Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Interesting websites
It takes quite long to upload photographs, so if you want to see even more pictures of the places we visit, go to the following websites:
http://www.cypnet.co.uk/ncyprus/city/kyrenia/bellapais/abbey.htm http://www.pbase.com/andronikkie/bellapais_abbey&page=2
http://www.cypnet.co.uk/ncyprus/city/kyrenia/bellapais/abbey.htm http://www.pbase.com/andronikkie/bellapais_abbey&page=2
Monday, March 26, 2007
Castles on mountains, snow, Turks and Greeks
It is quite hard to maintain this blog. One has to be disciplined and write often and unfortunately discipline is not onee of my best characteristics. Last weekend we went to buffavento on the Saturday. It is a very old castle situated on the highest point in North Cyprus - about 20 and a half mettres lower than Table mountain. The children, especially Danny, were marvellous with the climb. The path winds up at a merciful angle and with all the stops along the way and the children's antics we made it up and down in about three hours. We had to prevent them from starting rock falls, because children find a dark pleasure in rolling boulders off the mountain side. Fortunately the mountain is still there and other visotors are slowly recovering in a local hospital. Just kidding. The views from the buttresses are breathtaking - you will have to take my word for that for now because off the camera that is still out of commission. I found out today that they can fix it for less than a new camera would cost and we hope to have it by the weekend. chris will appreciate that the guy in the camera shop could only speak Turkish and German, so, what could I do? I had to pretend to be able to speak German. It seems to have worked, ja? We wwill definitely go to Buffavento again and will post pictures on the blog then. Daniel says he loves ruins and castles and asks us everyday if we could stay here forever. "We'll have to see my boy..." He seems to have had a tremendous growth spurt in the past two months. He loves to present complex ideas to us in high-brow English. It is quite cute. Today he decided that he wants to be different from other children by becoming an adult quicker than them. Bid jou dit aan! I don't think we need to be too concerned because in the space of 1 hour he does a tremendous amount of things that leave us in no doubt that he is a five-year old boy.
Last Sunday we decided to attempt the dreaded border crossing. We heard that there was still snow on the Troodos mountains in the South. (For those of you who still don't know, the South is Greek and is, according to the Turks, a different country to the North. According to the Greeks it is the same country with an invaded North. If you are more interested, I can at some later stage provide you with an extract of my version of Cypriot History 101.) The highest point there is a peak called Mount Olympus, about twice as high as Table Mountain. No it is not the Mount Olympus, that is in Greece. We got through the border without ceremony. I believe that the Greeks are not all that happy if people like us enter illegally, according to them, through the North, but they were happy that we weren't permanent residents and they didn't know that we were working here. We learnt that it would be best if, once I get my work permit, I request that they do not put it in my passport, but on separate piece of paper. There are still many places we want to visit in the South.
The road to the mountain is beautiful. The children were very excited, as they should be. When we got to the village of Troodos, there was snow everywhere. Not fresh snow, but good enough to build snowmen. Being ignorant Africans, we were totally under-dressed for this adventure and soon all of us were approaching a state of hypo-thermia and frostbyte. We made the most of it, but will certaainly be better prepared when we do such a thing again. For Danny it was absolutely unforgettable. Unfortunately no photos except on my phone, so, if I can figure out a way to transfer the images to my computer. Standing on top of the mountain amidst countless snowmen, we could see the mediterranian on the North and on the South. It made us realize that this is a small place. I hope they sort out their sh*t soon, but it seems that this is not very likely. Living in the North, I am developing sympathy for the Turkish Cypriot case, but I know it is rather complex and that it comes for many centuries. Religion plays an important part in the conflict and perhaps some day I will write about it. On our way back we got lost on the Greek side of Lefkosia. It is easier to drive away from a border post than to find it again in a strange city. The best thing that can happen to a tourist is to get lost. We had a nice sight seeing trip. The South looks decidedly more prosperous. Franchises like MacDonalds and Kentucky pop up amongst the buildings - something one doesn't see in the North. There are no statues of the stern and upright Attaturk which one finds on every street corner in the North. There are howeve a statue or two of Archbishop Makarios, pointing an outstretched arm to the North.
The South is also VERY expensive. For some reason the Cypriot pound is worth just over R 17 - stronger than the British pound. Therefore a kleftiko costing a mere 6 Cypriot pound costs a small fortune in Rands. Apart from motor insurance, we didn't spend money in the South.
For now, I'm signing off, still a few posts behind, but forever hoping to catch up. More pictures that were taken before the camera broke will follow - its just that it tales quite long to upload it on to the blog. Who will be our first visitors from SA? 1000 000 points for those who beat the others to the line!
Last Sunday we decided to attempt the dreaded border crossing. We heard that there was still snow on the Troodos mountains in the South. (For those of you who still don't know, the South is Greek and is, according to the Turks, a different country to the North. According to the Greeks it is the same country with an invaded North. If you are more interested, I can at some later stage provide you with an extract of my version of Cypriot History 101.) The highest point there is a peak called Mount Olympus, about twice as high as Table Mountain. No it is not the Mount Olympus, that is in Greece. We got through the border without ceremony. I believe that the Greeks are not all that happy if people like us enter illegally, according to them, through the North, but they were happy that we weren't permanent residents and they didn't know that we were working here. We learnt that it would be best if, once I get my work permit, I request that they do not put it in my passport, but on separate piece of paper. There are still many places we want to visit in the South.
The road to the mountain is beautiful. The children were very excited, as they should be. When we got to the village of Troodos, there was snow everywhere. Not fresh snow, but good enough to build snowmen. Being ignorant Africans, we were totally under-dressed for this adventure and soon all of us were approaching a state of hypo-thermia and frostbyte. We made the most of it, but will certaainly be better prepared when we do such a thing again. For Danny it was absolutely unforgettable. Unfortunately no photos except on my phone, so, if I can figure out a way to transfer the images to my computer. Standing on top of the mountain amidst countless snowmen, we could see the mediterranian on the North and on the South. It made us realize that this is a small place. I hope they sort out their sh*t soon, but it seems that this is not very likely. Living in the North, I am developing sympathy for the Turkish Cypriot case, but I know it is rather complex and that it comes for many centuries. Religion plays an important part in the conflict and perhaps some day I will write about it. On our way back we got lost on the Greek side of Lefkosia. It is easier to drive away from a border post than to find it again in a strange city. The best thing that can happen to a tourist is to get lost. We had a nice sight seeing trip. The South looks decidedly more prosperous. Franchises like MacDonalds and Kentucky pop up amongst the buildings - something one doesn't see in the North. There are no statues of the stern and upright Attaturk which one finds on every street corner in the North. There are howeve a statue or two of Archbishop Makarios, pointing an outstretched arm to the North.
The South is also VERY expensive. For some reason the Cypriot pound is worth just over R 17 - stronger than the British pound. Therefore a kleftiko costing a mere 6 Cypriot pound costs a small fortune in Rands. Apart from motor insurance, we didn't spend money in the South.
For now, I'm signing off, still a few posts behind, but forever hoping to catch up. More pictures that were taken before the camera broke will follow - its just that it tales quite long to upload it on to the blog. Who will be our first visitors from SA? 1000 000 points for those who beat the others to the line!
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Famagusta, teaching and the fall of (a) man
Hi All,
We have been quite busy for in the past two weeks and our dreams of slowing down in Cyprus are placed on the backburner. At least, we should be able to pursue it again with more vigour from next week onwards. Jeanne-Marie has just completed a job for a ompany in SA. It was quite stressful because the brief she received was terribly scant, and she had to improvise a lot in the process. What makes it even more stressful is that she/we hope to receive more work from this company and Jeanne-Marie is not quite sure if she has done the work correctly. My experience of her work tells me that she probably did the work better than was expected.
Hopefully next week we will have Internet at home, so start reading up on Skype. Communication will then be much easier and I hope to put more posts on the blog then. Last Sunday we went to Famagusta on the east coast. It is about 100km from where we live. The Salamis ruins are just a few kilometers north of the town. These ruins are aparrently more than 3000 years old. When we got there it was terribly windy and we decided not to get out. The Cypriots, however do not seem to mind the whether, because they were there in vast numbers doing their version of a braai. It smelled great. A braai here seems to be more like a "cook-out" They have tables with all kinds of veggies on, they prepare their frikadelle on site and they sit on chairs and not on picnic blankets. Having travelled all the way, we decided to explore the town. We stumbeled, literally (i'll tell you later) into the old town. There we found a gothic cathedral that was built in something like 1233 by the crusaders. It is beautiful on the outside. It has a lot of scars from centuries of invasions and strife but is still reasonably inntact. On the inside it is rather pale, because it is now a mosque. The Muslims do no share the Catholics and Orthox tradition's enthusiasm for interior decorating. Further on from the cathedralthere are many churches, most of them locked up and having been used for other purposes through the centuries. One such church is the Church of St Peter and St Paule rest of the old town square is in ruins, but it seems that they are looking after it. In the square in front of the cathedral is a fig tree from Africa that is apparently over 700 years old.
I walked into the square with Danny on my shoulders and, like a seasoned tourist, with my camera in my hand, lense erect and ready to record my experiences. Cobble stones are beautiful, but the paving specialists of 700 years ago did not necessarily have commfortable and safe walking in mind when they laid their stones. My ankle gave way and Danny and I went crashing down. I threw him forward to avoid falling on him and a shoe cleaner caught him. In turn Danny caught the camera. Jeanne-Marie said it was a spectacularscene. Unfortunately Danny only got the camera on the first bounce. Result: Lense is bent and Camera does not work anymore. For a while we will not be able to take pictures. What a pity! We have seen amazing things since then. More about those later.
Settling into life in a new country is difficult at times. Having two children constantly on your shoulders does not make it easier. They seem to be enjoying it. I enjoy it too, but it would have been nice to just have a small break every now and then so that Jeanne-Marie and I could sit back, have abeer and enjoy the scenery. We had a brief moment like that in the square in Famagusta. Things will get better when we meet more people.
Work is not great. The university does not really go to a lot of trouble to make one feel at home. I have not yet received a full salary because I'm only paid for 18 days in Feb. I have to pay quite a lot of money for various things such as work permits and medicals associated with it. We hope that things will settle by 15 April when I will finally receive my first full salary for March. In he mean time my credit card is patient. Teaching is challenging because the students' English is of questionable quality, especially the first years. I teach them philosophy, so you can imagine that it is not easy to first explain philosophical terms to them, and second to make them understand the complexities of these terms as they feature in philosophical arguments. I learn a little Turkish in the process and found out that the words for being and becoming are the same in Turkish. Now this can have major implications for understnding ontology and other philosopical ideas. Fortunately I have a little experience with teaching people with limited English language skills in Mamelodi.
Another innteresting aspect of teaching psychology here is that the Christian referenes in Western culture related to ideas, are not readily available to the Turkish Cypriot youth. They seem to come from Muslim backgrounds although they are not expresly religious. Still some common cultural ground needs to be manifactured so that examples and theories can be made meaningful. The trick is to learn about what is different and what is similar in our collective experiences as humans. I also teach introductory Sociology. One theme thatt we deal with is Sex and Gender. I was shocked the other day at the callous way that the young men in class view women. It was hard to convince them that there is something fundamentally wrong in a society where women are paid less for the same work and furthermore that prostitution to supplement income is not a viable option. On top of my shock at these crude attitudes, i was shocked with the silence and passsivity of the women in the class. This is a small island with a small island mentality. Add to that tht the people here have been isolated in the world for the past 33 years and one finds limited views on current issues. (E.g. There are few books available in libraries and in bookstores. If it wasn't for the Intenet, teaching woulld have been nigh impossible.) In many ways my experience of South African society is that it is more sophisticated than here. Just in case you were wondering, I also teach psychology - The psychology of work, social psychology and environmental psychology, the latter which means that the environs have gone mental.
It is still quite cold here and sometimes it feels that Spring will never come. Some days are like Cape-Town four-seasons-in-a-day-days and others hint at becoming warmer. I was hoping it would get warmer sooner. Can't wait to swim.
Next time, soon, I'll write about Buffovento, crossing the border and snow on the mountains.
Cheers
We have been quite busy for in the past two weeks and our dreams of slowing down in Cyprus are placed on the backburner. At least, we should be able to pursue it again with more vigour from next week onwards. Jeanne-Marie has just completed a job for a ompany in SA. It was quite stressful because the brief she received was terribly scant, and she had to improvise a lot in the process. What makes it even more stressful is that she/we hope to receive more work from this company and Jeanne-Marie is not quite sure if she has done the work correctly. My experience of her work tells me that she probably did the work better than was expected.
Hopefully next week we will have Internet at home, so start reading up on Skype. Communication will then be much easier and I hope to put more posts on the blog then. Last Sunday we went to Famagusta on the east coast. It is about 100km from where we live. The Salamis ruins are just a few kilometers north of the town. These ruins are aparrently more than 3000 years old. When we got there it was terribly windy and we decided not to get out. The Cypriots, however do not seem to mind the whether, because they were there in vast numbers doing their version of a braai. It smelled great. A braai here seems to be more like a "cook-out" They have tables with all kinds of veggies on, they prepare their frikadelle on site and they sit on chairs and not on picnic blankets. Having travelled all the way, we decided to explore the town. We stumbeled, literally (i'll tell you later) into the old town. There we found a gothic cathedral that was built in something like 1233 by the crusaders. It is beautiful on the outside. It has a lot of scars from centuries of invasions and strife but is still reasonably inntact. On the inside it is rather pale, because it is now a mosque. The Muslims do no share the Catholics and Orthox tradition's enthusiasm for interior decorating. Further on from the cathedralthere are many churches, most of them locked up and having been used for other purposes through the centuries. One such church is the Church of St Peter and St Paule rest of the old town square is in ruins, but it seems that they are looking after it. In the square in front of the cathedral is a fig tree from Africa that is apparently over 700 years old.
I walked into the square with Danny on my shoulders and, like a seasoned tourist, with my camera in my hand, lense erect and ready to record my experiences. Cobble stones are beautiful, but the paving specialists of 700 years ago did not necessarily have commfortable and safe walking in mind when they laid their stones. My ankle gave way and Danny and I went crashing down. I threw him forward to avoid falling on him and a shoe cleaner caught him. In turn Danny caught the camera. Jeanne-Marie said it was a spectacularscene. Unfortunately Danny only got the camera on the first bounce. Result: Lense is bent and Camera does not work anymore. For a while we will not be able to take pictures. What a pity! We have seen amazing things since then. More about those later.
Settling into life in a new country is difficult at times. Having two children constantly on your shoulders does not make it easier. They seem to be enjoying it. I enjoy it too, but it would have been nice to just have a small break every now and then so that Jeanne-Marie and I could sit back, have abeer and enjoy the scenery. We had a brief moment like that in the square in Famagusta. Things will get better when we meet more people.
Work is not great. The university does not really go to a lot of trouble to make one feel at home. I have not yet received a full salary because I'm only paid for 18 days in Feb. I have to pay quite a lot of money for various things such as work permits and medicals associated with it. We hope that things will settle by 15 April when I will finally receive my first full salary for March. In he mean time my credit card is patient. Teaching is challenging because the students' English is of questionable quality, especially the first years. I teach them philosophy, so you can imagine that it is not easy to first explain philosophical terms to them, and second to make them understand the complexities of these terms as they feature in philosophical arguments. I learn a little Turkish in the process and found out that the words for being and becoming are the same in Turkish. Now this can have major implications for understnding ontology and other philosopical ideas. Fortunately I have a little experience with teaching people with limited English language skills in Mamelodi.
Another innteresting aspect of teaching psychology here is that the Christian referenes in Western culture related to ideas, are not readily available to the Turkish Cypriot youth. They seem to come from Muslim backgrounds although they are not expresly religious. Still some common cultural ground needs to be manifactured so that examples and theories can be made meaningful. The trick is to learn about what is different and what is similar in our collective experiences as humans. I also teach introductory Sociology. One theme thatt we deal with is Sex and Gender. I was shocked the other day at the callous way that the young men in class view women. It was hard to convince them that there is something fundamentally wrong in a society where women are paid less for the same work and furthermore that prostitution to supplement income is not a viable option. On top of my shock at these crude attitudes, i was shocked with the silence and passsivity of the women in the class. This is a small island with a small island mentality. Add to that tht the people here have been isolated in the world for the past 33 years and one finds limited views on current issues. (E.g. There are few books available in libraries and in bookstores. If it wasn't for the Intenet, teaching woulld have been nigh impossible.) In many ways my experience of South African society is that it is more sophisticated than here. Just in case you were wondering, I also teach psychology - The psychology of work, social psychology and environmental psychology, the latter which means that the environs have gone mental.
It is still quite cold here and sometimes it feels that Spring will never come. Some days are like Cape-Town four-seasons-in-a-day-days and others hint at becoming warmer. I was hoping it would get warmer sooner. Can't wait to swim.
Next time, soon, I'll write about Buffovento, crossing the border and snow on the mountains.
Cheers
Monday, March 5, 2007
Work for JM?
Here seems to be many work opportunities on the horizon (not the same horizon as in the previous post, but seemingly just as far away) for Jeanne-Marie. Unfortunately the horizon seems to be far and our craft (GAU)slow. If anyone has editing work or knows of someone who has editing that needs to be done, please let us know. If the file is in MS Word, it is quite easy for Jeanne-Marie to do it here and send it back. Payments can be made to my SA account. I will find out her rates and post it on the blog.
Just on another matter, photos will follow soon
Just on another matter, photos will follow soon
An observation and note on typing
We had our first guests over for dinner on Saturday. Cindy is American and her partner, Yaghoub (Jacob) is Iranian. We made them our trusted Malay sweet chicken and pear curry and it went down famously.
Today was a very clear day. Spring is in the air. Lots of almond blossoms. I looked out my office window and noticed the strange clouds on the horizon. Tulin, my colleague and HOD, with whom I share the office, pointed out that it was mainland Turkey. Wow! I never expected Turkey to be visible from here. The mountains are huge and capped with snow. Suddenly it felt less like an island. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. We’ll see…
You may have noticed a lot of typing errors. My keyboard is very sensitive, so itoften registers two letters per keystroke. I try to clean it up, but sometimes I am in a hurry. Be patient please. G
Today was a very clear day. Spring is in the air. Lots of almond blossoms. I looked out my office window and noticed the strange clouds on the horizon. Tulin, my colleague and HOD, with whom I share the office, pointed out that it was mainland Turkey. Wow! I never expected Turkey to be visible from here. The mountains are huge and capped with snow. Suddenly it felt less like an island. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. We’ll see…
You may have noticed a lot of typing errors. My keyboard is very sensitive, so itoften registers two letters per keystroke. I try to clean it up, but sometimes I am in a hurry. Be patient please. G
Jeanne-Marie’s first contribution (written last week)
We have lost both our SA simm cards… so phoning to SA has become problematic… I have some work from SA STARTING TOMORROW so we are desperately trying to get wireless internet at our apartment (a tricky and costly business!)… but then we will be able to email more. My job here still in the air and I am trying hard to find some work here (pray that I do)… in the mean time Issy and I went to a moms and toddlers get-together in our neighbourhood this am… (on the bechfront)… very nice to get out and connect. Issy has a bad chest so I am toying (not toyi-toying fortunately!) with taking her to the dr… (at about R300 a shot!). Dan is in school for the second week now… he likes it though it is a long day til 3:30…and brother and sister miss each other…we have put Dan in the 4 yr old class (he will start the 5yr old class in sept)…(quite a bit of TV watching and not much wild outside playing like we are used to) he also finds the Turkish (2 lessons a day) quite hard…his teacher is also not GREAT at Eng… but hey…he is not licking his lips as muh as he did when he changed schools in SA… so so far so good…. Also it is gr8 that he goes to work on the bus with his dad in the morning and that his dad is always close by… Issy is VERY upset that her school when only start from about June when she is 3…this also makes working for me quite a challenge… the other major challenge ahd been transport and we should finally have a car by fri … a good price of R2 500 pounds for a nice 98 hundai…LH drive, without aicon… now we can rint around the island! (We have it now! Will post a pic soon)
People here are great and also some utterly crap… things seem very child orientated, laid back, safe… but we still miss the nuances and some people (administrative types) just could not give a sh*t about one…as you know… that species seems to be everywhere… (but we will kill them in the end!)
G is having a tough time sorting out admin issues at work.. reimbursement for airticket, opening bank acc etc are very hard when no one cares to inform you about procedures…! His classes are small though and there is a nice internationalism at the uni (people from asia minor…lots of Turks, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kryzgstan , Russia, Kazakstan, Pakistan, Bangladesh , Iran, Americanistan and Lancaster and London and York and bath and a few Yanks).
People here are great and also some utterly crap… things seem very child orientated, laid back, safe… but we still miss the nuances and some people (administrative types) just could not give a sh*t about one…as you know… that species seems to be everywhere… (but we will kill them in the end!)
G is having a tough time sorting out admin issues at work.. reimbursement for airticket, opening bank acc etc are very hard when no one cares to inform you about procedures…! His classes are small though and there is a nice internationalism at the uni (people from asia minor…lots of Turks, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kryzgstan , Russia, Kazakstan, Pakistan, Bangladesh , Iran, Americanistan and Lancaster and London and York and bath and a few Yanks).
Friday, March 2, 2007
Schmie again.... (edited and augmented)
Life here is great - challenging in many ways - but great. Days are getting longer as they are getting shorter in SA. I have learned that administrative incompetence makes for an international community that trancends all ethinic, cultural, language etc etc boundaries. Simple things like getting paid at the end of the month and getting reimbursed for travel expenses are not simple here. To their credit, the admin staff at TUKS are much more effiecient than here. Perhaps someone can mention that to Riana Venter in passing. Come to think of it, all those at TUKS, thank your lucky stars for her and others such as Petru, Hettie, and Christa. African time would be the speed of light here. Throw in the little variables that we can't speak Turkish (yet)and that Cypriots seem to have a need to keep you happy by telling you what they think you want to hear, you have a royal recipy for frustration. Fortunately, up to now, I have proven Dollard and Millar's frustration-aggression theory wrong. Perhaps one should develop it into sommekind of developmental stage theory. If so, I would be in the frustration-depression stage. Don't worry, its not really that bad, but it makes for lekker blog writing.
Isabella has a cough and we, through other mothers at a toddler's workshop/playgroup found a very good woman paediatrician along with a very helpful pharmacist. A consultation with a specialist here costs 60YTL (New Turkish Liras) which is just over R300. So, it compares well. Daniel loves his school. He is in avery good space and very keen to learn "Torkish". Pirate DVD's cost about R40 and if you exchange them you pay R20.
We are investigating getting Internet at home. R500/month for a wireless connection may sound like much, but it gives one unlimited access. Installation is a bit of a party pooper at about R 4000! This, unfortunately has to wait untill the university pays my reimbursement.
I finally got a car! The Hyundai Accent. This will make a considerable contribution to improving the quality of life. Now the island is our oyster. Today North Cyprus, tomorrow the world!
Now it makes more sense to me to go and enjoy the weekend than to write further. You have a good weekend too!
PS. We have managed to lose both our SA SIM Cards, so you ccannot SMS us anymore, but, use the email and the blog! And if anyone has Janine Vermeulen's email address, please forward it to us?
Isabella has a cough and we, through other mothers at a toddler's workshop/playgroup found a very good woman paediatrician along with a very helpful pharmacist. A consultation with a specialist here costs 60YTL (New Turkish Liras) which is just over R300. So, it compares well. Daniel loves his school. He is in avery good space and very keen to learn "Torkish". Pirate DVD's cost about R40 and if you exchange them you pay R20.
We are investigating getting Internet at home. R500/month for a wireless connection may sound like much, but it gives one unlimited access. Installation is a bit of a party pooper at about R 4000! This, unfortunately has to wait untill the university pays my reimbursement.
I finally got a car! The Hyundai Accent. This will make a considerable contribution to improving the quality of life. Now the island is our oyster. Today North Cyprus, tomorrow the world!
Now it makes more sense to me to go and enjoy the weekend than to write further. You have a good weekend too!
PS. We have managed to lose both our SA SIM Cards, so you ccannot SMS us anymore, but, use the email and the blog! And if anyone has Janine Vermeulen's email address, please forward it to us?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)