Jo’burg and back

 

I visited Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg on Friday with Noora. The two hours spent there gave just a scratch on the subject, so another round on Saturday with my young scientist colleague Nathaniel from the US was well justified. The whole place reminded me of a museum I visited some years ago with Jaakko, the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Both in the impressive architectures and the histories themselves: high unemployment of the ruling population, fear of mixing of populations, desire of ‘racial’ purity, geographical segregation (ghettos vs. townships), both happened in the 20th century, nationalist ideology etc. The apartheid in South Africa didn’t reach a ‘Final Solution’ like Nazi Germany, but I think otherwise the similarities are clear. A frightening distinction, though, is that the apartheid ended (officially) just about twenty years ago.

Nathaniel and I drove back to Bloemfontein on Saturday afternoon. He had been driving around with a friend and  was now also returning, so I also got a cheap option to make my way back. A week’s holiday was well earned and did good. I’m almost eager to start working tomorrow again.

I escorted Noora to the O.R. Tambo International airport on Friday evening and looked her disappear behind the security control (sob). It’d be fun if you would be able to go with all the way to the transport, as is the case with trains and buses (with the wonderful possibility of having a surprise trip to somewhere – although is this case it would have caused a bit too much trouble). It felt kind of funny to talk to and see her through Skype already today, as she just left yesterday evening and had travelled several thousands of kilometres to the Northern side of the globe. Anyway, it was very nice to be able to do that.

Sometimes SMS’s seem not to get through here (locally and globally). I discussed this with Jonas, and the only plausible theory we made up was that the local operators drop some messages on purpose to reduce load on their servers. Maybe.

A bug

Truly Amazing Christmas Tale

And so it was, that just before Christmas, a young couple, a charming lady and a brave gentleman, decided to make their way to a city far far away. The lady said: ‘oh my poor feet!’, and the gentleman bravely started to search a ride worthy for his lady.

This one was too stripy:

This one was too tall:

But this one did well:

They travelled through vast grasslands and over mountains.

They passed Sir Phantom’s summer cottage, but unfortunately he was not there. Sir Phantom was busy cleaning the jungle from crime before holidays.

The journey continued through darkening wilderness. They passed a small town, but there was no room for them to stay.

Finally, they found the place they were looking for. They were led there by astonishing lights, and above all that was the brightest light of all, a Christmas star.

And so the couple returned their faithful ride to the stables, without a scratch. The stable master gave them a wide smile and wished them a merry Christmas. The lady was drawn to a welcoming inn with a nice pool and glorious interior, but the gentleman said: ‘This modest barn will do just fine’. And it did, because the breakfast was splendid.

On their afternoon walk, they were suddenly drawn to a place surrounded by a mystical power.

Inside, they found the miracle of Christmas. Especially the lady did.

***

But after all, they discovered the joy of simple things.

Very Merry Christmas to everyone!

Noora & Erkka

Summer solstice

Today we had trip to the Free State National Botanical Garden. It was nice, and we even wandered to to a nearby hilltop. There were all kinds of strange plants and trees (e.g. mountain cabbage!) and the weather was just excellent. It was relieveing to get out of the city and barbed wire fences (well, the garden was fenced but no barbed wire there) for a while.

A mountain cabbage tree

Simon and an anthill

I learned that that the local anthills are real strongholds made of dried clay. Hard as rock and weatherproof too. The inhabitants spend the dry season inside hibernating and drill their way out when there’s rain and life again. We spotted also some red bishops and  African yellow weavers, but I couldn’t capture the birds with my camera.

Today is the brightest day of the summer and she is coming tomorrow! Can’t wait...

All set for an afternoon nap

Thumbs up for her

Noora might arrive here on Sunday. I hope sooooo much that everything turns out well, I hope, I hope, I hope... They really messed up her flights big time. Lesson 1: Never, ever, buy flights from a suspicious travel agent kind of firm. Lesson 2: Hmmm... I don’t know yet, but probably something will still come up along the way until we’re both here in Bloem.

Now I’ve hurt also my thumb playing basketball today. Maybe I should just stick to my computer. Oh, but that’s killing me too, because the ergonomics is just horrible. Both at my desk in Unilofts and at the library. My roommate Jonas and I a convinced that we’ll both develop some kind of back problems during the three months.

Busy working

Allright, now this Mandela thing has got quite huge proportions. It’s just everywhere. Last Wednesday, I went with a couple of friends to attend a provincial memorial service. It was supposed to be in a nearby stadium, but as we got there we found out (after a good half an hour of wondering why there was no one there) that the venue had been changed to a church. After coming all the way this far, we decided to take a taxi to the place. The church was acctually a huge auditorium like space, nothing like you would think as a church in Europe, and there was a real hulabaloo going on.

Most of the programme was held in Suthu so we didn’t understand much, only that it was definetly time to sing and dance along the crowd. As souverniers (from a memorial?) we all got nice yellow Mandela t-shirts and small ANC flags. Some trip!

Otherwise it’s been work, work and work, basically. On Thursday we had a very interesting lecture by Professors Bruce Beck and Dr. Michael Thompson about systems thinking. Football on Friday, a tour of the city on Saturday (forgot the camera). Yesterday and today (which is a public holiday called Day of Reconciliation) I’ve been just sitting home by the desk and trying to figure out my model code. My roommate Jonas and I a pretty sure we both end up developing serious back problems. The ergonomics is just horrible, both here at Unilofts and at the library where I work mostly. We’ll see.

Fauna and stuff

Here is a selection of some interesting fauna I saw this morning when I was jogging around the campus:

Millipede

Red bishop

Hadeda ibis

I went to see the new Mandela movie tonight with some friends. It was good. Gave the chills at times, but I actually left the theatre with more questions than before. Well, that’s what Wikipedia is for. Tomorrow we are going to see a provincial memorial service at a nearby stadium here in Bloemfontein. That must be interesting too.

Otherwise all is fine. The weather has been cloudy and rainy (now there’s a real thuderstrom outside) for the whole week almost. I got my project running after some struggle in the first week, but also our group now finally has a supervisor here in Bloem. I going to look at the value and changes in use patters of reservoir hydropower and pumped storage schems when there is a lot of wind power and solar photovoltaics in the South African power system. Sounds complicated enough? It is.

Fences and nice greetings

Apartheid is offically past, but there’s still something really wrong with this country. Just take a look at the series of photos I took on my way into the campus this morning. Yes, that’s a fingerprint reader at the campus gate. Note also the fancy electronic fence that surrounds Unilofts, the student apartment building we all live in. Encountering a guard armed with an assault rifle is also not an uncommon sight inside the campus area. They never really told us what are the possible threats we’d be facing. Just don’t go alone in the dark... Well, I’ve been to the local supermarket (it’s a Spar!) for a couple of times alone already. In the afternoon. Didn’t really felt my self really threatened.

Another thing that keeps suprising me is the abundant hospitality and joy that most people here get from just meeting other people. I wouldn’t have said ‘Merry Christmas’ to a sport office secretary lady after asking about the pool on Monday 2nd December. Not just yet. Maybe week before the C-day. Maybe. Nevertheless, after thanking the secretary exuberantly, my Kenyan colleague wished all the best for the rest of the year and Merry Christmas. But of course!

Over a cup of coffee, my colleague gave me a reasonable if somewhat harsh theory for this tradition of ample greetings: it is just so highly likely that those people might not ever meet again in areound here. ‘In Kenya, if you’re not hit by a truck, you’re hit by AIDS.’ I’ve never thought of that.

On Tuesday afternoon I was going to drop some prints to my Student Representative Council colleagues. Well, try to survive a visit to a Kenyan or Simbawean in less than 5 minutes. No way. Coffee is a necessity. Grapes? Why not? Sit down a talk for a half an hour? Okay, making dinner can wait.

I’m starting to like this. ‘Hello, how are you today?’ Yes, it’s almost natural already. Tomorrow I’ll sit quietly in my room and celebrate Finnish indepence. Just kidding, luckily I have some black and tasty treats with me as well as a nice bottle of organic clear drink. Time for ubuntu on 6th Dec!

The joy of football in December

At least it was international...not too bad.

Oh, it’s an ostrich!

The 2nd Southern African Young Scientist Summer Programme (SA-YSSP) has started nicely. There are interesting people from all over Africa as well as from the USA, India, Sweden and Germany.

The first week has kept us very busy. At least on Friday we had the chance to play some football. Africa vs. rest of the world wouldn’t been fare, so we ended up with just mixed teams.

Yesterday, there was again some evening programme. We went to Naval Hill to have a view over the city of Bloemfontein. On the hilltop, there is a huge statue of Nelson Mandela and an old observatory, where we went to see a planetarium show. There were also some ostriches, zebras, and (possibly) blue wildebeest just running around!

During the dinner I had another nice conversation with some colleagues from around Africa. They talked about how their governments don’t take scientists and research seriously since there are so many issues to deal with already – poverty, hunger, HIV, electricity for everyone and so on. Gives me some perspective to things...

I might just survive the three months without blueberries; the pineapple here is delicious and goes well with porridge. And yes, you can buy regular oatmeal here! Yummy...

Orion is upside down here. Funny.