Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in the Transkei on 18 July 1918, so he will turn 93 this year. Mandela Day was officially declared by the United Nations in November 2009 and the first one was officially celebrated in 2010, although for many years the day has been remembered by South Africans in all walks of life. It is a day to honour the legacy of Nelson Mandela, and his values, through volunteering and community service for 67 minutes. This number represents the number of years that he was involved in politics. This year the 'Bikers for Mandela Day' left Monte Casino in Johannesburg very early on the morning of the 11 July and set off on a 7 day, 13 hour and 37 minute tour to travel the 2200 kilometre route planned for this year, ending in Pretoria. Celebrities and Sports personalities are taking part, making stops along the way to work with several different community organisations. (Let me hasten to add that Rob and I shall not be doing anything quite so strenuous! In fact we are selling our bikes as I keep getting punctures and the spokes on all of our wheels keep snapping!)
But I digress.
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| "Mandela Bay" in 2010 |
Last year our neighbours had a new DSTV dish installed and threw the old fibre-glass one away. We never throw anything away if we can find a use for it, so, we decided to celebrate Mandela Day by making a beautiful feature in our garden, using the dish. Rob removed all the odd sticky-out bits and siliconed around the bolts in the middle. We washed it and then placed it in one of the flower beds, planted aloes and placed rocks round it, and filled it with water. We called it 'Mandela Bay' in his honour, and have spent many happy hours watching the birds enjoying the water, both drinking and bathing. The buck that visit also drink from it, and I like to think that Madiba himself would love sitting in the shade on a hot day enjoying the peace of the garden. At the grand age of 93, he certainly has earned the right to sit in a garden and be at one with nature.
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| "Mandela Bay" now in 2011 |
On Monday morning at 08.05 our time, an estimated 12.4 million school-children will sing a special Happy Birthday song to Madiba. The song can be downloaded on your mobile for a small fee and they are hoping that this will be the greatest number of people singing the same song at the same time!! Anyone can join in, but I am not sure how they will actually manage to monitor how many people will sing. We shall sing, (but without the download).
Happy Birthday Madiba!
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| Nelson Mandela's autobiography |
2 comments:
As a post script, I made a lovely batch of marmalade from a receipe that my sister Diana gave me. It was very simple, unless, like me, you wrongly convert the liquid measure from pints to litres!! In the end, Rob managed to find the solution by chopping and mashing 2 apples (remember that for future!) and reboiling for 20 minutes! Voila, wonderful marmalade! Rob and I had some on toast this morning......and the rest I gave away!
My dear friend,
I am loving these little "stories" of yours, what a great idea to have started a blog! Happy birthday to Madiba for yesterday. I hope all the birds (and buck) had an extra long drink from your "Mandela Bay" in celebration. Happy home made marmalade on toast day.
Love Taryn
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