NMMU

There are 23 public higher education institutions and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) is one of them.  The NMMU has 25 000 students and five campuses in PE. It is actually an incorporation of PE Technikon, University of Port Elizabeth and Vista University's PE campus and was formed as NMMU only in 2005. The different faculties are arts, business and economic sciences, education, engineering, the built environment and information technology, health sciences and science. I'm based in this last one in the Botany department. The NMMU is based in Summerstrand and attached to it is a nature reserve where springbok and zebra occur. Monkeys hang around on campus to steel whatever food they can get and if you're in an office with a window, they clime up just to distract you from working. 

A monkey surprised some students by stealing their lunch

Everyone I have met at the NMMU, whether in the Botany department, the Zoology department or in the Geology department was very friendly and helpful. It is generally not  very easy to arrive in a place where you don't have a clue of what usual business is, but everyone here was very understanding of this. I feel lucky to have ended up in such an establishment where my  integration was so rapid.

Strelitzia or bird of paradise

Languages

Afrikaans is a very descriptive language and it sounds humorous to Dutch speakers. The education system in South Africa is constructed in a way that you different languages at school: English, Afrikaans and another indigenous language depending on were you are. In the Eastern Cape children would have English, Afrikaans and Xhosa classes at school. All these languages influence each other on a daily basis and so while speaking one language you will use words from another one. 

Now I didn't get any further than "Good morning", "How are you?" and "Thank you" in Xhosa, but I learnt quiet a lot about Afrikaans and how the "Afrikaner culture" is perceived by non Afrikaners. 

Xhosa:

Molo - Good morning 
Uphilile na namhlanje - How are you?
Enkosi - Thank you


Afrikaans:

verkleurmannetjie - kameleon
sompompie - calculator - rekenmachine
stort - shower - douche
lemoen - orange - appelsien
suurlemoen - lemon - citroen
verskoon my - excuse me - neem mij niet kwalijk
pynappel - ananas
akkedis - lizard -  hagedis
bok - goat - geit
volstruis - ostrich - struisvogel
kameelperd - giraf 
Skop, Skiet en donner - action movie - (schop, schiet en donder)


General used words:

Ag - can be used to start a reply when you are asked a
 tricky question, or a 
sense of resignation and it can stand alone too as a signal 
of irritation.

Eina - Widely used by all language groups, this word,
derived from the Afrikaans, means “ouch.”

Izit? - The equivalent of "Really?" when someone tells you something you didn't know.

Howzit - This is a universal South African greeting

Jawelnofine - is a conversation fallback and roughly means "Ok".

Klap - smack : "If you spend too much time in front
 of the TV during exam time, you could end up getting 
a “klap” from your mother."

Lekker - Widely used by all language groups, this word is used by
 all language groups to express approval.

Now now - "Just wait, I’ll be there now now." This can mean in 20 minutes, 2 hours or 2 days...

Pasop - This is used as a 
warning. Used instead of "Watch out".

Vrot - used to describe anything they really
 dislike

Ja - used to start a sentence, as a stop word (then can become ja-no), or to say "yes".

Floods in the Eastern Cape

Last week and especially last weekend, the Eastern Cape was exposed to continuous heavy rains resulting in flooding. This was felt all over the Eastern Cape and the images are quiet shocking in terms of damage and height of the water level. Several people died. The flood picture were taken from www.algoafm.co.za/ .

Many major roads have been closed as they have collapsed or turned into rivers. On the N2 between Grahamstown and PE, a large section of the road collapsed.  The N2 is one of the main roads in the Province and was only relaid last year. I read in the newspaper: "There is a huge hole, about 25m wide and 50m deep on the N2, by the Pumba Game Reserve, between Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth. It could take more than 3 months to repair the road."

Some bridges have been completely washed away such as over the Sand River, cutting off St Francis Bay from the outside world. The road to Port Elizabeth Airport also caved due to the downpours. Houses were flooded or washed away, this was especially the case in the townships. Power-cuts as a result, have become more frequent. The damage costs are going to be enormous. 

It is in this weather that I had to bicycle to the NMMU to do some lab work. It was quiet an adventure,  I was completely soaked and I must admit that cycling when the water comes almost halfway your tires is quiet tiresome. It was however beautiful to see the wild waves along the coast and seeing the water streaming down turning stairs into waterfalls. 

  

Port Alfred and the Bushmans River area was particularly hit as more than 400mm of rain fell in a few days. I had a chance to visit Port Alfred and the Boesmans estuary a few weeks back. It was a wonderful place then. Some picture of the Boesmans (Bushmans) estuary and the coast connected to it.

Port Alfred

It probably looks very different now...

The Wild Side

The southern coastline of Port Elizabeth is known as the Wild Side. It runs from Cape Recife to Schoenmakerskop and can become quiet stormy as it is outside the shelter of the bay and is open to prevailing south-westerley winds. It's rugged coastline and surrounding fynbos are astonishingly beautiful. This is the place NMMU biology students come on a school field trip as there is a lot of organisms living in the rocky shore. Apparently on one of these outings, they found a stranded whale shark. Not your everyday excursion, I would say. 

The waves are quiet high and therefor a surf spot (as is the whole coastline around PE). I took some maps from http://www.surf-forecast.com to illustrate my descriptions.

Water temperature

Wave height

   

 If you look closely at the horizon of the ocean, you should be able to see the South Pole. It's the right direction at least :0) And it's probably the closest I'll ever come to "seeing" Antarctica. 

The South Pole

Beautiful Remote Transkei

The Transkei is the area above the river Kei, below it, is the Ciskei. It used to be the Republic of Transkei, an independent state, set aside for members of a specific ethnicity. It was legally recognised as a legal entity by South Africa, however unrecognised internationally. It was long diplomatically isolated as it had broken all ties with SA. In 1994, it was reintegrated into South Africa and became part of the Eastern Cape province. The main language is Xhosa, a click language which is quiet difficult to imitate. A lot of places in this area were renamed after 2004, however people still mix both names, which sometimes is quiet confusing.

The Wild Coast, as it is now called, consists of wilderness where man is a part of the landscape. The hillsides are literally littered with cows, sheep, goats and mud huts with a roof made of dried grass. According to the lonely planet, "with its rugged cliffs plunging into the sea, remote sandy beaches, rural villages and a history of shipwrecks and stranded sailors, it is a place for adventure and action." The Eastern Cape is one of the poorest provinces in SA, and in particular the Transkei region. So this is the place to be for rural South Africa. Subsistence farming predominates and natural resources are used for every day life. Many roads are unsealed and don't appear on the maps and signposts are few. No driving after dark and always be on the look out for animals or people crossing roads at any time.

However it is also the homeland of none other than Nelson Mandela. He has retired now to his home village, Qunu, south of Mthatha. Currently his health isn't at its best... after all he is already 94 years old.

Nelson Mandela's house: the orange one in the center of the photo, with the trees around

I was amongst a group of renowned estuarine scientists and we stayed at the Haven Hotel, inside the Dwesa-Cwebe nature reserve. My project is on the catchment area of the Mbashe river and its mouth is situated inside reserve. Some 290 species of birds have been identified inside the reserve and crocodiles have recently been reintroduced. At breakfast I was lucky enough to see a whale jump up quiet close to the coast line. I cannot describe how beautiful that was.

The lonely planet states that you may see rhinos come down to the beach, however I just heard from a park manager that the last 5 were poached in 2010...

Mbashe estuary

I had a few sampling days in the estuary, especially in the mangroves. It is quiet an experience, slipping and sliding along the pencil roots of Avicennia trees and there is no way to stay clean. Crabs are very abundant. While crossing the estuary we had to be very vigilant as Zambezi sharks (or bullsharks) like to swim in the estuary with the tide.

On the other side of the reserve, not too far from the Haven Hotel, lies the Mbayana estuary, smaller than the Mbashe, but not less precious.

The catchment area of the Mbashe is very diverse. From grassland to savanna to coastal forest. A lot of land seems degraded due to cattle grazing enhanced by the relief and the gullies are numerous. And all over these traditional (or now less traditional) huts, homes to the Xhosa people. 

In a few words: a wonderful experience.