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!

We've been exploring Durbanville...

I’m writing this on the 3^rd of September.

So this is me on nightshift again… This time I’m working in the CHILLI unit which is for the children who are a bit more difficult. The unit is based around therapy for the children to help them better themselves.  Usually volunteers don’t do nightshift here, there is a staff member who sits up in the house but she’s off sick so my manager chose me as she knows I’m interested in this kind of work. I’m well chuffed! The only problem is that, because there are both girls and boys in this house, I REALLY have to stay up all night to make sure they don’t go into each other’s rooms. Most of the houses are single sex so you can have a bit of a nap in the small hours if there’s not much going on. Of course these naps are unofficial, as far as management is concerned we’re wide awake. This is my second night in a row in CHILLI so I’m knackered. I tried to sleep today but the kids in my house were blasting out a Lady Gaga album from around 11am so I only got a few hours sleep (nightshift hours are 9pm-7am). Much as I approve of their choice of music I wish they could have waited until around 3pm to play it…

We’ve spent the last few days getting to know the staff, volunteers and children here at Durbanville which has been nice. One of the good things about nightshift is that you are free during the day (once you’ve woken up…) so it’s a good time to chat to people and explore Durbanville itself. From our wanders around we have so far located several supermarkets, the SA equivalent of Boots (Which sells dry shampoo and Tre Semme hairspray… YUSSS), several bars and a tonne of takeaways (chinese, pizza, Maccy D’s, KFC…). The spending will have to slow down soon but for now we’re so excited to be here! To me it already feels like home here. We have friends, a routine and some favourite hang-outs already… what more could we ask for? The other night we took three cars to Stellenbosch, a city nearby with a big student population, to go clubbing. Wednesday night is student night so everything was cheap (-er than normal…). Was a great night! We realised on the way there that a few of us had forgotten our IDs so we were having a bit of a panic but the first club we went to didn’t ask for them. The bouncer at the second club wanted to see them so we had to blag our way in showing him our stamps from the last place and being super nice. In the end some of the German guys convinced him by telling him that we’re volunteers… loving the perks of this job!

Welcome to South Africa!

I’m writing this on the 29^th of August, the date online is later as I haven’t sorted out my internet yet J

The first photo! 

So I’m sitting typing this into Word at 12.39pm, sitting on a mattress on the floor outside some of the rooms in the children’s home. I’m wrapped in a duvet, wearing jeans and a hoodie and hugging a hot water bottle and a cup of tea. Suffice to say; nightshift is pretty crap. And dark. And cold.

I’m getting a bit ahead of myself though. We arrived in South Africa four days ago, we flew into Jo-burg and stayed in a hostel there as a whole country group for three nights. Then, yesterday, the group of 25 volunteers in South Africa split up to go to our projects. It’s all been pretty hectic and exciting but so far we’re all pretty much agreed on the fact that it just feels like we’re on holiday (maybe less so now that I’m working…).  Our days in Jo-burg were fantastic. Some of the other volunteers were really keen to get out to the projects straight away but to be honest I think that spending some time getting a feel for the country was a really important thing to do. We arrived at the airport at about 5pm but due to the South African’s notorious time-keeping the taxi’s were all late and we didn’t leave until around half 6. When we drove out of the airport it was already dark… obviously, logic tells us now that that’s not exactly surprising due to the fact that it’s still winter here but at the time we were pretty stunned. Our next surprise came the next morning when we woke up to 25 degree weather. Of course, this got us all very excited and, in true British fashion, we got our shorts on and showed off some spectacularly pasty skin.

Some of the children in Soweto.

That morning we visited the township of Soweto. This is where Nelson Mandela was born making it very significant during apartheid- it was the location of many of the riots during the 1980’s. One of the things that shocked us when we were there was that you can stand looking at a lovely group of houses which look expensive and then turn around and see true poverty just on the other side of the field. Whole families living in one room – it felt like something you’d see on the news. Our next stop was a housing area which is supposedly temporary free housing for people waiting on houses from the government. It was really just one step up from a shanty town. The houses were made from corrugated iron and often were just made up of one room. There were no roads, just red dirt that people were throwing their dishwater and whatever else onto. What you have to remember is that this is in the middle of Johannesburg. There is a petrol station and a drive-through KFC right next to it. However, the thing that struck me most was how nice people were. Even though the children were asking us for money, they still wanted to play with us after we said no. They were running up to us as soon as we walked in, almost all of them barefoot. One woman even invited us into her house and told us that she’s been living in this ‘temporary’ accommodation for 17 years. I think it was our time in Soweto that made most of us volunteers sit up and realise ‘This is Africa’.  Another thing we were finding shocking is that, almost every time we stopped at traffic lights there would be people begging. I saw a mother and daughter who were homeless and there was a man with chronic club foot who was begging too, he had a sign which said ‘No money for food. Please help.’ It’s totally heart breaking that there isn’t more support people like that who are obviously disabled.

That afternoon we visited the Hector Pieterson Museum. It’s named after the first child who was killed by police during a student protest against being taught in Afrikaans. On Sunday we also visited the apartheid museum. It was far more emotional than I could have imagined. I think many of us were surprised at the effect it had on us despite the fact that it wasn’t something we had to live through.

That evening, our country rep Ian threw us a bit of a party. His wife and his friend cooked loads of food and we had some beers. It was a god way to get to know Ian a bit better. Our other rep, Yvonne, was on Coll for training so we knew her a bit already. She’s also my boss here at Durbanville…

So we had our ‘few beers’ and then headed us volunteers back to the hostel to continue ‘bonding’ in the bar they have there. The barman was LUSH. Seriously, we walked in and were like ’We love South Africa!’  There was another guy in the bar who was also staying in the hostel who we found a bit creepy... we were right in thinking this, he got thrown out of the hostel the next day. So, while we were enjoying the company of the barman and his excellent recommendations when it comes to shooters we also had a bit of a learning experience- this IS different from Britain. If you go out and get totally trashed you can’t still be 99.9% sure that you’ll get home OK. So now we’ve (sort of) got our sensible heads on.

The flight to Cape Town passed pretty uneventfully. When we arrived at the home we were shown to our rooms and we unpacked. That was a pretty good moment as we’d all gotten sick of living out of our cases in Jo-burg. Hardly surprising seeing as they’re so full of crap we don’t need.  There are lots of different places in the home for volunteers to stay. There is a flat called the Annex which is kind of like the social hub for the volunteers- it has a kitchen and a sitting area as well as bedrooms. Then there are two other flats, Flat 2 and the Back Kitchen. No-one wants to live in the Back Kitchen as it’s so quiet. I haven’t even been inside there yet. Flat 2 is nice and it has a kitchen and sofas and stuff but people don’t hang out there that much. We go there if we don’t much feel like socialising. I’m living in a room with two other volunteers (one is also with PT- she’s called Amber, the other is a German girl who seems really nice). Our room is in one of the houses where the children stay. I had originally thought that would be a really shit place to stay but we’re downstairs where the kitchen and living area is while all the children sleep upstairs. We have our own keys and our room locks so the only thing is that we have to be super quiet if we get in late! The first night we met some of the other volunteers really quickly and they said they were going out and did we want to come? We said yes… it’s only polite after all… It turned out that it was another of the volunteer’s last night so there was a bit of a party in one of the local bars. It’s called Rabbit Hole and it’s pretty cool… they play lots of metal music, have a guy doing piercings in the corner and if you buy two beers at a time they cost 90p each ;) We had a good night. Obvs.

Aaaanyway this is turning into a bit of an essay so I’ll leave it there…

Miss you all. Over and out.  <3

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