Salisbury House is different from many other men's residences at Universities in South Africa. As a rule the house is closed to 50% of the population: ladies.
Once a semester, we hold an Open House. During this time the students go to a lot of effort to beautify their rooms and to become hospitable to the ladies that are usually not allowed in.
Our theme was: The Circus. Our worship for the evening was also based on the theme. We described several characters in the circus and asked the students who they would identify with. Each character also had some truths to share about life in general.
This is TJ talking about jugglers.
Pablo talks about Trapeze Artists.
I think we were able to put an accurate identikit of Zandisile on the screen. If he ever commits a crime this could help to identify him.
Neeta felt that Zandisile displayed too much of a eurocentric stereotype of being a clown. He tried to africanize the role slightly.
Peter has a lot of experience with the young lions in our dorm.
Mpho poses with his good friend Shalom.
Mirless being very welcoming in a special friend in Paulo Darcy's room. Guess who comes form Angola.Photography Credit: Pictures taken by our campus chaplain, Ps. Eddie Appollis.
7 comments:
although it might be said that the purpose of the open house is to be more friendly to the oppposite sex,it must also be said that the open house has been subject to violation of some few rules of the dorm,eg the type of music and behaviour of some students,has left a bad taste in my mouth since it not only displayed the lack of maturity but also the sense that our leaders are walk overs when it comes to keeping order.
we better have a proper explanation as to why the open house occurs cause the one that is being used i didi not see it being met,dean can you help on this regard?.
an incident happened in one of the rooms that was not a happy site to see,one of the ladies was dancing exotically on top of the bed while some students were looking at her very perculiar,also another student was being put in the middle of the two sisters while they were dancing sensually,it was also a lot of work for peter as he had to clean the mess that the ladies nad gents left of chips and all sots of things behind......is it all worth it?dean?
Mnn, Thank you for your comments. I would like to know how wide-spread this feeling is.
Let's make it clear: Open House has always been and the intension is always to create a healthy social environment in which students from different sexes can visit in each others rooms in a healthy and constructive way. We usually try to show off our dormitory and the rooms in the dorm by cleaning them and providing some sort of entertainment. In the last two years we also decided together on a theme for the dormitory for the night.
I am personally of the opinion that the majority of our students were well within the scope of these goals and they had a good time.
You mentioned a few issues:
Not being consistent with our usual rules: Yes. That is true. We traditionally do not mind if the students play their music a little louder during these evenings. Some students create atmosphere in their rooms by means of their music. (My wife does not like it very much, but she is prepared to cope with it because it happens once a year that we relax on the rules a little bit.)
You mention the issue of the mess that was left behind: The student who was handing out the chips on the evening came to me early in the evening to explain that he had made a mistake. He was handing out the chips and a few people were taking from the bowl. He lost his grip on the bowl and it accidentally fell over. It created a big mess. I am not sure if Pieter was too unhappy about having to clean up. It was an accident.
You refer to dancing that happened in two of the rooms. I also don't really like that, and I think we can try to improve on that. I think there are better ways to entertain the ladies in our dorm. We need to give some thought to this. I do however not think that it involved all of the students.
But I appreciate your input and I would love you to help us make the next open house much better.
i would like to take this chance of taking my hat off for our dean,you have shown that the people who really matter are the students, i must say you have more than my support in making the dorm a place that would live up to its name "home away from home".i am sure you will do your job better if we could support you in every way.the resident who is happy.
By the way
We had some more discussion and somebody recalled a time when the previous dean was here.
When he was in charge of open house he arranged to play nice music over the central sound system of the dormitory.
I like that idea. In that way, we can all listen to music that is pre-selected, and there need not be any competition from withinin the rooms.
As an ex-Helderberger, I am feeling nostalgic reading these blogs.These are memories that will stay with the students their whole life through.I am glad Salisbury is "happening" these past few years. I would like to congratulate the current dean for all his efforts.U sound like a father anyone would be blessed to have away from home. Warmth,amazing clean sense of humour, a born leader and a brother and father all wrapped up in one. Well done to you and your team. Having been a resident assistant myself I know how hard it is for the RA's to be examplary and keep the spirit in the dorm alive...a note to all the students,please keep them in your prayers too as most of them assume leadership roles and find themselves in supporting and praying for all the students and we forget sometimes they need hugs and prayers too. Thank you...it has been a priviledge being a graduate at HBC
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