SACS old boys

Last night Rob attended the annual SACS Old Boys' Dinner in Perth.  There are approximately 60 men registered to this chapter of the union and about 30 turned out for dinner.  It was a remarkable evening of memories, laughter and sharing.  The men paid tribute to the late John Ince who sadly passed away recently.

Rob was overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity that these men showed him as the "new kid on the block".  Arms were stretched out to give him a hand up in business and family life.  He says that he gave out more business cards last night than he had in the preceding four months.  Many old boys have been here for years and have established themselves and their families very well.  They are pillars of the business community and true Perthians.  I think that was quite inspirational for Rob as we are so new to this game.

The thing that struck me is how fiercely proud these men are of their roots and how they link arms so far from home to serve one another.  If you are a SACS family you can rest assured that your boys will find a home wherever they choose to live.

Besides the annual dinner there are so many Cape Townians here that there is an annual yacht race on the Swan River between SACS, Rondebosch and Bishops - we look forward to checking that out this summer.

The number of South Africans in Perth is quite astounding.  Two of the Supreme Court Judges in Perth are South Africans.  Last night I attended a women's seminar in the city.  Out of 16 women, 4 were South Africans!  Two of the four local Speech Pathologists are South African, the Bible Study I attend on a Thursday morning has 8 SAffers in a room of about 40 girls.  Our Sunday school is run by a lady from Jhb, the congregation is dotted with "whenwe's" from Zim and SA.  Russell gathered with the locals at a home nearby in the holidays and out of 11 children 9 were South Africans.  Adam is one of two South Africans in his class.  Hugo's teacher is from Springbok and his best friend is Junior from Pretoria.  But then, everyone has a South African friend, I've been told!  We live south of the river and Little Bloem is north of the river according to the rumours.  There is an NG Kerk up there and many immigrants everywhere you look.

Our expectation of a bland one-dimensional society has been wiped out by the massive migrant population to this isolated city.  There are people here from every corner of the globe which makes for an interesting diverse culture where an accent is the norm and everyone's way is the right way.