It's time to travel!
After almost 3 months in South Africa it's finally time to travel! It's not that we don't like our project anymore but after such a long time of cutting, glueing, varnishing, categorizing and printing we feel absolutely ready for holidays. Nevertheless I am already missing the babys when I think about not seeing them for three weeks and I'm sure that they will grow a lot in the time we're not here.
I don't want to yet reveal too much about our holiday plans, all I can tell you is that we are planning to travel the Garden Route and spend Christmas and New Year in Cape Town. Of course I will tell you aout everything that we saw and did a lot more detailed as soon as I'm back in January. But until then I will keep you up-to-date with my travel advent calendar. From tomorrow on I will post one new picture every day for 24 days. So stay tuned for the most current pictures!
World Aids Day
This week
we finally had to do some work that was new to us: We accompanied two of the
Cotlands social workers on their regular trips to Soweto where they are doing
home visits within the scope of one of our community projects. The children
that we were visiting were between four and nine years old and most of them mentally or physically
disabled. Additionally they were all HIV positive and living in extremely poor
circumstances. Even without any disability it must be hard to live in a small and
leaky shanty at the uneven backyard of a little house… Anyway we went there to
check if they are developing good, if they are getting their medication and to
bring them a small Christmas present. It was very interesting to get a closer
look at different families’ lives and homes but at the same time it was
startling how such young children can be hit by so many strokes of fate.
Today we
had the chance to join the later celebration of World Aids Day of a Cotlands
support group for mothers with HIV positive children. As South Africa is the
country with the second highest HIV rate in the world (ca. 18%) HIV is a very
important subject here that unfortunately still doesn’t get enough attention.
The celebration also took place in Soweto and about 50 people were taking
place. At first many hopeful church songs were sung. After that some women had
prepared little sketches and speeches but unfortunately most of it was in Zulu
so that we couldn’t really understand a lot. Then everyone could write down a
message to God. All in all we realized again that there was no sad mood like
one could maybe expect at all. The atmosphere was much more happy because of
the often repeated fact that you can have a happy life even if you are HIV
infected and it was very impressive how many of these women arranged with their
situations.
In the end many of the people came over and
thanked us for attending the celebration and showing solicitousness and
interest which made us a little bit speechless because we didn’t really feel as
if we would have done anything that they would have to thank us for. Instead we
were happy that they let us take part into the celebration. But that’s
something that you also get used to in South Africa: Everyone is saying thank
you for everything no matter how self-evident it seems to be.
About Cycling, Funerals and Apartheid
As some
time passed since I wrote my last post there are some news to share with you.
At work there isn’t happening a lot of new stuff anymore - we got used to our daily
routine, accepted that our tasks mostly aren’t very exciting and we quickly got
attached to the babies. But on the weekends there is still a lot of new stuff
to discover for us!
The weekend
of the 16th we had quite a lot of work to do. The graduation
certificates for the Early Learning Groups and the Baby Gym had to be finished
and there was a big event: the Momentum 94.7 Cycling Challenge. For a donation
of 1000 Rand (approximately 70€) cyclists could compete for Cotlands. In
exchange they would get a Cotlands Jersey and a Goody Bag with energy bars,
cosmetic products, vouchers and much more. On Friday we already helped at the
Momentum Expo where all the organisations that cyclists could race for had the
chance to present themselves. The cycling challenge itself was on Sunday and
our job should be the cheerleading. Our
boss had asked us to bring some volunteer friends and as the challenge started
very early and we also had to schedule some extra time because many roads were blocked
our whole tired volunteer cheering group started at five am to go to the race.
But as soon as we arrived our tiredness was overcome and dressed with our
orange Cotlands shirts and caps we gave everything to motivate the cyclists
especially those driving for Cotlands. Even though we had a lot of fun we were
quite relieved when the race was finished because cheerleading was much more
exhausting than expected!
Last
weekend it was time for real South African experiences again. On Friday we had
a really nice Braai and on Saturday we went to a funeral – but don’t worry it
was no one that we actually knew. It was the funeral of an aunt of another
volunteers host family. They knew that we would like to see what funeral
ceremonies are like in South Africa so they invited us. In Germany that would
maybe be a little bit strange but here funerals and weddings aren’t only
celebrated with the close family – everyone can come. It is not important that
you really knew the person it is much more about showing your solicitousness with
the relatives.
Besides
these new experiences these last weeks we were planning our Christmas holidays
together with three other volunteers. We are leaving on 11th of
December and planning to do the Garden Route, an approximately 750 kilometre
long route along the southern coast of South Africa with beautiful nature,
beaches, national parks, pretty coastal towns and a lot of action offers. On
Christmas Eve the five of us will arrive in Cape Town and celebrate Christmas
and also New Year. On the 4th of January we are coming back to
Joburg.
For the
moment we already try to get into the Christmas spirit and decorated our room as
good as we could what isn’t that easy with our improvised decoration. Furthermore it’s not that simple to get in the
mood if it’s about 30°C outside. Anyway we are very much looking forward to our
vacation!
Who wants to be a volunteer?
These last days a critical video concerning volunteerism was circulating around the internet and of course I don't want to deprive it of you. In the course of our preparation camps we also were confronted with a lot of criticism on volunteerism or "voluntourism" how it is often called in this regard. I think that partially this criticism is certainly justified especially for people who go to a poor country with the aim to save the world. Each volunteer should be aware of the fact that that's not the goal of a voluntary social year but that it is much more about a learning process, both for the volunteers and the people in the host countries, and intercultural exchange.
I don't even want to discuss that topic any further now, but I think that it is important to be aware of the existing criticism, so see yourself.
Here is another video that's definitely worth seeing! Let's save Africa gone wrong.
Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve
As Stella
and I normally spend a lot of time inside working during the week this weekend
we decided to do some outside activity. On Saturday the weather was bad and anyway
we had promised Sesethu and Sinethemba, the five and six year old siblings
living at Cotlands, to have a movie night with them as it is their last weekend
at Cotlands. On Sunday the weather luckily was perfect for our plan and we
decided to go hiking in Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve which is only about 6
kilometres from our place. We took a lot of food for an energizing picnic and started
our 20 kilometre trail with a lot of motivation. The difficulty of our trail
was very diverse. Sometimes the trail was flat and steady and sometimes it was
quite steep and we had to climb over big stones. Especially in the hot midday
sun – we had temperatures of about 35°C – the way uphill could partly be very
exhausting but the great vies that we had were definitely worth it. And we
could even see some animals, such as very pretty coloured birds, zebras,
springboks, wildebeests and otters. Sadly it was very difficult to come close
to them so that our pictures aren’t very breathtaking but at least the nature
was an easier target for our cameras!
Sweet 16 or Justin Bieber & the devil
This
weekend was the first time that we saw a little bit more of Soweto. We already
went there two times before to fetch Louisa, another volunteer that lives in
Meadowlands, an eastern district, and yet had to realize that Soweto is quite different
than expected. I have to admit that in my imagination Soweto always was a huge
and disordered accumulation of shacks without a real infrastructure. I expected
many people to live without running water or electricity, but all of these
pictures were forgotten when we actually went to Soweto. Now I can assure you
that most people are living in stone houses that are bigger than imagined, have
access to electricity and water and the infrastructure is also very acceptable
as there are shops and malls like everywhere else. I don’t really know how I
came to that wrong picture I had of Soweto but maybe it’s the expression township
that arouse those associations in my mind.
However
when we wanted to fetch our friend this weekend we were directly invited to her
cousins 16th birthday party. Alongside the 21st the 16th
birthday seems to be the biggest in the entire of the Tswana, a Bantu speaking
Southern African people that our friend’s guest family belongs to. On Saturday
we could already watch the preparations for the big party that should take
place the next day. Two sheep should be slaughtered for it and there was a big
ceremony all around it. Two traditional healers, who are called Sangomas, were
present and performed rituals with the animals and the birthday girl. It‘s
quite difficult to explain because we didn’t really understand what they were
doing but see yourself:
The next
day we went to the real birthday party. The whole family was there - and in
South Africa that means at least about 40 people – a big and colourful tent was
built up in the court, everyone was dressed very nicely and a delicious buffet was
prepared. Of course the highlight was the freshly slaughtered sheep! But also
the other food such as traditional chakalaka, boerewors and different salads
tasted very good.
We also had
to take a lot of pictures that day but Louisa had already told us about that
predilection. In Soweto you normally don’t see any white persons - except some
albinos maybe. That’s why everyone in the streets without exception greets you
and often wants to talk to you or just touch you – and if it’s possible also
take a photo to use it as the new whatsapp profile picture.
All in all
we spent a very nice day in Soweto and it was very nice to experience some
family life and get to know more of the Tswana culture because that’s something
that we don’t really have since we are living in our project and not a family.
At Cotlands
we have to work a lot with toys for the moment. There is a lot of stuff that
has to be finished soon so we unfortunately don’t have a lot of time to work
with the children for the moment and do a lot of less exciting work. But that
will hopefully change again as soon as everything is done! At least today I had
a very funny conversation during the little time that we worked with the
children. I was helping some 3rd grade girls with their homework
when one of them suddenly wanted to talk about God and Satan. At first she just
philosophized about them in general, but then she came to the really
interesting point: celebrities and Satan! I don’t know how it came to her but
she was convinced that Justin Bieber is praising the devil. When he was younger
he wasn’t, but now he is and Hannah Montana is obsessed by Satan too.
It’s never
too late to learn!
Getting used
Now that we
are in South Africa for already six weeks we slowly start getting used to
everything. I think that at Cotlands it’s not even that difficult to settle in,
because we don’t have to change our living standard that much: We have got a
big bedroom, we get good food, we can use a car and as we are not living in a
host family we have got many freedoms that other volunteers don’t have, such as
not being told when to be at home for example.
To give you
an impression of some things that were sometimes maybe a little bit difficult
to arrange with or just unfamiliar, even in a positive way, I collected my top
10 of things to get used to in South Africa.
1. Driving
Back in Germany when I was asked if I could imagine to drive for my
project I was at first very enthusiastic about the idea because everything is
much easier if you’re allowed to drive and Cotlands is the only project that I
know for the moment where the volunteers are allowed to drive. After hearing
many stories about the South African driving style - like that no one respects the
traffic lights, that are called robots in South Africa, that drunk driving was
normal and that it was ok to cross red lights in the dark because it would be
too dangerous to stop – I was very curious what driving here would actually be
like and expected everything. I was also excited about left-hand driving and
imagined it to be very unfamiliar – especially changing gear with the left
hand.
But as soon as we started driving here we realized that it is much less
difficult than expected. The biggest difficulty was to activate the indicators
and at first I always activated the windscreen wiper instead. Our car also was
a little bit difficult at first, as it’s a very old bulky truck and parking
always is quite some challenge. But all in all we got used to driving very
fast.
The second thing that many people seem to think
of is Hitler. And what’s for us terrifying about that is that some people even
had a positive opinion of him because of passionately pursuing his objectives. Most
of the time they understood why we don’t like him. But anyway it’s very strange
to us if people that we barely know frankly and without hesitating tell you
what a great man Hitler was. I don’t think that I’ll get used to that very
fast!
Something
that sounds stupid but was quite difficult in the beginning was the common
greeting phrase “how are you”. Of course we know that question from Germany but
it’s not used that constantly. At first we always were too slow to ask back
because the person had already passed us and we felt quite unfriendly, but now
we really got the hang of “Fine. How are you?”
Our food here is comparatively luxurious and most of the other volunteers are kind of envious of it. In the morning we always eat Cereals with a lot of fresh fruits. We normally get the fruits in our food donations and if we are lucky we get fancy fruits like papaya or guave and other nice things like strawberries, raspberries or blueberries for example.
Unfortunately
most of the things that we heard about the South African driving style is true.
There really are many people that drive drunk and it’s not rare that you see
people ignoring red lights. Another difficulty are the minibus taxis that are
driving very unpredictable and reckless.
2. Typical German?
Something that can sometimes be a little bit frustrating is being asked
where you are from as soon as you say something very easy as hello. But most
people even here that we are from Germany and then the first thing always is
that they try to impress us with the German words they know, such as “Guten
Tag”, “Wie geht’s?” or “Was geht?”, “Scheiße” and “Arschloch”. But we didn’t
really expect people to know other words, because those are probably the most
common words to know in different languages.
Even though I knew that people think Germans would drink a lot of beer I
didn’t expect them to have such strange ideas concerning Germans and beer. At
least many people here are truly believing us that we always start our day with
cereals with bear instead of milk or that we would already feed our babies with
beer so that they can get big and strong.
3. Walking in the streets
For
two weeks now we always have to bring the two older children living at Cotlands
to school. The way is not very far but it always takes quite some time. First
of all because the two of them like to walk very slowly and stop every ten metres
to look at something or pick something up. Secondly because so many people want
to talk to you. Most of them are just saying hello but on the first day we were
really confused when a horde of children ran towards us and tried to hug us all
at the same time. When we looked closer we could recognize some of them from
the afternoon care, but it also happens that random children want to hug us –
something that never happened to me before in Germany.
4. Hey, how are you?
5. South African Rand
Even though I don’t have to calculate that much anymore the translation
from Rand to Euro is always a little bit exhausting. In most cases I can judge
the prices in Rand but sometimes it’s better to calculate in Euro because then
I have a much better feeling for the values. But as 1 Euro is worth about 14
Rand calculating is quite some challenge after almost six months without
school!
At least the banknotes look much better than Euro!
6. Food
Our food here is comparatively luxurious and most of the other volunteers are kind of envious of it. In the morning we always eat Cereals with a lot of fresh fruits. We normally get the fruits in our food donations and if we are lucky we get fancy fruits like papaya or guave and other nice things like strawberries, raspberries or blueberries for example.
For lunch we always get food from our Cotlands cook. We often get
typical South African things like Pap, a traditional polenta made of ground
maize, or rice with chicken and sauce.
Supper is always our favourite meal because that’s when we eat all the
stuff that we get in the Woolworth donations. We get the donations twice a week
and to see what is in the boxes is always a little bit like Christmas. If we’re
lucky we get things like sushi, little sausage or chicken pies, samosas, fish
and lots of different things. We still don’t know the whole variety so that it
still keeps being exciting.
I hope that I could give you a little impression of life in South Africa especially because my list got much longer than I intended!
7. Punctuality
Before we came here we already heard a lot about South African punctuality or, to put it another way, unpunctuality. But as we came here we first were positively surprised because in our project everyone seemed to be in time as we knew it from Germany. But by now we discovered that Cotlands maybe is an exception because in our free time when we’re doing things with friends one of the favourite sayings seems to be: “South Africans don’t follow time, we have time!” That’s why we aren’t surprised anymore when we are invited to a Braai at half past six and we hungrily start eating at about midnight.8. Security
Security
is something that we also got used to very fast. At first it was strange to
live behind an electric fence and that almost every house is surrounded by a
high wall. It seemed to be annoying to always lock the car from the inside and
leave the windows shut or to have a security guard that constantly watches the
house. Also not walking in the streets after four o’clock and advices like
always walking on the busier side of the road and minding gates because people
could just pull you inside sounded strange. But by now all that just feels
normal and restricts us much less than it might sound like as we have our car.
9. Afrikaans
As Afrikaans
is the first language of most white people in South Africa it happens that
people try to speak to us in Afrikaans. At first I always thought that they
were speaking English and that it was my fault and I just didn’t understand them.
It’s not that exceptional that people talk to us in English and we can’t understand
them straightaway because there are so many different accents and sometimes you
don’t understand the easiest things just because of the pronunciation. Again other people’s English is very good to
understand and normally I comprehend what people are telling me it sometimes
just needs some concentration. But I don’t really understand any Afrikaans,
only if it’s written it’s sometimes understandable, but most Afrikaans speaking
people seem to understand us talking German quite well.
10. New nicknames
The last thing to get used to is that most people can’t really pronounce
my name. At first I always introduced myself as Frederike but no one could pronounce
the name and still less remember it. So I started to say that I’m just Rike and
that’s much better, even though it sounds more like Rikaa. Another new nickname
for me is Frederista. I don’t really know why but somehow two of the children
are convinced that that would be my name and don’t believe me if I tell them
that it’s not.
But most of the children don’t call us with our names anyway. For the older
babies we are Mama, the Early Learning Group children just call us teacher and
the afternoon care children call us Mam. Especially being called Mam still
sounds very funny.
I hope that I could give you a little impression of life in South Africa especially because my list got much longer than I intended!