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 16^th 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.

The funeral started quite early at seven in the morning with a church service that lasted about two hours and took place in a big tent near the family’s house in Soweto. There was a lot of singing but unfortunately everything was in Tswana so that we couldn’t understand a word. After that the whole funeral party drove to the cemetery in a big procession. Everyone put on the car’s hazard flasher and then we started the chaotic procession consisting of about 300 funeral guests that partially had to be transported in big buses. Arriving at the cemetery we were very happy to have arrived without an accident because driving in Soweto is always very adventurous and the funeral procession didn’t really make it easier. The cemetery was very big and thousands of graves were lined up in rows as far as the eye could reach. Then the burial took place accompanied by a lot of singing again. After that we went back to the family’s place for lunch. A cow had been slaughtered for that and in addition we had other typical food. What was most surprising about the funeral for us is that we didn’t see anyone crying – the atmosphere was rather cheerful.

The day after the weather was very bad, so we thought that we could directly go on with our cultural experiences and went to the Apartheid Museum. This exhibition depicts the South African history beginning with the slow raise of Apartheid in the beginning of the 20^th century to its legal anchoring from 1948 to 1994 and post-Apartheid time of reconciliation until today. Even though we already knew a lot about Apartheid from school the museum was very interesting and served as a reminder that Apartheid is not so long ago and though aftermath is still recognizable in daily life it is impressive how fast a country could overcome such a shaping period.

Besides these new experiences these last weeks we were planning our Christmas holidays together with three other volunteers. We are leaving on 11^th 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 4^th 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 16^th birthday party. Alongside the 21^st the 16^th 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 3^rd 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!