My last holidays - East Coast and Kruger

For the moment time seems to pass so very quickly! I just came back from my last holidays and now I’ve less than a week’s time left here in South Africa. Next Friday my End of Stay Camp starts where all of us volunteers will pass one last night at a lodge with our AFS coordinators and probably talk about our experiences.

For the moment I can’t really believe that I am going to be back in Germany in only one week. There seems to be so much left to do – so many things I still wanted to do, so many people to say goodbye to and of course packing my bags.

That’s why I don’t have time to give you a very detailed report of my holidays but anyway I think that pictures are going to give you a much better impression than any description could! To give you a very quick overview: my uncle from Germany came to visit and we travelled along South Africa’s East coast, starting with the Wild Coast and going all the way up via Durban until St Lucia where we left the coast and made our way to Kruger National Park. I really enjoyed these last holidays and especially Kruger was amazing! But see yourself...

I promise that you will hear from me soon – at the latest after arriving in Germany!

Lesson no 4

 

 

South African English

 

Before I came to South Africa I sometimes wondered if it wouldn’t be boring just to improve my language skills, as my English already was not too bad, instead of learning a whole new language. But when I came here I quickly realized that the South African English has quite some peculiarities that I still had to learn. It starts with all the different accents that developed as English isn’t the home language of most South Africans. So it doesn’t astonish that you can hear the weirdest and most diverse pronunciations of some words. I often actually feel like every single person here has his very own accent not comparable to anyone else and influenced by the very own history. In the beginning all these different accents made it harder for me to understand some people than I had expected. But by now I think I got used to it quite well and don’t need to smile approvingly anymore hoping that it fits the situation after not having understood what someone wants to tell me even after asking several times. And I also learned lots of new South African idioms, most of them originating from one of the other 10 official languages. At this point I just want to share some with you:

Sharp – was probably the first and maybe most important new word that I learned here and can mean almost everything. Most of the time you use it to show agreement or thank someone and it’s often doubled up to sharp-sharp and combined with a thumb up.

Robot – In South Africa robots aren’t strange figures from science fiction movies but the normal term for traffic light.

Bakkie – many people, including me, are driving them:  pick-up trucks

Braai – the South African barbecue.

Howzit (How is it?) – A popular alternative to “how are you?” that you are normally asking everyone you meet during the day.

Askies – the Afrikaans word for “sorry” and both words are probably those that you hear the most throughout your day as South Africans like to say sorry for literally everything no matter if something is their fault or not!

Lekker – another Afrikaans word that does not only mean delicious, as Germans might think. It can be used to describe all sort of things, including food, as “nice”, “good” or “great”. In the beginning it always sounded strange to me when people said things like: “That was a lekker weekend.”

Shame – is also a very important word in my South African English repertoire. Shame can be used in almost every sentence and means everything and nothing. You can use it to express pity or just say “shame” because you saw a cute baby. It works for any kind of sympathetic feelings.

Now, just now, now now – South Africans seem to have a very special relationship to time. That’s why they need many different expressions to describe when they are going to do something. I’m still not sure which of the three expressions is the worst, but I think it is just now what could mean every time in the next several days. Now is maybe comparable to later and now now is what comes closest to now. But there is one thing you can always be sure about: Even though it sounds so none of them actually means now! 

Eish – A cry often used to express surprise or frustration or just to fill the silence.

I make a plan – A phrase that South Africans love to use!

Auntie – is coming from aunt and that’s how women older than oneself often are called. Also at work the children use to call me auntie, mam or teacher.

Is it? – also a frequently used expression to show your interest or again just to fill the silence.

Klap – “I klap you!” is often used instead of “I smack you!”

Volunteer at Camp Footprints

Today it’s time for a topic that I already wanted to treat some time ago but somehow totally forgot to report about it: my stay at Camp Footprints some weeks ago. Camp Footprints is a project that organises camps for children with special needs. Lindy, the founder of the organisation that also worked for Cotlands in the past, invited me to come and work at one of the camps as a volunteer and so I spent a long weekend working at Camp Footprints. The camp took place at Phiri Camp in Dinokeng Game Reserve which is about 90 minutes’ drive from Joburg. The campsite was very nice, as there was a lot of space, a huge fireplace and nice bungalows for the night. Even though the children didn’t sleep in tents – it would have been quite cold anyway – sleeping bags provided the real camping atmosphere!

The whole program was set up and realised by Lindy, our group of 12 volunteers and the camp staff. Some of us, including me, already arrived Thursday afternoon, when we already set up some things and made a detailed time schedule for the program. Then on Friday morning the children arrived. They were a group of about 50 children from The Gateway School – a school for learners with special educational needs - at the age of 15 to 17. The needs of the children were very diverse. There were many children with ADHD, some autistic kids or with Down’s syndrome, some were physically disabled and lots of other disabilities but I also didn’t really get to know details about all of the children. Anyway I really liked the work with the children even though it was quite a challenge as I didn’t really have any experiences.

During the three days of camp we did lots of different activities with the children. Most of the time we divided them into groups and worked with several stations of activities from sack racing, egg and spoon race and other sporting activities to little dance sessions or soccer exercises. On the first evening we also had a big Potjiekos competition. A Potjiekos is a traditional South African stew that’s slowly cooked in a round iron pot over the fire. Four groups had to cook their own Potjiekos, set up a small restaurant and serve their dish to a jury that would rate the food, the atmosphere and the group’s teamwork. I was in the lucky situation to be a member of the jury so that I could try all the four stews and most of them tasted quite nice!

The rest of the evening was spent around the big fireplace with some singing and hot chocolate.

The next morning all the children had the chance to go on a game drive which was the first time for many of them. They were all really excited when we finally spotted elephants, giraffes and a lot of smaller game and tried to imitate the animals for the rest of the day.

In the evening everyone had to help planning and practising for our concert for the evening. With the help of us volunteers in three groups the children practised for a dancing, a singing and a drum part. After a lot of excitement the show was a big success: everyone had fun and all the children were quite proud of their performance. And to our luck after that they all wearily fell into their beds!

On Sunday morning the camp slowly came to an end. After breakfast, a lastquick game and packing up everyone proudly received a certificate and a group picture. Then it really was time to say goodbye what took quite some time because everyone wanted to hug everyone else. After that procedure the whole group got on their buses and left us behind, that we still had to pack up all the stuff.

Even though we only spent three days with the kids we all came quite close to them and it was fascinating what kind of secrets they committed to us after such a short period of time. They all were really amiable and it was a very nice experience to work with them!