Diary August 25, 2000

Finally, a few minutes to rest and think. I won’t try to recap the week here, but for the first several days we were constantly on the go, trying to do all of the tourist things and attend important meetings.

It is all starting to pay off now. Some relationships have been formed that will provide dividends in the future. Others are going to produce results before we leave. Today was both for me.

The group divided into three. Senator Prentiss and Representative Barrett visited a school, then went around the corner to visit the homes of some of the children. It gave them a true picture of disadvantaged South Africa.

Representative Barnes and others went to business meetings, including visiting the Ford Motor plant.

Representative Sykes, Dr. Buntman, and I visited Witwatersrand University. We donated a collection of books gathered from faculty in Northeast Ohio to their library. They were most grateful. The librarians prepared special displays for us. We saw original apartheid documents in the government documents section, a collection of books printed before 1850, and an archive about the settling of South Africa. The library was truly amazing.

We spent a little time talking to students: some on the mall, some in the student center, and some who were actually studying.

The most productive time was at lunch. At the University of Akron we are interested in using our distance learning (video teleconferencing) capabilities to expand our applied politics program. At Wits they have a program that trains government officials in development and management. Together we could see the advantages of our universities sharing our programs via distance learning. We began thinking of ways to bring these programs together. By working together with Wits, the University of Akron can bring a much needed service to South Africa and we can gain cultural exchanges, students, and Wits courses in our program.

Everyone said I have never smiled so much on this trip as today. (Maybe they didn’t see me on the beach.) But, I really felt that something can come of today’s meetings that will be mutually beneficial and can make a difference in peoples lives.

By the way, thanks to Dr. Buntman’s great contacts at Wits, we were able to see Mandela speak. Some members of the group got to shake his hand.

What a day!

Rick Farmer