My Oranjemunder Emails.

[Patricia Lotte]

You never cease to surprise me Georg Jr.

Mike, yes, it's 5 days a week (though I did 5 and a half for 4 years ...)

[Michael Alexander]

Kinda like the old CDM days, having an off saturday once a month.... the shops and bars were always packed on that weekend...

[georg ruf jr.]

Yeah! Saturday off is great. Got every Saturday off...    :emot19:

[Michael Alexander]

for us kids, that was the one day a month where dad would take us to the toy department in the shopping centre and we got to chose a toy each.... then he would give us a few cents each and left us to go to the matinee in the afternoon, whilst my mom and him would meet up with friends in the sportsmans..... this would lead to them having a big braai by 16h00 at somebody's house......

[Diana Rudd (Boehme)]

That was the one day in the month us girls would go to the shopping centre to eye out the talent. I think every single guy in O'mund went shopping then.  Eyecandy.

[Rhona]

@ Mike:- I remember picking up something nice on those days - once Paul begged for a Kermit the frog hand puppet and as it was close to his birthday, he made a deal with your dad that he would have the puppet as a birthday gift as well.........

[Michael Alexander]

I remember that hand puppet, I think he also had a Mickey mouse one and would often put on puppet shows behind the bed....

[Diana Rudd (Boehme)]

OK bugger the eye candy.

[Rhona]

I was too little for eye candy; the only candy I was interested in came in a wrapper and was loaded with sugar....

[Michael Alexander]

hehehe.... and you still are....   

[Rhona]

         So true Mike; unfortunately I have an awfull sweet tooth 

[Michael Alexander]

This is a really interesting email I received, a story that I had not heard before, anyone know something?

"Dear Mike (if I may),

I hope you won't mind receiving an email from somebody who isn't an old Oranjemunder, but who has been very much enjoying your website and has an entirely different interest in Oranjemund.

I am on the faculty at the University of Sydney and am currently writing a book which tells the story of British government attempts to found a settlement for convicts in Africa.  This was directly after the loss of its American colonies and before it colonised Australia (1781-7).  As you probably know (sorry if I'm stating the obvious, I have no idea how well known this story is in the region), the mouth of the Orange River was the very last place they planned on placing the penal settlement before giving up and deciding upon New South Wales instead.

In actual fact the ship they sent out to survey the region and decide on a place for settlement didn't really find the right place and as well as Oranjemund, also looked at where Luderitz and Walvis Bay now are.

Anyway, the reason I'm contacting you is because my new project looks at the counterfactual question of what might have been...what could have happened had the British government sent its convicts to Africa instead of NSW in the 1780s.  Which of course is where Oranjemund comes in.

I went to Luderitz last year and have visited Walvis Bay before, but so far have not been to Oranjemund or Alexander Bay.  This is why I found your website so fascinating, as I had so little idea of what the place was like, and how very, very different it is from the other places which could have been the site of the penal colony (eg Lemane Island in the Gambia River or the Banana Islands off Sierra Leone).  Its history has been so different and so, of course, is its current quality of life.

So I was wondering if you know of any old Oranjemunders living in Australia who might be willing to share their memories of the place with me?

I hope to visit at some time -- I have to be at Wits later this year and in Cape Town next year -- but I haven't yet figured out how hard, or impossible, it would be to get a permit.  Certainly I plan to go to Alexander Bay and talk to people there about their town.

In the meantime, I hope I haven't intruded by emailing out of the blue, and thanks again for your website, which is great.

Thanks in advance for any information or help you could offer,

Emma

Dr. Emma Christopher
SOPHI
University of Sydney"

[Patricia Lotte]

Wow Mike, you're a star on the other side of the Indian ocean ... good to see that we are making non-Oranjemunders envious of the life style we were fortunate enough to experience ... we are such a lucky bunch  :yeah3:

[georg ruf jr.]

Interesting letter.
Now somebody dare to complain about to much cr*p on the site.

[georg ruf jr.]

Interesting letter.
Now somebody dare to complain about to much cr*p on the site. I'm sure he'll be mentioning the bitch-slapping in his book....