Getting started

My first interview is this weekend with Chante Daries. It's a bit of a digression from the High Street journey, but it still fits in with my interest in Afrikaans people in Grahamstown and then now specifically at Rhodes University. Chante is a first year student from Oudtshoorn, and she's quite a character. Highly intelligent, musical, anti-social, rude, and, oh god, Afrikaans. I want to chat to her about her first impressions of this weird place, about being Afrikaans at an English university, about her friends, mostly it's about identity formation and how she is making a place for herself here to live for the next four years. (I wonder, should I do the interview in Afrikaans? Or a mix?)

Then staying with the Afrikaans theme I've confirmed Themistocles Huisamen, Afrikaans lecturer at Rhodes, for an interview. (Themistocles: ancient Athenian general who defeated the Persian Empire at Salamis). He's been here forever, so I'll first ask some questions about his life trajectory, where he studied, what he did, how he ended up in Grahamstown, why he was named thus, his philosophy in life, his hopes and dreams, etc.

So that is definitely happening next week, and then I also made contact with Lauren Kent from Simply B, and Petra Pretorius from the hospice shop, as well as Sarah Roberson from Ubom and I've contacted a councilor. I'm still waiting to hear from them.

I've also got a new idea to interview the shop owner from Ultimate Toys and gifts in High Street, simply because she provides costumes for the many 21st's at Rhodes. I do now from experience however that she's quite press shy, so I'll have to go sweet talk her.

Otherwise I need to find a rep at the bottle store, I need to go talk to the earring guy, I need to find a freelance actor who's not too successful and I need to hang around the coffee shops more to see who are regulars.