Good bye!

30 mins to go and I’m panicking. Not because I wouldn’t be ready. No all is packed, everything is ready. It’s just that I realised that I’m actually leaving Bloemfontein behind. (Ok, Bloem wasn’t that exciting place, but it’s more what’s happened here.)

On top of Table Mountain with some friends.

It’s a 24 hour journey back to North (to what I’ve heard is not much of a winter, sadly). I’ll miss all tmy new friends, but hope I’ll see as many as possible of them again anytime soon!

I’m happy.

My final presentation is over! And it was good, although I was nervous like never before. The successes of today also include having both coffee and lunch with the IIASA director general Pavel Kabat.

Tomorrow is the second day of presentations (14 of them still) and the closing ceremonies in the evening. And party, party...

That’s Table Mountain with the ‘tablecloth’ in the background.

Another hot Saturday

A week to go. My brain is melting in the heat and fever.

But it is not as good as Bokomo Oats.

Just for fun

‘Do people go to Finland for fun?’ asked one my colleagues quite casually during a breakfast last week in Cape Town. I didn’t know the answer. I told her that I’ll be going there pretty soon to live there (and will have lots of fun), but I’ve never thought if foreign people actually want to got to Finland just for the fun of it. I know that quite a number of at least British tourists fly every winter to Lapland to see Santa Claus and realise in horror that they are served Rudolf the Reindeer as dinner. But I don’t know if that counts as fun. Maybe they just drift there because the Mallorca resorts where already full. Maybe people who have moved to Finland could tell me. Please.

To the same thought I might add this: We saw some baboons on the way to Cape Point, the most south-western point of African continent. I had never seen one before, which greatly surprised my friend Simon. I tried to come up with an animal that I had seen (in Finland or elsewhere) which he had not seen. Couldn’t. Tried elk and reindeer. He had seen elks and caribous in Alaska. No luck, and animals in zoo don’t count. So one would probably not go to Finland to see the not-so-special fauna...

A baboon, the alpha male of its troop.

Nevertheless, I still have quite a handful of reasons to go to Finland. Last Wednesday a visit to the Khayelitsha township (township means apartheid era non-white residential area) and the informal settlements (slums) spreading around it to every direction, gave me a bunch of more reasons.

Still, somehow I think going back to my homeland of security, abundant food, water, energy, everything is not going to help these people living in their shacks. But think of this: Because we have messed up the European economy and subsequently the carbon credit market, the price for emitting a ton of CO2 is lower than ever. Well, how does that relate to a township in Cape Town? In a neighbourhood called Kuyasa, more than 2,000 houses have been equipped with solar water heater and proper insulation. As part of the Kyoto protocol mechanisms, they can then sell carbon credits for European companies. All the investments being made, that is just pure income, but the price now is just a fraction (6.30 €/ton as of 11 Feb) of what it was in the beginning of the trading system (about 30 €/ton). The world is small.

African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) on Robben Island.

Education is the most powerful weapon

...which you can use to change the world. Guess who said that. Ok, you’re right.

Sure is, but still I can’t help wondering why would everyone even want to go to the university. This seems to be the case on this side of the world, for example in Kenya, as a colleague told me. University – or nothing, seems like the options are there. That all boils down to not having a middle class, I guess. Getting to a university is a way (the only?) to climb the social ladder, with very sparse steps.

On Monday, we SA-YSSP’ers did our share in spreading the word of education to local schools. We were divided in three local schools with also high grades and with which the university had done co-operation before before. My group went to a scholl in the outskirts of Bloemfontein, almost in rural area. There were all grades from the 7-year-old 1st graders to the almost adult 12th graders, and they were all singing as we arrived to the spot (a bit late, no wonder). The principal introduced us young scientists to the pupils, and then they sang another song. The whole school was answering to my good morning as ‘good morning, sir’, pretty cool.

The idea was to have a chat with the oldest, the 10, 11 and 12 graders. Tell about ourselves, what did we study, what do we do as researchers, what kind of dreams or plans the pupils have, and so on. It was awesom to have this kind of experience, and see a piece of real life. This school was a free school, as the principal told us, the government pays everything from pencils to lunch, even a transport for the kinds (some live as far as 40 kilometres away and used to walk!). Do I need to mention that I saw no white students there?

And again it struck be: Go to university, work hard, and go to university. This was basically the message that our group leader (from Ghana) told to the youngsters. Having seen how the future options are advertised for the Finnish 9th graders, this was quite different. And, as said I mentioned above, I don’t think university is something everyone even considers. (A quick survey among the other two Europeans among us proved my point.) At least recently also professional training in Finland has really improved its status, and, hey, those people are really needed! I need to find out what other options there are here, if any.

My roommate noted that one of the reasons behind this large-scale university go-go, might the fact that universities were in the past only for the whites. Many black people in universities are first generation students and might not have the same kind of support from home, or even knowledge of their possibilities. Again, it feels like there are acctually two societies in this country. That is so wrong.

End of the deep thoughts for now. This Friday we’ll head to Cape Town, more on that later then! Finally, the latest bird observation is a red-and-yellow barbet. This guy is having a carneval season all year round.

Red-and-yellow Barbet (Trachyphonus erythrocephalus) Photo: Steve Bailey

A Saturday Safari

I spend today with a couple of friends driving the nearby city of Kimberley known for it’s diamond mines. We even went to see the ‘Big Hole’ (or acctually just the edge of it), but the best place we found was our lunch pit-stop, a restaurant called Mini Pakistan!

On the way back we stopped at a nature reserve.

Looks like Isla Nublar to me...

...but inside, we only found these furry beasts:

(Yes, it’s through the car window. Apologies for the reflections.)

Other fauna spotted: elands, springboks, kudus, a warthog (with piglets) and a glipse of a meerkat mob on sentry disapperaring as quickly as they can.

The Nordic Solution

Jonas and I finally got fed up with the mosquitoes. The weather has been very hot the last couple of weeks, so one really cannot keep windows shut during the nights. But with some inspiration and a quick visit to the mall, we came up with a solution. This is how it goes:

1. Target

2. Material & tools

3. Process

4. Results

That’s it! Now just waiting for the night and see how this works...

Work & play

Go running. Work. Play football. Work some more until it’s almost midnight. Sleep. Repeat.

Luckily, somewhere around the dots in the previous description are also loads of interesting conversations, laughter, settling disputes between roommates who come from different cultures, going out and – at last – going to the pool on campus. Last week was something like that, and in addition I even got a haircut.

Even though we finally got the access to the pool, the grumpy Finn complains: it’s the chlorine! I don’t know why pool parties would be something really fancy: the water tastes horrible and you have to take a shower anyway. Believe me, absolutely nothing beats a drop in a Finnish lake or a river on a hot day. That’s something to be proud of, and I hope it’ll keep that way. No lakes here, and I’m definetly not going to the river.

Tonight we went to see a football match at the Free State Stadium here in Bloem. It was part of the 2014 African Nations Championship, and Libya beat Ethiopia 2–0. The final is played in Cape Town on 1st of February. We’ll be then there, maybe buying some tickets...!

Avo has a buddy now. No progress, though.

Kalahari pays a visit

 

What the...?

The Beginning

Happy new year 2014! It’s also day 1 for the Avocado! The day of many beginnings.

 

P:S. How can one approximate the mean wind speed decrease inside a wind farm? Maybe I should change my topic again...

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!