Dantapu

An interesting thing about residing at TAS, is that there’s the opportunity to travel to nearby villages, to teach the children. Every week I get to meet about 15 kids that are very enthousiastic in developping their creative skills. I already got to travel to Ovia Ollo, Rakinau Moffo and Dantapu. Dantapu is an adventure on itself and to get there is really quite something. The village is only accessible by Korjaal, a kind of canoe. It takes a breathtaking 40 minute tour on the beautifull Cottica river, through the jungle, to get there. Once arrived I asked the older children to carve a figure in a piece of soft wood with a chisel and a rubber hammer, that I had brought with me. I explained them that later their piece will be added to the giant Mickey Mouse, in the city of Moengo. Fortunately they were quite happy to become part of the sculpture. 

During the class I saw in the distance a little monkey jumping around. Before leaving I asked the kids if they could show me the petmonkey. When I arrived I noticed that the owners of the petmonkey not only liked to watch monkeys, but also fancy the taste of it. They had one monkey to play with and one to eat. 

 

(Please be aware that there is a dead monkey in this video!)

 

As a child my mother did not allow me to play with the food. Anyway, it makes a very funny sight to let a dead chicken walk on the dining table by giving it a hand. And to be honest, I once did so. No shock, you would say. The kids in this video are most probably also being nurtured not to play with their food, but still they did so. I went home before dinner got served.