Mandy and Twi joined some women, who greeted Mandy with smiles.
Twi gave Mandy a cloth bag to hang over her shoulder.
"You put the nuts in here," said Twi.
The women headed off into the bushes.
Mandy looked for Vinnie, but he had already left.
The women and girls reached some tall trees and then split up.
Each woman worked under a tree, collecting the nuts on the ground.
"I'll be over there,"
grinned Twi, pointing to a nearby tree.
"Wait! What do the nuts look like?" cried Mandy.
"Look," smiled Twi, as she picked up an egg-shaped nut.
"This is the mongongo."
Then Twi left Mandy to gather the strange nuts.
"Well," thought Mandy, "at least I'm not doing anything horrible like hunting."
Meanwhile, Vinnie was watching Kashe as he reached into a small cloth bag.
"Pay attention," said Kashe, holding up an arrow.
"We will add the poison now."
"Poison?" asked Vinnie, nervously.
"Hold this arrow, Vinnie," said Kashe.
Vinnie held the arrow carefully.
"These are beetle larvae,"
explained Kashe, holding up some small yellow things.
"They contain poison."
He squeezed some liquid from one larva.
Then he put it on the arrow.
"We shoot the animal and the poison goes into the blood," said Kashe.
"Soon, the animal dies."
Another man named Gau came running up.
"We have spotted the birds," he said.
"Do you shoot birds?" asked Vinnie.
Kashe shook his head.
"Birds circle in the sky above a dying animal.
We are close to an animal we shot yesterday.
We must go and carry it back to the village."
Meanwhile, Mandy was thinking that picking nuts wasn't much fun.
"Mandy, how many have you got?"
Twi walked over to her.
Twi's bag was overflowing with nuts.
Mandy only had a few.
"How did you get so many so fast?" asked Mandy.
"We learn how to pick mongongo nuts when we are very young," said Twi, grinning. "Watch!"
She bent down.
Her hands moved quickly back and forth on the ground.
Then she stood up, smiled, and used only her toes to pick up a nut.
Mandy laughed and clapped her hands.
"That's amazing!"
The other women gathered together and emptied their bags on the ground.
"The nuts are heavy.
So we crack the shells off here," explained Twi.
"Then our bags are much lighter for the journey home."
"Good idea!" said Mandy.
"Oh, while we're here," Twi said, "I want to show you something."
Mandy followed Twi to a small cave.
At the opening, they found a rock with some paintings on it.
"These are drawings my ancestors made," said Twi.
"They tell a story about our people."
Mandy could see animals and dancing men on the rock.
The men had animal features too.
Some had horns.
Others had lion's legs.
"This is the object in the photo!" shouted Mandy.
"What do you mean?" cried Twi.
"So why am I still here?" thought Mandy.