April Update

Apr. 12, 2010

It has been an exciting week, but unfortunately (or typically depending on how you view this) I forgot the camera.

Last week, I went to Nate’s site to help him and Justin install a new computer lab at the high school. Ryan came along to help too. Nate had 30 computers donated via a NGO and a mining company. There was no server, but there was a router. In the end, Justin had us clean and remove all the hard drives. He then cloned them from a master that we made. It was totally fabulous with all the basic programs that we need, virus protection, and then a pile of games. All the pop-cap games that we use for mouse learning, then some chess games, the physics games, and some astronomy programs. In the end, there are some totally cool things for the kids in Dikong to use. They will be learning a lot!

I thoroughly enjoyed being with the guys all week as well. One of the things that I have found that I really miss is intelligent conversation with men that aren’t in the least related to sex. Friendships here between men and women are non-existent. Usually, in fact, men and women sit on separate sides of funerals, church services, etc. They really don’t mingle much at all. Consequently, it seems that the relating that IS done is sexual in nature. I must say that it really gets annoying. I loved being able to discuss normal stuff with these guys and not have to explain myself. We talked about things we missed most (I can’t decide if it is the Austin music scene or independent movies, although I get some of those in mail packages), people we’ve met, projects we’ve worked on, and things we’ve observed. Hard work and good conversation seems to have done the trick for me. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and it was fun to meet Nate’s host family and his principal. They are all wonderful people.

We also popped into Kuruman to have lunch with Jonelle and some friends of hers who were visiting from the US. Other volunteers who I was not expecting to see were also there. Good luck to Kelsey as she changes sites in the coming weeks.

I then spent the weekend in Kimberly. Connie and I took the Blue Train on my first trip to SA in 2002. It stopped for a brief visit to the BIG HOLE, the first diamond mine in Kimberly. I was so disappointed this time to not have enough time to read all the information at the little museum—as anyone who knows my family, we like nothing better than to spend time in museums and we will read every little bit of signage that exists. It is a great trial to some in-laws…This time I managed to spend about 3 hours there. In the intervening years, DeBeers has spent several million rand on a new visitor’s center. There is now a movie, a viewing platform, and underground trail, and a big new museum with vaults and such. You can tell DeBeers sponsors it because there is no mention of the brutality that existed on the diamond claims or the fact that there are enough diamonds already mined in the world today to meet the demand at current consumption levels for the next 200 years. And the little museum that housed a big pile of diamonds behind a glass case (thick glass, but glass nevertheless) has now been replaced with a vault that is bigger than my current house. The story is still interesting though and I enjoyed the opportunity to revisit this gem. I had feared that Kimberly, being out in the middle of nowhere, would be too difficult to ever return to once the Blue Train departed. Now it is only 3.5 hours south of me in a speeding taxi.

So although I sent a few postcards home, you will have to imagine a hole that was hand dug with pick axes. 22.5 million tons of earth was removed in this manner from 1871 to 1914. 2722 kilograms of diamonds have been found (2.2 pounds in a kg) including some of the worlds largest. The perimeter is 1.6 km around (1 km is 0.6 miles) and it is 214 meters deep (a meter is a little longer than a yard). Sorry about forgetting the camera…outside of the mine itself, Kimberly have relocated some buildings of the era so that there is a large open air museum that tells more of the story of what life in a mining town must have been like. The buildings are pretty much what you would see in any recreated late 1800, early 1900 setting with churches, millinery, funeral parlors, beer halls, a dentist and medical surgery, claim offices…that sort of thing. Very well done though and truly worthy of some pictures…next time.

There is a lot more to Kimberly than just the Big Hole though. It is the seat of the provincial government for the North Cape province. It is also chock-a-block full of museums. I went to the William Humphries art gallery. There is a very nice collection of early Dutch and Flemish masters, some very nice San rock art (the San people were the early settlers of Southern Africa, bushmen to an extent), and some other exhibits. I especially admired the art of Peter Clarke who paints and does lithographs of African themes. Many were done during the apartheid era, but there are others that are post era. He reminded me a bit of Keith Harding with the bold lines, but the themes were very African. No postcards of his stuff though so alas, once again the camera would have been useful (except art museums always seem to disapprove of cameras in their patrons hands).

Having an opportunity to go to the cinema is always high on my list of things to do if I’m anywhere near the theater so I also headed to see a couple of movies. First I saw the John Travolta flick, From Paris With Love. Maybe I just needed a laugh, but I loved this movie. Something about the straightforward just shoot the guy approach appealed to me. Could it be that I really was frustrated about not getting report cards issued? Then I saw the Meryl Streep movie, It’s Complicated. Meryl Streep is always good and I thought Steve Martin was quite good in a serious role. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him in anything serious, but he pulled it off. Naturally, I never notice product placement, just ask my friend Kim how dense I am about this stuff, but she’s trained me to look for Dell computers. Alas, It’s Complicated seems to have gone with the Mac and I noticed. Could also be that the iPad just came out and I’m looking for a good reason to get one. I’ve got inside information from Shelly though that I should wait until the USB is added and that would definitely be a must for me at the present time. And then I saw The Book of Eli. I love Denzel Washington, but was kind of leery about this one…the movie poster which is all I have to go on wasn’t all that appealing and the title seemed to be something that wouldn’t necessarily interest me. So I ended up enjoying this one too, but thought it was a bit predictable. The genre, quasi sci-fi, isn’t my thing at all, but if the other two movies aren’t available, then it is ok. Not much of a recommendation, but if you have to go 3.5 hours in a death defying taxi, then give it a shot.

I’m back at home now and we managed to get the report cards printed out today. I’ve got a dentist appointment tomorrow morning to have my teeth cleaned so that will be interesting. The Peace Corps feels that a cleaning once a year is sufficient. I feel that every 6 months is necessary so I guess we will see what happens. The dentist has been on maternity leave since January so I hope she remembers what to do!

Till then…PEACE OUT.