Aberdeen Primary Girls U/14 Soccer Team

Michelle Ellis, Valmory Jack, Cheryldene Deelman, Nikita Funda, Sviyisiwe Rozani.
Sharon Josef, Eldene Blignaut, Cindy Dolf, Jenny Adams, Erroline Coetzee, Corey-Lee Jantjies.
Shahizda Booysen, Eleze Darries, Bianca Morthenus,Samantha Dampies.

This team from Aberdeen Primary School has progressed to the Provincial World Cup 2010 competition representing the Cacadu in a joint venture of the Department of Education and Department of Sport of the Eastern Cape. They will compete against districts like Nelson Mandela Bay, Amathole, Chris Hani, Alfred Nzo, Uklahlamba and O.R. Tambo. The winner of this competition will represent the Eastern Cape in the National World Cup 2010 competition.
The Provincial competitions are from the 10–11 October 2008 in East London.
The Staff, the Primary School and the Aberdeen community wish them well in their quest for ultimate honors.

Article By: Joan Tinker

Daily Despatch Article: Carlos Garcez

Daily Despatch 09-Oct-08

It took a Portuguese man who worked in baggage handling at Johannesburg International Airport to spot the gap and turn the humble ostrich egg into the iconic tourist souvenir it is today.
Carlos Garcez, who was born in Mozambique, has built up a very successful business in the little Karoo town of Aberdeen. He creates a variety of images on the eggs, from African animals and world maps to more arty designs.
The process is an intricate one and it can take up to eight hours to paint one egg, excluding drying time. These decoupage eggs have become a huge hit among foreign tourists, and are even exported to countries such as the United States, Dubai, Germany, Holland and the Czech Republic.
Garcez’ work is also displayed at the local art gallery and other establishments. Eggs with world maps sell for about R740 each and the others for R970.
Garcez, who was taught the basics of decoupage and expanded his knowledge through reading, said he did extensive research before embarking on this business.
“I went around to selling outlets in Johannesburg and Cape Town to see what they were buying,” said Garcez. One woman apparently told him she would never buy a decoupage ostrich egg as it was ‘kitschy work’. But despite this, there was a market and he set the ball rolling.
Garcez said he always wanted to do art and wanted to move to Italy as a youth to become a textile designer. “In Mozambique, if you studied art you were seen as very left wing and that just made life difficult. So instead, I had to go into the family hotel business,” he said.
As a ‘Jack-of-all-trades’, Garcez believes curiosity is the most important aspect in life. “Without curiosity you will go nowhere, but curiosity should be branded with responsibility,” Garcez said.
After moving to Johannesburg in 1972, Garcez worked as a baggage handler at the airport and soon worked his way up to marketing and sales manager. When his wife died, he decided to follow his curiosity.
“I had enough of people telling me what to do. I’m a bit daring that way and I’ve always loved the Karoo,” he said.
Initially he settled in Graaff-Reinet, but then decided Aberdeen was the place for him and has been in the town for 12 years now.
“When I first came here, I had to find a source of income,” he said. A friend suggested doing decoupage ostrich eggs.
He has now built up a little empire selling over 1700 eggs a year, and has even created several much-needed jobs.Decoupage is the art of decorating an object by gluing coloured paper cutouts onto it in combination with special paint effects, such as gold leaf, before covering the object with varnish.

Article By: Nicolette Scrooby & Cheri-Ann James (Copyright Daily Despatch)

Daily Despatch Article: Hillary Graham

Daily Despatch 09-Oct-08

Artist Hillary Graham came to the tiny Karoo town of Aberdeen to paint, but may well end up putting the town on the tourist map.
The former head of Fort Hare University’s fine arts department is on the cusp of sealing a deal to get funding for a basket of proposals, from renovating the town’s swimming pool and nature reserve to starting a ceramics sculpture project for more than 30 women. There is also a proposal to start a heritage archive.
“I came here to paint because that’s what I am but I got drawn into things”, said Graham, who is also secretary of the local ANC branch. “If you see the poverty in the place, you have no choice.”
Graham said he had been hawking his ideas around since 2005 and it was not until Mbulelo Sogoni, then the MEC for Economic Development and Environmental Affairs and now the Eastern Cape’s premier, came to town last year, that he found an audience.
Now the Eastern Cape Development Corporation and the Economic Development and Environmental Affairs Department are keen to fund the projects and the next step is for various legal entities to be registered.
The projects include fixing up the town’s Fonteinbos Nature Reserve, which has fallen victim to vandals and poachers, and the old municipal swimming pool.
To save the pool, Graham personally bid and secured its lease and helped establish a women’s co-operative of four to oversee its renovation and maintenance.
He also has Swimming South Africa in Port Elizabeth interested in assisting with lifesaving and swimming training.
“The water was filthy with garbage. And then there were steel spikes and pieces of masonry beneath the water. I told the municipality that someone was going to die there as the kids dive bomb the pool”, Graham said.
For the ceramics sculpture project, the fine arts department of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth is keen to send post-graduate students up to Aberdeen to do training, said Graham, who is determined to steer clear of the regular tourist trap. “I’d like the women to come back to the landscape, not this mumbo jumbo primitive stuff like mugs with giraffes on them,” he said .
It’s the heritage archive project that really gets him fired up as he dreams of getting the long-neglected history of Aberdeen’s townships documented.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to get university students involved .”
He believes that going beyond the white colonial history will release people from its burden. “We will be able to look bravely at colonial history,” he said. “It won’t be a rock we carry around with us.”

Article By: Gill Moodie (Copyright Daily Despatch)

Glorious Dusty Sunset In Aberdeen

The wind in Aberdeen has been unrelenting over the past couple of months. It has brought rain from time to time, but mostly gusts of dust. Consequently, there is a marked desire to stay indoors and watch the spectacular show of a world in economic crises on the news channels. However, all the financial wheeling and dealing amongst bankers, prime ministers and presidents seems to be a lifetime away from Aberdeen. Here reality reigns in a magnificent vista of a wind and dust-inspired Karoo sunset as seen in the sky above the Kerksaal.

Article By: Joan Tinker

Timelessness In Aberdeen

There is an essence of timelessness in Aberdeen, and has been for two weeks. The hands of the clock in the N. G. Kerk’s tower went on a go-slow journey, and then eventually stopped. The chimes are absent, and a strange stillness inhabits the area around the church. There is no longer a necessity, if you are awake that is, to switch on the light as the half-hour chimes once, to see if it is 1 in the morning, or simply half-past the hour. As the sunset last night the glow from the sky lit up the church clock showing an unbelievable 10 minutes to 11am.

Article By: Joan Tinker

River Of Rubbish

There is a river at the end of Meintjies Street in Aberdeen, and an empty property next to it which ends on the corner of Church Street. This area, being an empty property, plus the land going down to the river is being used as a dumping site and as a toilet. 4x4’s, donkey carts and bakkies regularly bring foul smelling rubbish and dump it onto the banks of the river. Trees are being chopped down and the stone wall used as a bank to stop soil erosion around the river, is being taken away and used as building material by nearby residents.
The disgusting odour, and the increasing health hazard caused by incessant flies has to be borne by the nearby residents whose view from their gardens is now a rubbish filled area.
This derelict property which has an empty dam on it, is filled with papers, plastic bags, beer and cool drink cans, also has signs of fires being lit inside the dam.
This unfenced property is clearly now being used as a thoroughfare and recreation area for vagrants.
It is pitiful to stand amidst this rubbish strewn property, and look straight up the street to the beautiful N.G.Kerk.
The Municipality has been contacted about this situation and has promised to have the area cleared. In the meantime, residents are photographing all vehicles using this area as a dumping ground. The Municipality should contact the absentee owner who lives in Mossel Bay and have him/her clear the property and fence it off from the river. In this way there would no longer be a thoroughfare or availability for dumping. Perhaps the Municipality will advise the residents of Meintjies Street of the actions they will be taking to restore this area to a residential site and the river area to its pristine condition.

Article By: Joan Tinker

‘Karoo Smiles’ Opens In Aberdeen

Yes, the Karoo definitely smiles on Aberdeen with the enhancement of a new coffee shop and take away facility which has opened next to the Magistrate’s Court. It has a light airy atmosphere and a cool clean feeling with its lemon-painted walls, white antiqued furniture and smart tablecloths. Delicious cakes are on display in a glassed cake fridge, and curios together with interesting knick-knacks are on sale.

There are two menus, the take away menu which features all the normal takeaways one could require, and an A La Carte Menu with interesting dishes which are not overpriced.
There is seating outside on the verandah which is enclosed by a white picket fence adding to the charming look of the shop.
Hans and Helena Roux who own Karoo Smiles have recently moved to Aberdeen from Rietbron. Their pleasant approach to the customers will stand them in good stead, and it is obvious that the coffee shop is already attracting customers.

Article By: Joan Tinker

Dining At Karoo Moons

Imagine dining in serene surroundings with aromatic spice blends in the cool night air of the Karoo. Imagine exotic orange turbaned and flamboyantly dressed Indian dancers on wall murals against cool plastered walls, with elegant furniture set on a beautiful cream tiled floor set beneath a hanging black cut-glass chandelier.
In a dining room with views of a stoned terrace from large windows, one can enjoy the finest quality of carefully selected Indian foods served in self-warmed silver dishes.
Your perfect hosts Ernest and Ramsay are charming, entertaining and knowledgeable about the exquisite dishes served. The music is soft and blends with the calming atmosphere of the establishment.
To stay at the Karoo Moons must be an experience akin to spending time in a restful retreat. The private dining area is luxurious with an Italian hand-carved dining table and the most beautiful paintings.
All the bedrooms are en-suite and the ‘moon trend’ is carried throughout the sleeping areas with an enormous lunar print tastefully framed above the bed. The beds are designed to easily accommodate a seven foot basketball player.
The lounges are elegant and comfortable in keeping with the exquisite taste of Ernest and Ramsay. As luxurious as the décor is, its tasteful simplicity is designed to be both inviting and functional. The Karoo Moons is set amidst well kept lawns with plentiful secured parking. It is most certainly a star in Aberdeen’s galaxy.

Article By: Joan Tinker