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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