Celebrating Nelson Mandela International Day

Today we started our day with a meeting and tour at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. It also happened to be Nelson Mandela Day that was honoring the 67 years of service.  There are six different  campuses and we visited the South Campus which happens to be on a nature reserve. NMMU is the largest University in the Eastern and Southern Cape.  

 Above is a sculpture of Nelson Mandela's shirt.  The tiles on the shirt spell out the six values:  Respect for Diversity, Excellence, Ubuntu, Integrity, Respect for the natural environment, and Taking responsibility.  (Ubuntu would be similar to Compassion).  After our tour of the university, we were taken on a tour of Port Elizabeth.  The following pictures were part of the Donkin Reserve Pyramid and Lighthouse off Nelson Mandela Bay.  Below are the mosaics, each representing a different part of South Africa past and present life in the area.

 The following pictures are of a sculpture by Anthony Harris.  This commissioned work is titled, "Voting Line".  This steel art work was inspired by photographs of the long voting lines in the first, free democratic elections of 1994.  I thought the sun was in the best position when we were visiting the area.  The shadows of each person were cast upon the wall behind.

 You can see that this sculpture continues for 36.6 meters.  It wraps the base of the big flag.

This last picture is just a fluke....That is a truck with the SA flag on the back that just happened to be in the right spot as I took this picture!  Below is the picture of the Lighthouse, pyramid, mosaic emblems and the sculpture of Nelson Mandela at the end of the "Voting Line".  The Donkin  Reserve also has a wonderful "love story" for its being.  I would encourage you to check it out!

The largest flag waves in the center of this area.

And finally, another one of my favorite parts of the beautiful Donkin Reserve is this sculpture that represents all women.  It is designed to not have any specific features that would identify any specific nationality or race.  She stands in front of a chair to offer her service to others.