The letter from Pat Stuhr, that was sent on April 28, 2003, reached me on May 06 2003. This was a very pleasant surprise indeed! My impressions were that all the folks I used to know in Buck-eye land had decided to abandon me, but this is not so. The last communication I had with that part of the land was in 2002 through Kenneth Marantz. This line suddenly stopped immediately after the September 11 mayhem. What could have happened, because I kept on writing to Ken, to no avail. Is he still okay? (We've made sure that Ken has Motepele's email). If so, please pass my warmest regards. I will certainly communicate with him as soon as I am assured of his whereabouts.

I am excited to hear that Pat Stuhr is now Chairperson of the Art Education Department. I believe this is a fitting tribute to a wonderful person whose vision and influence will certainly raise the department to higher levels of influence and importance. She certainly has the capacity and acumen to do that. I think she is a suitable inheritor of an 'empire' that was started by the Manuel Barkans and continued by the Ken Marantzs.

I am personally very excited that I am getting invited back to this famous institution as a former alumnus. My tenure there as a student and part-time staff member conjures up wonderful memories that I wish I could relive. I miss all my fellow-students and wish to re-incarnate my life with them (Paul Sproll, Paul Mac Gruder; Bill Harris, Angela Robertson, Roy Pearson, Jill Markey, the list is quite frankly, endless). The ideas raised in your letter are moot.

I just recently showed a colleague of mine some old newsletters (Graduate Perspectives) trying to impress upon him the quality of people and education we had then. We were actually trying to trace Bill Harris, Ken Marantz or Poll Sproll in order to communicate with them. This was a week ago, and unbeknown to me , your letter was on its way to me. Does this not shown how the subconscious mind workers? Jung used to call this serendipity... and I believe it. I discussed the contents of your letter with my colleague, and we both agreed that this was a Godsend; we certainly need to communicate with you more often. Your idea of an Alumni Newsletter is excellent, it is well-taken and we will certainly respond.

The situation in our country needs some injection of 'new' ideas. This is with particular reference to the state of ARTS EDUCATION. In many spheres of our lives there seems to be a denial by our former oppressors of the existence of a black government. While this has been extant for almost ten years; some dinosaurs believe that they can upset then apple cart. The trial that is on (as I write this letter) about sabotage activities by the Boeremag, is an index of this denial. A lot of the social, economic and cultural problems that we experience are the result of this blight. I guess this is similar to the experiences of Jim Crow in the Southern U.S. of A. just after the gains of the Civil Rights Movement. The lot of us black folks have been disadvantaged by the pandering of our government to some alleged white fears. Since Madiba assured whites not to leave the country with their skills, they have become arrogant and unreasonable in their expectations. We, the beneficiaries of their racism and inhumanity, must still wallow in cesspools of poverty, while they clamour for a pie in the sky. These situations are a cause for grave concern among us, as we had thought that the country would be built by all of us together for the sake of complete reconciliation; but no! Our skills do not seem to count for much. There are numerous blacks who left this country prior to 1994 on the quest for a better life, and they seem wont to return because of the situation. While we are very keen to pull our resources together for a better country, these events cast a nightmarish cloud over our heads. Only hope seems to be a motivating factor in our resolve, and how I hope this would pan out well.

On my part, I have been employed as a part-time lecturer in the Art & Design Department of the Vaal Triangle Technikon. This, with limited teaching schedules of 3 months only and no guarantee of employment in 2004. I have mapped out programs for adding value to our department. These entail starting a School of the Arts, and publishing some books. The way the situation seems to me this will require some divine intervention if it is to succeed. My plan B is to find out if some opportunities exist in the U.S. of A. for me to do some internship at an institution that teaches the Arts, so that I may gain some experience, which may come in handy in our country in the near future. I am sure that the problems that we are experiencing are similar to yours in earlier times so that we can learn from you. My colleague, Richard Baholo, is an M.F.A. graduate of the University of Cape Town (South Africa). He was in 1992 an exchange student in Australia at the Canberra Institute of the Arts. He is a painting lecturer and has been at the Vaal TriangleTechnikon for seven years, and yearns for some time off to do a PhD in Art Education. I believe in his dreams, as we share a lot in common for the development of our institution, and the country as a whole. Our students come from as far as Botswana, Lesotho and Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). We envision a stage where our efforts, in line with the President's Nepad dreams, together with the African Renaissance, would help Southern Africa in its take off towards a better deal in the world's systems.Your positive response in this regard will be highly appreciated. We are planning on sending you more details of our plans in the future.

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