Celebrations & Smoke

Most of our week was spent getting the St Francis Sustainable Sea Centre ready for the big opening on Friday November 9^th. We painted, decorated, organized, and most excitingly set up a large shark display that was donated to centre for the summer.

After months of work (on Rob and Sam’s part), the centre was launched with a formal event that attracted nearly 150 guests. It was really fun to get dressed up and meet SST’s trustees, different donors, as well as many St Francis natives. After a lovely dinner, extreme sportsman Pete Van Kets regaled us with tales of cross-Atlantic rowing races and adventures to the South Pole. He was very inspiring, as was his wife, Kim Van Kets, who has carried out a number of her own extreme adventures.

Alex, Chida, Sam, Rob, me, Blair, and Luke

On Saturday, the centre was buzzing with families. There were all sorts of activities – slip n slide, ice sculpting, snorkeling, demonstrations by NSRI (the equivalent of the coast guard), a big braai, face painting (by Chida!), bike polo, a sidewalk chalk competition, and more! It was a beautiful day, and I was even convinced to partake in the chilly willy swim, a 400m swim around the harbour. Alex and I managed to take 1^st and 2^nd place in the race!

NSRI Demo

At the end of the day, Blair and I started a massive snowball fight with the leftover shredded ice from the ice sculpting competition. It was SO much fun, and felt like we were bringing a little bit of Canada to South Africa. Overall, the opening of the SSC was a huge success, and I can’t wait to work there over the summer!

Post-snowball fight

Click for more photos and info about the fire

Unfortunately, the day after the opening there was a massive fire in St Francis. Nearly a quarter of the homes along the canals (which are required to have thatched roofs by city regulation) were completely destroyed. The area where we’d competed in the Quadrathlon the week before went up in smoke. It was hard to believe that this could happen to a community that was under water just a few weeks earlier due to massive rainfall and flooding – but luckily no one was hurt. The fire will likely affect the SSC’s revenue this summer (approximately 1000 people will no longer be vacationing in St Francis), but we’ll just have to get extra creative.