Saturday Tutoring

I have been spending Saturday Mornings tutoring at the Ikamva Youth project in the Ivory Park township since my return from Cape Town. Most of the tutoring so far has been maths, which school and university gave me a rock-solid foundation in, and physics and chemistry. Especially the latter can be challenging for me, since its been a while since I have had to separate my cations from my anions, and its something I've never looked at since. But I am managing to stay 15 minutes ahead of the kids.

I've been asked to take photos of the sessions, here are a selection from today's.

My Second Vote

Today was South Africa's 4th democratic election, and my second (the last time I voted was in 1994, and since then I have not been in the country). I got up really early and rode to the school around the corner which was my polling station. I got there 10 minutes after the polls opened, but still had to wait for almost 45 minutes in the queue (and I had it lucky ... there were news reports of people having to queue for 7 hours).


I had only made up my mind who I was going to vote for the night before. I wish I had given it some more time and read up more on policies rather than personalities. I used an online system hosted by the Mail and Guardian which matches your opinions against political parties and got told to vote for the Independent Democrats or the Inkatha Freedom Party. I ignored the recommendation.

Here's a sweet cartoon by Jeremy Neil about the extremely profession way in which the elections were conducted by the Independent Electoral Committee.

New South African Experience

Had an interesting experience today which gave me some insight into my own prejudices and fears, and that of the country. I had been at my parents and was driving to visit friends across a freeway bridge when in the darkness out of the corner of my eye I saw what looked like a puppy scavenging in rubbish on the side of the road. I stopped the car without thinking, put on the hazard lights and walked the 100m or so back down the bridge to see what if I could do something.

It turned out to be a dog, not a puppy, and as soon as I got near, it ran away. There was not much to do, so I returned to the car. But by then, another car had stopped just in front of mine, and a dark figure stood on the side of the road between me and my car. The hair on the back of my neck stood up; this was the classic start to the kind of hijacking stories which make all too frequent appearances in South Africa's newspapers. That it was a black man made the situation seem more dangerous for me. Would I have been as alarmed if it had been a white man? To be honest with myself, probably not: crime in South Africa often has a racial twist to it, even though there are many many black victims of crime.

"Hey" said the man.

The options flashed through my mind: run away, leaving the unlocked car on the side of the road. Or skirt him and try and get into the car as quickly as possible. I opted for the latter.

"I just wanted to know if you need help", he said, and as I walked past, I realized that he was driving some kind of expensive sedan and was alone. This wasn't a hijacker, it was someone who thought I was in trouble and wanted to lend a hand.

"I thought I saw I puppy", I said, sounding foolish to my own ears. "But thanks". And without waiting for him to respond, I jumped in the car and drove off, still feeling shaken.

How much of this fear was justified and how much was in my head? The stories you get here from the media give the lessons: Don't get involved with people on the side of the road. Don't stop to help others. Don't trust. Don't be a good Samaritan. The man who had pulled over hadn't listened to those lessons, he had genuinely wanted to help. I had ... and had immediately assumed that him stopping was a bad sign, and the situation was dangerous. I think I reacted out of a mixture of perceived wisdom and racial fear. Did I react stupidly? Given the crime situation here, probably not. Would I do the same thing under the same circumstances again? Maybe, although I like to think I'd try and gauge the situation more.

Wiring Siyakhula

Spent some time on Easter Monday with Andrew, connecting one of the computer labs at the Siyakhula School into a network and the Internet.

Hiking Castle Gorge

I've been joining the Jo'burg Hiking Club. The joining is a slow process in which you have to do a series of hikes with them, for me on a Sunday. Today's hike was at Castle Gorge in the Magaliesburg, a chain of hills which runs between Pretoria and Jo'burg. This was an unexpectedly beautiful walk along twisted stone formations, through wooded valleys and past clear pools of water for swimming. And all this just over an hour from the sprawling city.

Freshly Ground at Emmarentia

Took in one of South Africa's best-known bands today: Freshly Ground is a melodic pop with a lot of cross-over appeal between races. One reason I liked this concert so much was that the audience was so mixed - and everyone was into the music. It also took place outdoors in a park on a Saturday afternoon, so it was an end-of-summer event; the days here are getting cooler and shorter.