Saying goodbye to the Kruger, we loaded the van for a 4 hour blast into Middelburg, our stopover for the next two nights. After arriving later than expected we joined the Middelburg Rotary Club for an evening of bar b qued hamburgers, fellowship and Rotary Club presentations which are a feature of Rotary Friendship Exchanges. Middelburg is a farming, mining and industrial city of approximately 100,000 people located about 3 hours north east of Johannesburg.

After a great evening of fellowship we joined our new BFFs Anton and Rhonda and tottled off to their place for a well deserved sleep.
I arose at 5:45 this morning for a brisk walk with Anton and his dogs around the neighborhood. The wind is cool and the skies are threatening rain. The rainy season is due to start any day now and they are desperately praying for rain. After a hearty breakfast we are off to visit a large primary school located at the nearby township. Thushanang Primary school is populated by 1500 children from the nearby township. The student body and staff are 100 % non-white. The students are well behaved and neatly dressed in their burgundy school uniforms. We were greeted by a group of students waving SA flags as we were trooped in and escorted to our places of honour for speeches and performances from the school choir, dance teams and the competitive robotics teams. The choir is especially entertaining, beautiful voices boys and girls harmonizing and dancing to the rhythms. Very moving. Apparently the school’s choirs regularly win province wide competitions. After touring some of the classrooms that are sorely in need of desks, tables and in particular science lab equipment we met in the principal’s office where a plea was made to please assist if we could with a project to supply the school with these much needed resources. So great is the need and so great is the potential of these eager children. I spoke with one very articulate Gr 7 girl. I asked if she had plans post high school. She replied “ I would like to be a doctor”.

it seems all we have been doing between visits to Rotary projects is eat. We left the school and made our way to the local Chamber of Commerce building for lunch. A long table was set and 30 of us sat down to a “meat meal”. Steaming platters of ribs, sausage, chicken wings, little Vienna sausage, meat balls and some very big French fries. Not a celery or carrot stick in sight.
We returned to our host’s for a post luncheon nap and a quick change then off to the district governor’s dinner with the District 9400 Governor Dr George Senasha. Brilliant man and very inspirational. We presented our club banners to Middelburg club president, had another great meal and pleasant fellowship and then off home for a nice sleep.
Tomorrow we are on the road again, not quite as early as in the past week. Next stop is the Rotary Club of Centurion, a suburb of Pretoria. Sad to think that our friendship exchange will come to an end in 3 more days.
LEARNING AND INNOVATION GO HAND IN HAND. THE ARROGANCE OF SUCCESS IS TO THINK THAT WHAT YOU DID YESTERDAY WILL BE SUFFICIENT FOR TOMORROW…William G Pollard, American Physicist and Episcopalian Priest 1911-1989