Dear Readers, as we headed along the desert road in Namibia, en route to our next destination Damaraland, we noticed this rhinoceros, made completely out of discarded material. And then there was this…

…a couple of welcoming people again made out of discarded scraps of material and sticks. What was going on?

Well, miles and miles from anywhere, a woman was sitting on her own under a tarpaulin selling rocks. Many, many different kinds of rocks, all dug up within a few hundred metres. I doubt that this is a ‘legal’ activity, but here in the middle of the proverbial nowhere it raises an income for whole families.

I deliberated about whether to buy anything. There was no traffic in either direction, it was approximately 40 degrees Celsius, and I couldn’t imagine an occupation requiring more patience and fortitude. So I bought this.

There are veins of quartz and copper, and I could study it for hours. It’s sitting on my desk now, reminding me of that long, hot dusty road, and the things that people are prepared to do to make a living in many parts of the world.