Two very different educational opportunities will be available this weekend and next Thursday for residents of Jamestown. A cemetery walk is on Saturday, and then next Thursday, K.K. Mugambi, founder of Village Hopecore International, will be at Jamestown College to speak about his economic projects in Kenya.
The cemetery walk takes place at Fort Buford's own cemetery, where on Saturday between 7 and 9 p.m. historically-correct ghouls and goblins surface to meet the public. What sets this spooky event apart from the Halloween norm is the historic accuracy and artistic stage presence re-enactors adapt. Costumes are researched and carefully made. Backdrops, sets and items interred with the deceased are gathered or made to represent an authentic 150-year treasure.
Actors take to the 145-year-old fenced burial field west of historic Fort Buford, where they fill the shoes of the diseased. They walk amid the living and dead at the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers, interacting with guests. The cemetery was used between 1866 to 1895 and includes the bodies of soldiers which in 1871 were moved from nearby Fort Union to the Fort Buford site. Both forts are on Hwy 1804, west of Williston. While there, be sure to stop inside the rotunda for refreshments at to view watercolor paintings done this summer by my students. Both the cemetery walk and art show are free, as are refreshments.
There are free refreshments and another art show at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 27 in Level II of the student center on the campus of The Jamestown College. JC's Looking Beyond Committee and Nursing Department are sponsoring Mugamb at that time for a presentation, on the second floor of the Westminster Building.
Mugambi, Dr. Jacqueline Mangnall and two JC students will speak about their medical and economic work in Kenya.
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Art objects from Kenya will be shown. Mangnall said a Masaai warrior costume will be on exhibit as well as sculpture, masks, crafts and art items from Africa.
Mugambi has been involved in a program to help women and families of the area, through business loans that give women work and incomes that support and school their families. Through the loans, women learn crafts and skills needed to be self-employed. They become employers and hire village women to make products that are sold. As the economy grows, so too does their standing in the community. Because of the program and its impact within villages, those women are able to live as valued business owners rather than in more traditional subservient roles. The loans /business program has helped to bring equality to tribal women and reduces divorce, mutilation and abuse.
Mugambi will be discussing what he has done in the program, how the loan program functions, and the involvement of the United States in lifting up the standards of women and families in Africa.
This event is free and open to the public.
If anyone has an item for this column, please send to Sharon Cox, PO Box 1559, Jamestown, ND 58402-1559.
