Luisa in Namibia

Finally a second post to this weblog of hopefully many to come.

My sister, Luisa, who lives in South Africa, was recently on holiday in Namibia and I asked her and her boyfriend, Scott, if they could take a detour to visit Swakopmund where Aunty Betty allegedly met Joe Frank. This is an account of their visit.

Luisa writes:
"With just under two million people it is also one of the least densely populated countries in the world. Most of Namibia is dusty desert. Strong winds have carved out dunes as high as 300m across the Namib Desert.

Red dunes of the Namib desert (photo Scott Driskill)

Namibia is one of those dreamlike places with rugged mountains, never-ending plains, remote deserts, wild seascapes, unique wildlife and a diversity of cultures.

Time and space seem less defined here (photo Scott Driskill)

Highly adapted Namib fauna (photos Scott Driskill)

Aunty Betty arrived in Namibia in January 1937. Betty presumably met up in Swakopmund with Joe Frank, who lived and worked there in the late 20’s and 30’s.

Joe Frank at beach front in Swakopmund, November 1930

Swakopmund today: the lighthouse and museum

Swakopmund (German for "Mouth of the Swakop") is a beach resort and one of the major ports in the region.
Often described as being more German than Germany, Swakopmund is an example of German colonial architecture.

A very well kept, quiet and civilized city, it's a sort of German Largs surrounded by sand dunes! For the non-Scottish readership Largs is an affluent seaside town on the west coast of Scotland.

Outside Swakopmund lies the formidable desert coastline - the Skeleton
Coast. Named for the skeletal shipwrecks and whale bones which litter
endless stretches of foggy beaches."

This was a brief visit to the places of interest related to this project during Luisa's holiday. I hope to send her back to Namibia for a dedicated trip to do more project-related research and interviews.

Welcome

Welcome! Shalom!

Welcome to this weblog in which you can follow the progress of the making of a documentary on the life of my Jewish Aunty Betty and her family. Hence the name "The Making(s) of Aunty Betty". Please feel free to browse around and comment on what you see. Many of the photos in this blog are stills taken from the filmed material, giving an idea of how the documentary is taking shape. I intend to continuously revise, reorganise and if necessary rewrite the text as new insights and information arise. Please consider this weblog as work in progress with an interactive character!

Betty in the late 70's holding my sister. I'm "on" the mantlepiece.

On the right-hand side of this home page you will see the chapter pages appear as they are successively written, starting off with an overview of the whole story and the first chapter resulting from the first trip in hopefully a series to come. As a whole the various chapter pages will form the backbone of the script of the actual film. So I hope you find these pages interesting and thanks in advance for having a look around.