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00:01Any time I can stick it to the man in a small way, I do.
00:05Could you start your life all over again?
00:08Leave behind everything you know for something completely different?
00:13It's like, I guess we live in a bit of a pressure cooker.
00:16I'm Ben Fogel, and over the next few weeks,
00:18I'm going to live with the incredible people who've done just that.
00:22Did you ever feel like abandoning the property?
00:25No, it's like, it's my home.
00:27Would you say you enjoy the companionship of animals more than people?
00:31Probably, yeah.
00:33In some of the most remote places on Earth.
00:36This is why I love the wilderness.
00:38I'll discover their motivations.
00:40For me, it was just, yeah, you're born, you go to school,
00:44you work all life, and then you die.
00:46The challenges.
00:47There's no way that I was going to put my wife and my children in that house,
00:51the condition that it was in.
00:52Just make sure there's absolutely no electrical current down there.
00:55And find out what it takes to make a new life in the wild.
01:00Hasta la vista, Penny.
01:08For the next week, I'll be living with Alex,
01:11a Norwegian conservationist, model and bush guide,
01:15who's moved to the Kalahari Desert.
01:17Life in the desert is hard, you know, the Kalahari kind of hates you, so...
01:22I find out how a life-threatening experience at the tender age of 18...
01:28I suddenly feel something kiss my forehead, and that was a gun.
01:33...altered the course of her life forever.
01:35I decided to spin the globe, and if my finger lands in the country,
01:38I will go there unless there's a civil war.
01:40I discover how her passion for conservation...
01:43They brought nature to life around me.
01:46Could you get a better gift than that from anyone?
01:48...has driven her across the continent.
01:51I have a job to do on this planet, and I'm on a mission.
01:55And that doesn't stop just because I fall in love.
01:57From London, I travel over 8,250 kilometres to Maun in Botswana,
02:05then drive east for five hours through the Mahadi Hadi Basin.
02:15Botswana really is a vast country.
02:19There's a statistic that 70% is the Kalahari Desert.
02:25There's a population of around 2 million,
02:28and most of those live within the cities.
02:30So it has some pretty spectacular wild landscapes here,
02:35brimming full of wild animals.
02:38I know that Alex is originally from Norway.
02:41You couldn't get two more contrasting countries.
02:45And she's only been here for a few months,
02:47so I can't wait to find out more.
02:53Wow, look at this.
02:55Wisdom Academy.
02:58Hey, Ben.
02:59Hey, Alex.
02:59Hey.
03:00How are you?
03:01Very good.
03:02Very nice to meet you. How are you?
03:03Very nice to see you.
03:05Look, loads of people. Who is everyone?
03:06Yeah, this is...
03:07Hello.
03:09Yeah.
03:09Hi, I'm Ben. How are you?
03:12It's very hard for me to say that.
03:16Hi.
03:18Hi.
03:18I think we're going to have to...
03:19We're just on number one, so maybe...
03:20I think we're going to have to work on that.
03:22Yes.
03:23Hello.
03:35Hello.
03:36How are you?
03:37This is the best greeting I've ever had to so many people.
03:40This is an old man.
03:43I'm Ben.
03:43It's a great, great year.
03:46Hello.
03:49Hello.
03:49What a greeting.
03:50Is this like your extended family?
03:52This is my family.
03:54I love that.
04:0134-year-old Alex is from Norway.
04:03She grew up outside Oslo and enjoyed a childhood full of outdoor activities.
04:08In her teens, she began a successful modeling career.
04:13At 18, she went volunteering to an animal sanctuary in Namibia.
04:17She planned to go for two weeks, but stayed for 13 years.
04:22During that time, she continued modeling, but also trained and worked as a bush guide.
04:28At 20, she set up an organization dedicated to helping the Junquazi tribe with whom she lived.
04:36In February of this year, she came to Botswana for a job and met fellow bush guide Ralph.
04:42She fell in love and got married four months later.
04:46So what's everyone actually up to today?
04:47This is our Wisdom Academy.
04:49And so we're finishing pathways.
04:51We're dragging like a lot of thorn bushes to close up this circle.
04:56So we're protected from lions.
04:58And some people are painting, some people are beading.
05:02It's just a, you know, normal day.
05:04And you speak fluently?
05:05I am definitely very good at it, but I don't think you can never be fluent.
05:10Like, you know, you go to a new place, you have to learn new words.
05:14But I have good teachers.
05:15Well, listen, I love helping out.
05:17So no time like the present to get stuck in if you need some help moving stuff around.
05:21Yes, I definitely do.
05:23OK.
05:23You got it?
05:24Yep.
05:29You good?
05:30Yep.
05:30OK.
05:31I don't want to let you down yet.
05:39OK.
05:42Well done.
05:43I'm loving this enthusiasm from all corners.
05:46So this is genuinely lion protection.
05:50Yeah.
05:51Desert lions are always a little bit more feisty because life in the desert is hard.
05:55You know, the Kalahari kind of hates you.
05:58So...
05:58Now that I've done a little bit of lion protection, can I have a look around?
06:02Yes.
06:03This is our little headquarters.
06:05Yeah.
06:06Main building of the Wisdom Academy.
06:08So you keep talking about the Wisdom Academy.
06:11Yeah.
06:11How would you define that?
06:13Well, it's basically a sanctuary for the Junquoisi knowledge and wisdom that is kind of here to guide the future.
06:20So it's not about preserving to keep it like a place of the past.
06:24It's not at all a museum.
06:26It's a place like a think tank for the future where we can find ways to merge creativity, like innovation,
06:33new ideas and mix that with like the old ancient wisdom and knowledge.
06:37So is it fair to say the Junquoisi are kind of under pressure?
06:42Yeah, extreme pressure.
06:43In Botswana, well, most of southern Africa, they're not allowed to hunt and gather anymore.
06:48In Namibia, they can still do a bit of hunting.
06:50But imagine that's your life purpose and now it's taken away from you.
06:53And they need a place and a platform where they can, you know, actually get paid to be the guardians
06:59of nature that they have been for hundreds and thousands of years.
07:02Are you almost trying to preserve or halt that cultural erosion that's been going on?
07:08I wouldn't say preserve or halt because then it immediately sounds like, you know, that I'm idealizing the past, which
07:14I'm not.
07:14I'm just acknowledging who they are and how they can help us.
07:17Then it is about, you know, making sure they're stuck in time.
07:22But learning from the past to protect the future.
07:24Inform the future, yeah, exactly.
07:27This is where we are hanging bucket showers from.
07:31And where's the water from?
07:32We have a big bowser, like a tank that's attached to a lorry.
07:38We fill that up at this camp just adjacent here.
07:41And then we bring it here and this is like the short-term solution, but long-term we want to
07:45put in a borehole.
07:46Do I get the impression I'm visiting you in the very early stages of what you're doing here?
07:51I've been working with the Junkpasi for like almost 15 years.
07:58So we have been having long-term projects, but it's a new project here.
08:02How are you?
08:05I know you mentioned that you bring water from somewhere else.
08:10Do you have any electricity here?
08:12No, the plan is to get solar panels and run off a solar grid.
08:17So my life has kind of changed drastically from me being, you know, alone living in the bush with them
08:24for 15 years.
08:26Very remote, first on the Namibian side.
08:29I'm now here because I got married.
08:32Congratulations.
08:33And I think I found the most, like, niche husband in the world to fit me.
08:38And so he grew up here, out here, in the Makadihadi deserts and he has a camp called Jack's Camp.
08:47So when he's around I live there, but if he's not there I live with them.
08:51And where are you staying right now then?
08:52Here.
08:53Where am I staying?
08:54Here.
08:54Love that.
08:56Thank you, Alex.
08:57I'll get settled in if that's okay.
08:59Yeah, yeah.
08:59This is very comfortable, a bit hot.
09:02It is about 40 degrees, but I'm slightly overwhelmed if I'm, to be honest.
09:06I wasn't expecting so many people here.
09:09I was just anticipating finding a Norwegian woman living in the wilds of Botswana
09:16and instead I found a Norwegian woman and her extended family and a missing husband.
09:23It's all quite strange.
09:25Obviously this is in its infancy.
09:28Huge changes have happened in her personal life in recent months.
09:34And she's obviously spent many, many years in different parts of Africa working on similar projects.
09:40I don't know where her passion was born.
09:42I don't know how she ended up on the continent of Africa.
09:46So many questions.
09:47But I think this is going to be fun.
09:50I barely have time to unpack before a literal welcome committee arrives.
10:00We are going to go to see the old man.
10:02The old man?
10:03Yeah.
10:03I follow you?
10:04Yeah.
10:05Alex and Bushman Steve are on hand to translate the proceedings.
10:17I want you to welcome him into the village.
10:23My child, you are more than welcome.
10:26This is special.
10:27Welcome for you.
10:31So that you cannot have bad dreams.
10:33You are welcome and we are going to be together and do everything we have to do.
10:46So my first night here in my tent and I can hear just the gentle hubbub of all the Bushmen
10:55and women chatting and storytelling in the background.
10:59It's rather soothing to be honest and I am going to practice my...
11:15I am in Botswana in the salt pans of the Kalahari Desert with conservationist Alex who divides her time between
11:22her new husband Safari Lodge and living and working with the Junkwasi tribe.
11:28Good morning Alex.
11:29So what happens this morning?
11:31We are going to sit and discuss that now.
11:34Right.
11:34It's a discussion over tea.
11:37One of the things I was wondering last night, obviously there is a tourist camp very close by.
11:43But how...
11:45How much is this about the tourist camp and how much is this about individuality and the community themselves?
11:53It's just a way to like pay for the whole thing and be able to give them jobs.
11:57So this is not a product of the tourist trade?
12:01So what it is, this is our classroom.
12:04The main aim is to pass on the knowledge to the younger generation.
12:08Yeah.
12:09Ben, it's like a root.
12:11I don't want to...
12:12I don't want to change.
12:14My root cannot change to be another tree.
12:16I have to pass it to everyone.
12:18All my generation so they can keep it going.
12:22So like a need.
12:23Everyone needs to be connected with the roots where their ancestors belong.
12:30I totally get that we are defined by our custom and our heritage in a sense of belonging.
12:38And yet you have abandoned your Nordic roots to embrace another people's heritage.
12:46There's a lot of people that say stick to your lane.
12:50You're a Norwegian model and you shouldn't deviate from that.
12:55I think it's so important to focus on what we can do something about instead of who should be the
13:00person that is allowed to do something about something.
13:03If every man is for himself, we're not going to have a very sustainable future.
13:10Alex and this group of Kalahari Bushmen have built their Wisdom Academy within the grounds of her new husband's Safari
13:16Lodge.
13:17As well as supplying water to their camp, it provides food and employment through bush guides with visiting tourists.
13:25Her husband's away on a bush walk, but she takes me on the 15-minute drive to see it.
13:33Oh, wow.
13:34Yeah, that's how I feel every day too.
13:37I was not expecting this.
13:41This is absolutely extraordinary.
13:44Do you know, I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like this.
13:48Certainly not in these circumstances, because this is a tent.
13:50This is a tent.
13:51We just stepped into my husband's mind, by the way.
13:54And it's, I feel like I'm Alice in Wonderland.
13:57I've just stepped into another world.
13:59You really are living in two parallel universes.
14:02Absolutely.
14:03And look at the view out here.
14:05So you've mentioned that your circumstances have changed a lot.
14:08You can say that.
14:09That's like almost an understatement.
14:11I mean, I lived like 15 years in a grass hut or a tent or under the open sky.
14:18And suddenly I find myself here with very different tents, a lot bigger.
14:24It's not what I'm used to at all.
14:26But what's fascinating is that despite this, we're both staying over in this camp that you're creating.
14:31So you're still very much following your dreams, your passions, the work that you've done.
14:36So listen, like I've never ever moved anywhere for anyone in my whole life.
14:41I'm here to do something.
14:43I have a job to do on this planet and I'm on a mission.
14:48And that doesn't stop just because I fall in love.
14:51But yeah, I told him quite early that I am not the kind of person that grows trees under the
14:55canopy of somebody else's forest.
14:57I like to create adjacent forests and they can feed each other.
15:02But that's important to me.
15:04So am I right in thinking then that you effectively see your new circumstances
15:08and the business that your new husband has as a way of amplifying the work that you've been doing for
15:13the last 15 years?
15:14Yeah, and I think tourism should pay for nature.
15:18And it's a lot more sustainable to let tourism pay for it than mining or other things
15:24I kind of like drill holes into the earth crust and extracts until there's no more.
15:28Tourism is a renewable energy in a way.
15:31I think a lot of people might see this as you through because that's what you've married into.
15:36You're kind of nodding.
15:38Oh, completely.
15:39Yeah.
15:39But does it frustrate you that there might be people that would conflate the two and think that this is
15:44now you?
15:44I mean, I have had the experience in the last couple of months of, oh, and you are like Ralph's
15:49wife.
15:49And I'm like, yeah, I am that too.
15:53But that's not who I am.
15:56So that's, but you know what?
15:58It's fine.
15:59I know who I am and I do what I do.
16:02And whatever rocks people's boats, I don't really care so much.
16:08Wow.
16:09This is a tale of two worlds.
16:11And I've been surprised by both of them, to be honest.
16:14I wasn't expecting the decadence and luxury of this camp.
16:18But I still need to unpick the whole story that brought her here and discover what the next stage of
16:25this journey is.
16:26Because obviously everything is really new.
16:28But what does the future hold for Alex?
16:32Because this certainly was not the Alex of the last 15 years.
16:36And I get from that little conversation I just had with her that this still doesn't and won't define her.
16:44Back at the village, it's alive with activity.
16:48Alex puts me straight to work on the pathways.
16:52This gives me the chance to find out how she ended up on this continent in the first place.
16:58Because we're in the desert, it's always good to have pathways, so we try to keep as much grass intact.
17:03Is that ready to go in?
17:05No.
17:06You have to, basically with the panga, you hold it like that and then you start...
17:13Shaving it down.
17:13So who taught you your first panga skills?
17:16These guys?
17:17Yeah, yeah, yeah.
17:18I mean, coming from Norway, I know how to throw an axe, but I don't want to throw a panga.
17:24It's your Viking roots there.
17:25What was your childhood like in Norway?
17:28So I grew up with forests behind my house and parents that dragged us into nature at any free time
17:34possible.
17:35Put it on an angle a little bit, yeah.
17:38How did a kind of nature-loving girl end up being a model?
17:42Well, first of all, I was a tall girl at a very young age.
17:47And so more and more frequently I would get stopped in the streets and people would be like,
17:53Do you want to be a model?
17:54And I was like, no, absolutely not and carry on walking.
17:57And then it was actually my best buddy who had, without me knowing, had sent in a picture of me
18:02to an agency in Oslo.
18:05And all of a sudden I got this phone call saying, hi, would you like to do Oslo Fashion Week?
18:12Mm-hmm.
18:13But at this stage I was like 13 and a half.
18:15So young.
18:16And then I went to New York with Ford Modeling Agency because then they had discovered me via my agency
18:23in Norway.
18:24As a 13 year old?
18:2514.
18:2514 years old.
18:26With your parents?
18:27Yeah, my mom joined me that summer.
18:29What did she make of this career?
18:31She, of course, wasn't a big fan of the idea, but I was just so determined.
18:38I had, I felt like I had this like internal compass.
18:41It wasn't that I was fascinated by the modeling world, but I kind of just wanted to do something that
18:48would take me out of Norway.
18:49And you got to travel the world?
18:50Traveled the world in a very short time.
18:52And I didn't know it was going to be so lonely, which is...
18:55Is it a lonely, a lonely business?
18:58Completely.
18:58Were you unhappy?
18:59Extremely unhappy.
19:00But then I moved to New York and then I started studying method acting with an amazing coach.
19:06And, and that, that helped a bit.
19:10But then I was now back to doing what I loved doing and I was still really unhappy.
19:15So you were a very successful, albeit unhappy, model actress in New York.
19:21How on earth did you end up out in Africa?
19:23I was actually walking home from a film set and it was late at night that started with these kind
19:28of like catcalls like,
19:30which is quite common in New York.
19:32So I just kind of like carried on walking and then suddenly they grabbed me and they like wanted to
19:37get money from me.
19:39And while I'm like digging through my bag, looking for something, I suddenly feel something like kiss my forehead.
19:47And, and that was a gun.
19:51And so I was held at gunpoint.
19:54I went from having so much control, right, to not fall apart in my life.
20:02And in this moment someone takes away all the control.
20:05When they realized I didn't have anything, he kind of just like, um, pushed, pushed it a bit against my
20:11forehead and said move.
20:12And then left.
20:13I went back to my flat and I didn't really know what to do, but I felt like it was
20:19like some kind of universal bitch slap.
20:21You know, like you, and the fact that he also said move, it was like an instruction, you know.
20:28And then I had this little globe and I just decided, okay, I'm going to spin the globe.
20:32And if my finger lands in the ocean, I'll go in a gap year.
20:35And if it lands on Norway, I can spin again.
20:40I like that rule.
20:41And if it lands on a country, I'll go there unless there's a civil war.
20:45Mm-hmm.
20:45And so it was, uh, Namibia.
20:47Mm-hmm.
20:48Two weeks later I was on the plane and I was just supposed to take a two-week break.
20:53And then I flew over Namibia and I had this, like, weird feeling of, like, roots were growing out of
21:01my feet or something.
21:02And then when the, like, door of the plane opened and that smell of, like, camphor bush just, poof, it
21:10was like, I'm home, but I don't know why.
21:14And then, yeah, I went to volunteer and it was supposed to be two weeks.
21:19And after a month and a half I was offered a job to help out at this wildlife sanctuary, help
21:25raise some baby lions.
21:26And I decided to just let go of my life in New York and I took a bold leap and,
21:31and went all in.
21:34But the biggest lesson was that I met the Gymkasi.
21:37And from that moment I really felt like they saved me out of a poverty of perception and they had
21:43so much to teach me.
21:44And it was kind of in this moment that I decided that I want to do something.
21:49I don't know what, but something.
21:51Working with them, uh, somehow.
21:54On the face of it coming here and, and meeting you with them, it, it looks like you're helping them.
22:00But from your story, it sounds like they've saved you.
22:04They have completely, you know, saved me or transformed me.
22:10They brought nature to life around me.
22:13Could you get a better gift than that from anyone?
22:17And as the evening draws in, the games commence.
22:31I've always loved this idea that some of us weren't necessarily born where we feel we belong.
22:38It's that sense of belonging that for some people is what they spend their life searching for, looking for.
22:46And a few of the lucky ones, in this case, Alex, find us.
22:51How are your skipping skills?
22:54They're, uh, not bad sometimes.
22:58You know what's amazing is, she has had and has what so many people think will bring them happiness.
23:05Beauty, money, travel, glitz and glamour.
23:10But none of them brought her the happiness that she has finally found here in the desert.
23:32I'm in Botswana, staying with Alex and a group of Kalahari Bushmen at their Wisdom Academy,
23:37a place where ancient skills are being passed on to the younger generation.
23:43While the children receive lessons in rope making, Alex has got me sweeping out the classroom for a beading session.
23:50Is this the first time the room has been used?
23:52Yes.
23:53We wanted to get the mat down here so we could have a little bit of a softer seating because
23:58most of beading and storytelling and classroom happens on the floor anyways.
24:05So this is a big day?
24:06Yeah.
24:07I always believe in, like, upcycling.
24:10And if you can use what you have or what you find or what's discarded, it helps at least get
24:16a little bit of momentum.
24:17Perhaps one of the criticisms some people have of outsiders coming to a place like this is that you're not
24:25necessarily solving the problem.
24:27So how are you going to ensure that everyone here, your family here, can do this without your financial assistance
24:35in the future?
24:35Yeah. So basically, I mean, I've already succeeded at that with my project in Namibia.
24:40So this is the extension that I'm doing here.
24:42Okay.
24:43The funding that I initially got, I would use to employ the junk policy so that you're showing the young
24:49generation that it's possible to have a job as a tracker, as a bush scientist, as, like, the plant specialist.
24:56And that was giving hope.
24:59So they are and were the first entrepreneurs of our worlds.
25:02Mm-hmm.
25:03And when they picked up a piece of wood and turned that into a bow and arrow, that's a business
25:07startup right there.
25:09I help them then start their own businesses.
25:11So, like, Moshe's husband, for instance, he runs his own master tracking business where they do consultancy and help wildlife
25:20monitoring or tracker trainings, not just in Namibia, but in South Africa and Angola and all kinds of places.
25:29Sometimes you just have to remind people that they already know how to ride a bike, and that's just my
25:32role in this world, I guess.
25:41You get through that one and then I'll have a try.
25:44Wow, it really is time-consuming.
25:49Like that.
25:50Okay.
25:54So everything that's being made now will be sold, or is it to be used by individuals here?
26:02Sometimes it's for own use, but it's also to be sold, so it can create some extra income.
26:08This is the way of, like, monetizing in a very simple way, and then also we're going to have a
26:14distiller, and so they can make essential oils, and then make soaps and solid perfumes that they can sell.
26:23I did it?
26:24Yeah.
26:25It's a good one.
26:26Okay.
26:26Another one?
26:27Yeah, of course.
26:28Make it straight.
26:30Yeah, straight in the middle.
26:32Okay.
26:32This is the one.
26:33Yeah.
26:34What do you think of tourism here?
26:37It's very important for us.
26:39For here, we just come here for a period of three times, some people, to share knowledge with the other
26:45guys, to teach them about how they do as lifestyles.
26:51If Alex gave you the opportunity to spend some time in Norway, would you ever like to do that?
26:57I like it. I can do it.
26:59Why would you be interested in that? Why would you like to?
27:01Because I want to go there to learn the life of those people.
27:05Exactly.
27:07Yeah.
27:07It's interesting. It's a commonality between people. We all want to learn from one another.
27:13As a break from the village activities, Alex takes us out into the bush to take part in a ritual
27:19of her own.
27:22Everybody can get a place inside here.
27:25Everyone's disappeared off already.
27:26Yes.
27:28Everyone loves this, like, land art exercise that we're doing.
27:32So, everybody kind of grabs their own little spot in the bush.
27:35And the rule is that in the, like, radius around, you can only use what's there to make something.
27:42As the bush men and women get creative, I use this opportunity to find out if Alex's life with the
27:49Jeune Kwasi has always been this idyllic.
27:53All my life, I had a lot of, like, problems with my stomach and whatever.
27:57And then when I moved and I started my project with the Jeune Kwasi, I was, it felt like I
28:02was food poisoned every day.
28:03And I thought it was maybe because, you know, coming from Norway, I wasn't used to eating porcupine and tortoise
28:09and all these kinds of things.
28:11That's what you were living off?
28:12Yeah, of course, I was, you know, there's no supermarket.
28:14There was, my project is 890 kilometers away from any town.
28:19You kind of learn to live off the land.
28:21And yeah, as a result of that, I just thought maybe that's why I was always feeling sick.
28:26The Jeune Kwasi, the project became more important than myself.
28:28Eventually, I got so, so sick that I lost like nine kilograms in less than two weeks.
28:36And that, it took me that much to then decide to go to the hospital.
28:41And then they found out that I had contracted a deadly virus called Clostridium difficile in the hospital,
28:50which basically, you can die of starvation because your body can't keep anything in.
28:54And I got a WhatsApp message from my doctor saying, if you take the medication, you might survive.
29:02But a side effect is blindness.
29:04Well, I mean, it must have been a terrifying period of time when you genuinely, you thought you might go
29:09blind.
29:10You thought you might lose your life.
29:12Yeah.
29:12Do you think it focused your mind a little bit on other things in life?
29:16Yeah, it made me also become very aware of time because life is short and then it's gone.
29:24And you have this one life and at least, you know, I want to be able to be an old
29:29woman and say,
29:30I have lived, I have loved and I have mattered. And I think we all want that.
29:34What did your parents make of that though? I mean, it must be hard if they were out here seeing
29:38you in hospital.
29:38Of course, they wanted me to come back home to Norway, but I was convinced that if I'd gone back
29:43with them,
29:44then I wouldn't have really learned my lesson and I needed to, from scratch, build myself back together.
29:51And they understood that.
29:53Sounds like the classic case of what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
29:57Yeah, you can say that.
29:58Everyone's had a march on us. They've had much more time.
30:01Should we get going?
30:02I like your priorities. Go for it.
30:04I want to create art.
30:08The relationship she has with the Bush men and women here is so strong. It's so beautiful.
30:16It's one driven by heart.
30:18Wow.
30:19Wow, it's amazing.
30:23So this is me. So right now I am over here. So I've brought the world here to Botswana.
30:30Where's India?
30:32Oh yeah, India is... I missed it. It's about here.
30:37There we go.
30:39What I've got a real sense of today is what Alex is getting from this.
30:44She's obviously having the opportunity to help a culture that is at threat, but she's also learning herself.
30:54This happy man is Ben, okay? He's wearing short shorts.
31:00Oh yes, that's me. Yeah.
31:03Tell me if you think it's me.
31:05Yeah, yeah, exactly.
31:09We took him. We took him. We took him. We took him.
31:14As the day draws to a close, Alex has commandeered me to replenish the firewood for the evening.
31:22Are you good? Yeah.
31:29This is very useful doing this for someone my height.
31:32Yeah, I know.
31:33Yeah, I know.
31:35Do you like doing physical work?
31:37I love doing physical work. I think it's very healthy for the mind.
31:43There is a narrative out there that thinks that tourism is exploitative.
31:47And there are some people that might think that very wealthy who come to stay at the camp that is
31:52just across the way may be exploiting version quasi.
31:57Oh, not under my watch. No, but I definitely see what you mean because this was one of the first
32:04things that I reacted to myself when I first came to this continent.
32:09You know, and you would see all this kind of like exhibitionism of tourism where the Maasai are hopping and
32:16the tourists are sitting watching them and clapping away.
32:18And I've seen a lot of tourism operations that have done the same thing with Junquasi people.
32:25And I've heard phrases like, don't take my bushmen.
32:29And I'm like, I'm sorry, they're not your bushmen. They are their own people.
32:32I don't believe in spectator tourism. So you won't ever come here and look at the Junquasi.
32:41You will come and sit down while they're standing and you're on a lower level and you will learn from
32:47them because they are mentors and teachers and you're a student and you're lucky to be in their classroom.
32:53And that's kind of my approach. And that is the, that's the fine line that makes the difference because that
32:59approach creates culture pride and makes people excited about who they are.
33:06We're getting there, hey? Yeah.
33:09I'm wondering about the bigger picture though, because I can totally see how for this community of Junquasi, what you're
33:16doing is amazing.
33:16Yeah. But what about the wider diaspora?
33:19If you have to wait for any political change, then they're going to be gone. Like with every elder that
33:26disappears, an encyclopedia is lost.
33:29And, and the world is a poorer place as a result. And I don't, I don't have time for that.
33:35And they don't have time for that.
33:37Have they been persecuted for a long time?
33:39Yes. They were classified as animals even, and they were part of the big seven. So the big, you could
33:44hunt the big five and then get the bonus of the hunting to Junquasi.
33:48What? A human being? You could actually hunt a human being? Till when?
33:52The last one that we, we found a hunting brochure was like dated in like 1970s.
33:59It's not often I'm lost for words, but that is shocking.
34:06What Alex is doing here is basically conservation for people. And for someone like Alex, coming from Norway, she has
34:15kind of stepped into a political minefield when it comes to the do's and don'ts.
34:21And I think it's very easy to criticise someone based on their race, their nationality, but surely we should judge
34:30people on what they do rather than if they should do it.
34:35The brutal truth is she's damned if she does, and they could be damned if she doesn't.
34:42Another evening round the fire gives me the opportunity to find out more about these Bushmen and women, and what
34:48they feel they're getting from this project.
34:50Yes.
34:52So Steve, there are people here from Botswana and Namibia.
34:56Yes.
34:56But is it the same culture?
34:58It is.
34:59How does that work?
35:00Two governments, Botswana and Namibia, split us.
35:03Yeah, there's almost no difference.
35:05So even though you're divided by nation, it's exactly the same group of people, the same tribe.
35:12Yeah.
35:12And the good thing is that she's now started to bring us from Namibia to share the knowledge.
35:19There's a lot of the things we forgot.
35:22How important is Wisdom Academy and what Alex is doing here?
35:28It is not just about hunt and gathering.
35:31What she's trying to do is to let them know the generation, where they are going for the future.
35:40Alex considers all of you part of her family. Do you consider her part of your family?
35:54Alex has been with us. It doesn't feel like we're with white people or someone else.
35:59We feel like our family. It's like our sister.
36:03You could think, what shall I do today? You have nothing to do that day, and she arrives.
36:09She will really pick you up and shake you from the dark you are maybe of, and then wash you
36:17and let you start to feel like a person.
36:20Reduce her to tears.
36:34Heart is happy.
36:50Over the past week, I've been living and working with Alex and the Junkwasi people in their Wisdom Academy.
36:57What do you think, happy?
36:58Yeah, nice to get some colour in here. It's slowly coming together.
37:03It's been fascinating getting to know Alex and understand more about her relationship with the Junkwasi people.
37:11But the biggest relationship in her life has so far evaded me, her husband, Ralph.
37:17But this evening, he's back from the bush, and I finally get to meet him.
37:35It's my last evening here in the Kalahari. I'm heading home tomorrow. But before I leave, Ralph and Alex want
37:43to take us all to see the Netwetwe saltpans, one of the largest salt flats in the world.
38:01It's about a 30-minute drive, and I honestly can't remember a more joyous or beautiful car journey.
38:09Big bad candy here.
38:20Is this us?
38:23Yes, this is us.
38:23Yes, this is us.
38:24Here we are.
38:25Boom.
38:28So this is the salt pan?
38:30Yeah, this is...
38:32I believe the largest flat-open area of nothingness on Earth.
38:36Wow.
38:38Yeah.
38:39It's otherworldly, isn't it?
38:40It is. And most people here believe that the world is flat.
38:44It's very difficult not to, if you've grown up here.
38:47Everyone just wandering off. I love that.
38:49Yeah, imagine seeing it for the first time.
38:53I take advantage of the sudden stillness
38:55to sit down with Alex and Ralph
38:57to find out more about the man who turned Alex's head
39:01and won her heart.
39:03So how did you guys actually meet?
39:05I knew of Alex for a long time.
39:09And we'd been talking on the phone for about, what, 14 years, I think?
39:14I was on the Botswana side of the border,
39:16and she is across the Namibian side.
39:17And I just kept on hearing from everybody.
39:20The Jeune Coindy were saying,
39:21you've got to meet Alex.
39:23She's doing what you're doing over there.
39:26And we just couldn't meet because of the apartheid thing.
39:28And I was hearing the same thing on my side.
39:30Like, there's this guy, you know,
39:33he runs this camp and he's working with the Jeune Coindy.
39:37But we also had some, like, preconceived...
39:39Yeah, what were they?
39:41So that's what I was fishing for.
39:43What did you think Ralph was going to be like?
39:46I thought he was like a, you know, like...
39:49I don't know if you're familiar with the term,
39:51but you have something called, like, bush cowboys, you know?
39:54Like, I wasn't quite sure what to think, actually.
39:57I was like, whatever.
39:59And I'm wondering what you had built in your mind
40:01if you'd never met Alex, what you imagined.
40:03Of course, there's some classic cliche,
40:04you know, beautiful, you know, model comes to save Africa.
40:08And it was like, you know, yes,
40:11but is she the real...
40:11Is she really the real deal?
40:13So then, fast forward 15 years,
40:15how did you actually finally meet them?
40:17Alex did this incredible walk,
40:19you know, right the way across the Kalahari.
40:21And so then mutual friends said we should,
40:23to raise awareness for the Jeune Coindy
40:26and what's going on, we should do a walk together.
40:28So we met, in fact, in Cape Town.
40:31I just went there with an open mind,
40:33let's focus on this trip.
40:34And then we were supposed to have dinner.
40:39And Ralph messaged me that he was downstairs,
40:41he came to pick me up.
40:45And then I walked down the stairs
40:46and he's talking to someone else.
40:49And so I said, hi, and he turned around
40:52and when we first laid eyes on each other,
40:55we both had to, like, take a step back.
40:57And then we had, like, the longest,
40:59most awkward hug in the whole wide world,
41:02as if we had, like, you know,
41:04finally reunited after all these years,
41:06but we had never met.
41:10And we went to dinner and had absolutely no food.
41:14Just chatted away.
41:16I just spoke, it was just, yeah, it was extraordinary.
41:19Actually, the day after we'd had that first dinner,
41:23we were in the passport queue on the airport,
41:26going to Botswana,
41:27and Ralph asked me if I'd ever been married.
41:29And I said, no, no, no,
41:30I don't really believe in marriage.
41:32And he was like, yeah, me neither,
41:33never got married.
41:34And then we look at each other and we're like,
41:36but, you know, things can change.
41:39Casually.
41:40Like, after knowing each other in person for 24 hours.
41:45But you've obviously married more than just Alex.
41:48You've got a whole extended sort of family now.
41:51Yeah, wonderful.
41:52I grew up with a Genkwasi and it's, it's,
41:55and that is what it, what it, what it takes to live out here.
41:59You need an extended family.
42:01It really is.
42:01Just, just traveling in, in the truck there,
42:04it was like I was with a very large family.
42:07Yeah, that's exactly right.
42:09I'm going to leave you,
42:10you haven't seen each other for ages,
42:11I'm going to leave you to enjoy the sunset for a second.
42:15What can I say?
42:16Some things are just meant to be.
42:18Some of us spend our whole lives searching for that companion,
42:23that soulmate.
42:25And isn't it amazing that their lives have circled around
42:29over the last 15 years
42:30and these two kind of soulmates finally found one another.
42:35It's a beautiful fairy tale ending, isn't it?
42:39I think it'll be fascinating to see how two self-confessed nomads
42:44pursue marriage together.
42:50My time here has come to an end
42:52and I'm genuinely sorry to leave.
42:55I really have had the most memorable time.
42:59I take my hat off to Alex.
43:02I think what she has done here is beautiful and inspiring.
43:06She has reunited people split by a border they never wanted
43:11between Namibia and Botswana
43:14and she has worked tirelessly with them for the last 15 years
43:20to help them where no one else would
43:23to start forging their own future.
43:25She has really found her wild side
43:29by spending time with some truly wild people,
43:33nomads who have roamed these deserts
43:36for hundreds if not thousands of years.
43:39She may have found her prince charming
43:41with his beautiful camp not too far away
43:44but they are both very wild-spirited people
43:47living in a pretty wild part of the world.
43:52You don't get wilder than that.
43:54Look after yourself.
43:55Safe journey.
43:56Bye, everyone.
44:07Next time...
44:10I travel to meet an Englishman
44:12who's longing for a simple life...
44:15It ended up being like living in a...
44:18It was like an open prison.
44:21For me.
44:23...led him to the mountains of Japan.
44:26When I first discovered this place
44:28I thought, wow, wow.
44:31And Ben is there Thursday at 9.
44:34And if the middle of nowhere looks appealing after that
44:37join Nick Knowles who is lost in the Gobi Desert
44:40brand new tomorrow at 9.
44:42Or stream more tales of extreme living with Ben Fogel
44:45and new lives in the wild on 5.
44:48Fair Dodgers at War With The Law is next.
44:58Rubik
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