Celebrate!

In August 2015, Namibia's Social Security Commission officially handed over the stone-finishing workshop they funded at our crystals market to the small-scale miners and merchants of the Ûiba Ôas Cooperative.  We are delighted to have this facility, which allows us to add value to our raw stones and crystals by cutting and polishing them at our site.

Diana Maletzky, miner, merchant and chairperson of the Ûiba Ôas Cooperative

As part of the ceremony, our chairperson offered a speech in which she said: "I am pleased to greet you, and to welcome you all in the name of rural development.  I may confess, though, that most days I myself, like so many of my brothers and sisters here, I would rather be out there, in the field, prospecting and mining.  This is the work I know well, and love.

"My grandmother was a miner.  For many decades, she worked with a hammer and chisel on and around Spitzkoppe, bringing beautiful gems and crystals from the rocks and the earth.  I think of her often as I work, carrying on this tradition of our people.

"I think of her, too, and a hundred years of small-scale miners, when I stand in the stalls here and greet tourists who ask, Is it really Mother Nature who is doing this?  Even without cutting, or polishing, our stones are beautiful.  Of course, we are all accustomed to the many beauties of our Namibia.  But ladies and gentlemen, for we who stand in this wonderful market, sharing what nature has to show with people from Windhoek, from the north, from many parts of Africa, and from Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific --  our work is an honor, and a joy."

We are happy to share some of the joy of that day, our home in the Erongo region at the edge of the Namib desert, and our work amongst nature's beauty, with you in a traditional song and dance of our Damara people.  Please enjoy!