SAREX DIARY: Friday, 30th October

Today the real rescue started. Being prepared by a make-up artist with scars, bruises and burns the actors were ready to "crash" with the Dinoto plane. From the air, from the land, from all around help was arriving to save the brave Dinoto crew. The main part of the project finally ended with a braai in the local community.

SAREX DIARY: Thursday, 29th October

Thursday- departure day for the students who were quite sad to leave. For the other ones a short briefing took place to explain the further happenings.

But the bad, rainy, cold, cloudy weather thwarted the plans. No air craft could take off and search for the wrecks of the Dinoto plane. Also some parts of the plane needed to be transported to the mountains which was finally done by off-road vehicles in heavy rain. All the "frozen" helpers were sleeping like healthy babies that night!

SAREX DIARY: Wednesday, 28th October

6 o'clock a.m.: morning exercises in the lovely Drakensberg mountains. Not only running with brutal Sibusiso and Laurentia, also sporty Shongwe was joining the marathon training. All together we hit at least 30 km... and afterwards thoughen the body up in the ICY swimming pool.





7:30: Breakfast

9:00: Adventure trip...



11:00: official opening conference and handshaking with the deputy minister of transport as well as a music item from the Dinoto learners.



13:45: Meeting a former Generations star


14:00: Lunch for the hungry learners

15:00: - movie by local directors
- placing of the first plane parts in the mountains



19:00: dinner

Again a wonderful day, but too exhausted to give further information today... the pictures are describing it better than words do.

Sibusiso and Nthando

SAREX DIARY: Tuesday, 27th October

At 6 o' clock 22 learners from Dinoto (grade 9 to 11) and beneficiaries from the association of the disabled persons Daveyton left the Dinoto premises to drive through a varying landscape towards their final destination in KwaZulu Natal, the uKhahlamba/southern Drakensberg region...


10 hours later the group arrived exhausted but excited at the Sani Pass Hotel near Underberg.
To energize the learners some games were played



and a special Candlelightdinner was arranged.



By singing a welcome song thanks was expressed to the officials arriving at the hotel. "Sanibonani, Dumelang, ..., Hello!"



Then it was time to rest in order to face the important duties of tomorrow.

SAREX: The plane is ready to take off!

After days of hard work finally the plane is ready for its way to the Drakensberg region. Here are some impressions :

Dinoto News October: School trips and a basketball partnership

Hector Pieterson Museum, Nelson Mandela Family Museum, Apartheidmuseum

Due to the topic Alpartheid in social science for 9th grade a trip to
Joburg's Apartheidmuseum

and Soweto's Hector Pieterson museum


and Nelson Mandela Family Museum


was organized at 7th October.

Around 30 learners joined to visit the history-charged places.

Gold Reef City

A day the whole school was looking forward to months in advance - the trip to Gold Reef City at 16th October. Around 300 learners were placed in 5 buses and went on their journey to the fun park. Thanks to the RCL for the organization!

Basketball Partnership

The Dinoto Basketball team has a partnership with my German Basketball team Ebstorf. We are reporting to each other about games and tournaments. See the photos below.

Then last week the school was recieving a big packet from Germany! The Dinoto Basketball team was very happy! When they opened it, they found three new balls, a lot of basketball shirts and a ball pump!




So: thank you very much to TUS EBSTORF!

Dinoto says thank you!

A helicopter at Dinoto - the SAREX project

What does the strange word SAREX mean? What is all this about? Why does a helicopter land in our school premises?


To clarify those questions I want to give a short lesson in international aviation:
In 1944 the Convention on International Aviation (known as the Chicago Convention) was signed by 52 states (nowadays 190 states signed). The states obliged themselves to provide assistance to any aircraft in distress and to its occupants.

Therefore training is necessary and thus the Search And Rescue EXercise (SAREX) was introduced "to achieve and maintain maximum efficiency in search and rescue" (Annex 12, Chicago Convention)

Dinoto Technical Secondary School, the Daveyton Association of the Physically Disabled and AVM productions are members of the SAREX 2010 project. This is a search and rescue training in South Africa organized by the department of transport. For Dinoto the aim of the project is not to have any financial benefit from it but purely for exposure and community involvement. Our school's task in this project was to build a model of an aeroplane. Around 20 pupils helped to paint the construct of the plane to make it look as real as possible.



At Monday 26th October the plane will be transported to the uKhahlamba/Drakensberg region (declared a World Heritage site in 2000), where the SAR exercise will take place. The minister of transport will open the exercise on the 28th October.

For the preparation for this event the school got visitors arriving "from above" with a helicopter at 20th October. The school was nearly blown away, and turned upside down by their arrival. Learners as well as teachers were excited to get so near to a "real chopper". The pilot even gave some information about his job and the experience of flying to the learners. After some time the visitors left again dispersing the Dinoto dust.



See below the movie about the visit. The movie is at the same time the first part and launch of Dinoto TV. Enjoy it!

Best greetings
Nthando
and
Sibusiso