The River and the Model
Once up on a time the Thamalakane River in Maun was floating calm like it usually do in summertimes. This particular January day, a day when the living was easy the river was exited getting ready for a late afternoon meeting with a woman who had come for a Mokoro trip.
Stray dogs by the waterline
To the sound of cattle bells she slowly walked down to the waterline. Everyone likes it by the river she thought for herself while the free horses, donkeys and stray dogs passed around her. Children helping their mothers washing clothes by the shoreline waved and she smiled back.
Gold on the river
Kindly the river had asked the sun for a golden light and the water lilies to get polished and to stay open. How do I look the river asked the Marabou storks in the reeds and didn’t notice the woman coming. Not bad, you look good to me, she said before the storks had a chance to open their mouths. Julia Tsile is my name. Oooh hello Im Thamalakane, the river said and encouraged her to get into the mokoro. The poler man pushed them out so the river could embrace them in the open water.
Where are we going, where are we flowing, she asked?
– Share a story with me, tell me who you are and I take you up streams to my dreamland, my source, to the warm summer rains, the river said.
– Its sounds promising, what can I tell you, I am known as ”Juice”, Im a mother to a beautiful son, I am a mother before everything else, I was raised by a single mother who hails from Kanye. My father is Herero even though I never got to meet him. I run an agency in Botswana called Juice Promotions Model Management. I have been modeling for 17 years. I have an university degree in Tourism Management and currently studying Linguistics majoring in Germany at Goethe German Institute in Cape Town.
Tell me Mr River, how long have you been floating here?
– Oooh dear I have been coming and going here for so long, before Botswana, before Bechuanaland, I remember when the river bushmen settled down here and the crocodiles came long before them.
So you are model, just like my water lillie’s, they are my models. Why are you a model?
– I honestly never wanted to be a model, I grew up as a tomboy so I played volleyball for the Botswana National Volley ball team which I proceeded to play professionally for Mafolofolo volley ball club. I used to get a lot of compliments for looking like a model. So I got the courage to go to companies to propose to model for them at the age of 18 and then managed to book my first job being featured in Lapologa magazines which opened doors for me to do local fashion shows at the time. Then for 10 years I have been modeling in South Africa and East Africa.
”Juice” have you ever suffered to survive in the model industry?
– It can be a brutal industry. Being a model to me means resilience, a person who is able to take rejection and be willing to do it over and over again to get the job and also have a unique signature about you, especially your look and style.
My mothers teaching kept med safe
– I always tell the story that I left Botswana in a backpack to move to South Africa to pursue my dreams. There were times I would go to bed hungry with nothing to eat just to save transport money to be able to go for a casting to try to book the jobs. And as someone who came from humble beginnings I was never exposed to bad influence because my mother’s teachings and prayers kept me safe. I knew I was there as a mirror to my family and at the time I also knew I am representing my country.
Hey river man! do you see the red and purple rain clouds in the horizon?
– It never seems to rain it just seems to pour over there. Take me there please, I feel the aim in life now, its to be happy, and I feel the place to be happy is here, and the time to be happy is now.
Yes we are nearly there, we are close to my source, my aim in life.
Pula
