all the gardeners and miners who worked hard to make this day happen.  There was a lot of work before the celebration could occur.

Congratulations, too, to the Ûiba Ôas Aqua-Stars, who placed second in the previous week's soccer tournament.  Note their awesome hair-shavings.  The 'aqua' in their name is for aquamarines, by the way -- there's not enough water around here that they can spare any for sports-team names.