Book Talks

In the last couple weeks I've been going to schools to spread the word about my cool book PATH TO MY AFRICAN EYES. My first visit was to Anacapa School in Santa Barbara where I was a guest at their Breakfast Club. I addressed the entire school - from 6th grade to 12th grade - as well as the staff. Boy, was I nervous! But the audience was so fantastic. I could tell from their faces that they were enjoying what I had to say. They responded, asked questions, and requested a reading. I read for about 8 - 10 minutes after which they gave me hearty applause. They certainly made me feel like a celebrity. What an awesome school!

The next school I visited was Solvang School. I did four talks there in 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade classes. The kids were great and I do love discussing with them the craft of writing. So I started out by asking them what they knew about South Africa. I said, "Write down whatever it is that comes to your mind." Here is a list of typical responses: animals, hot, desert, jungle, villages, tribes. Needless to say, I had to work really hard to make them understand the kind of life the book's main character had led as a middle class child in Cape Town. After explaining to them that Thandi's everyday life wasn't much different to theirs, I asked what problems they thought she would encounter on her first days at a California school. I was very impressed with the responses I got. Almost all of them felt that Thandi would encounter racism. "You really think that we still have racism right here at our schools?" I asked. They nodded, much to my surprise. "You think people would make her feel bad about her color right to her face?" They hesitated on this one. "Well, maybe they would gossip about it," some kid said.
Even after I described what Cape Town is like - a modern, world class city - they still had a certain stereotypic 'African' image of Thandi. They imagined that on the first day of school she would have dressed in traditional clothes that other kids would make fun of. They also felt she would have difficulty with academics. So I said, "Why? Do we have the best schools here in America?" Silence. So I said, "Be honest now. I'm a writer and I want to know what you really think. Who thinks America has the best schools in the world?" Nobody raised hands.
Anyway, it was a lot of fun for me to interact with the audience for whom I wrote the book. It is depressing how little American teens know about the African continent. And hopefully books like PATH TO MY AFRICAN EYES will help enlighten them!

An Author I Are!

Well, guess how I spent my Friday evening? Like so many folks the world over, I too was at the Border's Bookstore near me. But I was sitting at a table near the front of the store signing my book. And my books were actually put on a visible display case. Of course I'm not kidding. Take a look at the photos. Now ain't that the coolest thing? Everyone at the store was fussing over me and customers were delighted at meeting and talking to a real author. So I smiled a WHOLE LOT and chatted and DIDN'T CRINGE at the ignorance that exists out there (Cape Town is a not like Karachi!) . I keep wondering why I write and does the world really need another book, etc. But when I realize how little people know I not only want to write, I want to shout out what I write!!! Lordy lordy lord. I'll never be able to change the world. Do I look famous or what!!

New topic: Zimbabwe.
Hey, I was wondering, isn't this a golden opportunity for Mbeki? So Mugabe seems to be having trouble manipulating the election results in Zim this time around. Clearly, the people have spoken. So why isn't there any intervention from the outside world? Mbeki is the best positioned leader to bring about some sanity in Zim. Imagine how much respect he will gain from all over the world. Right now his popularity ratings are abysmal. It's so bad that even the Women's League supported Jacob Zuma for leader of the ANC. Mbeki is in his home stretch now as leader and he can leave with his head held high if he stepped in and solved the election crisis in Zim.

Africa on my mind

Current mood: Irritated. Lynne Duke, in her book MANDELA, MOBUTU, AND ME pisses me off, okay! Another self-righteous westerner condemning the African continent. And she's a black sister too. Well, high yeller actually. Duke spent four years (1994- 1999) living in Johannesburg as the Washington Post's bureau chief and covered the years when South Africa transitioned into democracy under Mandela. She wrote a book describing her experiences and observations. I found that while she nailed many issues quite accurately, her harsh criticisms and cynical analyses of Mandela and the TRC quite shocking. It was as if she hadn't fully comprehended what Mandela had inherited. She hadn't fully grasped the consequences of the apartheid government. In fact, I doubt she really understood apartheid, a policy far more damaging than the segregation that existed in the American South. Her musings are in stark contrast to Donald Woods' RAINBOW NATION REVISITED. After reading Duke the reader is left depressed with the feeling that Africa is a lost cause. Don't waste your time holding your breath. African leaders can't lead and the people just don't have what it takes for a successful society. That's how this sister makes you feel when you read her book. Donald Woods on the other hand, makes you feel quite the opposite.
South African society and politics is so complex and yes, there are many, many problems. The incidence of violent crime and the high level of tension under which people live is quite a downer. Politicians don't seem to have their priorities straightened out and the nouveau riche don't seem to feel a need to reach out and help their fellow citizens. It would be easy to dwell on the negative aspects and get depressed over it. However, when I think back to my two months in the country at the end of '07 I recall delightful days. Warm, hospitable people, gorgeous scenery and landscape, beautiful parks and gardens, outstanding cuisine, first class service, and solid infrastructure. I saw signs of improvement everywhere. Despite the bleak newspaper articles, the country is moving forward. For example, whereas in the past blacks were denied a basic education, today the universities are full of black students who will soon be part of the workforce and live mainstream middle class lives. I feel optimistic about South Africa's future. I see your shocked faces. But what about Jacob Zuma, the new ANC leader, you ask? Yes, I know. I'm afraid things might get worse before they get better. But they will get better. I know this because each time I travel back to the country I notice changes for the better.

Home - relearning the routine!

Hi Blogreaders,

So what is it like to be back home in the unreal world of Santa Barbara? I'm a bit in culture shock at this ultra-sanitized, germs obsessed world where public loos are always clean with an abundant supply of seat covers and flush automatically and antibacterial handgel is available all over the city wherever you might touch something others have touched. Life is so absurdly easy here. It's almost scary.

Spring has arrived - way too early - and along the roadsides are carpets of purple lupines and clumps of golden California poppies. My garden is thick with the fragrance of jasmin, wisteria, and fruit blossoms. The daffodils are already spent and the roses are just about to open up. It's good to be back and enjoy the emergence of spring. when I unpacked our winter coats I smiled, so pleased that I wouldn't have to use them for quite a while.

While away In India I was so insulated from the goings on in the west. India demands all of your concentration and the issues that absorb our daily lives back home fade from your consciousness. But now that I'm back, the obsessions of the news media have successfully drawn me in. I read with interest the Obama/Clinton contest. I'm amused that all the liberal media - The NYT, the Huffington Post, The Daily Show, etc. - are hot for Obama. I'm hot for Obama too. During the last couple weeks the NYT carried several pro-Obama news items and gave very little coverage to Clinton and McCain. I remember back in 1999 when this same newspaper gave Bush, before he even won the Republican nomination, a huge amount of attention. It used to be sickening to see his picture on the front page so frequently. It seems like they've got it right this time! I only hope the voters in the remaining states who still need to hold their primaries get it right.

End of The Great Escapade

Friends,
It's my last night abroad since I started my round the world journey. I haven't been blogging much during my last month of travel, the main reason being A LACK OF TIME! But tonight I felt I should write some thoughts as it all comes to an end. I just read my first entry - the one I wrote just before leaving - and I was surprised that my thoughts had been so centered around school. School? The furthest thing from my mind in the past months. I can't believe how something that consumes my normal, everyday working life in Santa Barbara can get tossed so far away from my mind! Weird! Anyway, how do I feel about the end of this most exciting trip? I guess the honest answer is: Great! I am definitely looking forward to being back in my home - sleeping on my bed, getting woken up by NPR's Morning Edition, reading the New York Times, listening to Amy Goodman's Democracy Now, having Daryl make me my morning latte, making home made meals, .... I missed Jon Stewart's Daily Show, Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me, shopping at Trader Joe's and at the farmer's markets, my jacuzzi, my friends, ... yes, a lot of reasons to feel great about returning home.

Spending time with family in Sydney was very special. Sydney in the summer is such a great city. So much to do, such a lot of great food, excellent bars/pubs, superb coffee, and some great walks, especially the Bondi Beach to Coogee - I highly recommend it.

I've had a pretty enjoyable time in New Zealand. I have to say it's not the most exciting country I've visited. Sure, it has fantastic scenery (I haven't been to the South Island which is supposed to be spectacular) and friendly people and its cities are clean and safe and everything works and the food isn't too awful and the coffee pretty decent and the wine and beer quite special, but it feels like there's something missing. I spent a few days in Wellington which sits along a pretty harbor and is surrounded by green hills. After walking through the botanical gardens and the downtown streets, and then the harbor area, I felt I was done with my visit of the city! New Zealand seems to go move at a slower pace than just about anywhere else I've been. I think what it needs to do is to open its doors to the lively people of hte world - people from Africa who have color and great music, people from India, Latin America, Asia. Maybe that's what's lacking. It ain't cosmopolitan!

So tomorrow when I fly out it will be late Thursday evening. I'll cross the date line and will start Thursday all over again!

New Zealand

It's a gray, drizzly day in Rotorua. The kind of day that makes you feel you can use the Polynesian Spa with its many thermal pools guiltfree! In Rotorua you smell sulphur everywhere. There's a lot of geothermal activity here. You walk around the town and suddenly you see curls of steam coming out of the earth. Bubbling mud pools, thermal lakes, geysers, hot pools - they are all over the place. I went to a a themed Maori village called Te Puia where I saw Maori crafts - woodmaking and weaving - and a lively musical performance. The 'village' is set in a geothermally active area where you can see two active geysers and numerous bubbling mudpools. Afterwoods I walked back through a pine and redwood forest (yes, California redwoods, in case you are wondering) until I got to the large lake which forms the northern border of the city. It was all quite pleasant.

I'm enjoying Kiwi hospitality and some hearty meals.

Last Days in India

During my last days in India I wasn't well and was unable to keep my blog current. So, here's an entry of Pondicherry and then Chennai. I remember wandering the streets of Pondi on a steamy, but wonderful Sunday morning. In India Sundays are very atmospheric. You can feel an energy in the air. The temples become active early in the morning with devotional songs playing through loudspeakers. Temple music in the mornings and evenings is such a characteristic element of India's soundscape. On Sundays large numbers of families go to do their puja. The shops get quite busy and restaurants are full of welldressed Indian families. The women in bright, silk saris or long kurtas with scarves thrown over their shoulders and fragrant jasmin threaded into their hair and the children, bright eyed with glowing skins in their Sunday best. It’s great to walk around Indian towns on Sundays and just absorb the vibrancy. In Pondicherry, the main business street – the MG Street – is closed to traffic on Sundays. Vendors line the street selling a whole assortment of goods – like a flea market. I had a lot of fun browsing at the stalls – DVD’s, used books, electrical stuff, clothes - while snacking on papaya slices. I left the MG Street and headed down Nehru Street which has fantastic stores carrying artisanal crafts and beautiful clothes. (Between Pondy and Chennai along the coast are several artists’ colonies). At the bottom of the street I slaked my thirst on a coconut juice. You can find a hill of coconuts and an eager vendor ready with a machete just about everywhere in South India. I rested a bit at a leafy, beautifully landscaped park (where a policeman warned me to throw my empty coconut in a bin!) before going out onto the promenade that runs along the seafront.

Pondi is right on the coast about 150 km south of Chennai. It’s quite an unusual Indian city. It has wide, nicely paved roads arranged in a grid and there are actual sidewalks for pedestrians to walk on. You don’t see mounds of litter everywhere which I’ve come to accept as part of the Indian landscape. In fact, it was the first Indian city where I saw trash cans along the sidewalks which people actually use. Everywhere else I had to keep my trash in my backpack and usually the first trash can I’d find would be in my hotel room.The traffic in Pondy isn’t horrendous and many of the roads are actually very quiet. This city used to be French controlled until the 1950’s. Many of the locals speak French and needless to say most of the tourists are French. There are pretty colonial buildings around the city and lots of French food available at restaurants. You really have to see this city to believe it. It’s undoubtedly Indian with Tamil spoken everywhere and locals going about their usual business of making flower garlands or sipping chai on the street or cooking chapattis on their street griddles, yet the usual chaos and clamor and clutter of India is absent. Pondi is also home to a popular ashram – the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Earlier in my trip I had thought I might sample ashram life when I got to Pondi. But along my journey when I’d spoken to people who’d spent time at ashrams and found out about their days, I came to the conclusion that ashram life would bore me. I guess I’m not the spiritual type!

I went on my last bus ride in India when I left Pondi for Chennai. It’s been quite an adventure traveling around from city to city by train or bus. India is well set up for intercity travel. South India has a great rail network and I found it quite easy to buy tickets and use the trains. The buses are mostly good too. The problem is that most of India’s roads are in such bad condition that bus rides can be very bumpy. The bus from Pondi to Chennai was pretty decent – not old and bettered – and not overcrowded, so the ride up was quite pleasant. We drove through fertile plains and a delta area. There was a lot of farming activity and I found it quite heartbreaking to see people - men and women - laboring in teh fileds. Skinny women in saris were bundling hay and carrying the bundles on their heads. Fields were ploughed by oxen drawn carts. Men in dhotis were digging trenches with pickaxes. TYhe sun shone mercilessly and ebony skinned folks slogged away. The months would only get warmer culminating in monsoon rains in May. In India you are constantly aware of how hard people have t work to keep alive.
On the ride I was a little tense (a usual state for me enroute to a new place) wondering if things would go smoothly once I got off the busin the enormous metropolis of Chennai. But one reassuring thing you learn in India is that as long as there are autorickshaws – those yellow and black three wheelers that buzz about like bees – you can never be lost. Despite this I always gave myself some reason to worry and at that moment my concern was that the autorick driver might not know where the Gandhi Nagar Club would be – that was where I was booked to stay for two nights. However, with the kind of hospitality and warmth I constantly received in Tamil Nadu, my safety was never an issue. The bus driver and the lady seated next to me told me where to get off and just as I stepped onto the pavement, an autorick appeared. I told the driver where I had to go, he nodded, and off we went. I was deposited at the door of the Club in less than ten minutes. The Club was away from the city center, in an upmarket looking southern suburb of Chennai.

On my first day in Chennai, Padmini (cousin of my Santa Barbara friend, Sri) took me to her home in central Chennai where I had an interesting conversation with her grandmother. This woman who looked like she was in her late ‘70’s – maybe older – spoke English like a native speaker and had many interesting opinions. When she found out I was from South Africa she informed me that her grandfather was responsible for the first Indian high school there, Sastri College. She mentioned the many hurdles he had to negotiate in order to get permission and see the whole process through. As other high schools emerged Sastri College developed into a prestigious school, admitting only the best Indian boys. My father happened to be one of those! The grandmother asked me about post apartheid South Africa and how Indians in SA were affected. She was curious about the relationship between Indians and blacks in SA. She knew about the hostility that led to racial riots in the 1950’s and wondered about its cause. She said that everywhere else in the world in her experience blacks have been very warm toward Indians, viewing them as partners in the fight against white supremacy. I told her that I found Indians in SA to be very racist – both in the past and the present – and I believed that this was the cause of the hostility. She considered this and then nodded and said, “Yes, the white government used a divide and conquer strategy so that there will be resentment among all the colored people. Quite a party (Tamil word for granny), that old woman!

My last days in India were somewhat sedate. Largely because of my low energy and diarrhoea.
Now, as I sit at my brother’s home in Darling Harbor in downtown Sydney, so far away from it all, the expressions, the radiant faces of the people I met all over the state of Tamil Nadu are still so fresh in my mind. I’ll never, ever forget the love I felt from the people.