and my personal stuff was left to fend
with the additional carry-on I had brought along. On the train from Pretoria to
the Johannesburg airport I was assured of another passenger’s respect about my
strength that I could deal with so many bags… One of the first things I did
after entering the house was to opend that suitcase and the vacuum bags to give
the quilts air to breath again, hoping they won’t have been condensed for too
long so they still look like quilts and not like French pancakes.
Having come
back from a mild African winter I am amazed at how hot and humid it is here in
Germany. And when I check on the weather app, it tells me that it is only three
to four degrees Celsius warmer, but definitely it is much more humid that I
have experienced it in the past two weeks. I am lucky that I don’t have to go
back to work/school right away but have another while to ‘get back’ because it feels
like I will need a bit to ‘get Africa out of my system’ again. I had an
absolutely wonderful time – the trip to Kruger, the many animals I saw, the festival
with the numerous nice and lovely people and some very interesting quilts to
see. But while on Heronbridge College campus it also felt a bit like we were
out of the world.
Secluded from the South Africa outside, which did not really
infiltrate the festival ongoings on campus, except for one incident when a
party of attendees who had gone off campus for dinner saw how a car that was
waiting in line at the road construction site right outside campus was attacked
by somebody who was trying to break the window. He did not succeed, was driven
away right away, and the group from the festival was not even directly
affected, but that was a bit of a signal that there is a quite different South
Africa outside of the gate. And everybody got very concerned when I mentioned
that I was planning to spend one night in a hotel in Johannesburg before going
back home Sunday night. That is absolutely not possible, alone in a hotel in
Johannesburg… Various options were discussed, whether I should hire a private
guide and airport transfer, or how I would be able to deal with the situation.
I always thought it should be possible if I moved cautiously, but in the end
Erla Cilliers invited me over to stay at her place and we had a lovely two days
as she showed me around Pretoria, we went for a walk in the morning and a
lovely breakfast on Sunday and certainly it was more fun to be in her company
than to sit in a hotel room by myself at night.
In terms of
textiles it was a very interesting week, too, because last Wednesday the
international teachers and visitors who brought an exhibition to the festival were
taken on a special tour of Johannesburg. This included the Oriental Bazar, with
shopping options,
Samosas for lunch... very delicious! |
a Shwe Shwe fabric shop, with shopping options,
and in the
end a wonderful shop with lots of lots of interesting African Art and Craft
items, including a wide range of ‘up-Africa fabrics’ which we took good
advantage of. The day ended in a fabric swopping session in the evening in the
lounge of our accomodation where we showed our finds, shared pieces and had a
fabric fit.
More on my
African textile experiences tomorrow.