The thing about Cape Town, more specifically Table Mountain, is that sometimes it is gorgeous and clear, and sometimes it is shrouded in clouds, (or wearing a tablecloth, as the locals say). And sometimes there are gale-force winds from the east that prevent the cable cars from running up the mountain, which is what happened to Imogene, Jalina, Alison Rodseth and me this past weekend. Did we let that dampen our trip to the end of the continent? Heck, no!
Our weekend trip to Cape Town was repelete with a visit to the penguins at Boulders Beach, Cape Point National Park, a drive across Chapman’s Peak, the Victoria and Alfred (not Albert) Waterfront, and Bo-Kaap, the Muslim neighborhood of Cape Town. I will post some photos from our travels.
After an uneventful flight made sweeter by some complementary Swiss chocolate, we arrived here in Prague. Mr. Falk, the high school president and my host dad, met us at the airport. My host family has been so much fun! I have three host siblings, Andrea (16), Mark (14) and Sara (11). I’ve really enjoyed spending time with them and getting to know them.
So far, we have been to a few tourist sites and attended classes. Our first weekend here, we visited Terezín and Ledice. Although neither of them are cheerful or fun places, the history behind each is meaningful and very powerful. On Monday, we lightened the mood with a trip to the large and impressive Prague Zoo. On Tuesday night, we went to the ballet in the Prague National Theatre. The architecture in that building and in all of Prague is breathtaking. Prague seems to offer an abundance of little excursions, including parks, museums, historical sites and an amazing variety of entertainment.
I’ve been sitting in on art classes, spanish classes, a religious education class, and a math class. Class has been entertaining and fun. The great thing about going to school as a guest is that I get to learn without the stress and strain of grades or tests and quizzes. I’ve also found this to be a very telling experience. The classes I’d like to visit give me an accurate read on which classes I enjoy most.e National Theatre. The architecture in that building and in all of Prague is breathtaking. Prague seems to offer an abundance of little excursions, including parks, museums, historical sites and an amazing variety of entertainment.
So far, I have to say the best part of the trip has been, for me, the international component to the school. Although I am not speaking much Czech because it is a British system, I have met people from all around the world. At Governor’s, we have our international population, but there is a clear distinction between international students and local students. In this school, probably around 75% of the students are international. Accents are not rare; they are part of a person’s identity and go unnoticed. Asking someone where they are from isn’t unusual as the variety of different countries represented is extremely diverse. I’m so excited we have two weeks more to fill with exciting adventures! Even though I am already here, I still cannot believe how lucky I am to have been able to go on this trip.
We departed late at night and arrived in the Czech Republic in the afternoon. The principal picked us up and we went back to his house to freshen up and rest a little. Mr Falk, the principle of Riverside High School, and his family, live in the newer post communist era housing in the outskirts of Prague. That night during dinner at a local pub, we were all (mostly me) falling asleep in our meal. I was picked up by the Antblad family and brought to their home, Mei Li returned to the Falk’s and Mr.Hart went with the music teacher to his apartment.
The next day we toured the high school and sat in on some classes. That night after dinner the Antblads and I drove into the city and walked through the Prague castle grounds at night. Prague is a remarkable city by night. That weekend we toured Terezin, a walled city and small fortress used by the Nazis as a Jewish ghetto and prison for everyone from political prisoners to POWs. We also toured the former town of Lidice just outside of Prague. This town was one of the cities burned down to the ground by Hitler for vague reasons. About 20 people out of hundreds survived the destruction of their town. Today all that stands in the place of the former town is a couple foundations, a very moving museum and a collection of statues. The next Monday we attended classes and then left around noon for the Prague Zoo, which had an incredible assortment of cages and exhibits. Tuesday we went to classes in the morning and in the afternoon we went walking through Petrin Park and enjoyed a beautiful view of the city. Then at night we attended a ballet in the Prague national theater. I can tell already that it will be hard to return home after 3 weeks in this beautiful city.
Jalina, Imogene and I have had a very busy few days. It is hard to believe that we have been here exactly one week today. Saturday night was the last of the four cultural presentations, showcasing the different regions of Africa. Saturday’s focus: the countries of southern Africa, including Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Swaziland, Malawi and, of course, South Africa. The students from these countries performed songs (contemporary AND traditional), dances (the same), slide shows, and skits, many dressed in some version of their traditional clothing. The “frame story” was a play about a young man named “Speedy”, portrayed by a South African young man, KB, who is an American who has returned to southern Africa in search of his “roots” and to acquire a bride. The whole thing ended in a huge hip hop dance extravaganza. The general consensus at ALA is that the southern Africans are the best dancers, but the north Africans are the best drummers. The east and west Africans both think they’re the best at everything! I’m not sure where that leaves the students from central Africa. The show went on for almost two hours, and the degree of involvement and seriousness of purpose (despite the many, many laughs) were impressive!
On Sunday we went to the Rosebank Market, where you can buy anything from gourmet cheesecake, plastic washtubs, herbal rememdies, and traditional African crafts. The market is held on Sundays in a parking garage next to the Rosebank Mall in downtown Johannesburg. It is a great place to do some serious shopping, which is what we did. Imogene was, by far, the winner! She and I both ended the day by buying simple beaded bracelets from a very nice man. We also spent a lot of time talking with a woman who sews beautiful clothes from traditional fabrics. And we also sampled all kinds of delicious treats: fresh fruit smoothies; samosas; chicken shwarma in pita–very exotic after ALA fare.
Monday morning we left ALA at 7 a.m. to make the two and a half hour drive out to Pilanesberg, northeast of Joburg, to the game park there. We did two trips into the park: one at sunset; one just before sunrise. Here is a shortlist of the animals we saw: white rhinos; hippos (on land and submerged in the water); springbok (the national symbol of South Africa); haartebeest; impala (thousands!); kudu; waterbuck; one faraway giraffe (and another dead one–it had been killed by a lightning strike and we saw it being scavenged by a black backed jackal); a scrub hare; warthogs–grown and babies; wildebeest; vervet monkeys; a baby crocodile (about a foot long) and a REALLY, REALLY big one swimming; Tsetsebe antelope; a small chameleon; zebras (lots); bats; guinea fowl; night jars; spotted eagle owls; a rare Southern White-faced owl (with big orange eyes); kingfishers with their prey (fish) hanging out of their mouths–they actually slam the fish on a branch to knock it out before they eat it; and honey badger tracks! We did not see any lions, which sometimes happens, and surprisingly, we did not spot a single elephant.
We got back to campus in time for lunch and afternoon classes. Tomorow afternoon we will be invovled in the Community Service Program–stay tuned.
Yesterday (Friday), Imogene, Jalina and I went out to Maropeng, about half an hour from African Leadership Academy, to visit the cave where anthropologists have been at work unearthing the skeleton of “Little Foot”, an Australopithecus hominid skeleton dated at 3.3 million years old. The skeleton is 96% unearthed–they are actually using dental tools to dig it out so that nothing is damaged or lost! While the actual skeleton is profoundly off -limits (behind TWO locked gates), visitors are able to descend into the cave for a little tour.
The cave was originally discovered by a farmer on his land. Its original importance was the abundance of limestone, used for some purpose by an Italian gold mining company. The skeleton was not discovered until much more recently. Anyway, it’s nice and cool in the cave–a consistent 18 degrees centigrade–and filled with stalagmites, stalagtites, an underground lake (with blind, white shrimp), lots of limestone, braschia (the composite rock of dirt and gravel from above ground that fall in through openings and are solidified by the constant dripping of mineral-rich water), and, naturally, bats. Most of the caverns are pretty large, having been blasted open by the Italian engineers, but at some points we had to scootch down to pass through openings about a meter in height. Very cool.
Other than the bats that liked to fly right over Jalina’s head, the high point of the cave trip was when Imogene volunteered to taste the limestone (since it is an ingredient in toothpaste). The salty, bitter taste lasted all the way to lunch!
Welcome to The Governor Academy’s first SMART Team blog post! This year our team proctor, Judy Rokous (Chair, Science Department) experimented with splitting the team into two groups consisting of the new comers and the returners. The new group has delved indulgently into the protein Pla, the killer enzyme in the infamous bubonic plague. While the beginner group was hard at work researching and investigating Pla, the last year’s group was doing the same with Transthyretin and the mutations involved with it. Transthyretin is a protein found in the blood that caries thyroxine. When a mutation occurs in this protein, the misfolding causes a malevolent fibrils that disrupts organ function. We are waiting to hear back from the labs in Boston University and are well on our way!
PS: We got new couches!
To learn more about the SMART team, please click here. SMART Team members will be posting updates and (hopefully) photos throughout the year!
The Fall edition of TheArchon is now available for viewing online and features a story about Headmaster Dr. Peter Quimby ’85 P’14,’15. The story, Honoroing Our Traditions, Embracing Our Future, is written by alumnus Aruthur H. Vesey ’68. Please enjoy an excerpt of the article below.
“He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled.” ~ Aristotle
On a crisp October morning in South Byfield workers move in and out of Phillips, fixing the damage caused by minor floods that inundated several campus buildings. Amidst the commotion Peter Quimby is relishing his new surroundings and the warmth in his voice is evident. Directing his visitor’s attention to a pastel portrait of Carrie Ambrose he explains, with admiration, that Carrie was the first female to be awarded a diploma from nineteenth century Dummer Academy, having unofficially completed the rigors of scholarship at the previously all boys school. For many years it hung in the old Ambrose dormitory above the mail table. Girls have long since become a part of the campus and several, temporarily displaced by the flooding, have moved into the Mansion House. Peter and his wife Laurie quickly adjust to the role of dorm parents, observing study hall habits and handling bed check duties until Doggett Dormitory is declared habitable once again. The chaos seems like a homecoming for the 28th Headmaster of the oldest boarding school in the country.
Peter H. Quimby entered the academy as a sophomore in the fall of 1982 making the six hour drive with his parents from central upstate New York. It was a fresh and exciting opportunity, yet life at a New England boarding school was not easy as Peter remembers.
“I was afraid to be myself– to let others see me for who I really was. I often felt lonely, out of place, homesick, and had a hard time fitting in.” But early on in that first year something happened that he found remarkable. Dave Williams, a master of some distinction, spied him in the dining hall one evening and called him over. Although Mr. Williams had no daily contact as Peter’s teacher, coach or dorm master, he asked him how he was doing. Like most new students, away from home for the first time, he feigned that he was fine.
“No, really, how are things going?” was the tall, lanky, senior faculty member’s response– a gravelly voice that silently said: I know what you are feeling and if you ever need someone to talk to I am here. It was a powerful moment and the beginning of a transformation as Peter recalled it in his opening chapel talk to this year’s student body; one that has been, and will again be replayed many times at the academy– teachers and coaches reaching out to help shape the lives of students who arrive as children and depart three or four years later as confident young adults.
The 1985 school president and Academy Prize recipient pursued his higher education at Bowdoin College where he majored in Government and Russian, graduating Magna Cum Laude before earning his M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Wisconsin. The result has been a career in education spanning more than two decades from Colby-Sawyer College to the University of Wisconsin, Yale University where he was Dean of the Davenport College and a Political Science lecturer, and most recently Princeton University where he served as Deputy Dean of the College. Now he has made the leap, some would say backwards, to the position of modern-day headmaster. When asked why he made the change he expresses his motivation with disarming candor. “As much as I enjoyed my work at Princeton, I did not find it to be as personally fulfilling as I wanted it to be. To me the choice was a prestigious position versus the important work of shaping lives.”
This article, in its entirity, as well as The Archon are available online.
Video highlights from Dr. Quimby’s installation ceremony may also be viewed online.
Much has been made lately about Boston becoming the “Hollywood of the East,” with a large number of popular and critically acclaimed movies being filmed in Beantown and the surrounding areas. Think The Departed, The Fighter, The Town, Shutter Island, Mystic River, or Fever Pitch (okay, the last film is a stretch, but any movie with “Tessie” on the soundtrack deserves a mention).
So perhaps it was only a matter of time before Byfield got in on the action.
The first mainstream lacrosse film, Crooked Arrows, is being filmed at The Governor’s Academy this Thursday, Friday and Saturday, August 4-6. The film, a classic sports underdog tale, features a mixed-blood Native American, Joe Logan (Brandon Routh from Superman Returns), who returns home in hopes of convincing his Tribal Chairman father to modernize the reservation. Instead, Joe is asked to coach a ragtag group of lacrosse players and rediscover his spirit. The Native American players compete against the players of the elite Prep School League and, you see where this is going, have to learn to believe in themselves and their heritage to reign supreme.
Sounds familiar? Here’s the thing … nearly every underdog sports story follows the same script. And nearly every one is wildly successful. Hoosiers? Yes, the little basketball team beats the big basketball team. Rudy? He gets into Notre Dame, and plays in the final game, and makes a tackle, and gets carried off the field. Miracle? Heck, we all knew what happened in 1980 and yet we still cried when O.C. was cleared to play and the fake Mike Eruzione ushered all his teammates (in those terrible blue sweatsuits) to join him on the podium.
Crooked Arrows embraces these storylines, but also showcases Native American culture and its profound influence on the sport of lacrosse, much like Bend It Like Beckham did so beautifully for Indian culture and gender roles (she gets the soccer scholarship, the boy and a glimpse of Posh and Becks while awaiting her flight to the States).
It will be exciting to watch Crooked Arrows next spring and look for scenes shot at the Academy, at St. John’s Prep in Danvers, and at other locations on the Northshore. The athletes who will appear in the action shots trained here under legendary sports coordinator Mark Ellis, whose credits include nearly every sports movie one can name. The location scouts, production team, and all others involved in the film have been wonderful to work with, and we hear that they think our campus is beautiful (we agree).
If Boston truly is the Hollywood of the East, then this won’t be the last movie shot in the Commonwealth. And we’re open to offers. Have your people call our people.
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