Agreed about ‘adieu’. I tend to become a bit robotic using ‘doily’ as a second word after ‘stare’.
Have you ever played ‘Waffle’. Daily Waffle isn’t that challenging. But on Sundays there is Deluxe Waffle, a 7x7 matrix. The challenge is not just getting the 8 words, but sequencing the letter interchanges.to minimize the turns.
No, will give Waffle a try.
If I get nothing on my first turn my default next word is PLAID.
"LMAO!
Good one Stav.
I'm only asking because I've finally written my first book. It's short, a novella rather than a novel and it should be available on Amazon in about a week (I hope).
Sorry I can't offer freebies at this stage. I have some costs I need to recover, but I'll put up a link once it's published.
The posters who like historical fiction may not love Book 1 but I promise they will enjoy Book 2 and onward."
Looking forward to it. Well done and congratulations Rooinek.
I have not read fiction for a long time. Too busy working. Will check it out on Amazon.
However, I have found some time to write my own masterpiece as a newer sequel to Tolkien.
"The Lord of the ButtPlugs: An Unexpected Meton journey (2027)".
However, I have found some time to write my own masterpiece as a newer sequel to Tolkien.
"The Lord of the ButtPlugs: An Unexpected Meton journey (2027)".
"“I think what we experienced was, like I said, well beyond the material science and the capabilities that we had at the time, that we have currently or that we’re going to have in the next 10 to 20 years.” David Fravor
This was from his congressional testimony in July 2023, where Fravor made clear that the object’s observed behavior was not consistent with known technology.
Becoming a Commander (O-5) in the U.S. Navy typically takes 18–22 years of service. It requires:
Selection through multiple competitive promotion boards
Extensive operational experience
Strong fitness reports and leadership record
Prior service as a department head and executive officer
Commanding a fighter squadron (like VFA-41) is considered a major leadership milestone and is highly competitive.
As a squadron commanding officer, Fravor was an O-5 Commander aboard the carrier.
The aircraft carrier itself (e.g., USS Nimitz) is commanded by a Captain (O-6).
The overall Carrier Strike Group is typically commanded by a Rear Admiral (O-7). Fravor held the third highest rank aboard the Nimitz carrier.
So while Fravor was not the ship’s captain, he was the top officer in charge of his entire strike fighter squadron, responsible for pilots, aircraft, combat readiness, and mission execution.
TLDR; A guy in change of billions of dollars of equipment, training and commanding in what is probably the most complex type of combat known, holding the highest rank active navy pilots can hold, provides detailed testimony in front of congress about an incident involving a technology that nobody can explain. His back seat pilot and others in his squadron corroborate his testimony in clear and detailed terms. The objects are confirmed to have been travelling at 80k feet per second. Fravor has now moved into the MIC where he works on classified projects.
Sound like a loon to you?
Make it make sense, VisKop.
Sharkbok, you've set him off again. This is on you.
I could go on, but I won't. Out of respect for the thread I would not have changed the topic.
It has been a nice show of support for a board member,
But VisKop started it
Plum I’m still struck by Musk’s recent comment that if any human being would know about aliens it would be him….referring to the satellite data to which he has access. And probably also to the government artifacts, that I’m sure he checked out when he had his high level government clearance.
My argument against aliens is essentially this:
Travelling at the top speed achieved by the fastest man-made craft, NASA's
Parker Solar Probe (roughly
430,000mph
or
692,000km/h
it would take approximately 6,600 to 7,200 years to reach the nearest star, Proxima Centauri.
……
Light takes 4.24 years. So pick you number, maybe 500 years in some vessel way more advanced than anything we know.
The question is, why would anybody make that time commitment and then just turn around and go away.
Who says the UAP's are extraterrestrial?
Einstein said it is not possible to travel faster than the speed of light (now a universal law of physics)
Also, anything with mass could not travel at the speed of light.
His ideas formed the basis for theories such as space travel by warping the fabric of time/space.
For example, the universe is expanding faster than the speed of light. However, it is space itself that is expanding, not the objects in the universe travelling. So this does not break the rules of physics.
However, this is still just SCI-FI stuff, and might not even be possible. If it is possible, then Aliens in the universe could potentially travel to very distant worlds.
In principle, agree with everything you guys said above.
But I would say that limiting the potential technology out there by our understanding of physics is to assume that the physics we currently understand is complete.
To Draad's point, I also agree.
We have three options in the Fravor case;
1) It's disinformation - perpetuated by the US armed forces and/or intelligence agencies to some end. To me, this is the most plausible explanation.
2) It's human tech - but think about the implications of somebody having a vehicle that can go from orbit to sea level in a single radar sweep. If you have that, you have complete militarial superiority. At that point, very little else matters.
3) It's non-human
I refuse to believe that Fravor, his back seat pilot and others in his squadron are all crazy. So the most plausible explanation is that they are all lying. In this instance, the most plausible explanation takes you directly into conspiracy land. It's unavoidable.
So, would you guys like to speculate on this specific case?
Here is a snippet from the 60 minutes interview with Fravor and Dietrich.
Make it make sense...
These two pilots sound very credible and clearly something was captured on the radar. Having two sources tends to eliminate the ‘radar malfunction’ notion. Even if light could be projected from some star, the feedback would never work in real time. So this interactive anomaly has to be able to reason by itself. Or this is just a natural phenomenon, like the Northern Lights and the behavior is incidental and caused by the US planes and not the anomaly. Sound like nonsense on my part…probably..
The guy in the interview is Fravor.
It doesn't get more credible. I recently watched a show about US fighter pilot cadets going through their training. From day one, it's a massively stressful job and deadly serious. Makes sense, considering the value and power of the equipment they are using and the amount of money invested in their training.
I imaging that getting to Fravor's rank of commander of an attack fleet must take superhuman levels discipline and talent. And that's before one considers the leadership qualities an individual must possess. Literally a best of the best of the very best type scenario. Honestly, I'm in awe of people that achieve that level excellence. And it's just annoying that they're always so humble.
And now it seems that Trump has just recently authorised the release of all US information relating to UFO activity, sightings and incidents
What do you think about all this, DA?
I blame Meton. They've been doing interstellar travel for some millennia already.
I secretly suspect we have an agent of Meton among us . . . no names . . . if I out him, he'll leave!
Shhhhh . . .
I do believe that alien life exists, because the universe is just too mind blowingly vast to think otherwise.
I also think that individuals like Fravor would never deliberately want to tarnish their well earned reputation by bringing out bullshit stories like this..... I reckon what they saw that day was genuine.
I believe that the time that it takes for light, or messages, signals etc etc to travel, can take thousands, millions or even billions of years to reach us......so how do we know that nobody else yet has sent out probes a long time ago..... to see who responds.... but nothing has yet reached us, or..... if it has, nobody has let us know.
I believe that signals from other civilizations could possibly still be on their way to us, but the speed of light is ultimately the speed limit we face.....
I don't believe that any living thing could travel at or faster than the speed of light, but then again I also didn't think that a living thing like a snailfish could survive the pressures of living at over 8 000 meters deep in the Mariana Trench... some things just defy logic..... and science changes every day.....and we only get to know what the new science is, when we ever do discover it...
If one just looks at what mankind has done and achieved in the last 150 years alone .....which is mind blowing when you really think about it...... then just imagine what that looks like in just 500 years from now... it in mind-numbingly insane to think about it.
I reckon in the not too distant future, mankind will be flying around
Just look how air travel has developed since the Wright brothers.......it is ridiculous how far we have come in such a very short time.....which is why I believe the human race will be flying around the globe in the near future, but just with more economical, versatile and reliable backpacks like they have now.
Trump has promised to release the unredacted Alien files. From this, we can be assured that they are not friends with Epstein.
I remember when I was at school and we'd not yet confirmed the existence of plants outside of our solar system. Some people were very serious about the idea that our solar system was probably entirely unique. Now we know that it's not. More than that, our galaxy isn't even unique.
It seems to me that a large part of the problem with people's thinking on this topic is that life is easier when you don't consider this stuff. I suppose it frightens people to think that we might not be special nor anywhere near the top of the food chain.
Here's an example of the cognitive bias that occurs;
Just last week there was a post on here and board members discussed Marco Rubio. Even the lefties said they respected him. The consensus summary was that he is levelheaded.
The same Marco Rubio is balls deep in this topic and is appearing on a new documentary about the subject. Regarding the Nimitz incident and others like it, including incursions over nuclear facilities, he is quoted as saying "“There’s stuff flying in our airspace and we don’t know who it is and it’s not ours.”
And here's where the cognitive bias kicks in.
Board members have admitted they respect the guy. But now he's saying stuff that they don't want to think about because it frightens them, is too much for them or challenges their paradigm in ways they are uncomfortable with.
And so what do they do?
They know that if anybody is in a position to know this stuff, it's Rubio. The only higher ranking figure it could come from is the president himself.
So they think of some reason to dismiss it, poke fun at it or pretend it doesn't exist.
Everything lines up. The data is available to the public, the high ranking military and political figures are telling you this is real, but you can't allow yourself to entertain it because it might change how you view yourself and your existence.
Whether there is a there there is one thing and a government pulling a mass psy-op on the public in order to convince them that UAP are visiting earth an entirely different thing.
What do they have in common?
Neither of them are comfortable to think about.
-
-
3) It's non-human
Doesn't have to be human not to be extraterrestrial...it is possible that a higher civilization has been with us here on Earth all along...small and secluded...look at how our science improved only during the last 150 years...what will the result of a 1500 years of development at this pace be? It's beyond our imagination...1500 isn't even a blink in cosmological terms...Newton was a genius and he was wrong about a lot of things... Einstein too...there will be new equations... the impossible or improbable of today is tomorrow's everyday life...we are too inclined to limit ourselves...
..
Who knows hey, Draad.
One thing I do is keep all options open and refuse to be married to any single idea other than the idea that the universe will always drastically exceed any limit I place on its potential.
That seems to me to be the only true constant haha
Indeed... ridiculing out of the box ideas stiffles progress...dark ages anyone?
We don't actually know what matter, gravity, dark matter or dark energy are. We just know they are there...sort of.
For matter, they only know quarks have mass, charge, spin and some degree of predictability. But that is only a description of interactions.
As to what it actually is, or if it is simply information, and where all of it comes from, that's anybody's guess.
How is one not supposed to think that anything is possible!!!???
Just to get back to topic, my editor has finally got back to me and I'm pleased to say there's very little editing required for my book. One or two clarifications still needed and I should have the book published during the course of this week. I will put up the Amazon link as soon as I'm ready.
i would be very interested to know from the posters whether my book addresses certain unknowns expressed on this very thread.
Just so you know, you'll obviously know my real name when I put that link up but I'm not ashamed to associate that name with my "Rooinek" character on this board. My real name was already given out by Barlee when I was still an unsuspecting member of the Kamp Staaldraad board but good luck searching for me on social media, I'm just not that active.
Anything is possible, right?
Even though you're a complete doos to me at every opportunity, I'd still want to read your book.
However, I can't do "reading" as I'm busy as hell. So, since it's likely not available in audiobook, I'll likely get AI to read it to me.
"Einstein said it is not possible to travel faster than the speed of light (now a universal law of physics)"
According to the relativity theory...but there's some problems with that.
Newton believed you could use alchemy to create gold...we know now that that's BS...just because know the science doesn't mean it won't be figured out in a couple of hundred years...
That seems to me to be the only true constant..
To me the only true constant is, mystery.
The only true fact is that we'll never know.
We'll know everything, but we learn something new every day ... constant progress ..and the mysteries we try to unravel is the carrot that keeps moving us forward...the yearning to know more pulls us ahead... constantly.
You can travel faster than the speed of light if you can manipulate gravity.
Cumon now, I thought we've all seen Star Trek.
Still the greatest sci fi IP of all time.
Within the current understanding of physics, travelling faster than the speed of light is not merely technologically difficult — it is mathematically incompatible with the structure of space-time as described by modern physics.
The confidence comes from:
This conclusion is not philosophical. It is grounded in repeatedly tested physical law.
In 1905, Albert Einstein introduced Special Relativity. The theory rests on two principles:
That second principle is crucial.
Unlike normal velocities (where speeds add together), light’s speed does not change depending on how fast the observer is moving. Whether you move toward it or away from it, you measure the same value:
299,792,458 metres per second
To preserve this constancy, space and time must adjust. This leads to:
The speed of light is not simply “very fast.” It is embedded into the geometry of space-time itself.
The relativistic energy equation is:
E=?mc2E = \gamma mc^2E=?mc2Where:
?=11?v2/c2\gamma = \frac{1}{\sqrt{1 - v^2/c^2}}?=1?v2/c2?1?As velocity vvv approaches the speed of light ccc:
This means:
Accelerating any object with mass to light speed would require infinite energy.
This has been tested repeatedly in particle accelerators such as CERN. Particles are routinely accelerated to more than 99.999999% of light speed — but never beyond. The behaviour matches the equations precisely.
Even if we ignore the energy issue, faster-than-light motion creates a deeper problem: it breaks causality.
Relativity structures events inside what is called a “light cone.” Signals moving slower than light remain inside this cone, preserving cause and effect.
If something travelled faster than light:
This is not speculative philosophy — it falls directly out of the mathematics of relativity.
Modern physics strongly protects causality. No experiment has ever demonstrated its violation.
The speed limit has been stress-tested through:
GPS systems must include relativistic corrections to function properly. Without them, navigation errors would accumulate rapidly. The fact that these systems work confirms relativity’s predictions to extraordinary precision.
No particle with mass has ever been observed exceeding light speed. Hypothetical faster-than-light particles (“tachyons”) remain unobserved.
After more than a century of increasingly precise testing, no experimental crack has appeared.
Some speculative ideas attempt to bypass the restriction:
However:
These concepts do not violate relativity locally — they attempt to manipulate space-time itself. None has experimental support.
There's nothing I hate more than reading other people's AI results.
My AI knows me better than anyone and my own results are all based on that personal knowledge.
Having said that, there's something that resonates with me in Sharkbok's post above this and that is "Some speculative ideas attempt to bypass the restriction:
Wormholes.
That is a fundamental concept, so much so that I'm not going to wait any longer. If you want to read my book I'm going to paste it here, chapter by chapter.
The posters on this board get my novella for free. Here goes (author's name withheld for now):
What the Land Remembers
By XX
Chapter One
Nara
A sudden movement surprised me. It was a butterfly.
It hovered above the cracked riverbed as if the land were still soft beneath it, as if water still gurgled under stone. Its wings were pale on the outside but brighter on the inside with an intricate pattern to them, almost like honeycomb. It landed on a nearby bush, closed its wings and tilted to one side, taking on the appearance of a leaf. I did not breathe. I had learned long ago that hope startles easily.
‘Go and find the rain, little friend,’ I whispered to it. ‘And bring it back.’
The butterfly opened and closed its wings but stayed where it was.
Behind me the river lay open like a wound. Once, when I was a child, my mother had bathed me there. I remembered reeds higher than my shoulders, fish glittering in the sunlight, frogs so loud they drowned out our thoughts. Now the river was only a memory of itself, a pale scar winding through the valley. The elders said it would return. They had said the same thing last summer, and the summer before that.
I was the rainbringer of our village. I was young to hold this honour. My mother had been the rainbringer for the tribe and she had taught me, but she died giving birth to my stillborn brother and I was left to continue her work.
I wore the beads and the leather thongs, the ones my grandmother had worn when the rains still came. I knew the songs. I knew the steps. I knew how to read the clouds when there were clouds to read. But the sky had grown deaf. It did not answer drums or smoke or blood. It watched us starve and did nothing.
Still, no one blamed me.
That was the worst part.
They brought me water even when there was little to spare. They shared their food even when the children’s bellies were swollen from hunger. They said the drought was older than me, older than my mother, older than the village itself. They said some things were too large for one woman to carry.
I believed them. I had no choice.
-
Somewhere beyond the hills, far to the north, stood the fence.
No one in my village had seen it, not with their own eyes, but everyone knew where it was. We'd heard the stories. They said the land was different there. Animals did not cross. Trees grew thicker, greener, as if the land there still remembered to drink. The elders said the fence was older than the drought, older even than the stories. They said it had been built by the Longborn.
The Longborn did not age like us. That was the first thing everyone said. They lived long lives and had great wisdom. Some said they were children of the spirits. Others said they were invaders to be resisted. No one agreed, but everyone feared them a little.
They had come from the sea, the stories said, more summers ago than there are quills on a porcupine. They had come in houses that floated and birds that did not flap their wings. They had brought fire that did not burn and stones that burned without fire.
Then they had asked for help.
They had settled conflicts, brought peace between tribes and given much of their wisdom to our ancestors. Better ways to build things and better ways to cultivate the land. In exchange, our people had helped them build the fence. Stake by stake, tree by tree, binding by binding. No one alive remembered that time, but the fence remained. Everyone knew that the fence was to be kept strong and that the land beyond it was forbidden.
The Longborn were not gods. Even the elders agreed on that. But they were not like us.
The butterfly flew away, its wings catching the light. ‘Bring the rain, little friend,’ I whispered again. I watched it until it vanished against the colourless ground.
‘Nara!’
I turned. Aunt Sesi stood a short distance away, leaning on her kierie. She had been strong once, her arms thick with muscle from carrying water and firewood. Now she seemed to shrink a little each day, as if the unrelenting drought were taking from her, piece by piece.
‘Khosi has killed a dassie. Come and see,’ she called.
My heart lifted. An adult dassie would provide a small amount of meat for every member of the tribe. It had been many moons since the tribe had killed an antelope and some winters since they had successfully hunted an ostrich or an eland, but a dassie was still something to celebrate.
I hurried to join her. My stomach was already rumbling.
Chapter Two
Jamiet
Jamiet looked out over the dry, almost barren land. His grandfather had been born a few hundred kilometres to the south. He wondered how different the landscape had looked then.
A small rustling sound caught his attention. He turned to see a duiker staring straight at him, keeping utterly still other than a slight heaving of the flanks. The very second Jamiet caught its eye, the duiker sprang away and vanished into the brown scrub.
Jamiet gave a small click with his tongue, trying to convey both gratitude and farewell as was customary in this region. Clicking was something Jamiet practised often, much to Kano's annoyance.
An hour earlier, during the farewells, Jamiet had felt embarrassed when the villagers had laughed at his attempts to click a farewell. Three years of diligent study — language, customs, tribal histories — and he remained deaf to the true rhythm of speech. He could ask for directions and understand the answer, but he couldn’t hear the gentle click of encouragement that might be woven into it, or the subtle click of scepticism that belied a promise. His own repertoire was limited: the simple click of agreement, the blunt click of negation. It was like trying to paint a sunset using only black and white. He had the vocabulary, but not the music.
Most of all, Jamiet realised that his incorrect clicking marked him as an outsider. Ko would want to know this information. It was the first thing Jamiet was going to tell him in the debrief.
It was time to move on. He and Kano had arrived in the village three weeks ago and had completed the design, construction and commissioning of a new wind pump. The elder, Sori, understood the maintenance required going forward and the inquisitive young son of the rainbringer would learn. It had been another success. Ko will be pleased, he thought, although he also knew that Ko would nevertheless explain several things that could have been done better. No matter, we do what Ko instructs us to do without question, because Ko is the voice of Sai. That is how Kano would put it – and he was right of course – but something made Jamiet uneasy. He couldn't quite put his finger on it.
Kano called, ‘Come on, Jamiet – seven down, two to go. Let's finish this and get back home. We have some well-earned vacation time coming up and I've got big plans.’
Jamiet smiled. He knew Kano's plans involved a certain Lena. Jamiet liked her. He liked Kano too … on those occasions when Kano expressed himself instead of just quoting Ko. This was their second mission working together and Jamiet had got to know Kano well enough to know that his engaging and playful character back home was very different to his more taciturn and detached character when he was in the field. Still, Jamiet thought, there were worse things than a partner who took his job very seriously and did it well. He turned and went to join him.
It was dark. Time to go. Jamiet and Kano mounted the hoverdrone, confirmed satellite signal and switched biotracking on. The next village was about an hour away assuming biotracking didn't pick up any human presence along the way. They would stop a safe distance short of the village, cloak the hoverdrone, sleep and then in the morning, walk the last stretch on foot. Silently they disappeared into the night.
Chapter 3
Nara
I woke with a sense of foreboding, almost as if the butterfly I'd seen yesterday was some kind of omen.
I missed the presence of a man. Toma had been a renowned hunter and a good provider and he had generally treated me kindly. Except for his anger at my inability to provide him with a child. He had died two winters ago after a wound from a gemsbok horn turned septic, despite the poultices applied by the village healer. I fingered the tip of that very horn which was now a bead on my neck thong.
As I was finishing applying my ochre, Aunt Sesi pushed aside the reeds of my hut. ‘Two men are coming,’ she said.
‘Two men?’
‘Yes,’ she said, ‘from the east. They walk slowly and they walk side by side.’
I frowned. Traders walked with caution. Messengers walked with urgency. These men, it seemed, walked as if the land itself were a problem to be solved.
I finished dressing and hurried outside, grabbing my kaross. We went outside and walked towards the eastern edge of the settlement. A small group of villagers had already formed on the slight rise, watching the approach of the two travellers. We joined them. Khosi, Biru and Kau were there, all carrying their bows and Sanu and Qara each had a kwe. Aunt Sesi's knobkierie tapped the sand in a slow, rhythmic warning and, though I appeared unarmed, my hand felt the hilt of the rainblade that I carried in my pouch.
We watched them. They walk as if they are counting their steps, I thought.
As they approached, Khosi gave a small click and without a word, Biru and Kau stepped slightly forward and to the side, their arrows in hand, but not nocked.
The shorter and darker-skinned of the two men greeted us, his body language not quite submissive, but friendly.
‘Greetings. What do you carry?’ asked Khosi.
Each showed a small bow and a stone blade that they were carrying and each had what looked like a half full gourd of water. They opened their pouches for inspection. Khosi took a brief look and made another click and nodded. Biru and Kau returned their arrows to their quivers. Whatever the strangers were, they were no raiding party.
‘Where did you last fill your gourds?’ asked Khosi. I noticed the two men gave each other a quick glance before the shorter man replied that it had been about two days ago, they had dug on the inside bend of the riverbed and used hollow grass stems to sip some water. The next morning the sand had turned to mud and when they removed the mud there was enough water to fill their gourds.
‘And did you encounter any antelope or ostrich on your journey?’ asked Khosi.
‘Sadly no,’ replied the shorter man, ‘we saw springbok tracks a few days ago, but otherwise we've only seen an occasional dassie or hare. My name is Jamiet and my friend here’ – he gestured toward the bigger man – ‘is Kano.’
‘I have never heard such names’, said Khosi. ‘I am Khosi and Sesi here is one of our elders.’
The man called Jamiet bowed slightly to Aunt Sesi and then gazed at me so directly that I felt a bit uncomfortable. I could see how he noted my beads and the patterns of my ochre.
‘You have a strange way of speaking.’ I said to him, ‘Where are you from?’
He smiled. ‘Your way of speaking is as strange to my ear as mine is to yours. We come from the south and have travelled many days.’
I felt my cheeks redden. He finds me amusing by the looks of it. I wanted to see how amused he'd be with a rainblade in his throat, but I just glowered.
Aunt Sesi asked what their business was and Jamiet replied that they were weary from travelling for so long and requested food and somewhere to sleep for a few days. In return they would give us a gift and then be on their way.
They did not look to me like they'd travelled for many days; they looked like they'd strolled from their hut to the riverbed and back. But I kept my tongue. The other villagers looked at one another and Aunt Sesi declared that they would need to consult Nxao in the matter; but they could rest until Nxao and the others returned from the morning forage.
We were silent on the short walk back until Biru asked, ‘Where might this gift be if you are carrying nothing we need?’
I smiled inwardly. It was just the kind of thing Biru would want to know.
It was Kano who spoke for the first time, answering. ‘It will be explained. You will like this gift.’
We will see about that, I thought, but the thing that struck me was that while Kano also spoke very differently to us, his way of speaking was not even the same as Jamiet's.
-
The visitors were ushered to the sitting place in the shade. Water was given and they both drank. Aunt Sesi went off and returned a while later with some roots that had been roasted in ash and still retained some residual warmth. The visitors ate, but to my eye, not with the urgency of starving travellers. The children of the village gathered around to watch with solemn and attentive eyes, people eating at this unusual time of day. Jamiet looked particularly uncomfortable. He remained silent, kept his eyes down as he ate, but I sensed something troubled him. He is ashamed, I realised. He's feeling shame at eating our food. Perhaps this gift is just a trick?
The bigger man, Kano, also did not seem very hungry, but it was clear that having the eyes of the children on his hands and his mouth as he transferred every bite and swallow did not bother him in the slightest. He even belched and a few of the children giggled. I smiled too.
Nxao's arrival interrupted my thoughts. He arrived with Aunt Sesi who had clearly briefed him on the morning's events. The foragers that followed Nxao joined us in the sitting place and I was pleased to see that my cousins Qara and Neri had found tsamma melons on the forage. Normally, the sight of tsamma would have the children dancing and singing, but today they barely noticed. They were as fascinated by the strangers as were the rest of us.
It had been some time since the entire village was gathered together. Nxao was an elder who was respected by all. He made most of the decisions on tribal matters, but he was no chief or any kind of ruler. Matters were always discussed with other elders like Aunt Sesi and Jaro, while a rainbringer like me or a hunter like Khosi would be consulted, depending on the matter at hand. Everyone had a say, but Nxao was the one we most often turned to when it came to matters of wisdom or judgement.
Introductions were made after which Nxao cleared his throat and said to the strangers ‘You are welcome. You may share with us and we do not need a gift in return. Water and food are scarce, we ask only that you help while you stay. Are you hunters? Trackers?’
Jamiet bowed his head toward Nxao saying, ‘We are deeply grateful. No, we are not hunters or trackers, we are travelling through the land helping people to dig a new kind of well.’
I could not help myself. I interrupted, ‘A well? Do you think we have not dug wells? We dig wells when we need to. They do not last very long and then we need to dig them again. We need no help digging wells.’
Jamiet replied: ‘This well will be different. It will be lined with stone so that it does last – and it uses the wind to draw the water from the land.’
Everyone started talking at once. Wind blowing water into a well? I was not sure if we'd misunderstood what he'd said or if he had used the wrong words. Jamiet gestured with his hands that we should hear him out. The chattering slowed and then stopped.
He continued, ‘We have not come to change how you live. We have knowledge of a new kind of well and we want to help you build it. We will be respectful of the land, the wind and the water.’
I was torn between curiosity and suspicion. Curious to know more about this well, but not trusting these men who were clearly not telling us everything.
Kano then spoke, ‘We have built some of these wells already. Do you know the people three days walk to the east? Sori's people? We helped them to build a well that yields many gourds of water every day. You could send someone there to see if we speak the truth, but that would waste much time.’
I saw how Nxao and Jaro exchanged glances and I saw Aunt Sesi nod her head. Yes, we knew Sori's people. Our people and theirs had hunted ostriches together before. They already had one of these wells?
Jamiet spoke again. ‘It will require a lot of digging and we will need many stones to line the well. We will also need wood and leather, as well as your best woodworker and leatherworker.’
Once again there was a buzz. Several different conversations were happening together. It was Nxao who brought things to order and he addressed Jamiet and Kano, ‘As you can see, we are undecided. Let us discuss this among ourselves and we'll give you an answer before the evening meal.’
I watched Jamiet. He had listened to Nxao speak almost as if he'd heard these same cautious words before – and if he and his friend were not lying about building wells in other villages, he probably had. But I was not expecting his next words.
‘One thing I forgot to mention,’ said Jamiet, ‘I will also need the help of the village rainbringer, to help us find the best place for the well. Perhaps we can save some time if we first make sure there is a good place while you make your decision? We could go look now and be back by sundown.’
Nxao replied, ‘That is a good idea,’ gesturing towards me, ‘Nara here is our rainbringer, she will go with you. When you return we will have an answer for you.’
For the second time that day Jamiet turned to me and smiled, although this time it was not so much a smile as a wide grin. For the second time that day I felt my cheeks flush at his unashamed familiarity and for the second time that day, I had the feeling this man thought I was someone to be laughed at, a fool perhaps.
‘No,’ I said quickly, ‘I have things to do.’
‘Nara!’ said Aunt Sesi and she gave a small click. I knew what that meant.
‘Let's go.’ I said resignedly, pulling my kaross closer to me.
Chapter 4
Jamiet
Before setting off, Jamiet explained to Nara that they were looking for a place where water might be found below the ground, but not in the riverbed where the sand would be too soft and the water might be contaminated by animal waste or decayed matter. Nara gave only a curt nod.
They walked west, following the riverbed that would eventually veer south. Jamiet had left Kano at the village to assess the proximity of suitable stone and the availability of wood, rawhide and leather. Ko was always very specific about logistics.
Jamiet walked behind Nara as she softly hummed a rain song.
‘What makes you walk in this direction?’ he asked.
Nara did not turn or slow. ‘I watch the animals, the birds, and the insects,’ she replied. ‘Animal tracks that fan out lead away from water. Tracks that converge lead toward it. Animals with full bellies are returning from water. Thin animals are searching for it. Vultures circle where water is scarce. Birds flying low and straight at dusk mean water is nearby. The same is true of bees when they fly in a straight line. I watch them all.’
Jamiet nodded to himself. He sensed that Nara had taken a dislike to him, though he had no idea why. Her willingness to speak to him at all felt like progress.
‘I also look at plants,’ she continued, turning her head just enough for her words to reach him. ‘Reeds or bulrushes mean water lies not far beneath the ground. Wild figs grow only where there is water nearby. That is where I am taking you now — to a place where reeds once grew and where wild figs still stand.’
They walked on in silence until Nara stopped and pointed to a patch of grass that was slightly greener than the rest.
‘It is water that makes that grass green,’ she said, ‘but the ground is very hard.’
Jamiet was carrying the stone-tipped spear Nara had insisted he bring for exactly this purpose. He drove it into the earth — only to find the ground as unyielding as iron. His hands burned as they slid down the shaft.
Nara tried to suppress a giggle and failed. Jamiet scowled as he retrieved the spear.
They walked on.
Jamiet was beginning to worry that the proposed site might be too far from the village when Nara stopped again. They stood on the left bank above the riverbed. She pointed toward a wild fig tree several hundred metres away, then indicated the ground where they were standing, where the sparse brown grass gave way to what looked to Jamiet like a small cluster of weeds.
‘Here,’ she said. ‘This is the place. This is where the water listens.’
Jamiet wished he had been allowed to bring his ground-penetrating radar device disguised as a walking stick, but Ko had insisted he trust the locals — especially the rainbringers. Jamiet already knew he was working with a competent and perceptive one, so he set the thought aside.
He took the spear and thrust it into the earth again, although this time slightly more gingerly than before. The ground was firm, but it yielded. It felt right.
Jamiet sat down and surveyed the area. A few kilometres to the north, in the direction of the prevailing wind, low hills rose and fell, broken by shallow valleys. When the wind blew, it would be funnelled toward this spot.
He felt a quiet certainty settle in him. The site lay close enough to the village for convenience, yet far enough that the sounds of the pump would not disturb sleep. The ground was good. The wind was better.
Nara sat with him and Jamiet felt her looking at him. He turned to her and gave a small nod.
‘Thank you,’ he said.
She dipped her head and allowed a faint smile to touch her lips.
‘You use many words where others would rather click,’ she said.
Jamiet knew exactly what she meant. He tried to click both understanding and agreement, but only succeeded in making her giggle.
Nara pointed past Jamiet's right shoulder. He followed the line of her finger and saw a stalk of grass that was not grass at all, but a praying mantis, its body the pale green of new shoots, with its forelegs folded together as if in thought. As Jamiet shifted, the insect swayed gently, copying the movement of the stems around it, then slowly rotated its triangular head until one dark, glossy eye fixed on him.
Nara smiled. ‘It is watching you,’ she said softly. ‘It always watches.’
The mantis lifted one spined foreleg and brushed its mouthparts, then froze again, perfectly still, as though it had grown there.
‘It is a patient hunter,’ Nara went on. ‘It waits until the world forgets it is there.’
Jamiet thought of Kano, knowing how fascinated he would have been by the praying mantis.
On the walk back, Jamiet asked where they might find many smooth riverbed stones — no smaller than a fist and no larger than a head. Nara told him there were plenty further west of the well site from where they were returning, near where the riverbed swung south. There were more still near the old cataracts to the east, but those lay a day’s walk away.
They made their way back to the village and as they approached the sitting place, Jamiet could tell from Kano’s expression and his posture that the tribe had agreed. Nxao approached Jamiet and confirmed that they would help dig and help gather stone.
That evening they ate roasted tubers and roots, followed by quartered tsamma melons, which Jamiet found surprisingly refreshing. Meals were usually eaten in silence, but this one was lively, the talk mainly on how stone-collecting might be worked into daily foraging and hunting routines.
When the meal ended, Jamiet and Kano were shown to a hut on the outskirts of the village. Inside lay a grass mat and several skins for warmth. A small calabash of water and a few strips of dried meat rested nearby. Jamiet noticed the earth had been swept smooth.
They thanked their hosts.
Kano slept almost immediately. Jamiet lay awake much longer, turning from side to side as thoughts drifted and gathered in the dark.
Chapter 5
Nara
The next morning, nearly everyone gathered to go and inspect the proposed site. A few of the women stayed behind with the younger children, but the entire village was buzzing with excitement.
I immediately looked for Aunt Sesi. She was weak and she was as frail ever; and I knew why. I often saw her slip food to her grandchildren during meals. She tried to hide it but I knew, and she knew that I knew. My eyes found her. She was standing with Nxao and Jaro, looking thin and bony, but determined to be part of the expedition.
It was a short walk and when we got there, there were several mutterings of approval. I saw Kano nod. For reasons I could not explain, it was his approval I found myself looking for.
Jamiet stepped forward and asked to speak. Nxao granted permission.
‘Thank you for hearing me,’ said Jamiet in a loud voice that reached everyone. ‘This well that we are going to build will not belong to me, or to my companion Kano, or to the rainbringer who led us to this place, it will belong to everyone in the village and it will outlive us all if it is cared for.’
There was another murmur of approval. The words he used were unusual and he seldom clicked, yet we understood.
‘The hole that we dig will be narrow. Only one person can dig at a time. I will need four of five of your strongest men and best diggers.’
I saw how Khosi, Kau, Nxotso and Tshipu looked at one another, stopping just short of volunteering there and then.
Jamiet went on, ‘We will dig in a pattern like this …’ and he made a circular movement with his hand, moving it gradually forward as if describing the shell of a snail.
A few heads nodded in understanding. I found myself grudgingly conceding that he was a very convincing speaker.
‘Each time the earth is loosened, we will place stone behind it. Not later and not all at once, but slowly, as we dig deeper. The stones will follow the hole down, step by step, like a stone snake burrowing down into the land itself.’
He pressed a stone into the dirt with his palm. ‘These stones will not be stacked like a wall. They will lean into each other. The weight above will hold the weight below.’
He understands settling, I realised. None of this is guesswork.
‘Diggers will take turns,’ Jamiet continued, ‘when not digging, they will help to place the stones, carry earth away and rest. No-one will be hurried and no-one will be forced. It will take a long time to dig down.’
He paused. I could see that he was choosing his next words carefully.
‘If we dig deep and find the earth does not wish to be opened here, we will stop’, he said.
There was an instant hush. Several eyes turned to me, reminding me that the success of this venture depended almost entirely on my choice of ground. Doubt stirred in me, sudden and unwelcome. I tried to convey a sense of confidence that I did not feel in that moment.
‘If the water does come, it will rise slowly,’ continued Jamiet. ‘We will let it rise until it rests. While we are digging and bringing stones, Kano will build a wooden frame to place over the well.’ He gestured towards the hills in the distance. ‘He will build it in such a way that when the wind moves across the land, the frame will turn and it will be the wind, not your arms, that lifts the water from the land and places it into a basin that we will dig next to the well.’
People started chattering again.
I could see this was an idea they did not understand and, truthfully, neither did I. I understood the stone-lined well, but not how the wind would help draw the water. Still, my instincts were to trust Jamiet and Kano and listen more closely.
Jamiet continued as if he'd sensed my uncertainty.
‘I know this is puzzling now, but we will show you and you will see. I want at least two people to spend some time with me so that they understand every part of this well and how it works. That knowledge must remain here after Kano and I are gone. I have already spent some time with your rainbringer, Nara,’ he said turning to look at me, ‘and she is wise in the ways of water and the wind. I choose her as one of the learners.’
I was flattered. I felt the weight of his gaze. My mouth felt dry and I needed to swallow. Aunt Sesi and Nxao both nodded before Jamiet asked, ‘Nara, can you suggest someone else I can teach alongside you? Someone with a quick mind?’
I reddened as I felt all eyes of the tribe upon me. I did not need to think long, though.
‘Biru,’ I replied, ‘He is the one I would choose.’
I saw how Biru beamed as a ripple of approval passed through the gathering.
‘That is settled then,’ Jamiet said, ‘Now I just need some volunteers to do the digging and we can begin. Everyone else, we will need many stones – smooth stones from the riverbed. Do not collect any stones that are smaller than your fist or bigger than your head. Kano will also need wood and some help making the frame and the other wooden parts.’
As I suspected, Khosi, Kau, Nxotso and Tshipu were the first to step forward.
Then Aunt Sesi spoke. ‘The moon is very thin, almost as thin as me, and when the new moon comes, Nara must perform the rain ritual, but other than that, you may teach her the ways of the well.’
Jamiet nodded and looked at me again, not smiling or grinning this time, but giving me a nod of respect.
Everything was agreed.
Khosi and the other diggers went back to the village to get stone-tipped picks to break the earth, antelope horns for gouging and scraping, hardwood sticks for digging and woven baskets for carrying the soil.
When they returned, the digging began. It was Khosi who drove the first pick into the ground. The ground I had chosen.