Already halftime: AFS Midstay Camp

After more than five months here in South Africa it’s already halftime of my stay, so last week it was time for our Midstay Camp which is one of our seven preparing and postprocessing camps. Before we have already had two preparing camps of five days in Germany and our two-day On-arrival Camp here in Johannesburg and we are still going to have an End-of-stay Camp and two postprocessing camps back in Germany.

Our Midstay Camp was basically about sharing our previous experiences, thoughts and feelings with the other German volunteers of our group and trying to find solutions for possible problems. At first we all had to present our projects to the others which was very interesting because even though we approximately knew what everyone else is doing it was quite nice to get some more details and personal opinions about the work. After that we talked a lot about our expectations that we had in the beginning - if they were met or if there are new expectations for the rest of the stay – about changes that we underwent, problems and challenges that we were confronted with and everything else that was on our minds. Even though some discussions could get a little bit exhausting all in all our camp was quite relaxed especially because of the nice location. The 15 volunteers of us, two AFS South Africa volunteers and one employee all met at a backpacker in the Drakensberg Mountains in KwaZulu-Natal, an eastern province of South Africa. The backpacker was very nice and big with a pool, Jacuzzi, sauna and good food and above all beautifully situated in the middle of nowhere surrounded by the mountains which was a nice relief to the hectic and noisy life in Johannesburg. On one of our five days we also had the chance to take place in a tour. Some of us went to Lesotho, which was only an hours drive away and some went hiking in the mountains – I chose the hiking tour and it was really great.

All in all it was a very nice week. I enjoyed to see everyone again after almost half a year and to compare all of our very different experiences. Unfortunately my project problem still isn’t solved and it looks like I can’t do anything else than to wait and see. Our babies are all gone by now so we are desperately looking for work most of the time. So far we found something to do for most of our working time – even though it sometimes was tidying up the cupboards of our co-workers which is not the most interesting or challenging job – and hope that there will be more for the next weeks.