Chopsicles

Well arrived in Namibia yesterday evening after 30 hours of sitting in a truck. Trevor managed to arrange a lift through a friend who owns a trucking business, so at 6pm on Friday I got into the truck (see artist’s impression on right). After an hour in the truck with my new mate Leon, he pulled something out and started putting it up his nose which I didn’t take as a particularly good sign. It turned out to be snuff and he topped up every few hours.  A few hours into the trip the truck started beeping and wouldn’t go more than about 20km/h so we had to stop and check it out. Eventually the problem just ‘went away’ and we kept going. We crashed (figuratively) at around midnight and I tried to get some sleep in my seat while Leon used the bed in the back. This was one of those times when being tall is not an asset!
We hit the road again (figuratively) at 5am and I kept offering mints to Leon when I noticed his head dipping as he fought fatigue (he’d already done the trip from Namibia to Cape Town the day before) and tried to make conversation between his broken English and my non-existent Afrikaans. Got to customs about 11 but passing through took about 2 hours as they processed all the paperwork and checked the truck’s contents and our luggage. Its funny seeing full customs on something that looks just like the Victoria/NSW border. Next on the adventure was a flat tyre which I helped to change in possibly the hottest place on earth. On the way we also picked up 2 more passenger’s, one of whom shared grapes and rasin’s after her recent work on vineyards. We were all boipping along to some local music and things seemed to be going well. However, through a series of events I was unable to contact my pick up contact (Riaan) in Windhoek, Namibia, and Leon started getting very agitated and saying “colored people, they no good”. Things were getting to a point where I thought he was just going to drop me on the side of the road when, coming down the hill into Windhoek, I saw something crossing the road and realised it was a lion (see artists’s impression on right)! Naturally, this made me even less keen to try my luck hitching by the roadside. Anyways, through several calls to Cape Town and back, we finally managed to get in touch with Riaan and I arrived safely. More update soon!

well, trevor just came in and said that i’m leaving for namibia in 3 and a half hours. not yet sure if i’m gonna take the lappy. gotta go home and pack

Well, I couldn’t think of a better title for this post, so sir will have to do. Again, I was waiting for something momentous to happen so I could write a focussed post about it, but that hasn’t eventuated so I’ll make another random collection of observations.

Check out this little dude. He’s nicknamed Worsie (Afrikaans for little sausage) and he’s often hanging around near the centre. One day Trevor invited him inside and gave him a pair of drumsticks. This was his first shot on drums and I think this effort is pretty remarkable.

I’ve mentioned before how the traffic here is rather hectic, well I heard on the radio over Christmas that the road toll in December alone was over 1,200. It’s quite a stark contrast to Australia where I think the road toll was about 40 for the same period (though maybe that was just in Victoria).

I played cricket on the weekend but got flogged in my final over and dropped an absolute sitter so we shall never talk of that match again.

Its been interesting to note that nowhere in Africa have I seen any recycling facilities, though I suspect there might be something in Cape Town CBD. All the glass etc just goes straight in the bin. Like the road toll, it seems silly to be taking such small measures in Australia when a whole continent is too busy trying to meet more basic needs to consider such long term causes. I guess its something like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs where we worry about food and shelter before higher level needs. Obviously its a good thing to consider our environment, but I fear it will be in vain if the developing world isn’t also helped to reach this level. In the DRC, in particular, it seemed that every second car was blowing smoke and we passed streams that were absolutely choked with plastic waste.

Finally, it looks like I’ll most probably be heading home around Feb 23rd - exactly a month away. Still waiting for confirmation of flights and stuff but definitely looking forward to seeing everyone again, except you. No, not really. The guy behind you. He looks dodgy.

Well, the last few days have been very productive and quite fun. The walls here are thick concrete and, since I didn’t want to rely on a wireless signal alone to carry throughout the building, I’ve run some networking cable to a couple of the other rooms. This meant I got to play with a big drill and make Arnie sounds - sweet. We’ve also started to set up the 3 booths adjacent to the main auditorium according to their anticipated function. Booths 1 & 2 will each have about 4 laptops on which students can follow the theory and some online aural content and will be guitar and keyboard rooms, respectively. Booth 3 is planned as a drum booth and we’ve fitted it out as such but still need to put in further sound-proofing. In addition, I’ve added a gallery to the RTS site and will keep uploading more pics there. One of the main other things I need to do is set up some sort of proxy server to control which sites the kids can get to whilst still allowing full access from staff machines. I guess I could install something on each workstation (all macs) but if anyone has any suggestions for a solution, I’d be keen to hear them.

Another thing on my to-do list is to do a hand over of the work on the network, the website and, hopefully, train some people up in the basics of video editing. I’m in the weird position of not knowing my exact return date. Its a little complicated cos:

1. My return flight is booked for Feb 17th (to arrive 6pm on 18th)

2. My visa expires on Feb 13th

3. The centre launch is on Feb 18th

I’d really like to be around for the launch so that would mean both changing the flight and extending my visa. The easiest way to extend the visa may be to leave the country for 48 hours and then renew it, so we’re checking out options there, Namibia currently looking the most likely.

Warning: this post is just a collection of random thoughts.

As usual, watching the cricket on TV has made me itch to play so I joined a cricket club in Somerset West last week and got to play on Saturday for their fourth team. Even though I’d only been to one training, the captain threw me the ball to open the bowling and I was able to get 2 wickets for 8 runs. It did take a while for the radar to get going, so that included 6 wides :/ The ball seems to swing a mile on the turf wickets they have here but I reckon I should be able to take a few more wickets before I head home.

The thing I probably miss most about home is the relative permanency of the relationships there. Although it is great to do and see so many things here, its a shame to be doing it alone because you don’t have anyone to share the memories with. I think a lot of what makes life worthwhile is the people who you get to share it with and friendships deepen as you go through more stuff together. I did run into some Aussies on the weekend who had been up in Uganda for 3 years and it was interesting to compare notes on experiences on this continent from an Australian perspective. On Sunday night we checked out the Cape Town Jazz-a-thon and saw some excellent musicians there.

By the way, if anyone feels they have some task of which I might be capable and which I could do from here (like a website), I’m considering taking on something of that sort and putting all of the money directly into the project, as we’re hitting a few bottlenecks in getting the required equipment. Nevertheless, we’re pushing on and seeing a lot happen anyway. An interesting thing here, which I find quite sad, is seeing groups of black people standing on most major street corners in their laboring clothes hoping to be selected to work that day. It brings to life for me the biblical parable in Matthew 20. I hate having uncertain employment so I really feel sorry for those who have to face such uncertainty daily.

Finally, some videos I’ve uploaded recently from the archives:

Songs Worth Singing dress rehearsal at SABC
Quad bikes during trip to biker’s church
A view from up the road of the area where I’m staying
Driving through the streets of Khayaletisha, one of the biggest townships

My crazy camera

Well, back in Cape Town now and working at the centre again. I forgot to mention that the site is up, at least in a preliminary form - restoringthesound.com

The other day, we went to the cricket as guests of an SABC employee and got to see the inside the broadcast van and commentary position which was awesome and then ran into Geoff Boycott and Courtenay Walsh. The ground at Newlands is very picturesque and it was a good day’s cricket. Unfortunately I couldn’t take any pics as my camera has packed it in. I’ve just called Canon and they reckon I have to send it back to Australia so feeling pretty annoyed right now as the camera is only about 3 months old.

Kenya

Sorry, my brain is a bit scattered today so I’m struggling to make a coherent post, but wanted to mention briefly the situation in Kenya. When arriving in Kenya after visiting DR Congo and Nigeria, I commented that it was encouraging to see a nation that was really thriving and apparently stable. I also asked my hosts how tribal history affected the modern Kenyan’s sense of identity, to which they replied that, in their opinion and experience, tribal allegiances generally run more deeply than the more recently imposed national identity. Its strange and somewhat disturbing to see the reports on the news about these old tribal rivalries flaring up. I really hope that things settle down soon for the sake of Kenya and the nations around it. I think the images affect me a little more now since the names and places are a bit more real to me now. If you do get a chance, I’d encourage anyone who can to support the people there, particularly as Kenya is, in my opinion, a leading nation in the area providing something of a role model to the surrounding nations.

Christmas
I’ve done the silly thing again of letting things get away from me, so now I’ve got heaps I’d like to say. Christmas was lovely in Cape Town and there are some pics on flickr, click here if you’d like to see that. Trevor’s family were very nice in making me feel quite at home and part of the family. The day was fairly similar to our normal Christmas in Melbourne, with a long day of eating and presents, though we played game of ‘chicken coup’ (basically dominoes) together in the evening which was a nice touch.
On the night of Christmas, I caught the bus up the coast to Hartenbos. If the aim of the coach ride was to be sleep proof and pain inducing, I’d give it 4/5 stars and call it exceptionally awesome. Seriously though, it was quite uncomfortable.

Arriving in Hartenbos
Getting here was quite a shock, as I immediately met quite a few white Afrikaaners whose attitudes towards the non-white South Africans I found pretty disturbing. I actually felt quite physically ill. Though I was quite impacted, I haven’t posted anything on this previously for fear of drawing rash conclusions. I’m still unsure how to feel about so much that goes on in this country, but seeking to understand as much as possible. One thing I’ve found interesting is that, having chatted further with the aforementioned people, their attitudes towards the non-whites seem to be something of an anomaly in what I’d otherwise consider a ‘normal’ personality, almost like a blind spot. I think that, particularly when I was in Kenya, I experienced something like culture shock as I became frustrated at not understanding how things worked and not being able to operate and live independently as I am accustomed. I could imagine that this frustration, if left unchecked, could boil over into something more malevolent. I would be faced with a choice to either learn about the culture and adapt, or to resist and try to live as I wished and to conform my surroundings to this wish, probably by hanging around other white people whose culture I could more readily understand.
One problem is that, due to the historical imbalance of opportunities and possibly because the South African economic system aligns better with a European culture, there is a strong correlation between race and socio-economic status. You therefore have the problem that if, for example, poor people are more likely to steal, and most of the really poor people are non-white, people may have a greater suspicion of those races, not realising that the cause is economic rather than racial.

New Year’s Eve
Anyways, its obviously left me with plenty of food for thought. On a lighter note, I’m heading back to Cape Town today and hopefully going to catch a day watching the test match at Newlands. For New Year’s Eve we went down to the beach where there are guys who will dig a hole in the sand with bench seats around a central table for, I think, about 100 Rand ($16 AUD).  We joined with some friends who were down there and, as you’ll see in this video, drunk people were setting off fireworks just a few metres from us. There was a bit of a scare when one didn’t launch and blew up about 4 metres away, but fortunately no major injuries.