Advertisement
Published: February 17th 2010
This is day one of my second visit to South Africa. After a lot of travel time and managing to connect together all eight volunteers by the end of the day it feels like I am really beginning. No sleep on either plane and lots of excited comparing of notes and sharing of experiences have left me a bit spaced out and capable of leaving things in silly places and making mistakes. I am trying writing this on word and then will paste it on to the blog as using the internet wifi facility at the hotel seems to involve buying very expensive vouchers.
After disappointing grey skies and damp followed by wind and sand blowing along the beach llike a scene from Lawrence of Arabia, the SA sun is now out and the sea looks blue and inviting. I shall be dipping tomorrow after our meeting with Calabash - the local ethical tourism organisation - who manage this end of the volunteering.
I already know that Joe Slovo had got so big that some volunteers helped with a head count which has led to the two top classes (age groups) being removed and distributed to other schools in an uncharacteristically speedy process last week. The two classes I am due to support will have suddenly become top of the school. I will probably at least get into the school tomorrow and get a better idea of how things will work there this time.
Just had an enjoyable hour watching the African Boys Quartet who sang last time. They are two years older and mor polished. They sing traditional songs in Khosa giving us anidea of what they are about before hand. They use mime and dance and harmony and themusicians amongst you would enjoy seeing them. Someone tried to record them this evening so I hope I can share them with you sometime. One song was about a train, another was about the blanket that the 17 year old boys wear when they come out of the bush after their circumcision rite. Another one was about a special beer which has to keep being passed around and there was one about a new baby. Something is there for all of you.
My grand plans about the wifi have been foiled as the hotel charges quite heavily - I thought it would be free to use - how naïve am I!
Day 2
Today was something of a surprise. We had an orientation day as some of the volunteers are her for the first time and the three of us who have been before were a bit blasé about it and thought we might be bored. We were pleasantly surprised. Our tour leaer was Monga from Tonga who is a trained teacher who grew up in the Red Location Township here and who was very informative as a history specialist. Xulani was our driver. We relearned the proper Xhosa handshake and had the best tutorial on the “clicks”so far, C is tip of the tongue. X is side of the tongue and Q is a cluck with tongue a bit like geeing up a horse. We all sat in the minibus practicing. It reminded me of my father years ago practicing Russian vowel s in a way I found highly embarrassing coming home up the path with my boyfriend. First we had a historic tour and I was surprised at how much we missed the first time and also at how much work had been done to clean up and restore things. Quite a lot of that is to prepare for the hoped influx of visitors for the football in June.
We got out to look at at various monuments and buildings briefly and saw those we would like to revisit properly. In the town square, Monga pointed out a young man who had red paint on his face. He had been into the bush for his circumcision and entry into adult malehood. This is still widely practiced and is now being used in part of the fight against HIV.
We then visited the township which is supported by Calabash in developing various projects, selling local arts and crafts rather than begging and also feeding and teaching the preschoolers. They had a crèche/ playgroup running in two containers with children crammed in. They sang to us and we did finger plays with them for a few minutes. One of the volunteers is a reception teacher and started up “I hear thunder” and they responded with a round to the same tune in Xhosa.
Just a few stats to help you, 500,000 live in townships and 60% unemployed. There are no unemployment benefits but there are glants for pensioners and the disabled and children under 14. Almost all township shacks have someone in one of those categories. There are lots of entrepreneurs running little cottage industries particularly hairdressers in abundance. Our favourite was called Jesus is Alive.
We then visited all the schools in turn - mine was first and the head and deputy greeted me with hugs. I was blown away by the approach as you will remember if you read my last blog it was very bleak. Since I was last hear lots of Mandela houses have been built - in process last time and it is still a long way out and the roads are still rough but spreading up the hill side which was barren are ice cream coloured little houses, proper houses with running water, toilets and electricity and also along the approach to the school. There are still shacks but many now live in proper houses. There is a little container post office and some signs of small business including hairdressers and some of the houses, I counted four, have vegetables growing on their plots. I feel quite excited now about going back. The school has grown and the top classes have actually gone to the secondary school because it is overflowing and they have even had to turn people away. I will know the class sizes better tomorrow but it is well over a 1000 learners. Classes will be very big as they need more teachers and more rooms.
We then visited the other three schools where volunteers are going . It was interesting meeting some of the staff I had met two years ago and others knew well. We finished with refreshments at Tshume and singing - Bright is the corner where you are and The more we are together which I could join in with as we sang them at all special times before.
We spent the rest of the afternoon at Calabash being updated on their activities. Look them up if you are interested. I was really impressed by how it has developed and the increased professionalism and africanisation of the organization.
Some more stats - Average age of death here is 58, 60 is viewed as old and they are impressed by the age and activity level of the volunteers!! Older people are respected.
WE got some clarification on how the school system works as we had had a confusing message in one of the schools. They use the grade system more like America. Grade 1 is 7yrs , Grade 12 is leaving. Grade R is 5-6. They move up by test but can only be held up for one year ineach 3 year phase. They can leave at 16. Education is a right but it is up to parents to access and it is not enforced legally so they do not all get it. There is a financial contribution required except where the school is designated as a free school. Only one of our group of schools is free and Joe Slovo is not although the population is one of the most deprived. Children start at all sorts of ages and the grade system only gives a guide to the ages.
We had a cultural briefing and discussion about how the process would work. Tomorrow we go into the schools to negotiate our roles. WE will only have three complete weeks this time because of the flights which were booked. We are also planning our use of leisure time Calabash will take us to a shebeen on Sat this week and we had free excursion to one of the game reserves on Sunday. You won’t be surprised to know We walked on the beach today and I went in the sea with one of the new volunteers who lives by the beach in Poole. The sea was a good temperature with waves and it felt wonderful.
We leave at 7.15 tomorrow. I am going to try pasting this onto my blog. If that doesn’t work I will be rethinking and going back to the much cheaper internet café. No time again for extensive editing. I didn’t think it would be so exciting again. Sxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.11s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0525s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Christine Hooper
non-member comment
Phew!
Hello Sue, Lovely long message, very interesting, sounds exhausting though, but fun too. I am impressed by your typing as well! You are a woman of endless qualities! Enjoy the sea and swimming, you deserve it. Love Chris xxx