Day five Grahamstown

Day five – Grahamstown

Grahamstown

ILONA KARNIŁO:

The fifth day we’ve spent exploring the newly built and yet to be finished Literary Museum. It was a different kind of experience compared to a normal visit to museum. We were all equipped with helmets and explored and empty building - just full of construction workers. Then we visited a spectacular, green campus of Rhodes University and 1820 National Settlers Museum. Later we’ve spent some time at the pool at Agata and Zuza’s hosts. We really enjoyed that, and decided to build our own pool in Poland. To finish the day off, we went to a lovely pub called Rat&Parrot, where we ate delicious burgers and tried local beer. Unfortunately the night had to end quite early, as we had to get to our hosts safely.

Chasers happy in their helmets, NELM's construction site.

One thing that surprised me in Grahamstown were the cows, which were walking up a quite urban street with no supervision.

Grahamstown

AGATA LEŚNOWOLSKA:

It was really hot.

We started with the National English Literary Museum, NELM, and we managed to see its new building’s construction site. It was too hot then to be imaginative, but now I can see how great it may be, when finished. I hope there is a whole room just for Brink (now here is an intelligent one, writing in two languages and now he gets to be in both museums) and one for Coetzee and Nadine Gordimer. I know that there is tension when it comes to English and Afrikaans in South Africa. Tension caused by English being the one politically correct language in the whole country, indicating inclusiveness and equality, making Afrikaans stand in the corner. And the NELM’s modernity and progressiveness illustrates this situation. 

Rhodes University is one impressive university. Its smallness was definitely surprising but after walking around its premises I realized that due to it, studying there must offer a completely different experience from studying at AMU. I just think (maybe naively) it must mean more personal relationship with a student. And the library, it was definitely something. As a professional library fanatic I was quite impressed. There were these little things I loved about it because they were very student-friendly. Like couches to sit (or lie) on, not just tables with chairs. Separate communal areas, where you can deal with a group project and don’t interrupt students who want to learn in silence. And a category “large books”, because there are large books in the world and they should have their own unique space in a library. I think it illustrates a very honest approach to books and to readers.

Rhodes University

Saalem mixed my feelings. On one hand you had the church with opened doors and donation box in the corner (you could ‘pop’ R100 into it) and on the other the vision of Lucy’s farm from ‘Disgrace’. It just didn’t go together. Especially after Liz de Wet told us that she didn’t like this book because she didn’t feel it portrayed the area accurately. But then again, it’s a novel, it is supposed to present a problem accurately, not a place. So I’ve disconnected ‘Disgrace’ and Saalem in my head.

After Saalem the fun part started for me, because I got to drive in the front seat. For a girl from the last, last seat it was a big deal. We bought prickly pears although Adrian really wanted to save the money and pick them himself (babies).

In the 1820 Settlers Monument I mostly liked two things: the fact that it has become a place of gathering, celebrating and ‘festivaling’, and the replica of the sculpture that was presented to President Mandela on 16 May 1996 by the department of Fine Arts at Rhodes University. It was a statue of a really beautiful cow.

On a side note, ‘Rat and Parrot’ felt almost like home (ah, student pubs) but better. We really should start to burger Polish pubs up.

Saalem, 1820 Settlers' first church

ADRIAN PTASZYŃSKI:

Builder's Paradise

Today the secret part of me who is an engineer was flattered – I was taken to evaluate the construction site of the National English Literary Museum. I am just messing around here – the museum was in the process of moving to a fresh new building, which fresh new building happened to be totally unfinished. We were not able to see any of the exhibitions, but well, maybe someday.. I have also found my completed BA thesis in the library of Rhodes University, while touring the campus with a local Professor. After such a busy morning, we went to see the little town of Salem where Coetzee's David was laying low after getting to know one of his students in Cape Town. We have also seen the undercrowded 1820 Settlers National Monument, which apparently becomes overcrowded during the yearly festival. In the evening we went to a proper student pub in Grahamstown, ''Rat & Parrot”, and had a proper party involving one burger and two beers. Unfortunately we did not mingle with any of the local students, but apparently the school year had not started yet because of the riots caused by a stunning discovery that Rhodes was a criminal working against the student community and is responsible for all evil in the world.

Saalem, 1820 Settlers' second church

ZUZANNA WALISZEWSKA:

In the morning we ate breakfast with Liz and Chris. Oh, and by the way. The bedroom we slept in was wonderful. There were bookshelves on every wall full of books and albums. I feel I could stay there a little bit longer. On that day we were supposed to visit National English Literary Museum. Unfortunately, the new building is still under construction and many of the exhibitions were already packed. However, we had an opportunity to walk through a building site. It almost had nothing to do with literature, but it turned out that we are a group that is able to have fun anywhere at any time. Especially when it involves wearing protection helmets. Thanks to Chris we also walked through Rhodes University campus that I was really impressed by. I wish we had such a campus here in Poznań, full of tress, plants and benches. Failing exams in a such surrounding surely wouldn’t be that painful for me. Later on, we visited Salem and “1820 Settlers National Monument”. At the end of the day we had a swim in de Wet’s swimming pool.  In the evening we went to the pub called “The rat and parrot”. We could get a feeling of student life in South Africa. 

1820 Settlers Monument

Chasers with a view on Grahamstown

MICHAŁ MARCINIAK:

It is time to explore Grahamstown. Lynette gives me a lift to the National English Literary Museum where we are supposed to meet with the rest. We are in the old building of the museum. It turned out that we are going to visit  the construction site of the new one. Our guide even gave us helmets- safety first! After NELM it is time to explore the campus of Rhodes University. This time our guide is one of our hosts, professor in anthropology at this university – Chris de Wet. He knows the university inside out so we saw a lot. We also visited Salem and the 1820 Settlers National Museum which hosts very famous National Arts Festival. Later on it was the time to relax in the swimming pool and  drink some coolers. In the evening we went to the pub for students. This was before the start of the academic year so there were not so many students. However, we ate delicious burgers and tried some craft beers. Unfortunately we lost the track of time and our hosts had to wait for us. I really hope they did not hold a grudge against us.

Rat & Parrot