Return to the Mother City

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Since we are away for so long it had always been our intention to do some volunteering along the way. We had opted not to apply for a program back home, but instead to see what came up along the way. We were also keen to avoid a program that wanted us more for our money than for our time. We hadn't really considered doing this in Cape Town until we got there at Christmas - we had always envisaged us in a less developed part of Southern Africa. Then it suddenly dawned on us how perfect a return to cape town would be. Not only are there a wealth of NGOs in the area but Cape Town really highlights some of the problems in South Africa. The divide between the 1st world (almost European) city and the townships housing 1000s of extremely underprivileged is massive. It also meant that when our days work was done we had Claire, Greg, Shaaron et al to hang out with. 😊

While in Namibia we consulted an excellent book called How To Help in Cape Town and wrote off to all of the organisations that looked interesting. Within a few weeks we secured work with 3 of them and our tickets back to the Mother City were booked.

We spent most of our time working for a great NGO called Soil For Life. They teach people how to grow their own organic vegetables so they can feed their families and then potentially go on to sell any excess produce. They have about 25 community gardens in the various townships of Cape Town where people come together to learn and garden. We received such a warm welcome; we were embedded in the charity within a few days getting involved in all aspects of their work. We got our hands dirty (literally) by working in the gardens, worked more on the business side by establishing new business partners as well as looking into pricing options. We'll definitely miss the 'office environment'. I don't think we'll be having many more board meetings under the trees in a beautiful garden at the foot of table mountain!

We also worked in an underprivileged township school teaching about 160 school kids how to use Microsoft Word. Luckily they were divided into 4 classes - but trust me 40 kids at once is still quite a challenge! At this point I think a large wave of respect must go out to all of our teacher friends.

And finally we helped out at an HIV/AIDS education NGO called GoLD. This NGO creates inspirational training courses to teach a selection of school kids from a range of schools not only about HIV/AIDS, but also about the wide range of impacting social factors. The idea is that they then go on to teach their peers and so the word gets spread to the generation that can really make a difference. Sadly the social pressures make the problem so much harder to solve than one might think. With over 30%!o(MISSING)f the population affected, the endemic is already a pretty tricky one to address! Politicians who publicly claim to use a good shower after unprotected sex as a defence against HIV clearly are not the role models the country needs.

All in all it has been an amazing education, not only of the true depth and complexity of both HIV/AIDs and poverty in SA but also the inside workings of an NGO. We've also picked up some great organic vegetable farming knowledge! So if you are looking for a home for some unwanted cash or don't know who to support in the sponsered run you are training for, these are some very worthy considerations.

Sadly this brings to a close the first leg of our travels and Australia beckons. We have absolutely loved Southern Africa and feel very at home here. We are totally used to paying less than a pound for a beer, understand what people mean when they tell us to turn right at the robot then go straight over the circle, and if I am told something will happen just now, I know not to expect it straight away. Oh and I am a total convert to biltong.

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This Weeks Likes:
* Getting to spend so much time with the folk we know in Cape Town and being there for Charlie's visit.
* A fantastic night out on the tiles of Long St. It was Feb 14th, there was a preacher conducting fake marriages downstairs and upstairs was done up like a wedding reception. Confetti, balloons, 80s pop and rock classics and some of the most enthusiastic DJs we have ever seen. The 5 of us had a riot!
* Spending a whole month in one place. The bags got unpacked and we had our own wardrobe. 😊

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This Weeks Dislikes:
* Not being with the family and friends back home for Marissa's birthday
* As part of the birthday celebrations we treated ourselves to a round of golf on one of Cape Town's many lovely courses. Sadly the elbow was not as good as we had hoped and we only managed 12 holes. We made up for it with a surprise dinner for the birthday girl.
* Leaving Africa after such a great time here.

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Photos

A quick sake for the road?
This was just the beginning of the evening. You should have seen these two later on!

Goood Moooooooorning Miss Marissa and Mr James
The kids were in safe hands with us!

Finding Nemo...
...in the Cape Town aquarium

Welcome to Soil For Life
Build the soil, grow the plants, feed the people, heal the planet. That's the mantra of one of the NGOs we've been helping out at.

The Office
Wendy houses in a beutiful garden at the foot of table mountain. Kinda different to our London offices!

I like the guy who sits next to me in the office!
This is the office of the HIV/AIDS education charity. Not quite as cool as the wendy houses at Soil for Life.

Elephants Eye Walk
Another up hill struggle for unfit me. All good training for the Inca Trail. The view made it worth though (& the company of course)

Probably...
...the best sushi in the world. Well maybe just the best we've had. Either way, it was amaaaaazing.
Inside out, hot hot rolls were a particular favourite.

James attempts to hide behind his beer
At last, after 3 months, a beer with some real taste!!

Beer and Biltong
We were all pretty happy with this combo. Well, except for me who obviously had to have cider instead.

Odd one out
Charlie gets talking to a few of the locals, Des and Nelson.

The return of Isaacson the Golfer
Testing out the swing with a stick to see if the arm was ready for a round. Sadly still not up to it :(

Floberlober lobelylob
Good point, well made.

Comments

[Joools]

Office life ...
As always guys, another great blog. Love the office shots and sounds like you've actually done something to improve the world at large - I feel bad so maybe I'll go and find a granny to help cross a road somewhere! Good luck in Oz! Jx

[God]

I am Tony Blair
Hello, god here. Just thought I should remind you I've been watching. Now, contrary to what some people think, I'm not omniscient. My trick was simply to invent the internet before anything else. It's meant that I've always been able to get hold of whatever information I wanted whenever I could be bothered (but I've never understand how all the information got on the internet in the days before you lot contonned onto the dinguss). Only thing is, I haven't often felt bothered. I mean, have you seen what you lot put on the net? Load of nonsense really. What you humans don't seem to understand is that you can have too much information. But that's not the point I wanted to make. You see, I entirely support travel blogs. They're one of the few examples of people actually trying to do something different with their time, not aquiescing to the corporate trudge, taking their unique perspective and re-interpreting their novel experiences with it. Not that I'm intending to comment on this particular blog - it says it all on its own. What I wanted to clarify was who wrote that comment from a while back submitted by Tony Blair. Now, for some reason it wasn't believed that Tone himself wrote it. The interesting thing is, Tone thinks he wrote it. Acutally, I'll you in on a little secret - he's a decent meaning chap but he's started to believe his own press and, as a result, Tone has started to believe he is me. Now, of course, that's ridiculous - you just have to look at his premiership to see how completely unskilled he is to be me. So, to answer that long forgotten question, who wrote Tone's comment. Well, of course, ultimately it was me. I just wrote it through the fingers of Tone. Right, I hope that clears up the confusion. Please go easy on Tone - he tries. Honestly, he really does. But he can only do what his ability allows him to. And he's not a man of great ability... which is all-too-obvious when you consider the fact that he married a post box. What on earth was he thinking? Good. That is all. Most impressed with your volunteering shit. That's what life's really about. Well done. Yours always, God PS Me old pal Angelina Jolie's looking for another sprog. She said she wants to adopt some really unfortunate-looking waif because it plays good in the press and gains more attention for her pendulous nips. If you meet anyone who fits the bill on your adventures, please mention it here and I'll put her in touch.