Time out

So I've had a few weekends here so far and the evenings to see a little more of the social side of Cape Town and the area around Grabouw.

There is a country club about  five minutes drive down the road (it has all the things you'd usually associate with a country club - cricket, a pool, facilities for members) but it also has a beautiful lake with mountains all around where you can swim for free!

I don't know why you would choose the pool over a swim in the lake - granted, the water is a little brown and the bottom a little sludgy - but the view more than makes up for it. There have been trips organised to take the children from the unit there to swim, so hopefully they'll be another one soon.

The nearest beach is Gordan's Bay so on my second weekend here I got my first real look at the sea with a walk on the beach - It was very windy and a bit on the cold side but had I had my bikini with me I would have been straight in there! 

It wasn't long after arriving that I had my first braai and I'm glad to say it seems to be a regular thing. It essentially means lighting a big fire, cooking copious amounts of meat and sitting around the embers talking (but I'm not allowed to call it a bbq!) The evenings have been lovely and warm lately and the stars are incredible - there are different constellations to at home and the Milky Way stretches across the sky in a great cluster. There are two planets shining really clearly, one I think is Venus - but not being a proficient star gazer I'm not too sure! 

On Valentine's Day we went to a Mexican and then to a German bar for a beer – so it was a lovely multicultural affair. The waterfront in Cape Town is about as different as you can get from life back in Grabouw. The whole harbour was lit up like a fairground with music, entertainment, restaurants, bars and the sea coming right in with bridges that open and close to let boats out - all very attractive, but  a far cry from the townships I had been working in the weeks before...

...It has become more and more clear that while working here I am seeing two very different sides of life. Being thrown between the two is challenging in itself - enjoying the benefits of being in such a beautiful place but also working so closely with people who live with immense hardship. In some areas, when we go to the Spar to food shop or to some of the cafes and restaurants around you can be entirely surrounded by white South Africans; whereas on the school run, or when we do work in the townships, you can be the only white person in a whole community. It feels like two very different worlds living in parallel. There is a sense of guilt in enjoying all these lovely things, but I like to think it has made me value them all the more and treasure the opportunities I get.

One being climbing up Table Mountain this weekend...

Me, Jess, Lance, Travis

...we managed to time it perfectly to hit the hot midday sun and struggled up a very steep pathway. I was quite worried about my legs giving out on me trying to keep up with two big Canadian guys but they lasted - just! The view was stunning - an aquamarine sea merging into a clear sky, only parted by a line of cloud gently resting on the horizon. 

We hopped around from rock to rock on the top taking photos and admiring the panoramic views all around and then headed back by the far easier route - the cable car!
We then headed to Camps Bay, a very wealthy and attractive area where we went to the beach. We braved the powerful waves, had a seaweed fight, built a sandcastle, climbed on the rocks and generally behaved like children! 

Camps Bay

On the sunday we headed to the beach again and  had a lovely lazy day. I was in my element swimming in the sea most of the day, but managed to get royally sunburnt!  Some ridiculous tan/burn lines and a peeling face will be my punishment for the next week!

...One of my favourite moments was walking back from the beach on Saturday with this as a backdrop...

Turning points

Sorry this next installment is late!...

On Monday (of last week), along with the Canadian boys who are staying here, I took on a little project. Children in the area don’t go to school until they are seven, and the crèches around are few and far between, so they need all the funding they can get to both have the facilities they need and to cater for the demand. A trust expressed interest in funding and the Village of Hope volunteered to facilitate this by surveying a few crèches in the area. So we visited each one to ask some questions and take photos – we were welcomed with open arms and shown around all of them. 

There was a very different range, as far as building quality, space, facilities and number of children went, and some were far more needy than others. One in particular was run by a woman just down the road, who lived next door to the crèche. She was incredibly warm and happily showed me around inside and outside where they had a vegetable garden and play area. The building was quite run down and there was only one small room for 16 children. Crowded as it was, she explained that they couldn’t attain funding from Social Services until they had 20 children. The situation for people here makes it so difficult to improve things for themselves and those around them – and it was hard walking in to see only a glimpse of this, only to leave quickly afterwards. After all the visits I compiled all the information in a document, which was handed back – hopefully this will go some way to offering some support to the creches we saw... I am really relishing the challenges that come everyday here - to get handed projects and tasks like this and have to get on with it on my own has forced me out of my comfort zone and given me more confidence in my abilities. 

The week then took a little nose-dive as I was sick on Tuesday night (my first tummy bug of many I expect!) I still felt pretty bad on Wednesday morning so I had to forgo my plans to go to the Thembacare craft session (really disappointing, as I don’t want to appear to be giving up on them after just one week!) 

Jess and I had a planning meeting about Rainbow Smiles (the support group for teenagers with HIV) this week, on Wednesday. As people have come and gone from the Village of Hope and had different inputs, there has been a bit of confusion about roles. So in the meeting we tried to clarify everything. The sessions are led primarily by a woman from the community who knows all the children really well and has personal experience of coping with HIV. There are also two nurses from Thembacare who come as a support, and also help with translation. This week we dealt with HIV contraction, hoping to help the children really understand the virus they are coping with. We made it more approachable with drawings, demonstrations and a game (which involved me being an antibody or ‘soldier cell’ and being attacked by HIV viruses). Embarrassment aside, the end effect was very rewarding. The children are usually quite timid and it is often hard to draw things out of them, especially if you’re asking them to express themselves and their emotions in their second language; but we had a great discussion of how important it was for them to take their ARVs everyday and questions cropped up about contact with others and possible contraction.  It felt like a bit of a turning point, the session running more smoothly and the children visibly more comfortable and confident with us.

 The children in the unit are all doing well and one of our little girls turned 5 this week. They played Pin the Tail on the Donkey, which they’d never played before, some of them not quite grasping the necessity of the blindfold! 

At the weekend one of the little boys in the unit went home with his mother and siblings, which, although sad, is really an achievement for the project. It made me think quite differently about the relationships I’m building with the children and how hard it is going to be when they leave – but also that what we want to see most is them moving back into the community without a backwards glance, settled with a new life and family. 

Red sky at night

Not a bad sight to be looking at through the kitchen door while eating dinner...

Finding my feet

I'm writing this with wet hair and all the clothes I was previously wearing this morning hanging on the line outside in the scorching sun...we had the paddling pool out for the children in the unit today and it turned into a water fight with very unfair odds (me versus all eight children) - I got well and truly beaten...and drenched. Not that I mind at all - its an incredible feeling to see how accustomed they have grown to me in two short weeks and how happy, secure and comfortable they feel spending time with me. 

It's been a VERY busy and a VERY hot week - we have a meeting every morning where we run through what we're all doing and I have a lot of my own responsibilities now to juggle - quite a challenge! The overall feeling I've got from this week is fulfilment and a sense of belonging - I feel like I've really found my feet, my spot on the team and that I do have a lot to offer the project (which is a wonderful feeling!)

Sports is still going really well and its definitely become one of my favourite parts of the day. There are two Dutch sports students over here doing some work for a few months and they're going to be part of a new life skills programme we are incorporating into the sports lessons. Every day I come back from sports thinking what an amazing way it is to get to know children and break down the barriers between us, whether they be language (mainly Afrikaans and Xhosa), culture, or just a timidity on their part. With the two Dutch students there will also be four older boys from the community, who want to become sports mentors - altogether an enthusiastic and internationally mixed team, which is lovely! These sessions facilitate other lessons that we are trying to teach children in the community, such as self-respect, self-esteem and working with others etc - in communities where there is a lot of abuse, and many children lack the care and attention they need, their vulnerability makes these lessons essential. 

We had a birthday party on Tuesday for one of our little boys who turned two. With lots of sugary food and drink, combined with the excitement of Pass the Parcel and bubble blowing, there was a lot of excitement, laughing, screaming and crying -  but I think the fact that they all kept singing Happy Birthday all week afterwards suggests they enjoyed it! 

I have started doing the school run on my own this week and I am really enjoying the responsibility - I managed my first solo run without any mishaps - partially helped by the fact it was a Friday, so all three girls were really tired from the week and remained pretty sleepy for the whole journey. They were rewarded with a sticker on their sticker chart for good behaviour - if they're good all week they get sweeties, but to be honest I think they're more excited by the stickers!

When I initially applied to volunteer here I expressed an interest in doing some arts and crafts work with people in the community and on Wednesday I went down to Thembacare on my own, to go to the little crafts class they have there. Thembacare is an adult hospice for those who are terminally ill and suffering with severe cases of HIV, aids and TB. ARVs (antiretrovirals), which are taken to combat HIV, have very unpleasant side effects and leave patients feeling much worse, even if they are helping in the long run. As a consequence, many of the patients at Thembacare are tired and just want to lie in bed all day. This obviously does nothing to improve their condition physically but is also mentally detrimental - promoting no sense of positivity, hope or determination.  The craft session gives a few of the women/girls there something to focus on and something to take pride and ownership of. When I arrived there were three older girls learning to use a sewing machine and I managed to dredge up enough GCSE textiles knowedge to teach them successfully. They were also starting some beading work so I went back the next day just to sit with them and do that for the morning. They were all very quiet and there is a language barrier, so conversation was limited but I like to think the company is something different in their day and they all seemed quite happy to sit quietly working together.

So this week brings the start of the Life Skills Programme, more solo school runs and hopefully some more time spent with the women at Thembacare - so I'm going to throw myself into all of it and see what  happens...

New beginnings

Home from home

I arrived in Cape Town, rand in hand, completely exhausted. I don't usually go abroad and expect there to be a 32 degree change in temperature but there I was in the baking heat after leaving snow behind - thank goodness!

Dramatic would be an understatement to describe the scenery here - everywhere is framed by towering mountains with atmospheric low cloud resting on their tips. I'm doing a fantastic job of being a typical tourist, whipping my camera out at every opportunity, even a trip to the local spar supermarket...It's just so beautiful everywhere! 

The drive from the airport went past lush vineyards, beautiful houses and glimpses of the sparkling coastline. We drove right over the mountain ridge into the town of Grabouw, which presented a very different picture. This region is made up of some government built concrete buildings (in very high demand) but otherwise comprises informal settlements and squatter camps with tin and wood shacks. From a distance these townships look quite picturesque, all jostled together, painted in candy colours with a scattering of trees, but up close, rubbish is strewn everywhere, the shacks are very cramped and clean water pumps are sparse.

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The most notable thing about this area and one of the main forms of employment here are the numerous fruit orchards that are scattered throughout the region. Trucks stacked high with apples drive by everyday and apparently in juicing season you can smell apples everywhere! There are permanent workers on the farms but they also take on seasonal workers in the busy months. Once the apples are picked, they are taken to the packing factories where they are essentially cosmetically analyzed - strange but true - so the higher end supermarkets demand, for instance, Pink Ladies with a high percentage of pink colouring, the lower end don't mind the greener ones, and those rejected - the uglier ones I suppose! - get sentenced to juicing and supply various drink companies. 

Thousands of crates waiting for their Pink Ladies!

I will be spending my first three months in this area working at The Village of Hope, part of the Thembalitsha foundation (http://thembavillageofhope.blogspot.com/), which works to support people in South Africa living in poverty and help them reach some sort of state of self-reliance. The Village of Hope works with children suffering with or affected by hiv and aids. There are no over-night health clinic facilities for anyone living in Grabouw and the HIV rate is about 30%, so many sick people are going untreated and unsupported, these diseases remaining rampant and destructive.  

The volunteer accommodation at the Village of Hope is right next to a live- in nine bed children's unit, which tries to combat this problem to an extent. This offers nine children diagnosed with hiv, aids or TB  full-time care. All nine children are stable but have no available care in place for them. The eventual aim is to foster them back into the community where they can be placed with new families or return to their own when they are in a position to provide care once more.

As the week has gone on I've been trying to get in the children's unit at least twice a day to have a play and get to know them - they all have very different personalities but the most satisfying thing is the change that has happened so quickly - they're no longer shy when they see me but come running and hug my legs. They now feel comfortable enough to boss me around, steal my flipflops while I'm being sat on and generally get their own way! I will soon take on the duty of the school run, taking or picking up four of them that are school age - however, this involved learning to drive the minibus, which filled me with complete terror! - its huge, quite temperamental and it takes about all my arm strength to put it into gear - so its going to take some getting used to. This said, my first journey went well and no one was injured...hurray! Driving through the townships here is like the ultimate hazard perception test, with children playing games in the road with large rocks as markers, everyone walking in the middle of the road as opposed to the pavement, as well as the chickens, cows, stray dogs and the occasional goat that quite happily congregate around the bus. 

First stop on the school run!

Another part of the Village of Hope project is a sports outreach and life-skill programme, run every afternoon with children from the local settlements. On Tuesday we headed up to 'Iraq', one of the local settlements, which was a real eye opener. Looking at it from the distance of the sports field, it looked like a waste land - dry, rocky and strewn with rubbish - and when I say 'sports field' I mean the dusty bit of ground that the children run around on in bare feet. The amazing thing about sports is that with two nets you can play pretty much anywhere. Jess and I (another volunteer) played netball, and as more girls turned up from all over the place we soon had a great game going - there was a bit of a language barrier (the community speaking mainly Causa) but once we had two teams the game pretty much ran itself - the girls straightaway lost all their inhibitions and their initial shyness was overtaken by a real competitive spirit - it was nice to think that for that couple of hours they could really lose themselves in a game.  

So all in all its been a VERY busy first week. Every day is different and there is so much to get involved with. I hope as time goes on I'm really going to settle into my role and be a strong part of the fantastic work being done here...I'm so excited to see what will come next...

...sorry for the essay, I just wanted to set the scene!

 

A snowy start

The snow (which has yet to fall) has robbed me of my chance to have my last British Sunday lunch!!…not only that, but a last night in my own comfy bed. I’d feel bitter about it if I wasn’t about to head off to sunnier climes for 6 months.

In true British fashion, the few inches of snow promised have caused havoc…and with the prospect of getting stranded in our little village on Sunday we’ve initiated a preemptive strike and set up camp in a Travelodge at Gatwick Airport. Now I’m never one to say no to extra time in the airport (it fills me with that exciting holiday feeling) but the prospect of a whole day here tomorrow until my 8pm flight is not quite what I imagined.

Were going to to bed after watching the snow fall out of the window...let's hope we don't wake up snowed in, only metres from the airport!