Christmas in Cape Town with the family :)

When I first found out I was coming away for a year I said to my family ‘Nah, don’t come visit, I want to spend a year being independent. If you come out it’ll just make me want to go home!’. Well, I say I said it but the honest truth is that various versions of that sentence were screamed during various arguments while they were trying to plan holidays in Cape Town…

I guess all I can say now is thank goodness they won the argument!

It’s not that I’m not loving the independence. Not at all in fact, I’m in my element! Nor is it that I’m horribly homesick- South Africa is feeling more and more like home and while I do miss my family and close friends SO much I have lots of friends and a surrogate family of volunteers over here. I’m generally very happy with my entire situation, after all, it’s only a year-long break from normality.

No, the problem is that I don’t think I ever fully realised how much I just ENJOY my family.  I like sitting around the table at dinner time and talking about everyone’s day. I like family days out. I like talking shit with Abi late into the night and taking her to partys and trying to persuade her that exams aren’t THAT big a deal (possibly not my most useful piece of advice but I also like the fact that she knows when to ignore me). And I like drinking a beer and watching Top Gear with Dad. I like helping Mum cook dinner and having girly shopping days and lunch at Starbucks with her.

So, needless to say, it was just awesome to have them around for two weeks! We did all sorts while they were here. A highlight for me was being able to show them around the Children’s Home and introduce them to my friends, co-workers and, of course, the kids. We took a trip to the Garden Route Game Lodge which was just INCREDIBLE. We took a trip to Robben Island. We went out for meals and for drinks. I slept over at their hotel a few times. Most of all it was just so nice to see them. After all, we had four months of catching up to do!

The first day might well have been my favourite to be honest. They arrived at Cape Town International airport on Christmas morning (I’d love to say this was simply so we could have Christmas Day together but I believe the flights were considerably cheaper seeing as no normal human being wants to travel that day…). Anyway, I had Christmas Day off but was going to have to work on the 26^th and 27^th so I originally told them that it would just be easier to see them on the 27^th after work. That way they could settle into the hotel and sleep off the 24 hours of travelling. Anyway a few days before Christmas I had a brainwave  (OK… not exactly a brainwave. I guess it was more like my brain catching up and going ‘What the f**k?? You’re OK with not seeing them on Christmas day for the first time in your life?’). So I emailed Dad and asked him to tell me their flight details so I could ‘check online to see they got in safe’ in typical Dad style he then told me that Mum deals with all that and all he knew was that they were getting in at around 8am so he’d text me when they got to Heathrow and let me know.

Christmas Eve arrived and I still hadn’t heard from him. Surprise surprise, he forgot.

So there I am at 3am on Christmas morning, online and trying to work out which flight they’d be on. There were about 7 different flights getting in from London between 8am and 8.30 am so I figured if I got to the airport at 8am I’d be able to find them.  Four hours later I get up again and get in a car with two of my good friends to go to the airport. We got a little lost on the way but arrived at almost 8am on the dot. As we were walking through the doors I checked my phone- I’d got a text from Dad 10 minutes before saying they’d arrived. I can’t begin to explain how far my heart sank, I was so convinced I’d missed them! I was cursing myself for trying to surprise them- of course they wouldn’t wait around when they didn’t know I was coming! So I phoned him to say Merry Christmas and ask where they were (casually of course… ‘So, have got the car yet or are you still waiting?’ Subtle, I know.) Bear in mind that while this conversation is going on the three of us are racing round the airport trying to spot if they’re still there. Then a magical thing happened- dad said they were sitting getting a coffee, I turned around to face the food court and he stood up and said ‘Oh, there you are!’

Best Christmas present ever! We all cried a bit, but that’s OK.

Christmas in the Children's Home

So, Christmas started here for us at the end of October. We decorated the Reception and the offices and started planning parties and presents. The ‘official’ start of Christmas preparations was a Christmas Parade where the Christmas team of volunteers had to get dressed up and walk through the children’s home giving out sweets… I can tell you, it is the WEIRDEST feeling to be dancing around in a santa hat while the sun is shining! It’s also quite uncomfortably sweaty…

As I mentioned, Once CHILLI closed I was put to work on Christmas team. There were four of us volunteers working on the team permanently as well as helpers from dayshift when there wasn’t much to do. Anyone who knows me will realise I am SO not an office job kind of person but actually it wasn’t as bad as all that and, as with everything here, it was a learning experience! We were in charge of receiving gift donations and sorting through them and organising them per house, handing out leaflets to try and encourage more people to donate, making advent calendars for the houses and decorating the Activity Hall for Christmas events. Actually, that probably isn’t even half of what we did but you get the idea!

Before I go any further, you might be wondering why I’m writing all this in the past tense even though Christmas day isn’t here yet. The reason is, the majority of the children go home when the school term ends- this was at the beginning of the month. For this reason, the children’s Christmas party happens before then and all the presents are given out at the party so that the kids who are going home have things to take with them. There is a packed holiday activity programme for the kids who are staying here but that is organised by the sports and activity people in the office. So, in reality, most of the Christmas team work is finished! Now there are only two permanent team members and I’m back onto working with the children. YAY! Even though Holiday Shifts mean that I’ve ended up working nightshift for three nights…

The Christmas Team job also meant that I was put in charge of organising the Volunteer Christmas Party which we had on Wednesday. The party was like our ‘official Christmas Thank-you’ from the Children’s home and so it had to be organised to run very smoothly! So, me and two other volunteers had to make invitations, devise a programme, plan games, buy gifts for everyone, organise food from the kitchen, plan a theme and location, find volunteers to play Christmas music… the list goes on. We decided in the end to have a Summer Christmas Garden Party in the courtyard between the offices- people were asked to dress nicely and we were looking forward to playing games and singing in the sunshine.

Only problem was that we woke up on Wednesday and it was pissing it down. FAIL.

SO, very quick change of plan- we decorated the activity hall with all sorts of Christmas sparkly stuff, laid blankets and pillows on the floor, lit candles and carted the piano up the stairs. A quick tannoy announcement to tell everyone that the location had changed and we were now having a pajama party. Cue the boys:’ Ahhh, Amy… I don’t have any pajamas! ‘ (read that bit in a German accent… It’s funnier ;))

However, despite the reservations of some, it all came together fantastically! Most people dutifully donned their PJs- nightshift were especially happy as it meant they didn’t need to change and could get out of bed 5 minutes before the party began. We played party games- I assumed everyone knew how to play pass the parcel until the Germans asked whether they were just supposed to take off as much paper as they could in the time the music was stopped for. Greedy lot. We ate some really lovely food- it made such a nice change to eat something special! We’ve all missed party food I think… Then we sat down and did some singing while a couple of volunteers played piano and guitar. There’s a certain irony to be enjoyed while singing ‘Do they know it’s Christmas’ while you’re ACTUALLY in Africa I think…

The whole thing was a great success. Our boss was impressed and enjoyed herself, everyone was laughing and I think we’re FINALLY getting into the Christmas spirit despite being in the sunshine!

I guess it turns out that Christmas is going to be pretty magical wherever you spend it, however strange it may feel to me not to see any snow! Now we’re concentrating on making it a special time for the 30 kids who haven’t been able to go home. Even though we know they’re here for a reason it’s pretty heart-breaking to watch them having to stay here while their friends are with their families - I reckon the best we can do is keep on playing , taking and smiling with them and keep on showing them how much we care.

Bloody hell … Mum, take a note, I think I might be growing up.

Decorating the office and reception...

CHILLI

I’ve now realised that I’ve once again done what I promised myself not to do last time and left it over a month between blog posts. I’m a crap blogger I think- hope you guys haven’t missed me too much! I think no longer being on nightshift has been a big contributer to be honest- sitting alone for 10 hours during the night really gives you a lot of free time for blogging.

I wrote last time that I was maybe going to be starting work in CHILLI. I did end up on dayshift in there which was great- I really enjoyed the work and, despite a few hiccups, it was mostly going well. Not being on nightshift was amazing! It felt great to be able to get my body-clock back on track and develop some kind of routine. Of course, working long week/ short week means finding a routine is more difficult than it would be if we were working Monday to Friday but it was a definite improvement. I really enjoyed the work although it WAS more challenging than it would be in other houses- especially trying to remember the importance of retaining a therapeutic atmosphere when you’re really stressed!

Some of the positive things:

Taking the job in CHILLI also put me in charge of the vegetable garden that is in the unit. Working with the volunteers from the University in Stellenbosch on that (even though I’m a crap gardener!) was really fun. Harvesting the lettuces with a couple of the CHILLI girls who are usually reluctant to help with that sort of thing and taking the lettuces to the kitchen where they were put into salads for the houses was actually really rewarding. I can almost understand why people bother to grow their own vegetables…

Myself and the childcare worker I was always on shift with also got on really well. As CHILLI is a job they very rarely give to volunteers it was really nice to go into it and be treated as an equal. It is very easy for volunteers to be viewed as ‘bottom of the heap’ and I found it pretty reassuring to see that hard work does not go unnoticed by everyone! It was also nice to feel as though I was being given some responsibility with things such as trying to talk to and calm down the kids when they were upset, keeping a close eye out if any of them were showing worrying behaviour and even the little things like helping with homework.

The work was very challenging at times though. As it was all girls in CHILLI this time we had a problem with them bonding more with eachother than with me and the childcare worker. While this wouldn't be an issue if they were just making close friends, it became more of a problem when we noticed a kind of ‘gang’ forming. They started organising  themselves  to all run away from the children’s home at the same time and this ‘gang’ behaviour culminated in a particularly stressful day after which the girls were put back into their houses and myself and the staff were left feeling very stressed and upset. The girls have since calmed down but I have found myself having to deal with similar behaviour on occasions which can be pretty hard! Despite all this though, I do really enjoy the challenges of working with the more difficult kids and I can’t wait until CHILLI re-opens after the holidays. Hopefully I’ll get the job again!

Since CHILLI closed for the term, I’ve been working on Christmas team which, despite being a varied job, is not really my cup of tea. It feels a bit too much like a desk job and I’d much rather be working closely with the kids! However, we have had some lovely moments whilst wearing our Santa hats. More on Christmas in the children’s home in the next post. It’ll be soon… I hope!

Enjoy the snow ;)

Amy xxx

Take a good look at South African summer to warm you up this December. Not that I'm  feeling at all pleased with my situation...

Sorry it's been so long!

Just realised how behind I am with this. Was talking to Chloe about it today and we reckon that the longer we’re here, the more it feels normal and like this is home so it gets harder to write about it- to people at home it’s still really exciting, for us it’s exciting but normal.

Having said that, loads has happened since the last time I wrote! We had a ‘Culture Day’ at the children’s home. This basically involved the volunteers splitting into groups to represent different countries. There was Scotland, Germany, South Africa and America (apparently for no other reason than McDonalds donated some burgers for us to sell…). Each Country had a table where they sold some food and crafts and things and there were also performances. Some of the children sang and danced and us Scottish people had to teach some of the other volunteers an Orcadian Strip the Willow so we could ‘perform’ it. Was a bit insane!

So while we are continuing to really enjoy our time here, as we become more part of life here and get closer to the kids we’re also starting to see more of the negatives and things that make this job difficult. I had a very hard few days the other week, obviously I can’t go into detail but suffice to say that sometimes the children will talk to us about things which are very difficult to deal with. Hard as it was I’m glad I had the opportunity to follow correct protocol (with some help) and that I know now what to do in situations like that. Difficult and upsetting as it was it’s not like I wasn’t expecting something like that to happen. In the long run I’m glad some of the children feel as if they can talk to me, makes me feel like we might be doing some good here!

This last week it had been the October holidays. During the holidays, most of the children go home to their families so we only had 20-30 children left in the home. This meant our shifts changed so that we were only working twice in the week… this proved very popular! But, because the children weren’t going to school there had to be plenty of activities to keep them busy. On Tuesday, it was the volunteers turn to arrange something for them to do. We chose to do a ‘fun sport’s day’ with games and races like the ones we did in Primary School like the wheelbarrow race and the egg and spoon race. It was fun, if slightly chaotic! I was in charge of one of the teams (We won, by the way haha) and it was quite a nice way to get to know different kids. With 144 of them it’s hard to see them all! What really surprised me about the holidays was how many of the kids were allowed to go home. In my mind I can’t help but think that, if they’ve had to be removed from their families by a court then how can it be safe for them to live with them again for a week? I’m sure in some cases it’s totally fine but it worries me a bit that three quarters of the children were home. I think maybe that’s something I’ll ask about- it’s pretty hard to understand but I’d like to.

I feel like, as a group, us volunteers are getting closer too which is nice. Last weekend we went to a braii at one of the staff member’s houses. Pretty much all the volunteers who weren’t working went and it was really nice to just hang out together rather than being in a bar where we’re chatting to other people too. It was great to be able to get to know each other a bit better. The only problem was that we only had three cars to transport 19 of us and all our food! In one car there was 5 volunteers and all the food, in another there was 6 people and a load of blankets and stuff (we slept outside that night) and in the last car there was eight of us! Two in the front, four in the back and me and Amber in the boot. Was a bit of a squish! We had a blanket in there that we had to pull over us at ninja-speed when the police went past- they were driving next to us for about 5 minutes and didn’t notice a thing! That’s Africa for you I guess…

My immune system doesn’t seem to be rating it much here though, I guess it’s because we’re exposed to loads of new germs but I’ve been sick most of the time since we got here, most of us have had at least three different colds. Right now I’ve got a particularly lovely one which means I can’t stop coughing… the joys.

In other news, I got called into the manager’s office today to say they might be needing help in CHILLI during the day! They’re one childcare worker short so they had a meeting to see what they’d do about it and apparently my name came up after I helped out when they needed someone on nightshift in there. She said she wanted me and the other volunteers to understand that I was the only one willing to help at the time and now I (might) get rewarded for that. I really don’t mean to blow my own trumpet but I’m actually feeling rather smug… having said all that I know how things work here, stuff changes at a seconds notice. Probably I’ll end up back on 12 hour nightshift in CHILLI when it opens again on Sunday. It’s better than nothing but I really hope not.

I’m definitely going to try not to leave it so long between posts next time, I don’t feel like I’m doing it justice right now. Oh well, enjoy anyway J

PS, everyone else has been getting letters and parcels of chocolate and the like... just saying ;)

Day is turning into night. Not good.

I wrote this on the 19th of September- didn't post it sooner as the internet has been down for a few days.

My body clock is getting seriously messed up… it’s now far too easy to stay up all night even when we’re not working nightshift. You can imagine this causes potential problems when we have to climb the gate to get in and the children wake up at 6am. We haven’t been caught yet but it’s a worry. Not gonna lie.

I should probably stop beginning these posts with news of the latest night’s out… not that they haven’t been awesome but that’s really not all we’re doing! Feeling really settled here now. Yvonne said all along that the first two or three weeks are the hardest. I haven’t felt miserable or anything but now that we’re approaching the three week mark I can feel more opportunities coming our way as well as feeling like we’re building relationships with the kids and the staff. I have to say, I’m really glad we’re staying for a year. I reckon if we only stayed three months then we’d be leaving FAR too early. It’s nice to think that, not counting inevitable bouts of homesickness, chances are it all goes up from here.

So, apart from working in CHILLI (which, by the way, stands for Care House for Individual Life Lesson Intervention) I’ve also been co-ordinating the volunteers who are helping in the Computer Room. The children are allowed to use the Computer Room between 2.30 and 5.00 Monday-Thursday afternoons. They usually use it for homework projects and study so we’re really just there to supervise and lend a hand. I drew up the rota but have so far only worked there once as we just started last week. Unfortunately it was at the same time as a fire safety meeting so there wasn’t much to do! Hopefully it will pick up a bit when I’m in on Tuesday, from what the other volunteers have told me it’s working out well.

Next Friday, me and a few other volunteers have training for ‘Toy Library’. As far as I can tell, this is pretty much like play therapy for the children under eight. We play with them using educational toys and games and observe their behaviour and record any changes. It sounds really interesting; I’m looking forward to finding out more about it next week!

Another thing I’m noticing as time goes on is how much more comfortable I feel around the children. I feel less and less ‘on guard’ every day, it’s getting easier just to relax around here. We’re also realising that it’s fun to hang out outside while the children are playing. After all, seeing as we live on the grounds the only way to really leave work is to head out- if we’re here we may as well be with the kids. Yesterday was absolutely lovely weather. It’s pretty changeable at the moment so the sunny days are still a novelty- a few of us grabbed a blanket and went with nail polish and ipods to chill in the sun round the back of the annex. Within seconds we had about 10 kids around us wanting to talk to us, listen to our ipods and paint our nails. While the little kids from Happy Feet were climbing all over us. It was lovely! There are so many children here; it’s really nice to have lots of different opportunities to get to know them. At one point I had one girl painting my toe-nails, another painting my fingernails, a little boy on one side painting his nails bright pink (‘I’m a girl today!’) and a boy on the other side wanting to know how to find the Justin Bieber music on my ipod (not that difficult… I have a Bieber playlist…). Later on, I was playing with some of the boys (aged 8-10 I think) and they decided they wanted to ‘play rugby without a ball’. This is, essentially, play fighting. It was absolutely hilarious! I think they picked the right person for it though, I’m not sure all girls are OK with being wrestled to the ground by a couple of ten year olds…

Just one note for if you ever work in a children’s home… vest tops: not a good idea. I had one three year old put his hand down mine and then a girl goes ‘Aunty, I can see your boobs!’

Yeah, now that I read that back to myself I see that that may have been a fairly obvious issue.

Sport's Day!

I’m here covering nightshift in CHILLI again… turns out I’m now the go-to person for when they need someone extra. On the one hand this is good because I’d really like to work in here if a volunteer position ever opens up. On the other hand, when I do nightshift here they’ve decided I need to start at 7pm not 9pm… hello 12-hour shift.

It’s not too big a problem though. I know pretty much all of the kids names in here now and I’m starting to get a feel of their routine which is nice. When I get in at 7 they’re already in their PJs and usually watching TV and chilling. Today, one of the boys was painting (I think it was a sign for his door) and he asked one of the older boys to write his name out graffiti-style so he could then do the painting. I was like ‘wow, that’s really cool’ and left them to it… I don’t think there’s much worse than a super-clingy volunteer who wants to be involved in EVERTHING but that’s just personal opinion I guess. Aaanyway, 5 minutes later they boy who was doing the writing turns to me and asks how I spell ‘Amy’ then gets a bit of paper and does my name too. It’s pretty cool as well… all graffiti-like with shading and stuff. But yeah, my point is, obviously they’re not going to have massive amounts of respect for me seeing as we’ve just met but I think I’m doing OK. Thank God.

A couple of days ago there was a Sport’s Day in Stellenbosch (the place with the good clubs) for children’s homes in the Western Cape. What with the memories of school Sport’s Days still fresh in my mind you can imagine I wasn’t all that excited at the prospect especially since attendance was compulsory for all volunteers and it was my weekend off.

Can I ask a favour? If I ever write on here saying something is going to be crap just text/email/facebook me and tell me I’m wrong. I always am here… these kids never stop surprising me. Their spirit is incredible, most of the kids in the home gathered outside the night before the Sport’s Day to dance, chant and sing songs. The closest thing I can compare it to is one of those ‘pep rallies’ you see on American TV. Then, the next day, they cheered for everyone from our home that ran in the races no matter how well they were doing. The singing and dancing continued too, not just from our home though. Some of the others had even brought drums and things and there was music playing over the loud-speaker- the favourite song here at the moment is the Party Rock Anthem. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard it in the last fortnight… Seriously though, these kids can shuffle! I want to come back with some of this African rhythm. God knows, my dancing needs it.

Another surprising thing is how emotional we’re finding we get when we hear the national anthem. No-one can quite say why but every time we hear the kids singing it we start to well up. The first time we experienced this was when we were sitting on the bus about to leave the children we met in Soweto in Jo-burg. The bus driver called out to them ‘Sing to us!’ and all of a sudden these little voices are belting out ‘Nkosi sikelel’ iAfrica’. It was literally the most beautiful thing I have ever heard. Perhaps because the song is so full of hope and unity- each verse is sung in a different South African language- but almost every one of us on that bus burst into tears. We had to hold it together when they started singing it at Sport’s Day but seeing a thousand children from all of these Children’s homes united like that with so much pride for their country was seriously touching. It makes me kind of sad that Flower of Scotland is about hating the English and we only bother to sing it when we’re getting pissed…

Not everything here is all lovely though… the kids can be pretty challenging at times, the hours are long and every now and again something will pop up and remind you of what these kids have been through. For example, when we were at the sports day one little girl came up to me and says ‘Aunty, look!’ and shows me a pretty sore-looking cut on her leg. After checking that she was OK and stuff I said ‘You’re being so brave! Do you need a cuddle?’ She totally jumped back like a cuddle was a scary thing… absolutely broke my heart. Sometimes it’s all too easy to forget the abuse most of these kids have experienced. I know I write a lot about nights out and stuff but I think if we couldn’t blow off some steam occasionally the emotional aspects of the work would get to be too much.

I’ll leave you with a nice story though. One night in CHILLI we were watching a scary movie before bed. I had arrived last and was sat in the corner (terrified of course). There’s this boy in CHILLI who’s in his early teens, he can be a total horror but occasionally has these incredibly kind moments. So he gets up and comes over to me and says ‘Aunty, get up please’. I’m a bit confused at this point as to what’s going on but I do as I’m told. This kid starts shoving my arm-chair over the floor until it’s right next to his then he grabs my bag and puts it next to the chair, waits for me to sit down then says:

 ‘OK Aunty, now you’re not so lonely.’

Oh, Just in case you were wondering, we won Sport’s Day by quite a large margin. By this point we were all so excited and into it that the volunteers were cheering and dancing as much as the kids… feeling insane amounts of pride and excitement. I wish I could go back and do it again.

I don’t think I’ve ever said that about sport before.

I think I finally understand the point of horse therapy...

Written on the 7^th September.

So yesterday was Amber’s birthday and also a German volunteers birthday too. Turns out that in one of the local bars, Stones, when it’s your birthday you get R100 worth of free drinks. That’s only about a tenner but during happy hours it buys about 15 shots. Needless to say we had a party! I have to tell you about these shooters though, it’s a South African thing called a springbuck? Springbok? Basically, it’s the SA equivalent of peppermint schnapps (but bright green) in the bottom of the glass and the SA equivalent of Baileys poured slowly so it sits on the top… sounds ming but it’s SO GOOD. Like minty ice cream.

On nightshift in Happy Feet at the moment. This is the house for the younger children which means there is more to do as about 7 of them need to be woken up 3 times during the night to go to the toilet. Obviously this can cause a few tantrums! Keeps me busy though which is nice… 10 hours is a long time to amuse yourself.

 I think I’ve changed my opinion on nightshift though. That first night was a total shock to the system. I honestly thought that was the shittest I’ve ever felt. You get used to it though. Also, as I think I’ve said before, it means we have time during the day to get involved in other things. For instance, I went with the boys from CHILLI to horse therapy on Monday. Now, anyone who knows me quite well will realise that, after giving the whole horse-riding thing a go, I’m not all that keen.  Luckily for me, there was no actual riding of the horses involved in the therapy. The whole thing was pretty casual, we just rocked up at the stables and the women running it gave the boys shovels and a wheel-barrow and sent them off to muck-out one of the stables (Lesson one: you have to look after and work for the things you enjoy). When they were finished, they gave them the first clue for a treasure hunt and the buys had to run around the farm finding the rest of the clues (Lesson two: teamwork). After that, they were given halters and lead-ropes and told to go and get a horse. This wasn’t all that difficult, seeing as the horses are used so often for therapy they are insanely docile. Then they brought the horses down the an enclosure and got to walk, run and ‘play’ with them. It was actually really touching to see these boys, most of them teenagers who fight with eachother all the time, being so careful with these animals. They weren’t dragging them around behind them, they were all busy clicking their tongues and being so gentle. It made me smile. I’m finding that these ridiculously happy little moments pop up in the weirdest places.

On the way back to the car one of them came up to me, hugged me and told me that I’m hot. It doesn’t take long for them to get back to normal!