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www.thevillagenews.co.za
26 August 2020
FROM THE EDITOR
Stitching a new security blanket The next edition of The Village NEWS will be available on 2 September 2020. The NEWS can be found at over 300 distribution points in the Overberg.
De Waal Steyn PUBLISHING EDITOR E: dewaal@thevillagenews.co.za T: 083 700 3319
Hedda Mittner CONTENT EDITOR E: hedda@thevillagenews.co.za T: 083 645 3928
As most of our children return to school or pre-school this week, some after a break of several months, educational psychologists warn that the disruption to their lives caused by the Coronavirus can leave them with a sense of insecurity and anxiety. It may be difficult for them to settle into the educational environment again and they will need the support of their parents.
community or even country has lost its security blanket? It has to stitch a new one, based on the values that gave it its strength. Of course our children must receive a good education in the widest sense of the word. In a world where knowledge is redundant almost before it’s born, problem solving, lateral, strategic and analytical thinking are essential skills.
But, of course many of the parents are feeling equally insecure; they may have lost their job or their business and the future looks bleak. So what happens when a whole family,
But equally important is the rediscovery of who we are and what gives our life meaning. Values like honesty, compassion, loyalty, service and hard work helped our predeces-
ONLINE EDITOR E: raphael@thevillagenews.co.za T: 074 125 5854
Elaine Davie JOURNALIST
Taylum Meyer PRODUCTION MANAGER, PHOTOGRAPHY & DESIGN E: taylum@thevillagenews.co.za T: 084 564 0779
Charé van der Walt MARKETING REPRESENTATIVE E: chare@thevillagenews.co.za T: 082 430 1974
Nickey Jackson
And then there has been the threat to the pristine beauty of our Fernkloof Nature Reserve, the looting of our marine environment, the
inadequate housing and poverty endured by thousands of our fellow citizens and in this issue of The Village NEWS, the plight of the baboon troops of the Kogelberg Biosphere, a sacred place which we hold in trust for future generations. It is a law of nature that everything on earth is connected to everything else. Break one strand and the edifice collapses. Luckily, the people of the Overstrand are both thoughtful and creative. If any community is able to give its children a new, stronger security blanket it is ours. This is the good NEWS – Ed
Marco Polo and the Great Trek
Raphael da Silva
E: elaine@thevillagenews.co.za T: 084 343 7500
sors build this town, but somewhere along the way we lost them, along with a deep connection to nature. It took a catastrophic event like the pandemic to pull us up short. Last week we were shocked by the behaviour not of nameless social media trolls, but by ordinary citizens of our beautiful town who threatened not only to vandalise a work of art, but also to harm the artist and the organisers of the exhibition.
By Murray Stewart murray.stewart49@gmail.com
H
aving rounded the treacherous Cape of Storms on their expedition to the Far East, Vasco Diaz, the captain of the Santa Flatulata, dropped anchor in the calm waters of Nice Nè Lagoon. On board were Marco Polo and sixteen sea-sick but relieved crewmen.
As discussed previously, young Marco was eastward bound to a domed palace behind a huge wall made of china. He planned to meet up with Pa who must have arrived by now, and was apparently staying with a real-estate developer called Kubla Cohen. Shouldn’t be too difficult to
find, he thought. Can’t be too many Jewish developers with a leisure resort in that neck of the woods.
ate their lunch, they went to the lavatory, and on their way bumped into a community of forest-dwellers.
people along the way. We’re thinking of calling it The Great Trek, but so far there’s only eight of us.”
Sheltered in the lagoon, Captain Vasco set about doing what saltydog sea captains do. He got drunk. But first he instructed the handymen to repair the shredded sails and plug the hull with Polyfilla. Others were sent to find fresh supplies and water, while the rest were told to fell Stinkwood trees from the surrounding forests, and schlep them back to the ship.
Little has been documented about this encounter, but Alphonso van Tonder – who’d learnt Afrikaans from his father in Genoa – could communicate with some of the Dutch-speaking folks living in the settlement, and pretty soon the lumberjacks were invited to set up camp with them overnight.
The aim was to all congregate further north to safeguard the ox wagons full of gold bars known only by the deceptive code name, The Kruger Millions, destined to fund the formation of the proposed Boer Republic on top of the gold mine.
Now our captain – apart from being the goalkeeper for the Venice Underwater Polo Club – was a shrewd trader who kept his ear to the ground when not submerged, and he knew the East had no sturdy trees for the lumber required in largescale construction. Apparently they only grew rice, bamboo and chopstick trees, which they either ate, or ate with, and these Stinkwood logs were worth their weight in gold. So, with projects suitably delegated, Vasco got blotto for a few days. Young Marco and Alphonso van Tonder, the ship’s cook, were in the Stinkwood squad, and headed off into the forests to do what lumberjacks do. They cut down trees, they
They were a strange mixture of French, English, Dutch, German, Xhosa and Khoi, but they collectively revelled in their bohemian lifestyle. They grew all their own food and also cultivated a weed called The Giggly Twig, which they brewed and drank like a tea, baked in a cookie, or simply smoked. For the mosquitoes apparently. But for a living, they made candles and trinkets from leather or carved wood and elephant tusk – souvenirs for the passing travellers in their ox wagons heading towards Zululand and the interior. “Ja, we’re on our way up the coast,” explained a bloke called Louis Trichardt, busy unloading his ox wagon for the evening braai. “We’re going to meet up with Oom Piet (Retief ) and Gert (Maritz), then we’re heading east and north and collecting
Marco’s ears pricked up on ‘gold’, but just then an outburst of distant musketry fire could be heard from over the hill. “Wat’s dit?” asked Alphonso in his best Afrikaans. “Ag! Just shooting,” replied a local casually. “Who’s shooting?” “What’s today?” “Tuesday.” “Brit against Xhosa. Thursday is Boer against Khoi. Over the weekends they all fight each other.” Marco was relieved a few days later to be away from the battlefields and safely back on the Santa Flatulata, which was now loaded up to her gunwales with lumber and ready to set sail once again. Little did he anticipate that at their next refuelling stop in Algoa Bay, he would stumble across those secretly smuggled Kruger Millions, and reveal exactly what happened to them. But that’s another story, for next time.
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