Bethelsdorp

Well, my readers, time is drawing near before my departure back to Toronto, Canada on March 24, 2007... I have decided to dedicate part of this posting to Grahamstown to paint a picture of where I have resided since September 24, 2006. There are two items on this agenda that I must address first:

First of all, at my dear mother's insistence, I have posted the nice picture of her and I from our visit to beach at Kenton-on-Sea in December 2006 [see below].

Secondly, I must update you on the condition of the 1984 Audi that I have been renting from the Old Gaol Backpackers: On Saturday night (February 17th, 2007), I headed out to Robyn and Kevin's plot of land with Charl (also known as "Sharkie") with the car, the chess board, two chairs and some porkchops marinating in tupperware. Their plot is situated about 4 km from Grahamtown along a dirt road which cuts in between the township and the town. When we were driving back towards home, the tire went FLAT! I couldn't believe it. It was about 2 a.m. at this point and we were not up to changing the tire, so Charl and I decided to make a mission out of it. I popped open the trunk and retrieved my: 1) torch (it's what they call a flashlight here) 2) jeans 3) puma running shoes 4) all valuables 5) backpack and we abandoned ship. I was a tad nervous about abandoning the car, but figured that anyone who wants to steal a car in that condition with a flat tire almost deserves credit.

So, off we trod. It took about an hour to enter Grahamstown. I returned to the car the next day thanks to help from a friend. He took me to the car on the back of his motorbike (which terrified me!), only to discover that the spare tire was also FLAT! At a loss of what to do, it was suggested to me to buy this foam that you inflate your tire with which will last about a day. This remedy worked, to my relief. However, I didn't manage to get another tire in time, and the tire ran flat again... Moral of the story: don't drive without a spare tire! I finally managed to buy two second hand spare tires from the garage on High Street [see left].

Grahamstown is home to Rhodes University which provides a world-class tertiary education in a wide range of disciplines to over 6,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students. I guess it can be compared with Kingston, Ontario to a certain extent. It is a small town with about 6 or 7 main streets. My office is located on High Street, which can be classified as "the" main street in Grahamstown [see first two pictures below]. Grahamstown boasts a population of 124 758 as of 2003 (statistics compiled by the Rhodes University Journalism Department).
Another very wide street that also has quite a frenzy of activity going on during the day is Bathurst Street [see two pictures above]. Bathurst street even has a Kentucky Fried Chicken on it, which I have steered clear of the moment I set foot on this continent.

To give a brief history of Grahamstown: "Founded in 1812 as a military outpost, it began to grow and thrive in the 1820's as struggling Settler families left their farms to establish themselves in more secure trades. Its position at the nexus of the coast and the hinterland, and between the Cape Colony and the north meant that Grahamstown was ideally situated as a focus for communications and agriculture. The city's broad tree-lined streets and imposing public buildings are the legacy of a time when Grahamstown was the Cape's second city : it became the seat of bishopric in 1852 and in 1864 the site of the only session of the Cape Parliament to held outside Cape Town. Grahamstonians are characteristically proud of their city's historical heritage, a pride which is evident in the care taken to preserve and enhance the many historic buildings which endure to this day. Prominent among these are the city's many places of worship, numbering over forty, which testify to the variety of cultures which coexist in the city, and the premises of Rhodes University and the several excellent schools, all of which combine to lend the city its air of cultural diversity. Grahamstown was founded by Lt. Colonel John Graham in 1812 as the military headquarters for a system of forts along the Fish River, which had been established as the boundary of the Cape Colony. Lord Charles Somerset became governor of the Colony in 1814 and he saw that a concentration of European settlers along the border would do away with the need for more soldiers to maintain the frontier. At this time, there was much unemployment in Britain. Soldiers had been demobilised after the Napoleonic Wars and the industrial revolution was at its height. So Somerset's frontier scheme seemed an ideal solution to both the problems existing in Britain and the Cape Colony. The Settlers were given a very unrealistic description of the life they would have on the Frontier. The 100 acre land allotments for each family was totally inadequate for successful farming, particularly so, as the Settlers were not of farming stock. Most had earned their living as artisans and craftsmen. As crops failed successively, they began drifting into towns, where they reverted to their former trades. The authorities at first opposed this exodus from the land, but eventually granted the Settlers building plots in Grahamstown. Beautifully restored groups of these cottages can still be seen around Artificer's Square in New and MacDonald Streets, and many of the shops remain a reminder of those early days of trading. Thus Grahamstown changed from a military settlement into a thriving market town. With this came the establishment of Grahamstown's renowned schools and churches." Got it? This might be examinable material, folks....

My apartment is located on Oatlands Road [see below] at number 12. There are 4 people in the building who are all affiliated with the University of Rhodes in some way or other. Since I am on the second floor, rather than at street level, I feel very safe at night (my black belt skills can only carry me so far).

Below is a picture of Oatlands Road as I see it in the morning as I head towards the city centre to work. It is a wide street, lined with trees (as most streets are in Grahamstown) that flower and drop their blossoms. Occasionally, I have slipped and slid forward in these pretty blossoms after heavy rainfalls. At least it's not ice, right? On February 21, 2007, I headed out to Bethelsdorp (which is about a two-hour drive from Grahamstown westwards) to meet with some potential clients. Rufus and I dropped Ruth off in Uitenhage, a town about a 15 minute drive from Port Elizabeth, and then headed to Bethelsdorp. After meeting with the clients, I was introduced to one their projects - a weaving factory which provided training for people wishing to pursue a career in weaving. I was given a tour around the facility and met some of the project leaders. Most of the women who were weaving were very jovial and smiled and greeted me.
The material they used was a stretchy cotton, since they were still in training, and the women sat high above the ground (depending on the length of their woven carpet) weaving and chatting to whomever. I was so impressed by the baskets that they made of the same material, that I wanted to buy one. However, no one had ever sold one yet, the price of the basket had not yet been determined, so I was told to pick one for free! I chose an army green colour with white in it.....

The purpose of the visit was to look into setting up and funding two legal aid clinics to service the community. Below is a picture of myself in front of the first legal aid clinic to possibly be established: En route back to Grahamstown, after eating lunch at Nando's (a Portuguese "fast-food" restaurant which reminded me of Quizno's back in Canada), I snapped some pictures of Bethelsdorp:

Cricket: Pakistan v. South Africa !!!

The recent improvement to my life as it is here in Grahamstown is that I now own a vehicle as of February 1, 2007. Sort of....instead of purchasing this 1984 Audi with a broken tail light, no front bumper or front license plate and a screw driver holding the passenger side window closed for R 16 000 and then selling it back to the vendor for a slightly smaller sum, the vendor (who is the owner of the Old Gaol backpackers) proposed that I rent the car for R 750 per month. Done deal! This car is an automatic and will probably die any moment. But, I pray to baby Jesus that it keeps scuttling around until March 23, 2007 (the date I depart). See below for my glamorous automobile (the dent in the side was not my doing - the TDSB probably won't believe me anyways):

BATHURST WATERS MEETING NATURE RESERVE

Before I launch into yet another tale of my life as it is in South Africa, I realize that I omitted to include in this blog my hike with my mother in Bathurst on December 16, 2006. Better late than never, right? The nature reserve was called the Bathurst Waters Meeting Reserve. The reason we landed there is because my boss (Sarah) invited mother and I to join her household for supper the night before, which was great fun. I never saw the "party" side of my mother before :) The following day, we set out to do a 10 km hike (approx. 4 hours) at the Bathurst Waters Meeting Nature Reserve [see below for pictures which mark the commencement of the hike].
We decided, due to our excessive merriment the night prior, to pick a relatively flat trail so there wouldn't be too much up-and-down action, so we did the "blue trail". We were warned numerous times about ticks from several people and mother sure did heed this advice seriously - she used up half a plastic container of muskol (deep woods bug repellant) and rolled her knee-high socks over her trousers. Since it was deserted that day, I decided that I would walk next to my mother since we probably wouldn't be seen anyways :)

It was a lovely hike, with variety - a bit of forest, a bit of field. The only "problem" was the excessive amount of spiders on this trail! The spiders were red and black and were quite tiny. However, they made their surprisingly large webs [I had to give them some credit for that] right across the path directly at the level of our heads. I led the way in the beginning, but after walking into a few webs which caused me to scream while flailing my arms in the air and simultaneously brushing myself with my hands in a fit of hysteria, my mother decided to lead the way. She picked up a stick [see below] which was slightly longer than the length of her arm and waved the stick up and down, fully extended forward, when she walked (I was, needless to say, snickering at her: socks rolled up to her knee over her pants, stick flailing in the air....). It should be noted that her "stick-method" is not a fool-proof method by which to ensure that one does not walk into a web. Think about it: if the stick is being waved downwards, and one is walking forwards, that split second before one waves it upwards again can plant your face directly into a spider web....which is exactly what happened to my dear mother. She got so startled, she fell backwards onto the layers of dried dead leaves, rolled down a bit to the side, still holding the stick and blowing raspberries since the web had obviously touched her mouth. After discerning that she was alright, the both of us had to laugh so hard. The silliness of the situation dawned on us, and the fact that we had 9.8 km and 50 million spiders left to go!

Despite that I was laughing at my mother's "stick-method" of spider removal, I copied her shortly afterwards [below is a picture which constitutes evidence of me holding a stick in my right hand]:
Before I close the chapter on the Bathurst Waters Meeting "blue trail" hike, I will torture my blog fans yet again with my flora and fauna pictures from the hike: The picture directly above is a cricket-type of insect (not sure yet what insect it is) that was just dropping out of the trees around 16:30, towards the end of our hike. They seemed to be a bit disoriented since they didn't really move when they first landed on the ground (hence my excellent close-up). There were a lot of them, and I am uncertain why they were dropping to the ground as if Brad Pitt or Jude Law had just walked by...

GRAHAMSTOWN

On the weekend of February 3 & 4, I decided to stay in Grahamstown. Frolicking and gallivanting across the South African country side with Geza and afterwards with my colleague Ruth had make me embrace a quiet weekend. So, I set out to visit my friends (Robyn and Kevin) at their recently purchased plot of land which is located about 4 km outside of Grahamstown. I spent Friday evening there and most of Saturday there. They are busy planting vegetables, creating a borehole, putting up electric fencing to keep the people who are stealing their basil and peppadew plants out and trying to make the plot a business venture that will eventually be a sort of "backpackers". Quite relaxing to sit around their caravan and giggle about this, that and the other [see below].


CRICKET: PAKISTAN V. SOUTH AFRICA

On February 9, 2007, I headed out to Port Elizabeth (about 125 km west of Grahamstown) with my boss (as mentioned above, her name is Sarah), her son Daniel, her husband, three friends and the other Canadian intern (Ruth). After finally managing to locate a patch of grass where we plopped three fold-out chairs and our cooler box of food (we were told at the gate that we were not permitted to use our tin plates, or our metal cutlery) we hit up the beer tent and watched the game. Go South Africa!














The rules of cricket were explained to me some time in October by Monty (Sarah's husband), so, but for a few "dumb" questions, I was able to follow the game quite well.

When Pakistan was at 47 overs, it began to rain. Gently at first which didn't intimidate many people, but then it began to POUR [see below]. Most people squished and huddled under a makeshift gazebo-ish tent thingie [see second picture below] used to promote MTN (the "Fido" of South Africa). I had my "little red riding hood" rain jacket on (which you must all be so familiar with at this point) so I wasn't forced to squeeze in with the masses under the MTN tent.














The picture directly above is a picture of myself and Sarah (my boss) looking quite happy at the cricket match :)

They covered up the pitch with some green cloth and we waited........ and waited......and waited. Eventually, it stopped raining, and the match was to resume. As they were unveiling the pitch again, I felt one drop on my head, which became two, which became three. The bottom line of this story about all the rain is that the cricket game never did resume. South Africa never got its turn, which means the teams draw (impressed with my knowledge of cricket yet?). At that point my boss' son, Daniel, took to playing his own game of cricket and this attracted many strangers who also wanted to play.

We all crashed in Port Elizabeth at a hotel which had an apartment-style suite. The following morning we ate breakfast at one of these "Little Italy" type of restaurants called "Primi". A colleague ordered a regular coffee, not a cappuccino or espresso like the rest of the table - when the coffee arrived, we were all amazed, and then mortified to discover that the coffee, which is served at an "Italian" restaurant, is nothing more than instant coffee! I had never seen my boss grumpier :)