Friday, June 23, 2006

Some random shots...


For my fellow archive students, this is Verne Harris. This shot was taken in the NMF archives after the madness of the Black Eyed Peas visit earlier this month.


On the left are Ethel and Boniswa, our co-workers from the Foundation. These photos were taken at the Apartheid Museum at Gold Reef City in Johannesburg.



That same day we visited the Apartheid Museum, we also visited Alf Kumalo's museum in Soweto. He is one of the most famous photographers in South Africa and a personal friend of NMs. His photos were amazing and it was one of the best museums I have ever visited (It helped that he walked us through and explained every photograph to us!!). A very kind man indeed.



The NM Foundation buildings and grounds.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

More postcards from Namibia


Jill and I after our safari drive outside Windhoek


The Rhino makes his way over to our jeep...


And closer yet.....
This is taken without a zoom!


Namibia

Jill, Shadrack and I just spent a long weekend in Namibia. Shad was there for work and we tagged along for the ride. This is Shadrack Katuu, our friend and co-worker at the NMF, with Ellen Namhila, National Director of the Namibian Library and Archives.

We flew into Windhoek early Thursday afternoon. Shad had arranged for Edison, a driver from the National Archives of Namibia to pick us up at the airport, which is located thirty minutes outside the city – literally in the middle of nowhere!

The drive from the airport to the city was spectacular. The terrain is very different from South Africa. Namibia is a big country, but only one million people live there, unlike South Africa which has a population of forty-five million. The scenery really was incredible – hard to describe. Perhaps a photo would help…


After checking into the hotel, we ventured into the city. We hit the craft co-op, as well as a few other shops. I bought my first wooden mask and plan on getting one in each country I visit in southern Africa. Returning to the hotel, we were surprised to have two messages waiting for us. One was from Ellen Namhila (pictured above). She was checking in with us to make sure we were all right. When we did not answer the phone, we later found out that she had sent the hotel staff looking for us because she thought we were in our hotel room scared to answer the phone! LOL. Little did she know we were in the city making our contribution to the Namibian economy.

Shad was there to run workshops on Friday and Saturday for the National Archives. Friday morning, we met Ellen Namhila. We had a fantastic tour of the National Archives and the National Library, as well as a museum in the city. Here is Jill and I at the National Library and Archives:


We then visited the Penduka Traditional Village, located in the townships outside Windhoek. Namibian woman are known for their needlework. I had read about Penduka in an Air Namibia magazine and wanted to visit. I bought two GORGEOUS pillow cases. I just wish I could have shown them to Auntie (my grandmother) as I know she would have enjoyed examining their work. We saw the townships and “Smarties Land” – houses painted every color of the rainbow. It reminded me of the Magdalene Islands. Krista, you would have gotten a real kick out of it.

On Saturday we ventured out of the Windhoek. We went to the Daan Viljoen Game Reserve and a government reserve. We finally saw some animals. Edison drove us around the reserve in the "Ministry of Basic Education, Sport and Culture" car and we pretended to be Namibians for a discounted park entry. Off roading in this “not a whole lotta car” was a riot. There was one hill that we barely made it up. We saw our first giraffe, as well as whole bunch of hungry looking wildbeest. We then proceeded to another bigger reserve (the name of which escapes me) and were lucky enough to get the last two seats on the safari drive. I sat in the front with the driver and there were no doors on this contraption. When I asked the driver if anybody had ever fallen out, he responded with a simple “Yep.”

We saw all kinds of giraffes, Bontebok, Springbok, and all kinds of other things with horns. The highlight for me, was coming within five feet of a seemingly tame rhino. I had to keep resisting the urge to reach out and touch it! The highlight for Jill, I suspect was coming across all kinds of warthogs. There are actually signs on the roads telling people to watch out for the little buggers. We also saw baboons en route to the airport. Here is a little taste of what we saw:







Edison took us to the townships again and we went to his sister’s house for a beer. My favorite beer is actually “Windhoek,” a very smooth Namibian beer. Edison’s sister was looking after a 6 month old baby, who proved to be quite the beer swilling baby. She loved it and probably drank more beer than we did! That night, the Archives staff treated Shad, Jill and I to a lovely dinner.

Namibia was fantastic. Windhoek did not have a big city feel to it, was very clean, and is much safer than Jo’Burg. We regret that we were not able to visit the Namib Desert, but I do plan on going back sometime. I would actually like to drive from Jo’Burg the next time. We did what we could this time around with both time and $$ constraints.

I will try and post some more photos tomorrow...hopefully of the friendly Rhino.

Saturday, June 10, 2006

This week in Johannesburg

On Monday, Jill and I accompanied our co-worker Shadrack to Pretoria, where he had a job interview at the National Archives of South Africa. We had a fantastic morning. We were given a tour of the reading room and spent quite a bit of time looking through their database. We found many entries for Canada, including a map of the Dominion of Canada (1908) and “Mining Laws and Regulations” produced by the Director of Mines in Ottawa (1910). There were five records that concerned Prince Edward Island and I discovered that there is a “Rossiter Street” in Cape Town. Hopefully I will find it when I go for a visit. While at the National Archives, were also able to meet and chat with the staff in charge of the “sensitive files.” Very interesting indeed.

Pretoria is a beautiful city and has a very different feel from Johannesburg. Shadrack took us to the Office of the President of South Africa to visit his friend who manages the electronic records of the President’s office. The view from the Union buildings was fantastic and its gardens were beautiful. The security to get into the Union buildings was of course very tight. We needed to leave photo ID before being allowed to enter. Of course, I did not have anything on me. I never carry my passport around, and I had even taken my driver’s license and all other ID out of my wallet in case I am mugged. All I could find in my wallet was an expired UPEI Library card – and it got me in! I am now also recalling how a UPEI Library card I got on a grade eleven field trip with Larry McGuire’s English class also got me into a Concordia Beer Bash with my cousin Gerry (March Break, 1989, grade 12, and yes, I should not have been there). I HATE UPEI, but will admit that having its library card has been beneficial now twice. I am glad it is good for something.

On Tuesday, we were taken on a tour of the South Africa History Archive (SAHA). The extent of their holdings proved to be much larger than I was expecting. Piers Pigou provided us with both an entertaining and enlightening discussion about the problems with access to information in South Africa…..a very different view than we had been given the day before at the National Archives.

This week, Jill and I have been doing a lot of research for a benchmarking exercise currently being undertaken by the Foundation. This morning, I was looking at the website for the Carter Centre in the USA. The centre has initiatives around the world and for South Africa, they had some interesting information, and four shocking statistics about South Africa on its website:

- 50% of the country lives below the poverty live.
- The average annual income is $2,500 USD
- The average life expectancy is 44 years.
- There are five million people living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa.

On Thursday, we are flying to Namibia for a four day weekend. More as it happens…

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Rossiters of Bath

My friend Krista just got back from a trip to the UK and recently sent this photo to me. As I have mentioned in previous posts, my Rossiter ancestors came from Wexford, Ireland. There are, of course, many Rossiters in England and Wales as well. They can all be traced back to the Normandy region in France, although my father has a fit every time I mention this....the same way I have a fit when my brother Peter tells people that I am one of the "Newfoundland Rossiters." Thanks for the picture Krista!

Friday, June 02, 2006

Proof - for Cousin Erica!

Jill took this second photo of me chatting with "Will.i.am." I believe I was telling them that I enjoyed their performance on the Juno Awards in Halifax. It was then he said, "You're Canadian? Cool!" This was following by one of those three step handshakes that always result in me feeling very old and very clumsy. Speaking of age, William is 31 - I thought he was much younger.