Juanette shares her remarkable Story with us, The Anns August Club 100 winners (omitted last week), what are the Anns getting up to? and celebrate Heritage Day the EcoBrick way....

From the Pen of the President..... 

Dear fellow Rotarians and friends,

Spring has sprung and there is something in the air!! EMBRACE the feeling….

I found this on Facebook and thought it appropriate to the time of year.

JOY

Joy does not arrive with a fanfare, 

on a red carpet strewn with the flowers of a perfect life.

Joy sneaks in, as you pour a cup of coffee,

watching the sun hit your favourite tree, just right.

And you usher joy away,

because you are not ready for it. 

Your house is not as it must be,

for such a distinguished guest.

But joy cares nothing for your messy home, 

or your bank-balance,

or your waistline, you see.

Joy is supposed to slither through the cracks of your imperfect life,

that’s how joy works.

You cannot invite her, you can only be ready when she appears.

And hug her with meaning,

because in this very moment, 

joy chose you.

Donna Ashworth

Yours in Rotary….

Ann Hope-Bailie

Last Friday.....

As Editor-in-Chief I don't think I would have done Juanette McCrindle's  "Story" any justice if I had condensed it, so here it is as written and told by Juanette herself. 

" My journey started 55 years ago… as my mother stood in the queue to go to the cinema in Umtata in the Transkei.  She never made the movie, my dad took her into hospital and then went back to watch the movie…..

Apparently I was a very difficult little girl and hence my grampa offered to adopt because my mother could not manage my charming and challenging personality. I am not sure if I have changed much and Rainer probably would love for my Grampa to adopt me now….:)

I have an older sister in the UK, a younger sister and brother in Australia and my parents who are both still alive in Australia.

My dad worked on West Rand Cons mine and my mother was a hairdresser.  As a child I attended 3 primary schools and 2 high schools. Most of my childhood was spent in a place called Mooinooi near Rustenburg. We commuted by bus daily in primary school and in High School I asked to be in the hostel so I could participate in after school activities. We were not wealthy, but I do not remember feeling compromised in any way.

Academically I did alright and I played tennis for the first team. I started ballet at the age of 4 and continued until age 12 when I gave it up for jazz dancing. Hostel prefect.

Do any of you remember POP SHOP with David Gresham???? Well I was on one of the dances on a couple of his shows.

 In my matric year I was fortunate to go the United States on a tour, without my parents. It opened my eyes to a whole new world.  I had just turned 17. Because I had taken Maths, Science, Accountancy and Economics… a good thing I felt would be to learn how to type. So I went to technical college for a year and got a secretarial certificate and worked part time for a clothes designer.

 I could not see myself living and marrying a man on the mine, I had other ideas, I was stubborn, determined, focused, I wanted to go places and meet people.

I then left home at the age of 18 and moved in with my aunt and uncle in Springs…. Yes there was a reason… he was a year younger than me and we met because his mother and my mother were in school together.

I worked a part time job in a video store for a few months before getting a job as a junior bookkeeper. I moved into my own flat. My relationship ended, life went on and by then I was a senior secretary for a Customer services manager and later a bookkeeper for an asset manager with Liberty Life in Braamfontein.

I initially commuted to Johannesburg and back until one day I was in the train going home when it was stoned by an angry mob of people who could not get home because the 2^nd class compartments were full. Yes it was back in the time when you had 1^st class and 2^nd class SAR coaches. It was however during one of my train rides to and from Johannesburg that I met my ex-husband Doug, I was 20 at the time.

I then moved to Johannesburg to stop this commuting to and from.

Doug and I had been going out for just over a year when I bought my first townhouse and he and I bought a piece of property together. After 4 years we got married. I was 23 and 3 weeks pregnant, had my first child when I was 24, my second when I was 25 and my third at 27. 

When my second child was 2 months old we moved to Botswana. Doug was a chartered accountant and took a position in Selebi Phikwe, where my youngest was also born.

So, arriving in the desert I asked myself what am I going to do?? I used these years to develop my domestic skills, I learned to sew and made some of my children’s clothes, I learned to cook and helped run a community coffee shop. I continued my dancing exams and I developed my thespian skills. I also did the books of a florist. 

After 4 years we moved back to RSA to Richards Bay of all places. I applied for a position with Knight Pieshold as righthand woman to the person running the office. I got the position but 6 months later we moved to Zambia.

Again, it was what am I to do here in Africa. I joined the PTA and later the board of directors for the school my children were attending, it was also here that I met Rainer for the first time.

 These were crazy times and I remember going to Bangkok for a weekend with 6 women… we never slept. We shopped until we dropped and I came back and sold the goods I bought and this covered my costs of this fantastic trip… ..

I joined the International Woman's Club and for a year was the president of the club, which took me to meet the elders of a leper colony which lies an hour or so out of Lusaka and at that time, the people in this community were not allowed to attend any public hospitals. We provided seeds and other assistance which they needed…  I helped at an AIDS orphanage.

Needing some self-development, I completed a diploma in teaching English as a Second or Foreign language and started my own import export company specialising in ladies’ garments.  Ran an audiology business.

A friend asked me to be the area manager for a cosmetic company and this awarded me the opportunity to do the makeup for the miss Zambia pageant.

It was through the cosmetics business that I met a lady who was to be the daughter in law to the now late President Sata… she came to purchase her wedding underwear from me and I was invited to the wedding. There were 4 whites at a wedding of 800 people… my husband and I had such a good laugh… Mr Sata was then the Minister without portfolio, and thought that because we had been invited to the wedding that we must be really important people… he served us wine the whole night… I hope no one ever told him we were nobodies in the biggest sense… ha ha ha…

Because of my good experiences in Botswana, I joined the amateur dramatic club and was picked for the role of Magenta in the Rocky Horror picture show… this was a hoot from the first rehearsal in our underwear till the final of 14 shows where we had a lawyer in the wings because of the possibility of being arrested for being scantily dressed in a public place

After 4 wonderful years in Zambia our lives took us to Botswana once again and then back to South Africa. Back in South Africa I enrolled in a B ed degree and started teaching in a private school. However, my interests had changed and I swapped my degree to a psychology degree.

I was asked to assist in a special project at AirChefs working with a team of Chartered Accounts to sort out their “Creditors”… it was an interesting project and they asked me to stay on permanently….They offered to double my salary but I chose to work with Rainer instead. At an ex-Zambian get together… at Rainer’s house… he was talking to a friend of mine and he asked her… “Do you know anyone who can set up and run my business in South Africa?” I turned around and said.. “I can”… That was the start of my business with Rainer… we developed a network in Africa selling specialised equipment to the breweries and soft drink companies… we were working with engineers from Germany and responsible for 21 countries. At the same time, I got involved in the Harveytile business and developed the Zimbabwe region as well as help manage and direct the Zambian operation.

 We opened up a business in the DRC and for 6 years tried to break into the market amid the bribery and corruption which is rife. Sadly, we left after making a huge loss… but the experiences are irreplaceable. Let me share a few short stories with you… first… I never saw another white woman walk across the Congolese border…..

… we were attacked in Kinshasa walking down the road.. 2 guys jumped Rainer and they rolled on the ground… it was not looking good and the only way Rainer saw out was to stick his finger in one of the perpetrators throat… just then a 3^rd guy approached and said stop stop.. we ran one way and they ran the other…..

…on another occasion we took a local minibus and because Rainer understands a bit of Kiswahili understood that the discussion in the bus was whether to rob us or not, half the bus said yes… we got off at the next stop…

… One Friday going to the airport in Lubumbashi we were stopped a few km before only to find out there was a shoot out between the rebels and the Congolese army going on… we turned the car around and drove to the Zambian border… we did not want to risk being caught up in a war….

.. another time crossing from Congo to Zambia by foot we were stopped by the officer of the president to be searched…. They thought I was a journalist and wanted me to unpack my bag… I did.. by showing the panel my garments one by one.. until the lady got upset because she thought that I would buckle and offer a bribe… instead I just repacked my bag neatly…. And on one occasion Rainer and I were separated at the border… they took the passports and left me alone … then they came back with Rainer and 2 men took me away… only for them to end up arguing in French and me asking if I can leave… I looked calm… but inside I was shivering with fear as I did not know what they wanted to do. …

Shortly after our return to South Africa my ex-husband took a job in Abu Dhabi and we in essence moved in different directions and got divorced. I went through a difficult time and in order to find myself again decided to enter a triathlon and completed the Psychology degree I had started some years ago… just this time at a different institute. I completed both. I will continue my studies in the hope to open my own practice at some point.

I joined Rotary in 2005 and since 2012 am a proud member of the RC of Rosebank… until they fire me for lack of personal attendance … 😊

I married Rainer in 2018….. and we have relocated to Hamburg in Germany.

The day Juanette married Reiner

As I said in the beginning… which parts of my crazy life do I share and in what detail…so I have given you the straight forward uncomplicated version… and now I would like to share some of the crazy things that happened during what seemed to be a relatively normal life….

Ø  3 Bungees - Highest Bungee in the world

Ø  Zambezi White River Rafting

Ø  Hot Air ballooning, champagne breakfast, etc.

Ø  Skydiving over dunes in Namibia

Ø  Quad biking through the dunes and sand boarding on the dunes.

Ø  Completed a 5-day hike through Drakensberg, did not summit in Lesotho due to storm

Ø  Completed the Otter trail

Ø  Shark diving (in a cage in Hermanus)

Ø  Snorkelled the Great Barrier Reef

Ø  Driven Great Ocean Road and Gold Coast

Ø  Visited the 12 Apostles in Australia and in Cape Town 😊

Ø  Visited Blue Mountains

Ø  Blue butterflies in Cairns (Special place where only they are found)

Ø  Enchanted Gardens in Sintra, Portugal, where Harry Potter roamed

Ø  Eaten Star Fish, Sea cucumbers, Duck tongue and Sea Cockroaches in China

Ø  Played tennis with Egyptian Ambassador in Zambia.

Ø  The late President of Zambia, Sata, served me wine at his son’s wedding because he thought I was someone important 😊

Ø  Valentines Picnic on the Eifel Tower

Ø  Skiing in Austria

Ø  Visited Buckingham Palace

Ø  Visited the White House

Ø  Swimming with Dolphins in Mauritius

Ø  Diving in Mauritius

Ø  Parasailing over ship wreck in Comoros

Ø  Travelled 1^st and Business class over 50 times – do not belong to the Mile High club ☹ but have showered and slept in a suite

Ø  Visited Ann Frank’s House and the Rijksmuseum

Ø  Visited the Hole in the Wall in Transkei

Ø  Thrown sticks off Poohsticks Bridge

Ø  Walked through the 100-acre Wood

Ø  Played Magenta in the Rocky Horror Picture Show

Ø  Participated in a speed Triathlon …. And finished it!

Ø  Spent 6 hours in a Sweat Lodge

Ø  Fasted for 12 days (no food, only water)

Ø  Sat with Elders from a Leper Colony

Ø  Worked with orphaned HIV Aids babies

Ø  Swam the Midmar Mile

Ø  Held a Koala bear, Boa Constrictor and Crocodile

Ø  Lay on rocks hanging over Victoria Falls at devil’s pool

Ø  Visited Twin Towers

Ø  Been up Empire State

Ø  Saw Liza Minnelli Live at Radio City Hall in New York when I was 17

Ø  Climbed down part of Grand Canyon

Ø  Seen Old Faithfull explode

Ø  Been to Disney, Universal Studios and Epcot centre

Ø  Watched the Sun Set and skinny dipped in Key West

Ø  Been on the Biggest Cruise ship in the world

Ø  Cried my eyes out on Robin Island

Ø  Danced on television and performed on stage many times, acting and dancing

Ø  Sewed my children’s clothes and made their birthday cakes

Ø  Watched a traditional burial, the burning of a body in Nepal

Ø  Saw the Kama Sutra engraved in wood around the top of a temple in Nepal

Ø  Travelled the Rovos Rail from Pretoria to Cape Town

Ø  Briefly met Richard Branson

Ø  Been on a house boat on Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe and the Mürizt in Germany

Ø  Seen the Iguazu falls

Ø  Climbed up the Erawan Falls (4^th of 7 levels) in Thailand – 4^th level where little fishes eat the dead skin off your body

Ø  Visited Kanchanaburi, Thailand walked over the Death Railway, visited the JEATH war museum where underneath every loin cloth the artist with much effort gave each man a penis :0 LOL

Ø  Slept in Hotel Del Lago where the rich and famous met their lovers in the late 1800’s

Ø  Been through the Everglades on an airboat to visit an old Indian village

Ø  Travelled on a train in Vietnam

Ø  Visited Angkor Wat in Cambodia

Ø  Stayed 4 nights in a Buddhist temple in the South of Korea

Ø  Swam in a crocodile infested river in the Thuli block

Ø  Am privileged to ride a Harley Davidson

Last but not least… been booed of the stage because I cannot sing

…… I have been blessed with three amazing children who are successful in their own right…

…. My blessings have been bountiful and I have been blessed with more than I need which gives me the opportunity to share and care for others…. and I am grateful every day for the full and amazing life that I have been able to live….

…. The people in my life including my Rotary friends have enriched me in so many ways and it is to each and every one of you that I am thankful for the experiences and love you have embraced me with…

What are the Anns getting up to?

President Shirley is full of spring energy.  Recently a relative passed on without leaving a will.  Shirley, not daunted by the scale of the task, asked if the Anns could have the contents of her apartment and the family agreed, provided that the Anns do the work of clearing out and transporting the goods.  Another Ann, Anne Whitehead made space available in her garages and outbuildings, for the goods.  It took a team of workers, marshalled by Shirley, to clear out the premises so the apartment could be sold.  In the process some of the goods were sold and a tidy sum of money was raised to be put towards current and future projects. 

On Saturday 3 September a sale took place at Anne Whitehead’s home where clothes and household goods were sold and a further tidy sum was raised.  Friday morning was devoted to sorting and laying out the goods for sale on the Saturday morning and some Anns pitched in and helped.  A team of Anns turned out on Saturday morning to conduct the sale.  A WhatsApp text and photo reported that they had had fun and raised a pleasing amount of money. 

There is to be a jumble sale at the end of September to dispose of more of the goods.  This will be a wonderful shot in the arm for the Anns funds for projects.  Special congratulations go to Shirley and Anne and all the Anns who helped and will help with these sales.

Bridge Drive

With Liz Short’s drive and outstanding organisational skills, we are preparing for our first post COVID fund raising bridge drive on 14 September.  A committee has been meeting monthly to make all the arrangements and the final details are being planned.  There is still time for Rotarians to donate raffle prizes – wine and chocolates are always greatly appreciated.

EcoBrick Heritage Day Celebration...

This Friday....

...We welcome guest speaker Anthony Rosenbaum, who organizes bespoke slack-packing experiences to tell us a little bit more about hiking trails in the Outeniqua Mountains and the Karoo.