“Crazy Dan” is the name given to Daniel Charvat. I must say when I first saw him, I just thought he was this alternate punk with a hectic Mohawk, but there is more to this guy than meets the eye.
So why Crazy Dan you ask, well “There are three of us in Matthews House!” A young guy from Johannesburg who travelled on a bus for fifteen hours alone to Rhodes University. Interestingly enough his parents have still not seen his Residence or Rhodes. He has come to study Journalism hoping to get into Journalism two next year. He is not too sure what he wants to do exactly but he ultimately wants to pursue something in the journalism field. “I’m keeping my options open, journalism I think has an important place in society and I want see where it will take me. He can be said to be on his own mission, he sees himself as independent and reckons that University has not changed him as a person. “Obviously I’ve had to grow up with waking up by myself and doing my own washing and changing my sheets weekly, did you know we had to do that, cos I didn’t.” He laughs to himself whilst sprawled out on his unmade bed. He genuinely has fitted in well here, it is obvious that he would, he loves people and making friends so he has adapted to that aspect of University.
He is going to pass Rhodes and get his degree but what the future has in store for this guy, he does not know and is quite content with that. He is here doing English, Politics, Journalism and Sociology. Us students here are well aware of the different kinds of people here at Rhodes yet Dan almost seems to embrace and be open to it all. He wouldn’t say that he goes out of his way to be different. “I don’t think that I conform to the absolute norm but I wont go out of my way to make everyone know it. I am who I am.”
He is an active member of ROAR- every Saturday morning he gets up to go and feed and nurture the donkeys that are there at the shelter. “In the beginning I just thought that I would join the society and donate the money to the poor animals…” but then he actually started going with the members and it became clear to him that there is more to reaching out to the community than donating money.
He also joined the Surfing Society, now I would think that it is a bit random interest for a big city kinda guy, but he had a bit of a fascination with a young surfer girl from East London and decided that he would want to try something new, which he did. He signed up with that very East London fascination…
Up on Dan’s wall are drawings and pieces of artwork, the normal timetable, along with a sheet of paper that shows the number of hours he has done regarding community service. Unwilling. Forced. One night in Matthews House Dan and a mate “accidentally” let slip of a fire extinguisher… “I have forty hours still to do, quite stupid but an experience.” Dan is just like any other guy out there, playing pranks, doing crazy things before or after a good night. He likes to keep within the boundaries, under cover, careful not to get caught, it almost becomes a game. The thrill and adrenalin is pumping, as if he is one of his characters in his favourite computer game- ‘Splinter Cell’. Everyone has a bit of rebellion in them and what is to be expected at Varsity?
He is just like most of us who don’t know exactly where we want to be in a few years but he’s here. Dan is just a guy studying at Rhodes, learning and making mistakes, just like the rest of us. He is out there joining society’s, making new friends and having a good time. After all that is what Varsity is, without a few slips of a fire extinguisher…
Take a look at his blog...
http://www.firstyeardummies.blogspot.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment