prelude to the cape
this morning i booked my flight to cape town this weekend. i will be leaving bright and early tomorrow morning and coming back sunday afternoon. i wish i had more time here so that i could explore all of the many things to see, since 2 days in cape town is quite the bare minimum. but i’ll be taking a half day hike up table mountain before meeting up with the Brits family for dinner. saturday, i’ll be taking the full day wine route, stopping by Paarl (the third-oldest town in South Africa) known for their shiraz, Franschhoek estates, and finally Stellenbosch for their cabs, merlots and pinotages.
today was yet another busy day without the field vehicle. miranda and i drove up to swayimane to visit the creche and drop off the new toys for the kids. these kids, ages 1-5, are absolutely the most adorable kids on earth. they welcomed us with their songs, dusted their fingers off their pants, and jumped at every chance to get their hands on these new puzzles, legos, balls and the most popular of all – the mini motor-cars!
next, we stopped by the swayimane computer center, which was an absolute delight to see. they had two rows of 4-6 machines, half of which were donated by zimele and the others by computers for africa (CFA). there was a class being taught by lawrence, the only instructor at the moment – who was teaching the students all about the lovely world of desktop shortcuts! for R100, students have access to the lab and class sessions where they work their way through basic computer skills, MS-Office applications and web training. i have great faith in both the computer lab as well as the newly built library, and strongly believe it will have a tremendous impact on the people of swayimane – opening lots of new doors for their future. i am already in discussion with zimele staff to explore new ways in which we can utilize information technology to better assist group training and savings monitoring. the computer lab is definitely the first step in the right direction!
on the way back, we visited the town of clarendon to drop by the john peattie house, a home for physically and mentally disabled persons. miranda is a member of the 31club, a local charity organization, through which she had recently donated new floors to cover up unsafe damages that were causing a few of the residents to trip and injure themselves. as we walked through the hallway to inspect the new floorwork, i was introduced to a few of the residents there – who all seemed to believe i was jason hartman. jason who??
i googled jason hartman only to find out he’s the winner of the fifth season of Pop Idol, South Africa! — i’ll take that as a compliment even though he’s white and i’m asian 
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later this afternoon, i heard back from professor anesh singh, head of the graduate school of business at the university of kwazulu-natal, who expressed great interest in setting up a meeting with me next week to discuss an assignment his students were recently tasked with – which is to explore new development models that would potentially secure economic development in the rural district of wartburg where they have good soil, water and electricity. i cannot wait to learn more about what these students have discovered thus far.
i am absolutely thrilled about our appointment and am especially looking forward to discussing how information technology can help.
