Ugh, it is 6:20 and I am up showering and getting ready for a full day of meetings and lectures. Yuck :) Good news though, our day is shortened by a good handful of hours. We originally had something like an 8AM to 8PM looking day so thank God the time has been adjusted. It's awesome that we are not going so long today because I am super sleepy today for some reason. Oh well, I got to bed before 10PM last night so I have no excuse. Toughen up Maxson.
Started off at the National Museum this morning with our tour guide named Thabo who is slowly taking us through the museum to enhance our understanding of the South African culture and how it originated. We visited a neat section of the museum that included a rather extensive collection of objects people used in their daily life. From beaded objects that adorn the body to functional cook ware, we had a chance to see a lot of what these folks might have used hundreds of years ago.
A personal favorite of mine was a small section devoted to what I would consider one of my favorite classic board games called mancala. The way the game is played is quite simple. You have a long board with little bowls dug into the surface which hold seeds or pebbles. A turn consists of removing all the seeds from a bowl of your choosing and then placing one seed/pebble in each of the following bowls in sequence to the right. Does this make sense? The game is then won based on the two end bowls which are larger that collect seeds as the game is played. The individual with the most seeds at the end of the game wins.
They also had a cool section (which was also a little creepy) that was a small village complete with furniture filled buildings and mannequins interacting with the place they are in. For example, I walked by a Dr. Flokemann's office who is a dentists in the small city. It was pretty cool!
There was also an extensive animal exhibit with boat loads of taxidermy animals from small bugs to large elephants. That was really kind of cool to see. I even saw a Dromedary camel that reminded me of our family camel Cami!!! It was so cool to see small version and large version of hear becuas who early I thought she was quite big already, but as I was reminded by the stuffed animal, she's going to be HUGE. Hopefully she'll be manageable as a giant adult when she's older.
Later this stater ion, we went to the University of the Free State. We had a chance to visit the art gallery there which was quite interesting hosting a collection of works from local South African artists. One in particular who I really liked was an artist by the name of Pauline Gutter.
In South Africa there is a fairly new epidemic that faces the farming community. Almost at random, local farmers have been killed usually at their home and robbed of their possessions. The killings are unusual, at least from what we've been told, in that the people killed and robbed may not be finically wealthy, but rather only have crop worth obtaining. It's tragic to even think about. So Pauline's goal in her work is to focus on farmer/farming lifestyle which feels like home to me. Gotta check her out more when I get home.
We also heard about a program called Artists in Schools which I thought was really cool. Their goal is to he reach out to local schools and bring artists to show children what and how they do. The program receives funds from international Finish donors who help support the mission of the program. They try to get the community to buy into the program so they can continue outreach efforts to bring art to the children. They stats With the basics and then use the knowledge they have to help apply these art ideas into simple projects for the children that can be done with what they've got.
The thing that is really special about what they do, is that most schools in South Africa do NOT teach any type of art period. So their efforts are appreciated from someone like me who is always thankful for the type of work I do. She said it helps change the attitudes and motivation that not only the teachers have, but the students as well. Art is Africa's legacy and it is found everywhere, but it is self taught so as an educator their work brings a lot of new insight to what the role of art is in society. Their whole goal is sustainability and bringing art into these kids lives is awesome :)
Also wanted to point out a great book I just finished reading that you may enjoy. It's called Your Money Counts by Howard Dayton. Don and I have been working really hard to square off school debt and owning our two cars and it really is just such an eye opener for correct financial decision making :)
Professor Solomon at the University of the Free State was speaking to us this afternoon about the politics of South Africa. He immediately came out and said that he feels like the country is being lead by a group of idiots and that he was jailed for extensive periods of time as early as the age of 9 for his anti-apartheid role in the community. He spoke about how many of the crime ridden individuals who are running the country into the ground are the ones sitting in the presidential positions of the government. That's terrifying and sad.
As we intently listened, professor Solomon spit out some incredible figures that kept my mind rolling in disgust left and right. He argues that apartheid is being fought amongst and within the black populations. He said there are roughly 11 violent protests each day and that are not controllable and police who try to cease these actions use live ammunition to resolve issues. He is comparing more and more of the struggles South Africa faces in relationship to the Titanic. The ship took on too much too quickly and doesn't have the right tools or knowledge to help solve the ever rising issues.
- With all my thanks :)
Location:Bloemfontein, South Africa
