Oh what a tangled web we weave . . .

. . . when first we practice to deceive, or so saith Sir Walter Scott. Perhaps it is precisely because the women weavers of the small village of Oodi do not "practice to deceive," that their quilts belie the mythologized, and mesmerizing, simplicity of Botswana village life. Started in 1973 by two entrepreneurial Swedes, Ulla and Peder Gowenius, "Lentswe-la-Odi" is a cooperative run mostly by women which is renowned for its quilts portraying scenes of village life, complete with herds of goats and hard-working women preparing the evening meal.

Oodi is the first village outside the city limits of Gaborone on the road to Francistown or in other words, about 20 kilometers northeast of town. Four of us (Max, Jeremy, Rebecca and I) took a taxi out there; an expensive option, but the only one which would get us back sometime this weekend. After our cab driver, who was very nice and I don't mean to make him sound "sketch" in the East Coast vernacular, met an associate in a parking lot to drop off some money, we drove for the next thirty minutes down a flat and straight highway. Familiar to those who traverse the rural Midwest.

A very "village-y" village, we were greeted not by roadside rest areas, but by herds of goats (!!) and wandering bell-toting cattle. As if its "authenticity" didn't make the trip worth it, Oodi is nestled next to hills. Anybody who has been following my blog knows that the two most impressive things for me are goats and hills.

But back to the weavers. Between two dozen and thirty women work daily in the workshop, making both their signature depictions of African village life, but also more utilitarian items like placemats and coasters. The cooperative has had a very interesting past, with some major obstacles and subsequent breakthroughs, as documented in books like Equal Shares: Oodi Weavers and the Cooperative Experience.For those who won't be traveling to Botswana anytime soon, it is extremely difficult to find these Oodi treasures outside of the country. Instead, you might want to try the beautiful quilts out of Gee's Bend, Alabama. Almost the definition of backwater, the tiny town of Gee's Bend had been separated by geography and the color barrier from the rest of the state for generations. Check out its website to see if any museum exhibitions of its work will be in your area. Sorry, that was the cheesy promotion habit I picked up from working in Membership at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

In the next blog, I'll talk more about the books I've been reading and music I've been jamming to here in Botswana. Until then, tally ho, sally forth, and ta-ta.