Monthly letter – September 2021

Hi all,

Last week (the 18th September) we had our birthday – Mexican themed – bash. I was chatting with Angela and laughed,– we are not actually sure what counts as the “official birthday”. But hey, who can say no to more than one birthday! There was a mammoth amount of effort that went into organising this – huge, huge, thanks to the events team, Nella in particular, who really went out of her way to put everything together on the day.

We had around 20 people attend all of whom chatted, played games and caught up around a fire later on in the evening – I think… I was unable to stay for the full duration, so I just came, said hello, ate, guessed how many sweets were in a jar and left. Despite my short appearance I got enough of a sense that everyone was sharing laughter and stories – amazing.

In October I will be going to Spain for a month. It is mainly for personal reasons (part of a longer 2-month work-cation). But Elena and I thought that If I do come to Spain we can use it as an opportunity to move forward with several Alvira related matters. I will mention more in the next newsletter, but for now, I can say it entails speaking to potential donors, meeting various people in Spain that have been supporting us from afar and, of course, meeting with Luchy and Raphael (Thomas’ son) and Pepe (institute) in person.

General update

Over the past few months I’ve had a number of people saying that they really want to help and if there is anything they can do, to let them know. At the time, although very grateful, we just said – “hold that desire, we’ll find something”. Well now, we have those “somethings”. We created a document (a bit rough for now) listing various tasks that we would need help with.

The QR code you see on the right is a link directly to the google sheet with all the information. In it you’ll see 29 tasks spread across our various areas – from finance to marketing to research. For every task there is a description giving a bit more information and adjacent to it the relevant contact person (see the second tab)

One example is for the research institute; to compile a summary of all the various educational research institutes in South Africa. This allows us to get an understanding of who is doing what – aiding us in potential networking and/or collaboration. 

This will be a maintained list where we will add/remove tasks as needed. In time, it will be hosted on the website with a better and friendlier user design (possibly with embedded sharing functionality for social media and or friends). I have below the three tasks with the highest priority.

Thought of the month

This month has been a pretty intense one for me, and so I haven’t really had any particular thoughts and or experiences that I feel are worth sharing here. So instead, this month, I will share a video – for no other reason than I think it is nice. 

I recently found the channel Great Art Explained. It explores the famous historical artworks and what makes them “great”. I have found the channels’ videos genuinely interesting – well explored and insightful. I recommend watching the other videos, but for now, I want to share one on Monet’s Water Lilies. It is a piece I’ve seen referenced many times, but knew nothing about! For example, in person, they are over 2m long! Hope you enjoy it – and if there are any YouTube channels you find yourself telling people about, please pass them onto me, I’d love to watch. 

Kindest regards, 

Luca Pontiggia

C.E.O