Family Time in a Small Town

Sorry for the delay in updates but there have been two film festivals in town at Rhodes University over the past couple of weeks -- which means that, for once, there has been something to do in Grahamstown! I've seen a number of films and documentaries including "Suffering and Smiling", "Thomas Sankara: The Upright Man", "The War on Democracy", "Four Wives, One Man", and "Bamboozled". One of the festivals with the catchy name FilmFest 08: More Zen, Less Phobia continues and next week will show "Up the Yangtzhe", a Canadian documentary about China that I missed at last year's Vancouver International Film Festival because it was sold out.

Last weekend, Kim and I headed out to Bathurst to stay with Sarah, our supervisor and director of the Grahamstown LRC. Sarah, Monty, and their beautiful blond son Dan live on a farm just outside Bathurst. Monty’s parents and brother have houses on the same big property. “Welcome to paradise”, said Sarah as we pulled up to the house – and it really was. You really miss family time when you’re living abroad, so it was extra lovely to pass the weekend at their house enjoying simple pleasures like cooking together, reading, picking salad greens from the “tunnel” (where Monty grows native and food plants), watching Tom and Jerry with Dan.

One reason for the trip was a farewell party for a girl named Ronelle to be held on Saturday night at the Bathurst Arms, the local pub. The Bathurst Arms is the drinking spot in town… well, the only one since the Pig & Whistle closed down. It’s a classic small town pub – everyone knows each other, dogs roam around, and if you’re lucky (like we were) you’ll be treated to an impromptu jam session by a few local boys. We had a grand time, and at one point I even got drunk enough to pick up the djembe and start playing with the boys.

Sunday was a quiet day troubled by a few hangovers. The main event of the day was a big fish braai that Monty cooked up on a fire outside. It was my first South African braai and Monty did it justice.