From the Pen of the President...
There is mounting
evidence that the Omicron variant of Covid 19 generally has mild symptoms on
those people it infects, particularly if you have been vaccinated. Whilst
medical specialists say it is too early to form a definitive view in this
regard, it certainly provides a ray of hope in an otherwise gloomy situation. A
doctor I played tennis with over the weekend felt Covid may well become similar
to flu – a virus that will always be with us but not one that poses a great
risk and one that will have an annually updated vaccine available. I pray that
these positive views prove to be correct.
Costa Qually
President
Tailpiece
If you fill your
heart with regrets of yesterday and worries of tomorrow, you have no today to
be thankful for.
Last Friday...
.... we were entertained by guest speaker Michael Daiber, general manager of the !Khwa-ttu San Culture and Education Centre, which was developed up the West Coast, 70 km north of Cape Town on a remote, desolate farm with spectacular views of Table Mountain in the far distance.
Originally from Switzerland, Michael came to South Africa as a young passionate anthropologist more than 30 years ago with a yearning to learn more about the San people. Unlike the Khoisan, who possessed sheep and cattle and who lived predominately on West Coast, the San, or Bushman, were hunter-gatherers, without possessions and scattered throughout the whole of Southern Africa all the way up to the Okavango.
In 1998, Michael met Irene Steahelin, another Swiss National and also an anthropologist, who had come to South Africa to write her Master's thesis about the San. She had a vision of establishing a place that could showcase the San culture to the world and therefore pledged the funds to buy a dilapidated farm consisting of 850 hectares of land, which had been on the market for 10 years. The land was placed into a Trust directed jointly by the San and the Swiss-based Ubuntu Foundation.
San people came from all over the country to work on the project and it took years to clear the land and renovate the buildings and in 2006 the project was finally ready to open to the public.
Today it is a thriving tourist attraction receiving 20 000 visitors a year, with 40 permanently employed San. Every year 10 San interns between the ages of 18 to 30 come from various parts of South Africa and spend 6 months at !Khwa-ttu and are taught all aspects of tourism from building roads to making cappuccinos. The aim is make these young interns self-sustainable, and even if they are unable to find formal jobs they are given the practical tools to start their own little businesses in conservation, tourism or manufacturing.
To learn more about this unique project you can click into this link kindly shared with us by Michael.
Trolley Loads of good Cheer...
This past weekend we made one last concerted effort to encourage Norwood Spar patrons to donate non-perishable food items to our annual "festive cheer" drive and although we have not yet received the final figures our initiative has born abundant fruit.
Thank you to all the willing and able volunteers, we would not have been able to do it without you.
We are hoping that we will be able to still distribute the vouchers before Christmas thereby ensuring that we will be able to deliver some much needed Christmas Cheer to some of the most vulnerable communities.
This Friday....
For those joining Christmas the Christmas party please don't forget a toy or book or sweets for a less privileged child.