Africa in the News - Education

While on one level, I think that we pay our celebrities an enormous amount of money - valuing them in excess of their "true" worth. Why is a football player worth more than a farmer, etc? I don't know the answer . . . But one of the things that many celebrities do with the incredible money they make is to find worthwhile things to fund. While the gist of the article describes a problem at Oprah's school in South Africa, I have to be proud that she is doing something important to make a difference in African lives.


From Reuter's news article:

"The abuse charges have assumed a high profile in South Africa, where activists accuse the government of neglecting often overcrowded and inadequately funded public schools lacking such basic items as textbooks. High levels of classroom violence, teenage pregnancy and drug abuse exacerbate the poor standard of education, which still suffers from inequalities left by apartheid."

Getting the children in Africa educated would make a big difference in their standard of living. One of our fellow guests while at Luangwa was visiting a school under construction that one of their organizations was funding. Many church organizations are funding the building and equiping of new schools.

While I am very sorry that someone criminally irresponsible was hired to care and supervise these children, that can happen anywhere. The more important thing is for Oprah's school and others to continue to provide the best education possible for African children.

Cape Town

We had an excellent tour guide today, Mick Hedderman. He picked us up promptly at our hotel. We went up Signal Hill for a beautiful overlook of beautiful Cape Town. Then we drove south visiting the beautiful Constantia wine country including the Groot Constantia Estate,










the Slangkop Lighthouse at Kommetjie, the incredible views at the Cape of Good Hope, False Bay, Simon Town, and Kalk Bay.













The shoreline is so beautiful - rocky in places, white sand in others.




At the Buffelsfontein Visitor Center, we were mugged by the baboons. While we had been warned, they came in unexpectedly right after we finished eating. I stood up to take my photo, and the trash fell - quick as a wink one of the baboons had one of the empty yogurt cups. They are well trained - the workers came out with their sling shots and up the drainspouts to the roof they went. I felt really bad - I know how bad it is to feed wildlife. When animals become habituated to humans many times they must be killed. While I doubt that we were the first visitors whose picnic had been raided, I still felt bad that I did not move fast enough to keep them from being successful with their raid. We saw ostriches feeding along the beach area (first time for me to see them in the wild.)




We saw the African penguins at the Boulders unit of Table Mountain National Park. Toward the end of the day we saw Southern Right whales breaching off in the distance!




Mick is a great tour guide. He showed us a map of where we would be going. We learned bits of the history of the places we visited. His hospitality and cheerfulness (putting up with a photographer who was always stopping along the way to take still another photo!) made the day a special day. I highly recommend him for a wonderful way to see the sights of the beautiful cape.