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!!

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...