Tour of the Eastern Cape
Rural Education Development
Learnthings Africa
Rural South Africa
21 - 27 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 Graaff Reinet, Somerset East, Klipplaat, Jansenville, and Cookhouse. I arrived at Graaff-Reinet on the 21st of January 2010.
I used Graaff Reinet as a base for the installations at the other more rural locations. I lodged at Odette’s B & B, situated at 27 West Street, Graaff-Reinet.
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| Graaff-Reinet architecture |
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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| The rainbow nation - near Graaff-Reinet |
Road scenery between Port Elizabeth & Graaff-Reinet
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| The scenery on the road between Port Elizabeth and Graaff-Reinet |
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| The scenery on the road between Port Elizabeth and Graaff-Reinet |
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| Village - the road between Port Elizabeth and Graaff-Reinet |
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| Windpump - the road between Port Elizabeth and Graaff-Reinet |
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| Mountain range near Graaff-Reinet |
About Graaff-Reinet
Graaff-Reinet is a town in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is the fourth oldest town in South Africa, after Cape Town, Stellenbosch, and Swellendam.
The town was founded by the VOC (Dutch East India Company) in 1786, being named after the then governor of Cape Colony, Cornelis Jacob van de Graaff, and his wife, whose maiden name was "Reinet" (Wikipedia).
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| Monument - The Dutch Reformed Church |
Friday 22 January 2010
A day I do not want to relive again. I realized this morning that I don’t have my documents or installation Cd with me. I looked everywhere but could not find it, so I called Mr. Bouwers in P.E. who promised me that he will phone the last school I was at in P.E. He called me back later and said that they found it in the Siyaphambile PC lab.
I drove all the way to P.E. and back from Graaff-Reinet, about 500 km to fetch everything.
Upon my arrival back in Graaff-Reinet, I called Gandhi at the District resource center, because I could not get hold of Mr. Henry Thompson. He said that I can go to the Resource Center in Plasket street to install and that there will be people there to assist me.
I arrived at around 3 pm and started to install. I installed both contents on 30 working PCs. Mr. Henry Thompson later joined me and assisted me. He arranged for me to go and install at Spandau SSS in Graaff-Reinet. The school had an evening function and the staff gave me access to install secondary content on 30 PCs.
I finished at around 11 pm and was grateful for my bed at Odette’s B&B.
Saturday & Sunday 23 - 24 January 2010
I mostly remained at Odette’s B&B, resting and swimming. I took some walks around Graaff-Reinet taking pictures.
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| Graaff-Reinet architecture |
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| Graaff-Reinet architecture |
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| Shop ads and public telephone - Graaff Reinet |
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| Graaff-Reinet architecture |
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| Graaff-Reinet architecture |
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| Church - Graaff-Reinet architecture |
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| Street scenery - Graaff-Reinet |
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| Street scenery - Graaff-Reinet |
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| Street scenery - Graaff-Reinet |
Somerset East
Monday 25 January 2010
I woke up early and after an early breakfast, I met with Mr. Henry Thompson at the Graaff-Reinet district office, where he gave me directions to Johnson Nqonqoza Secondary School in Somerset-East.
I traveled to Somerset East on the R 63 via Pearston and arrived at 09:30 am about 125 km from Graaff-Reinet.
I met with the principal, Mr. Henry Syce and he showed me to the lab, where a German volunteer, Florian Hunker, was in charge of the PC lab. I then installed secondary content on 36 working PCs.
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| Somerset East |
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| Somerset East - Eastern Cape |
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| Pearston |
Cookhouse
Monday 25 January 2010
I finished around 1:30 pm in Somerset East and then followed Gandhi to Cookhouse, approximately 23 km from Somerset East, where we installed at Msobomvu Primary school. Gandhi assisted me to install primary content on 30 PCs.
I gave the principal, Mr. Jeyi a short demonstration regarding content layout and how to use the content.
I finished around 3:30 pm and took the R 63 back to Graaf-Reinet, where I arrived at 5:30 pm after traveling 140 km in stormy weather.
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| African hair salon - Cookhouse, Eastern Cape |
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| Rural house - Cookhouse, Eastern Cape |
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| Rural house - Cookhouse |
Klipplaat
Tuesday 26 January 2010
As arranged with Gandhi the previous day, I was waiting for him at the Graaff-Reinet District center.
The plan was that he would get a government car to take me to Klipplaat early in the morning so that I could have an early move on to Cradock.
I arrived at the center before 8 am and while I was waiting, installed all the ICT laptops at the center (5 laptops) for the IT section.
Gandhi arrived at 10 and we left at 11 am. On the way to Klipplaat, we stopped at Jansenville High for an hour. We arrived at Klipplaat at 12:30, where Gandhi left me to go to another school.
I soon discovered that I could not log on and had to abandon the whole installation.
About Klipplaat
Klipplaat is a town in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is a 185 km north-west of Port Elizabeth.
It is named after the large slabs of rock (in Afrikaans Klip or rock and plaat or sheet) on the surface (Wikipedia).
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| Klipplaat, Eastern Cape |
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| Broken school window - Klipplaat, Eastern Cape |
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| Playground - Klipplaat, Eastern Cape |
Tuesday 26 January 2010
After our failed attempt in Klipplaat, we decided to install content at another school instead, namely Jansenville primary in Jansenville.
The school was extremely grateful. They don’t have government-sponsored computers like other schools but sponsored their own lab from school fees.
Mr. Henry Wevers assisted me with the installation. We finished at 5 and still had to drive 82 km to Graaff- Reinet.
About Jansenville
Jansenville is a town in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province. It is about 87 km south of Graaff-Reinet on the Sundays River.
It was laid out on the farm Vergenoegd in 1854, and proclaimed in 1855 and later became a municipality in 1881.
It was named after General Jan Willem Janssens (1762-1838), the last Batavian Governor of the Cape (Wikipedia).
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| Jansenville, Eastern Cape |
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| Schoolkids - Jansenville, Eastern Cape |
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| Jansenville, Eastern Cape |
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| Church - Jansenville |
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| Jansenville kids |
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| Church - Jansenville |
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| Monument to Andries Pretorius |
Monument to Andries Pretorius near Graaff Reinette, Eastern Cape
He was born Andries Wilhelmus Jacobus Pretorius on 27 November 1798 and died 23 July 1853. he was the Great Trek Leader after whom Pretoria was named.
He farmed in the district before the Great Trek. He was instrumental in the creation of the Transvaal Republic.
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| Nature scenery near Graaff-Reinet |
Tuesday 26 January 2010
We arrived at 6 pm and I then collected my stuff from Odette’s B&B, had some dinner and hit the road to Cradock 145 km from Graaff-Reinet to only arrive about 20:30 at Victoria Manor Hotel in 36 Mark Street.
Road scenery from Graaf Reinet to Cradock
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| Eastern Cape beauty |
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| Flooding near Graaff Reinet |
