Tour of the Eastern Cape
Rural Education Development
Learnthings Africa
Rural South Africa
16-21 January 2010
Background
For nearly a month I traveled more than 7000 km through the Eastern Cape of South Africa (including the area previously known as the Transkei) to install Learnthings and Microsoft software content at poor rural schools on behalf of Learnthings Africa.
In this post, I cover Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage, Booysens Park, and Bluelilliesbush. I used PE as my base. I stayed in the Road Lodge on Marine Drive, on Summerstrand, and had a sea view from my hotel room.
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The Red Windmill - Summerstrand, Port Elizabeth
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About the Eastern Cape
The Eastern Cape is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are Port Elizabeth and East London. It was formed in 1994 out of the Xhosa homelands of Transkei and Ciskei, together with the eastern portion of the Cape Province.
Landing place and home of the 1820 settlers, the central and eastern part of the province is the traditional home of the Xhosa people.
This region is the birthplace of many prominent South African politicians, such as Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Chris Hani, Thabo Mbeki, Steve Biko, Bantu Holomisa and Charles Coghlan (Wikipedia).
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| Train tracks - Port Elizabeth |
About Port Elizabeth
Port Elizabeth or The Bay (Afrikaans: Die Baai) is one of the largest cities in South Africa, situated in the Eastern Cape Province, 770 km east of Cape Town.
The city, often shortened to PE and nicknamed "The Friendly City" or "The Windy City", stretches for 16 km along Algoa Bay, and is one of the major seaports in South Africa. Port Elizabeth is the southernmost large city on the African continent, just farther south than Cape Town.
Port Elizabeth was founded as a town in 1820 to house British settlers as a way of strengthening the border region between the Cape Colony and the Xhosa.
It now forms part of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, which has a population of over 1.3 million (Wikipedia).
Sunset views
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| Sharks rock, Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape |
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| Port Elizabeth sunset, Eastern Cape |
Sunday 17 January 2010
I slept until 9 am. Took my clothes to the laundry and bought a new pair of sunglasses. Went for a walk on the beach and took many pics. I went back to the hotel for lunch.
I picked up my clean clothes and resupplied on water, then came back for a nap and took a sunset walk on the boardwalk and took more pics.
I then had dinner at a Chinese restaurant and went back to the hotel to edit my pics and watch TV.
Enjoying the beach
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| Exploring the tidal pools, Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape |
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| Seagulls - Tidal Pools |
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| Port Elizabeth beach house, Eastern Cape |
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| Port Elizabeth at sunset, Eastern Cape |
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| Port Elizabeth boardwalk, Eastern Cape |
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| Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape |
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| Port Elizabeth street scenery, Eastern Cape |
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| Train restaurant - Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape |
Uitenhage
Monday 18 January 2010
I left PE at around 8 am and arrived in Uitenhage around 9 am. Mrs. Brenda Subramanien, the DCES for the district assisted me. She took me to Nomathamsanqa Township about 56 km from Uitenhage to AV Bukani Primary School, where I met with the principal, Mr. Z.J. Thambo and installed primary content on PCs.
We drove back to Uitenhage and went to Caritas Primary school where I installed primary content on PCs. I managed a quick installation and we had time to install both primary and secondary content on PCs at the Uitenhage Resource center.
Townships near Port Elizabeth
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| Housing - Poor settlement on the outskirts of Port Elizabeth |
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| Housing - Poor settlement on the outskirts of Port Elizabeth |
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| Shop - Poor settlement on the outskirts of Port Elizabeth |
About Uitenhage
Uitenhage is a South African town in the Eastern Cape Province. It is well known for the Volkswagen factory located there, which is the biggest car factory on the African continent.
The city of Port Elizabeth and the small town of Despatch are located near Uitenhage, to the east.
Uitenhage was founded on 25 April 1804 by landdrost (district magistrate) Jacob Glen Cuyler and named in honour of the Cape's Commissioner-General Jacob Abraham Uitenhage de Mist by the Dutch Cape Colony governor, Jan Willem Janssens (Wikipedia).
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| Cows grazing on the sports field, Caritas Primary school, Uitenhage, Eastern Cape |
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| 'Forties scenery' - Uitenhage |
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| Uitenhage architecture |
Exploring Port Elizabeth
I often took my camera and just walked around PE for hours on end to snap these pics. I also drove around on other occasions to take photographs of one of my favorite places in South Africa.
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| Dutch Reformed Church, Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape |
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| View of the boardwalk from my hotel room, Port Elizabeth |
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| Port Elizabeth house |
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| Downtown PE |
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| View of Harbor & bay area from a hill - Port Elizabeth |
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| View of Harbor & bay area from a hill - Port Elizabeth |
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| PE houses |
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| Colorful homes, Port Elizabeth street scenery |
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| Port Elizabeth harbor |
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| Windy beach scenery - Port Elizabeth |
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| The Red Windmill - Summerstrand, Port Elizabeth |
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| Boardwalk - Port Elizabeth |
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| Boardwalk - Port Elizabeth |
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Boardwalk scenery - Port Elizabeth
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| Boardwalk - Port Elizabeth |
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| Port Elizabeth street scenery, Eastern Cape |
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| Port Elizabeth street scenery, Eastern Cape |
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| Street wall paintings - Port Elizabeth |
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| Port Elizabeth houses |
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| Port Elizabeth houses |
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| Aloe tree near King Edward hotel - PE |
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| Sunday Times Newspaper headline/advertisement - PE |
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| King Edward hotel, Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape |
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| PE skyline |
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| King Edward hotel, Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape |
Booysens Park Community
I installed content at Cedarberg primary school, situated in Booysenspark outside PE, about 25 km from the district center.
Here are some pics of the community where the school is situated.
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| Colorful home - Booysens Park, near Port Elizabeth |
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| Colorful home - Booysens Park, near Port Elizabeth |
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| Booysens Park, near Port Elizabeth |
Wednesday 20 January
Mrs. Subramanien and I then left for Bluelilliesbush primary school, approximately 175km from Uitenhage. We arrived and met the principal Mr. Nyati, who took us to the PC lab and he called Mr. Koopman to come and assist.
I managed a fast installation and activation of both primary and secondary content. I installed the secondary content, because the school teaches up to grade 9.
We drove the 175 km back to Uitenhage and I then drove to PE where I arrived just after 6 pm.
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| Bluelilliesbush, Eastern Cape |
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| Bluelilliesbush, Eastern Cape |
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| Bluelilliesbush, Eastern Cape |
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| Bluelilliesbush, Eastern Cape |
Thursday 21 January
I drove back to P.E. to fetch my laundry at 'Fresh the clean', and then drove to Graaff-Reinet, about 250 km from P.E. taking the R 75.
I booked in at Odette’s B & B, situated at 27 West Street, Graaf-Reinet.
View my Nest stop, Graaff-Reinet here!
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