Talking about odd(s), internet probs and Madiba’s birthday

by aidscentre

It seems to be a bit of an odd week.  Monday, when I started to write the blog, the internet at my home office refused to work.  Taking the car to venture out to the office in Stellenbosch wasn’t working either because the mechanic was getting his hands dirty on it for a much needed service.  So, I had to use all of my “zen” abilities to put my money where my mouth was because, I always say “everything happens for a reason” (even if one finds out that reason only years later sometimes), I better relax and make the best of it. 

Second try. Tuesday. Stellenbosch office. That’s odd, I can’t log in… I consult my colleagues and I am advised to call the helpdesk. It is a general internet problem affecting the entire campus.  But look who’s here now, against all odds, your faithful Africa Centre for HIV/AIDS blogger does not give up ! All is well that ends well. 

Talking about odds, however. What are the odds that one runs into a retired Newsweek photographer (Mark Peters), who is also a philantropist and an acquaintance of former president Mandela ? Well, as you probably remember from one of my previous blog posts, we did ! And a wonderful cooperation resulted from that meeting. 

Madiba’s birthday is coming up this week.  Our South African hero will turn 95. The world has been praying for his health lately. On July 18th, Mandela day, volunteers will spend 67 minutes on hundreds of community upliftment projects — a minute for every year of his activism. Worldwide several events have been planned to honor our nation’s nobel prize winner.  

The Africa Centre tries to uplift people every day and Mark Peters’ promise to give us R500 000 of the sale of his unique collection of pictures autographed by Mandela to continue our work is in return uplifting to us. 

We are looking for a person or a company, a university or a museum to buy these amazing pictures. One of them showed the world the very first moment of this great man’s freedom, and what time would be better then NOW to offer it to the world ? 

You can contact us for more info on : natascha@sun.ac.za OR call us : +27 21 808 9465