Another side of Joburg

Photo: Dylan Harbour

After the last weekend, that was quite calm and relaxed, this weekend was much more exciting and eventful.

On Friday everything started with the later celebration of Heritage Day in our project.  Everyone was supposed to come in his heritage wear or favourite sports team jersey. I unfortunately didn’t know about it early enough so that I didn’t have a very good heritage outfit, but everyone else was dressed in a variety of different outfits from typical Zulu clothing to traditional Indian Saris.

In the afternoon after work we met a South African friend that is sometimes volunteering for Cotlands and he took us to Greenside, another Suburb of Johannesburg with many small restaurants and bars.

On Saturday we met with a friend from Germany who is staying in Johannesburg as an au pair. But while we are staying in the city’s south, where mostly poor suburbs and townships are situated, she is living in Randburg, a richer northern suburb. So far we hadn’t really been in the north of Joburg and it was interesting to see the city’s differences the farer we got to the north.  Turffontein, where we live, is a very small suburb and appears to be home to many illegal immigrants. That’s why it is regarded as dangerous by many people and why we mustn’t really go out there on our own – at least not after 4 o’clock. The street scene is characterized by small houses that are surrounded by fences, sometimes like Cotlands for example even with electric fences. Cotlands actually also has its own security guards that observe the buildings 24/7. Randburg on the other hand is a chic suburb with many villas that are often hidden behind high malls, additionally secured with electric fences. There also are lots of shopping malls and other entertainment facilities.

When we arrived the family was kindly welcoming us to their home. After a short shopping trip Stella and I were having our first Braai in the evening. Braai is Afrikaans for barbecue. As South Africans seem to love their meat more than anything else, braaing seems to be a very social and cultural practise to them. Typical South African Braai meats are Boerewors, a tangy sausage,  and Sosaties, marinated cubed and skewered meat.

Of course I tried all of these delicacies on the Braai and I really loved it, especially the Boerewors. I was even permitted to help braaing as you can see on the picture (even though I thought that only men were allowed to do it).

After the Braai we went to Montecasino, a leisure complex that was designed to replicate an Italian village. When we entered the complex we could barely believe that we still were in South Africa cause everything was indicating that we were in a small Tuscan village. 

In the next morning we were having tasteful omelettes for breakfast and then we went back home. We still had to do some household chores, but after that Lea, another volunteer from Germany that is staying in Pretoria, came over with some friends. To round the weekend, we went to a nice Pizzeria and had very tasteful Pizzas for only 35 Rand, what’s only about 2,50 Euro. But I think that is even for South African standards very cheap, because most things are only slightly cheaper than in Germany.

All in all we had a very nice weekend, tasted a lot of good food and met many new friendly people. At the end of the week I will write a little more about Cotlands and our duties here.

You will hear from me!

Frederike

First working days and other surprises

Today I will have to badly disappoint everyone who was thinking of idyllic little villages with small cottages, cut off from running water and electricity, when I was talking about going to South Africa. Because the city that you can see above isn’t London, New York City or Tokyo. It is nothing less than Johannesburg. Of course there might be those “idyllic” places that most Europeans would associate with Africa, but at least Johannesburg isn’t one of these places at first sight - even though I’m sure that it’s got quite nice places that I’ll get to know soon. But first it’s time to say some words about my project.

Monday was my first working day at Cotlands. I had already heard a lot about it - some information that I got from my organization AFS, some facts that I found on the internet and other details that I had gotten from former volunteers – but anyway I wasn’t that sure what would expect me because Cotlands seemed to be so versatile. Then at eight o’clock we met one of our bosses here. She told us everything about Cotlands, the organization’s history, the different units, our jobs and what will be expected from us. The units that we will be working in for the next months are the baby unit, the early learning playgroups, the toy library and the office. There will also be smaller jobs, like collecting donations for example, that we can help with because we will be able to use one of Cotlands’ cars (a very old truck, which no one else wants to use, but we are happy as long as we even have one!).

This week we start with going into all the different units to get to know the work that we will be doing and next week we will have our fixed schedule and then I will give you more details about the different units and our work.

Another question that our boss could help us with was how everything would be working with our food. Because when we arrived on Saturday we had some things in our fridge, but didn’t really know if it was all for us and if we would have to feed ourselves all the time. We had already kind of arranged with that thought, but then we got to know that the cook would additionally prepare us one warm meal every working day - so far it tasted really good – and for the rest we will be provided with food by Woolworth, that is donating it to our project.

On Monday and Tuesday we could also already accompany a staff member for collecting donations and meanwhile make some first experiences with driving in left-hand traffic and the South African way of driving in general.

Wednesday was Heritage Day, a public holiday, and we didn’t have to work. That’s why we used the opportunity and went to the city for meeting another German volunteer. As our project isn’t directly situated in Johannesburg but in the suburbs, so far we hadn’t really seen a lot of the city, we only got some first impressions when we drove from our on-arrival camp to Cotlands.And even after spending a nice afternoon in the city, walking around and trying not to be identified as tourists, we probably only saw a very small part of it. By now I don’t really know how to describe Joburg. There are many skyscrapers, dirt and dark nooks, but also – maybe a little bit hidden – nice buildings, restaurants and parks. But as I already said: that’s only a first impression of a very small part of the city and doesn’t have to mean anything. But that surely wasn’t the last exploring tour!

When we came back home at about seven o’clock the next surprise was waiting for us. Our first food donation had arrived! The Cotlands kitchen was filled with boxes full of Woolworth food and we could choose what to take for us – and I have to say that Woolworth is not any cheap supermarket so that we got some really nice things!

After this pleasant surprise we completed our day with sushi and fresh strawberries and are already looking forward to the next donation.

Ngamukelekile – Welcome to South Africa!

It took me some time, but here it is: my first post from South Africa! So far I had some problems with the internet but now I have got my South African SIM card and the code for the Wifi so that nothing can stop me from writing my next entries. But in the last few days since my departure happened a lot, so I should better start with the very beginning.

On Wednesday evening our big adventure was starting with our flight to Johannesburg. Stella and I were flying from Hamburg to Frankfurt where we should meet two other AFS volunteers that are going to South Africa with us. Even though we both were a little bit sad after saying goodbye to our families and friends, in the plane we were just happy that we were really sitting in this plane after all the trouble with our visas. But arriving in Frankfurt our mood was dampened again because we already had the next problem: the airplane to Johannesburg was overbooked and there were no seats left for two of the four of us. But after half an hour of worried waiting we fortunately somehow got our seats and nothing could stop us anymore.

The flight went by very fast and Thursday morning at 9 o’clock we arrived in Johannesburg. Some South African AFS volunteers picked us up at the airport, warmly welcomed us and brought us to a lodge where we should stay for our on arrival camp until Saturday. We all didn’t really expect to have a real three-day camp because we thought that no one would make such an effort for only four people, but AFS did and we were quite happy to have this “period of grace” (furthermore we had already heard that the lodge’s food should be really good!). Moreover the weather already was much warmer than we expected - it’s still South African winter – and we had a swimming pool, but as it wasn’t heated the water was still very cold. Anyway we did not only have fun, we also learned a lot about South African culture, the country in general, dos and don’ts and a lot more of helpful things. We also went to a small mall to get new SIM cards, but except that we weren’t allowed to leave the property.

On Saturday the time had come to go to our host families or projects, in my case the organisation Cotlands. We were picked up by a woman from our project and she brought us there, showed us our rooms and everything that was important during the weekend. The volunteer area, where we live, is quite big for the two of us because there usually were more volunteers at Cotlands in the last years, but now it’s only us, so that we first felt a little bit lost in the big rooms. But for now we already arranged with that. Something that I still have to get used to is not being able to go out any time I want, because so far we can only go out in someone’s company.

During the weekend there aren’t too many people at Cotlands because normally only the Baby Unit is manned. That’s why we spent most of our weekend helping with the Babys – even though so far we probably weren’t such a big help because we couldn’t do much more than playing with the Babys. In any case it was fun and they are super cute, but now we are truly curious to get to know what will be our duties for the next months - because Cotlands is much more than just a baby station - and how everything is working here. We will hopefully get to know about all of that tomorrow! 

 Now I have to go to bed so that I won’t be too tired for my first working day at Cotlands! 

 Frederike

Day of departure

Photo: Lasse Fuss

Today is Wednesday, September 17, and the last day that I will spend in Germany for quite some time! With four weeks of delay today my South African adventure can finally start. Together with three other volunteers I will take the plane in Hamburg this evening and hopefully debark in Johannesburg tomorrow morning after twelve hours of flight. Having arrived in "Joburg" we are going to have our on-arrival camp and then it's time to go into our projects. Stella, my project partner, and I even have the advantage that we don't have to travel on because we directly stay in Johannesburg. But instead of making any more assumptions I will report on this as soon as I'm in South Africa.

Now, I want to thank everyone for the nice farewell presents and letters. I put everything that fitted into my luggage so that I won't forget anyone or anything! With my luggage quantity of 23 kilo plus cabin baggage I got along even better than I expected. My bags are quite full, but I didn't have to leave anything important here and the weight shouldn't be a problem either. 

So now it's time to say goodbye...

Even though I stayed in Germany longer than expected the last months passed much quicker than I first thought. Of course I'm happy to leave today but I think that there also is a lot that I am going to miss - but probably it is only when I don't have all of these things anymore that I will notice, because now I can't even really believe that I'll be in South Africa in less then 24 hours. As from tomorrow I eventually won't have to enviously scroll through my facebook news anymore and see all these exciting pictures of the others that already left last month. Starting from tomorrow I will make all those experiences on my own and of course: keep you informed as good as I can.

Take care and see you all next year! If this year will pass as fast as the last months - and I'm sure about that - it won't be too long until we see again.

You will here from me soon and life from South Africa!

Frederike

The countdown is on

After all that time of waiting and delayed flight dates it's finally there: my South African visa! So now it is certain, that I will fly on Wednesday 17 September. Thus the countdown is on: In only nine day's time I am going to sit in my plane to Johannesburg. Now I will have to make my last preparations, to pack my bags and to say goodbye to everyone.

I will keep you up-to-date before I leave and in ten days I can hopefully start writing from South Africa!

See you soon

Frederike