easter friday

Quick tour of the the old city centre: town hall, market, art museum and fountain, Cathedral.
Roads are mostly empty at 12 o’clock except for those going to church for Easter Friday.

We enter the Baptist church in Kimberley to see Pam’s uncle.
The church is all painted in white inside, really basic with green window frames and glasswork.
Pam’s uncle, Willy, is looking like James only shorter and with big round glasses. He welcomes us in is church in a very warm and debonnaire manner, he hadn't seen Pam for 6 years.
Pam’s cousin Theresa and her two girls are also here.
Service is from 12 to 3, the kids in the backroom are creating mounted reproduction of the crucifixion with peebles and wooden mouth relaxator.

After church we head to Willy’s house for pickled fish with the all familly.
The area where they live is quite run down, roads are really wide and bordered by red sand. The architecture varies a lot from houses to houses.
The inside of the house is really fresh and the pickled fish delicious.
We have a long discussion about life in South Africa compared to London, then Theresa takes us around town for a visit.
She's been teaching English in the high school next door for 11 years, and explains to us that the new education system, copied on the american one, doesn’t encourage students to learn.
There is a lot of fighting, even stabbings occurring at school.
Apparently De beers is planning on relocating and the university that was supposed to be built in Kimberley was transferred outside in another city, cutting the possibility for young people to develop.
They have to go to Rhodes university but those who leave don't come back to Kimberley to fuel the economy. Most students even drop out after high school.
De beers provided 80% of the jobs, millions of diamonds have been excavated from Kimberley's mine but now the city is left abandoned.