Day 8

December 8 – Beautifully Different. Think about what makes you different and what you do that lights people up. Reflect on all the things that make you different – you’ll find they’re what make you beautiful. (Author: Karen Walrond)

I get excited about stuff... Like really excited about stuff. So much so that my eyes do the whole sparkly thing. At least that's what my significant other tells me!

I'm different in that minutiae make me excited! Words like minutiae make me excited! I get excited a fair bit. With that comes the downside of being disappointed, but good ideas are amazing! And make me light up - and therefore those around me light up, sometimes.

I'm sure there are other things. I will need to think on this one further. Maybe updates later... But for now. Sleep. :)

Day 7

Day 7 – Community. Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011? (Author: Cali Harris)

Community is something I've spent a great deal of time thinking about and trying to engage with over the last year. Working in SA, the creation of an intellectual community, the engagement with disadvantaged communities, the relationship with student community and community building. And then, slowly but surely, being part of an online community, which basically meant getting addicted to twitter...

The one thing I think that matters most in the building of community is the necessity of intergenerational mentorship. That resource of lived experience, well, I just can't prize it highly enough. I'm a better scholar, teacher, researcher and administrator when I can ask my peers who have forty years practice at what I've only been doing for four or five years. Their lessons and their experience is priceless - even as practice and pedagogy change.

I attended a conference today where one presenter talked about how he'd never learned to use powerpoint, he went straight from overhead projector work to tablet pcs! Some of the other presenters also argued that the pen and paper (or stylus tablet) is far more effective as a teaching tool than powerpoint or any other specky computing solution. And I understand their arguments and can see how they're right!

Day 6: Make

Prompt: Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it?

The last thing I made (that I put any real effort into) was a vegetarian bobotie for a Chrismukkah party my friends had on the weekend. It was delicious!

Here's the recipe I use. It's really easy and soooo tasty!

Vegetarian Bobotie

By Cora_and_Clarice on June 12, 2009

Prep Time: 30 mins Total Time: 1 1/2 hrs Servings: 4

About This Recipe

"This is my own vegetarian adaptation of the traditional Cape Malay dish of my country. I have tried to approximate flavour and texture as closely as possible and have retained all the ingredients my mother used when making it - aside from the mince, of course :) This project has been very important to me as most of the vegetarian versions I have found online so far are rather inaccurate. Bobotie was one of my favourite dishes as a child and I wanted to preserve and share that memory as much as I could."

Ingredients

250 g lentils

1 large onions, diced

1 large fresh tomatoes, diced

2 teaspoons curry powder

1 teaspoon turmeric

salt and pepper

4 tablespoons chutney

1 large handful raisins

40 g sliced almonds

For the topping

3 eggs

100 -150 ml milk (not entirely sure about the amount as I do it by feel, your topping should have a very pale yellow colour)

2 bay leaves (I tear mine up a bit, but some people put them in whole, up to you)

Directions

1. Rinse lentils until water runs clear.

2. Cover lentils with water and pre-cook for 30min (you may need to top the water up from time to time).

3. Drain lentils.

4. Preheat oven to 150C.

5. Saute onion and tomato.

6. Add curry, tumeric, salt and pepper.

7. Cook for 1-2 minutes.

8. Add raisins, almonds, chutney, onion and tomato to lentils.

9. Mix and place in baking dish.

10. Shake up topping ingredients and pour over lentils.

11. Place in oven and bake for 1-1/2 hours (egg topping should have risen all the way to the middle)

Please note:

I spice my bobotie mildy and use a slightly sweet sultana chutney - one preference found in the Cape. Some people make theirs hotter and use Mrs. Ball's Original Chutney, which is very tasty and is less sweet. I recommend you experiment, but remember, the dish should be spicy as in flavoursome, not as in burn-your-mouth.

Also, adding a bit more diced onion will add more texture to the lentils.

Collected thoughts and quotes for the day:

My favourites thus far...

From Clay Shirky:

"When authorities can’t get what they want by working within the law, the right answer is not to work outside the law. The right answer is that they can’t get what they want."

From the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford, in Geoff Mulgan's paper on social innovation:

"As the great Victorian historian Lord Macauley wrote: 'There is constant improvement precisely because there is constant discontent'."

#Reverb10

Reverb 10 and Gwen Bell just happened across my twitter account... and have drawn me back to my blog which I have neglected like some pimply, snotty-nosed step-child for over a year.

I've done a twitter reverb of days 1-5... but thought I would collect them here in reverse order...

Day 5: Let go?: Academic career... maybe.

The shift out of Africa (quite literally) back to Oz has made me rethink the question of academia, and my involvement in it. I should probably qualify the above, I think I've left my discipline behind, as much as that makes me sad. But embraced the possibility and wonder of social entrepreneurship and participatory culture as tools for redesigning curricula and pedagogy.

Day 4: Sense of wonder?: spending time with my lovely Lauren, be it via the interwebs or gloriously when we are in the same space.

Day 3: Most alive?: Enthusiastic discussion of ideas, mostly with Ms Phillippa Wheaton, Executive Director of enke: Make Your Mark.

Day 2: holding me back from writing & how to change?: Lack of confidence in my authorial 'voice' - answer: get in the fray.

I've had talks with all kinds of academics and I think this is something that many ECRs struggle with, finding a voice and engaging with the larger public. So I think I need to brave my own fears and engage (consequently dusting this one off, rather than starting a new one!).

Day 1: word of the year: change. Moved continents, careers and 'lifestyles'.

December 6 2009, living in Johannesburg, South Africa, Lecturer (International Studies) and single.

December 6 2010, living in Melbourne, Manager (so in admin) and in a long-distance relationship.

But change is more amorphous than the 'content' of my life, I have been challenged to rethink, reimagine and reinterrogate what I think and believe and why, mostly at the prompting of the ladies listed above - but also so many others!

So that's where it's at.

I'm really looking forward to Day 6!

Botanical Gardens

I realised over the weekend that I needed to get some 'green' time. I find that although I never intend to live outside of a major urban area again (except perhaps in England) - Sorry Mum and Dad - I do need to be surrounded by or at least get a decent dose of 'greenness' every couple of weeks. In Australia that just meant wandering through Victoria Gardens 100m from my flat. Here, it's a little more of a challenge. So I went to Emmarentia Botanical Gardens on Sunday and walked around for an hour. It was lovely!


I also took some pictures of the two towers - Brixton (on the left) and Hilbrow (on the right). Both towers are in areas you wouldn't want to frequent after dark (or at any time in Hilbrow) if you look like me!








I have a tshirt that was made as part of a visual literacy programme. It has Hilbrow Tower on it.

Both were used by the Apartheid regime. They controlled all media and were more than a little paranoid about what got on the air. They never introduced tv until 1976! Afeared as they were that it would lead to the "destruction of a white South Africa". I guess they were right about one thing, even if nothing else! Although, the role played by tv in the struggle movement is higly problematic and deeply questionable. Still, it makes an interesting case study! I'm working on some research examining the introduction of tv to SA at the moment. If I find some particularly delightful (and by delightful I mean abhorrent and unashamedly racist and patronising) material in the Hansard, I'll try and share!

Teaching and Learning

We've just about finished week 3, because of the many and varied issues most of our students have with visas means that we don't start tutorials until this week. It's been strange waiting this long to get to know my classes. Tutes began and so now I have 50 or so new faces to get to know. I realised last semester that I recognise people regularly by their hairstyles, which doesn't work so well in a population that about once a fortnight changes the hair extensions, corn rows or other designs of their hair. But I'm slowly learning - the names are getting a little easier.
Some of my students have awesome names - Mwazvita, Naa-Odaaley, Lwamainsa, Bonang, Zwakele and Ditso. I, of course, absolutely mis-pronounce and otherwise do violence to their given names, which usually have lovely meanings. Still, I'm trying. I have managed to get my head around Thokozani and Sibongiseni, so things do get easier. And now Nthabiseng and Sibusiwe are walks in the park!
The strangest part about my life here, which I'm slowly coming to recognise, is that I'm actually not exposed to much of 'Africa' as it is sold in the tourist books or novels. I was told about the Shona hierarchies and kinship regimes the other night and it struck me that I really am having a very urban and western experience here. I don't know of or hear of or experience life outside of a very middle class, urbanised, Westernised worldview and framework. Obviously, living in Jozi means that going along to traditional ceremonies is not really on the cards, but it feels like my communication here is one way, and that is less than satisfying. Of course, that's not entirely a bad thing, but I really need to make an effort to experience something other than that which I could have anywhere else. I'm going to Zandspruit this weekend to do our community engagement programme at Masakhani Primary, so I'll at least see some of what 'real life' is like in the informal settlements.

PS. My internet is still "intermittent" which at the moment means not working at all, but as soon as it's up and running I'll post some pictures!