World Water Day

So today is World Water Day, and we woke up to no water! I felt the irony of this was worth a post...

... The Village of Hope has had a new filter system fitted to make the water drinkable and hopefully less brown! However, this seems to have caused a few issues and we keep losing the water altogether. The 22nd March has been World Water Day since 1993, when the UN General Assembly declared it as a world wide 'day for water' - the idea being that you are careful with how much you use and truly recognise its value.

This couldn't be more relevant living here in Grabouw. All the townships around have one or two standpipes to serve thousands of people and the women and children living there often have to carry their water a long distance back to their homes. The opportune failure of the water here is a perfect way for us to really take stock of how lucky we are to be able to expect a constant supply, to cook with and shower under, from numerous sources. It's when you lose something that you really recognise its importance...so I think it highly appropriate that we all go about our day unshowered and deeply appreciative of what we have.

Tough times for Grabouw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6csl0iA0mE

This is a video for the latest song by Wholehearted - a South African band who support the Thembalitsha Foundation. I felt the theme of hope was appropriate for this post...

Grabouw was gripped by fear on Monday when another protest about schooling in the area descended into a race clash between the black and mixed race communities in the region. There were rumours (whether true or not) that some of the black community were trying to burn down the mixed race school (after they had ransacked their own school last week, in protest of overcrowding). The mixed race community turned out to defend their high school and a face off with police in the middle saw many injured and some killed.

For us we could remain safely up at the village overlooking Grabouw, but gun shots and shouts could be heard from the community down below. It was a worrying time, thinking of all the people we work with everyday, the house mums, the workers at Thembacare and the children we teach sports to, all caught up in the fray. The situation had calmed yesterday and seems fine today...we just hope that it remains that way.


(the video was filmed in 'Iraq' and features many of the people we work with, including some of my netball girls! Along with Tim and Maz (the founders of Village of Hope)

Sports Saturday!

After a slightly stressful week of planning the Sports Saturday was finally upon us. The day happens about four times a year, so is looked forward to by all the children in the local townships.

We headed down to the country club to set up at 8am. For netball this involved marking out a court with flour and string - a plan that worked very well until all the children from one of the local farm settlements (who had arrived VERY early) decided to join in. There was flour where it shouldn't have been on the court, on their clothes, in their hair and some of it even got eaten by a few (who hadn't had breakfast!). Chaos aside, I managed to mark it all out, with my floury little helpers in tow, and the end effect was quite impressive, considering we usually play with no markings at all.

Setting up goals

Flour aftermath

Drawing out lines in the rain

As this was going on, buses were picking up all the children from the townships and as soon as we knew how many had turned up (over 150) there had to be quick rearrangements of the schedule of play and the team managers. These comprised the German architectural students (who are currently building some volunteer accomodation at the Village of Hope) and Dutch students over from Holland. There were also all the boys from the local townships, who are  part of our mentoring scheme, either managing or  refereeing the football games. That left me with the job of refereeing the netball, which was much more than I bargained for! Juggling running up and down the court, keeping score, blowing the whistle, sorting out arguments, placing the girls in their positions on the court, running with the score to the score board and observing who the best player was throughout the games was no mean feat! By the end of it I felt pretty proud of myself and very thankful that the girls listened (most of the time!) and respected my decisions. Aside from a few fiesty outbursts (which required some stern shouting - not something I'm used to doing!), they all played with enthusiasm.

In the end, the day came together perfectly - without mishap, mistake or injury. The rain that had drizzled over us as we set up cleared away before the children arrived and we had a sunny day! After all the games we had prize giving - with sports tops for all those in the winning team. I gave the individual prize to a girl from the nearest township who is always there for practice and showed the most maturity during the tournament  - with no jeering, arguing and a willingness to compromise on position to allow others to play. Everyone got a chocolate prize and then lunch (catered for by the Round Table - a local organisation). The chocolate, the food and just the opportunity to play a tournament in a clean, spacious and organised environment meant more to the children there than I think we could ever quite conceive.

Once all the children had been sent off on the buses we stuck around and had a game of football (Holland versus Germany) with us English and the mentors split between - I feel the game for me established that I will never have an aptitude for football no matter how hard I try and I was probably more of a handicap than a help - but it was fun all the same and a nice way to spend some time together and unwind after a hectic morning.

...We all headed back with slightly sunburnt faces, but mostly a feeling of satisfaction and achievement that all our planning paid off and we could provide such a lovely day for all the children there.

A challenging week

This week so far has been challenging all round for many different reasons....

...the most seemingly insignificant perhaps being that the power steering in the van decided to fail, so my arm muscles have had a real tough time of it - being very weedy to start with. Who knows, by the end of the week I may actually be able to do a full set of monkey bars! (curing a somewhat painful memory from my childhood).

We've also been organising the Sports Saturday coming up this weekend. This involves teams from all the townships we coach coming together at the local country club to play a tournament. The children always love the event so there are always lots of them -they'll be at least 144 children this time round, so the day has to be organised with military precision! I feel one of my key roles in the village has become sport so there seems a lot of responsibility which I'm both apprehensive and excited about. The Dutch girls will be on hand but have never played netball, so the responsibility for setting up and umpiring has been given to me!! Luckily we've now got four girls in the volunteer unit so they'll be a team of us...I was also really excited when rooting through the various bags of kit we have had donated (nearly ALL football - typical!) I found a pile of brand new women's Nike running tops - so there are lovely prizes for the winning girls' team sorted!

This morning Heather and I went out with the Thembacare nurses to do their rounds. They visit their assigned outpatients in the community to check how they are feeling and whether they are up to date with their medication and visits to the doctor/nurse/councillor. If patients miss some of their ARVs, they can fail their course and their bodies will become immune to the medication. There are three types of ARV course available here so you have three chances to get it right or there is no other treatment - checking patients are taking it everyday is therefore critical.









I am full of mixed feelings about the morning, which are hence very difficult to describe. It first and foremost felt quite intrusive, venturing right into the centre of the townships, into people's homes and into their lives. It's this feeling of being an observer that I have been struggling with most here - I have wrestled with whether to take photos or not: keen to have a record of why I am here, what the project does and why its so important that it exists in this community; but also conscious of pointing a lens at what is essentially a struggle against impoverishment

....However, all the people we met seemed quite happy with the intrusion when they saw we were interested in how they were feeling and what the Themba nurses were doing for them. One of the most welcoming patients was Anna - who was busy caring for 4 little babies in her small shack. She was happy to see us and when we left she sent us all off with an apple - and an apple means an awful lot in a home like that.

Anna's home

Anna's daughter and friends

Driving through the townships everyday we see how ramshackle and run down they are, but going into them brings a wholly different revelation - the better have walls lined with wood and floors with nailed down plastic sheeting - which allows people to keep the inside relatively clean. Some have electric lighting, although this involves bare wires hanging down from the ceiling, hooked into the mains wiring outside. Some have furniture, cupboards, pots and pans...But others, one in particular, are dark, dank and about as far away from homely as you can get - the first house we went in had no floor, only the dirt ground, like outside. There wasn't really any furniture, the walls were made of cardboard and everything was very dirty and very smelly. I don't think I can really get across the feelings this evoked in me but I'd say outrage, pity, sadness and also an immense sense of uselessness would go some way.

The experience filled me with a sense of the immensity of the poverty here and thus a sense of the meagre effect my presence here may have on the problems faced. I went away feeling quite deflated and heavy with the weight of what I'd seen. However, on reflection, I think it also reaffirmed why the Village of Hope is such a worthy place to invest my efforts. There is nothing like it in the region of Grabouw and yet the need here goes above and beyond what this project alone can provide. I am just one small part of a larger ongoing cycle of volunteers - and thus, this project provides a (hopefully) sustainable source of support, care and comfort for the people of Grabouw. I hope, however small a part I play here, it is also one that draws on the very best parts of me and adds to the meaningful work being done here in my own individual way.

Troubled times

Last week was been a real reminder of the deep seated problems in the communities around Grabouw and the tensions that exist alongside these. On Monday there were riots and protests around the local high school. Due to the massive population increase in Grabouw (15,000 after apartheid rising to 60,000 in a few years) the school is painfully over-stretched and lacking funding. Children share chairs and there are classes of up to 60. Frustrated locals took to the street to campaign for another school, or improvements to the current one. As so often happens, tensions escalated and police had to be out in force to try and quell the angry protesters - firing gas canisters into the crowd. The tragic outcome was a few extreme members of the community starting a fire in the school, leaving two classrooms burnt out, and smashing most of the windows in the building.

Now, instead of improvements (which are well deserved), the community is left without a school and the children will probably be out of education for a month or more. Talking to some of the local boys, who come to sports in the afternoon as mentors, they explained the anger still surrounding the school and that those trying to attend in the week after the riots were beaten with sticks by local men. They went along this week and there were no teachers, so there have been lots of children milling around the townships in the afternoon with little to do. Its very easy to empathise with people here who are desperate for changes in not just education but basic standard of life in general. However the violence is difficult to condone and understand when it saw people injured and stripped the children in the community of the few provisions the government has made for them.

It also meant the townships were far too dangerous to venture into and sports was cancelled on Monday. The sessions in the days following were noticeably  quiet - luckily things have quietened down this week, but the children are still out of school and there seems to be no hope of a quick solution for them.

Tiny babies and football shirts

This week offered two wonderful and poignant moments....

One was on Tuesday, when we headed up to 'Iraq' (one of the poorest townships) to take sports as we usually do. But this time we had along with us some visitors from Holland, including a mayor of a town there with connections to Ajax Amsterdam football team. He'd brought with him lots of kit to give out to the children so once we'd finished the session they all lined up and we handed it out to smiles of delight! Some of the nicest pieces were waterproof training jackets and we were thinking the boys would have to wait a few months to put these to good use...until...low and behold the sun that had been beating down on us, while we played, was covered by cloud and the heavens opened up. It was incredible watching the boys dance around in their kit in the rain and we went home so happy in the knowledge that they were walking home warm and dry in their new jackets.

my netball girls!

The second came on Thursday morning when Jess and I had the opportunity to visit 'Bosom Buddies' in Somerset West. This is another branch of the Thembalitsha Foundation which focuses its efforts on new mothers in need. Many of the women they serve walk into hospital pregnant, with nothing. They are sometimes completely alone and often can't afford to bring anything with them for the birth, or after the pregnancy. Bosom Buddies tries to alleviate this by making up bags to give out to mums when they arrive at hospital. The bags are handmade by the women who volunteer for the project and then filled with blankets, baby clothes, and medical bits and pieces for the baby and mother post-labour. They're all tied up with a message and ribbon and are always very well received! However, most important is the emotional support offered - the volunteers are often the first to sit down with the mothers, congratulate them, ask them how the birth went and just reinforce to them the wonderful thing they've done - sounds simple, but for women who have very little a pregnancy might be both frightening and a incredible pressure on their lives.

On our visit we went along with the project organiser to one of the hospitals and went round the maternity ward - it was fairly small and crowded, and although it was equipped with a semi-private ward this, apparently, remains empty most of the time (none of the mothers able to afford to stay there). We met a room full of mothers who had premature babies staying on the ward and were staying overnight all together in a little room. We then got to peak our heads round the door of the intensive care room where five unbelievably tiny babies lay peacefully sleeping in incubators. Most touching was going into the ward where there were five mothers with babies born in the last two days - we went round talking to them and cooing over their bundles - so lovely!!