All tagged phambili
“My motherland is in Nepal but this city is a place that made me who I am really am, made me the real Dipen, gave me an identity. Whoever I am today is thanks to Hong Kong.”
At just one such gathering in one small farming community in the Eastern Cape, there are so many beautiful tales to tell. These are the good stories waiting to be told in rural farming communities all over South Africa.
A group of remarkable twenty-somethings embarked on an African adventure most of us will only dream about; 12 countries in 12 months by bike.
Who would have thought that a sport which allegedly originated from American students throwing around pie dishes on the college campuses of 1960s USA would eventually make its way to the villages of South Africa’s Wild Coast?
“We call penguins an indicator species. If the penguin is sick, the ocean is sick. Penguin numbers are dropping drastically, so it means that other sea life is suffering too,” says Philipa Wood, Education Manager at SANCCOB.
It was ten years ago when Gina Woolley was offered a job working for Jamie Oliver Ltd that this young woman from the Sundays River Citrus Valley began one of her greatest adventures.
As much as London is about its majestic buildings steeped in historical significance, world-class (free) museums, theatre shows and iconic views of the Thames, it is people who live there that add a fire to its belly, graffiti to its streets and soul to its music scene.
“If this was a crime, we would never do it. We do this for the love of music. We do this to support our children and families,” says Ricardo Goliath, member of Fusion Vocal Group.
“You have to stamp out in some regions because there are no borders on Lake Malawi except for where there are harbours. We were pirates on the lake for a couple of days when we’d stamp out of one country and it would sometimes take us two days to get to the next point where we’d be able to stamp into the next country.”
This particular tale is about the serendipity of travel; of coincidence and timing, of friendship. It is a story I have been meaning to tell for some time.
Walking through the front door of The Phoenix Hotel is like taking a few steps back in time; you can almost smell the history and hear the singing. It is no wonder that in the late 60s, the hotel is said to have sold the most beer per square foot of any establishment in the city.
There is nothing quite like witnessing a Karoo sunset, but catching a lift to the top of a mountain on the back of a bakkie (or a horse) and watching it from there, is even better.
