07/23/07

Thoughts \ Developed Thoughts \ Rants \ Raves \ Writing

06/17/2005 13:15 +0200 GMT

Last night I met up with Stewart, Katrina, Brad and Michele. They're staying on the opposite side of Signal Hill, a place where a cannon is supposedly fired each day to be heard throughout the city. I didn't hear it today, perhaps because it is Youth Day, a national holiday commemorating an anti-apartheid uprising from some time back...maybe ten years, or slightly more? So I got a taxi from the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront to the Ashanti backpackers lodge on Hof Street.

Its got the structural violence barriers, including two security doors before allowing entry into the lobby. Brad Denney, sporting a newly shaved head, was working on an email there, and overheard me asking the clerk about some lodgers from Birmingham Alabama in the States. (Great clerk eager and able to assist...) Hug to Brad who had that new shear about his head, that I later learned was acquired at a barber shop in the train station. I love these guys for their lack of risk aversion.  

Brad showed me up one level to their room, access gained by a combination code push-keyed by the door handle. Music played loudly through the hall, coming from a dark recess I didn't see. Hugs all 'round to Kat, Michelle, and Stew-dog. It was only after some minutes that I noticed Jim and James, from the other, proper Birmingham, lounging in their bunks in the same room. They are fourth or fifth year medical students (M.B.B.S. degree candidates) from the UK, on a long holiday that included Australia just prior. Nice, friendly chaps.

It was deeply satisfying to see my friends so far away from the halls where we met in Birmingham. We've such freedom, and evinced by our being on this side of the planet together, we're very appreciative of that freedom. It is a glorious thing to be here in Cape Town with them.

We cabbed it to an up market, African-style restaurant with live band, Seated just in front of the musicians, we talked, viewed some photographs, and I heard stories, of head-shaving in the bus terminal, of a visit to Robben Island and a serendipitous tour by one of Father Mandela's cell mates...Magical, that.

Our meals, (less mine, since I had eaten at the V & A Waterfront) consisted of pasty pulp, a sheep's head, known as a smiley, game meats, cheesecake, and some libations. Brad's telling of a foot race to catch the ferry, lagging behind and latching on to a tour for several students, run by an older South African gentleman, to learn later that he was a cellmate of Mandela's - well that is the highlight of the trip thus far, albeit vicarious for me. Not only did the group struggle to make it to the tour of Robben Island, but by great fortune, their tardiness resulted in a truly unique firsthand account about the time when Mandela was imprisoned because of his political beliefs that ended up transforming the way an important country operates. Irreplaceable - that experience.

We walked from there, in twos and threes, uptown to the club district, in search of a spot for banter and music. Eventually we found Kennedy's, a cigar bar, as they call it, perhaps because smoking is permitted inside, although that is not necessarily the norm in RSA, with a vigorous five piece playing on the ground floor, and a more sedate, lounge-singing woman and a piano man on the first floor. We commandeered bar stools, then the couch, then circled 'round the piano before retiring. In between there was conversation and dances. I later learned that Michelle had danced for 10 years prior, and I understood after the fact why she moved so well with Brad (no slouch himself) that night.

Brad Denney - I know he went to Georgia, and he's a super bright guy that Saag has known for a long time. He strikes me as very earnest, eager to learn, eager to soak up all that can come in his path. His talk of learning from this cellmate of Mandela's was inspiring, and his eagerness to learn as much as he can is absolutely endearing.

Michelle Downing - I'm not sure I've ever met a more determined young woman; she's strong yet soft, and a sharp, intentioned, bright young woman. She shows no fear, and drives forward at all times.  She's a marvel to see, and personifies one of the 160 reasons that I am humbled to be a part of the UASOM class of 2008.

Kojak - I've subconsciously made it a goal of mine to give nicknames to my classmates - Katrina Julian, whose mother I met before her, when Maggie and I were attending the Sidewalk Film Festival's screening of Saag Jr's film on Zambia...I didn't know Katrina then, but I've come to know and love her as I have Brad and Stew-dog and Michelle, as well as many of our classmates. She's a strong competitor in sport, despite cutting a delicate figure at first look. And as nice as can be, with a sincere advocacy in her heart, particularly for Africans.

Stewart "Brad" Hill - For some reason I've introduced Stew-dog as Brad twice now, on two different continents. For some bothersome reason unrelated to Brad Denney, I make that error. It's like how I've thought Matt Israel had another first name for some time. One of those ingrained mistakes that is difficult to shake and enigmatic. Anyway, Stew-dog cuts the same competitive figure as Kat, but with the male, athletic, prowling of a short-maned lion. Stew's got it all. I think also that Kat stated it best when she said that he is easy to get along with. He goes with the flow. I imagine in basketball, he'd let the game come to him, and then he'd dunk it. He's got fierce emotion, a will that I don't know yet, but that is certainly impelling, and a synchronous attitude of whatever, let's go get 'em, along with unguarded passion, all entwined in a genuine sphere.

If you ever hear me say that I am humbled to be the president of my UASOM class of '08, it is because of the feelings that these four as examples of all my classmates instill in me. When I was 24 or so, I hadn't the drive or wherewithal or enthusiasm for life that these do. To be counted among the likes of Brad, Michelle, Kojak, and Stewdog is a privilege, and it does humble me. I'm truly  surrounded by greatness.