A Small Breath of Africa: Bloemfontein + Small Victories

This week has included many "small victories" as I continue making headway on the many projects and personal to-do's (scholarships/jobs/et cetera). Although it was a shortened week with another teacher strike on Tuesday, it was hectic as campus prepares for next week's break and subsequently, three weeks of Teaching Experience (TE). One project that made headway was the "Teacher's Day" celebration on campus 5 October that I'm helping to organize. We're having prospective students to campus in the morning for events and then a celebration tea/talk in the afternoon for the school and local teachers. Working with a committee of other lecturers, we divided up the tasks and found time to work them in between the other demands of teaching. With the upcoming break and TE, this last week that we can distribute invitations/posters for the prospective students and teachers (we want to distribute to the Wits Staff that will be in the 534 schools during TE). There were complications with late printing, misprinting, et cetera. Bottom line: We worked on organizing the packets all week… it brings me back to the days of helping my Dad send out company mailers and volunteering for a few campaigns, not the most fun I've ever had :)

The Ole' Audi: This week I went to the mechanic to see if they could fix my glove box and my turn signal. One of the plastic hinges on my glove box broke when Giulia and I were in Namibia - the roads were so bumpy that at one point it opened by itself and ripped off the hinge! My turn signal also randomly stopped working over the last week, the mechanism would work, but it wouldn't flash (it was just a solid light). In any event, my glove box wasn't repairable; I need a new/used one to put on, which is $250 (!). They did fix my turn signal, which is a necessity, and it was nice to get that taken care of.

I went to Bloemfontein this past weekend with Ben (Pretoria ETA) to visit Nick and Andrew (Bloemfontein ETAs). I had only been to Bloemfontein in passing as Giulia and I traveled from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg (and were not in the mood to take a break during the 12 hour drive, particularly in Bloem). Bloemfontein is about 400km from Johannesburg, in the middle of the country and the middle of the "Free State"…it's mind-bogglingly desolate and flat. It has a proud Afrikaner heritage and is home to South Africa's judicial system.

In any event, I picked Ben up from the train station on Friday morning and we trekked out to Bloemfontein arriving just after lunch. Nick and Andrew showed us their placement, the University of the Free State (UFS), the campus and their housing on campus. I enjoyed seeing the different Fulbright placement - each placement is so different and positive in its own way. We stopped by Andrew's photography exhibit and then went back to their apartment to catch up before dinner. For dinner, we went to a nice Italian restaurant and then went "out on the town" to a bar (there were so many options - insert irony) for an after dinner drink. On Saturday, Nick and I went for a run in the morning and for lunch we went to the Bloemfontein Botanical Garden to braai. It was a beautiful day and we wandered around the garden, hiking to the top of the hill that overlooked the garden/Bloem. Something that I found interesting was that there was a marker next to a stone wall, which indicated that the wall had been built by the British for protection during the Anglo-Boer War (love history). In the evening we headed to the main auditorium on UFS's campus for the "National University Serenade" competition between the finalists: Stellenbosch University, University of Pretoria, University of the Northwest, University of Johannesburg, and University of the Free State (both a men's and a women's team). The competition was a show choir-like performance, with both men's groups and women's groups required to incorporate specific songs, and include a song in Afrikaans. It was an incredible show, particularly when I didn't know what to expect. It was a baie "n'asemrowende aand" (breathtaking night). I enjoyed the cultural immersion too - the presenters and the audience were mostly Afrikaans-speaking. It was a great weekend, nice to catch up with friends, and have new experiences.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with Bloemfontein. It is not a highly attractive city, compared to the other major cities in South Africa (Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Durban, Jo'burg, and Pretoria). At the same time, however, it had its own beauty. Marlize said that "You cry when you go to Bloemfontein and you cry when you leave" - you cry because you don't want to go and you cry because you don't want to leave. Or you can look at it as you cry because you don't want to go and you cry from happiness because your leaving…. I prefer the former.

… I'll be heading out of town for the week on a fun, spontaneous mini-vacation. More next post.