0 Next stop Namibia

The second part of our holidays led us to beautiful Namibia with its deserts, mountains and small German influenced cities. Arriving in the capital Windhoek we could directly see and hear many of these influences: Not only the city’s architecture reminded me of German towns but also many signs were written both in German and English. Also when we went into shops it often happened that people would start to talk German with us as soon as they recognized our accent.

In Windhoek we also had the chance to try a selection of local game meet. In a “typically German” arranged restaurant we all had to test the Bushmen’s Sosatie, a kebab with meat of springbok, kudu, zebra, crocodile and oryx, and they all tasted very good especially the kudu.

After Windhoek we went on to the Spitzkoppe, a strikingly shaped group of granite peaks standing out from the flat surrounding plains. Here we spent the night at the campsite that’s directly at the foot of the Spitzkoppe and for me it was the best camping location of the entire holidays. We were almost the only people camping there and as the campsites were quite spread we were completely undisturbed and could enjoy a beautiful sunset and sunrise behind the mountains. Furthermore as we were far away from any city and there were no clouds the starry sky was more beautiful than I’ve ever seen before. We could easily see the Milky Way and after the sunset we just lay around outside and watched the stars.

Then our way led us to the coast, to Swakopmund. On our way the landscape slowly but surely turned into dry desert until we reached Swakopmund where the desert’s sand dunes meet the Atlantic Ocean. In the city we could also recognize a lot of German influence and if we ignored the desert visible behind the last houses it almost looked like a small coastal town at the North Sea.

The day after we did a little detour to the north to explore the Skeleton Coast, an extremely dry section of the Namibian coast, which is known for its dense ocean fogs and its extremely inhospitable climate. The coast is characterised by lots of wrecks that stranded due to the feared Benguela current and many animal skeletons, especially those of whales. We also stopped at Cape Cross with its gigantic seal colony.

After that it was finally time to drive deep into the Namib! We pitched our tent close to the popular Sossusvlei, meaning as much as dead-end-marsh and being a combination of the Nama word Sossus (dead end) and the Afrikaans word Vlei (marsh), which is a salt and clay pan surrounded by some of the highest dunes in the world. Then of course it was time for our first desert hike. We had already climbed some smaller dunes in the days before, but for this day we had big plans: Dune 45 for sunrise, then Big Daddy and finally Elim Dune for sunset. Dune 45 was still comparably easy to climb and we reached the top perfectly on time for sunrise that bathed the red dunes into warm light. Then we went on to Big Daddy that is one of the world’s highest dunes with its 380 metres. Standing at the foot of the dune we couldn’t even believe that it should actually be 380 metres high but arriving at the top it felt like at least 1000 metres! Even though it was before eight o’clock when we started climbing Big Daddy it soon became unbearably hot (about 40°C), the top didn’t want to come closer and unfortunately we had left our water behind because we thought that it wouldn’t take too long. Foolishly we had also decided to go without shoes and the sand became hotter and hotter under our feet. But arriving at the top - even though we felt like just having run a marathon because climbing in the sand is a lot more exhausting than you can imagine - it was worth all the effort and we enjoyed a beautiful view over never-ending red dunes.

When we had made our way down - definitely the best part because running down the steep dunes feels almost like running in absence of gravity - with a little detour through the Deadvlei with its dead camel thorn trees we went back to our camp and allowed ourselves to rest a little bit at the pool because it was much too hot to move in any way. Then it was already time to climb the next and luckily last dune for sunset. To our great relief Elim Dune was not too high and after Big Daddy it seemed to be just a small sandy hill.

Then we went on southward, making a little stop in the Kokerboom forest near Keetmanshoop, which is a forest consisting of the quite rare quiver trees. After a short walk in the forest we continued to our last stop the Fish River Canyon. The canyon is the second largest in the world after the Grand Canyon and the viewpoint offered us a great view over the cragged canyon landscape.

The Fish River Canyon was already in the very south of Namibia what we unfortunately got to feel at night. Even the nights before it had often been quite cold compared to the high temperatures during the day, but this night I almost froze to death even though I had put on all of my warmest clothes since my sleeping bag was very thin and especially the ground was very cold - regrettably we didn’t have camping mats.

After a hot shower the next morning we made our long way back home to Johannesburg. And what we had already feared after the cold night at the canyon proved to be true: winter has come to Joburg! As long as the sun is shining the weather is still nice, but in the evenings it’s quickly getting cold now.

Even though we were all a little bit sad, that our holidays were over so quickly we all were relieved not to have to put up a tent before sleeping and to have real beds after sleeping on the plain floor for so long what our backs weren't really grateful for. It was also quite nice to have closed and illuminated rooms again because before we couldn’t do too much after the sunset as we often only had our little torches. But all in all I really enjoyed being almost isolated from everything without Wi-Fi and any luxury, especially in the Okavango Delta where we felt like on a survival camp. Also the very diverse nature that we saw was stunning and I can only recommend Botswana and Namibia as holiday destinations for everyone that likes the nature!


» part 1 of my holiday report - Being in Botswana

0 Being in Botswana

After four weeks of silence during my traveling I finally report back from South Africa. As I rarely had any internet access on my holidays I wasn’t yet able to give you a short update but therefore you will get an even more detailed report now with lots of pictures. Today I’m going to start with the first part of our trip: our stay in Botswana and our short side trip to Zimbabwe.

The first stop in Botswana for Stella, Louisa, Magnus and me was Elephant Sands, a lodge about 1000 kilometres north of Johannesburg in an area with many national parks. Even on our way we already got fascinated by Botswana’s many animals that were so close to the streets – sometimes also blocking them – that we always had some elephants, giraffes or ostriches to watch during the long way. Surprisingly there were also hundreds of donkeys running around everywhere. Arriving at elephant sands it even got better because the lodge fully does justice to the nobility of its name. An artificial waterhole right in the middle of the lodge makes sure that lots of elephants are coming to the place at any time of the day as it is their only source of water in the surroundings. No matter if we were swimming in the pool, standing under the open air shower or lying in our tent we could be sure that the next elephant was not far away which could also be a little bit scaring for the night in our small tent. Also when we were walking around on the premises we had to be careful not to accidently come too close to the giants so that they might feel offended. I’ve never seen so many elephants at one place and so close to me before and we might have spent hours just sitting there watching them.

The next day we went further to the north all the way up to Kasane which is close to the border square of Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Namibia. From here we already left Botswana again – but only for one day to go to the famous Victoria Falls at the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. The waterfall on the Zambesi river belongs to the world’s three biggest falls alongside the Niagara Falls and the Iguazu Falls and is one of the seven natural wonders of the world.

Arriving at the falls we unfortunately had bad luck with the weather. Besides the fact that the spray and mist of the water made us wet anyway, it also started raining so that we quickly were dripping wet and also the view wasn’t as clear as we knew it from pictures. But still the falls and the surrounding jungle were amazing!

Back in Botswana our next planned stop were the Makgadikgadi Pans, the biggest salt pans in the world. But here our plans unfortunately didn’t work out as the rainy season had just ended and the pans were still very difficult to drive on and the chances to get stuck very high. So we had to skip that plan and went on right to the Okavango Delta - a very fertile and beautiful inland delta and home to many different animals.

Here we did a guided three day mokoro trip far away from any civilization. A mokoro is a type of canoe which is pushed through the shallow water by standing in the stern and using a long pole. It's the best way to get around in the delta and also used as a means of transport especially for the many fishers in the area.

Our trip was accompanied by two guides that would show the four of us around. We started early in the morning of the first day and with the mokoros our guides drove us deep into the delta where we pitched our tents. After a break during the midday heat and arranging our campsite – a toilet hole had to be digged and the fire lighted – we started our first game walk of about an hour until the sunset. Walking around the grassland near our campsite we could soon see lots of zebras and gnus. Our guide taught us a lot about the animals and how to read their traces. When we came back to our campsite we cooked over the fire and then it was already time to sleep as we would start our next game walk before sunrise. In the night we could also hear many animals pass by our campsite like gnus and even hippos. On the next day we did a long walk of about five hours and this time we also saw elephants, giraffes, warthogs, hippos, vultures and the cadaver of a buffalo. In the afternoon we had some time to try to drive the mokoros ourselves. At first it was a lot more difficult than it looked like but after some practising it worked quite well and was a lot of fun. After a short sunset cruise and another short game walk in the next morning it was already the end of our mokoro tour and even though the experience was great we were all really looking forward to a shower!

And then after ten animal-rich days it was already time to move on to Namibia, but about that I will write in my next post… 

If you already want to see some more pictures you can find them all in my gallery!


» part 2 of my holiday report - Next stop Namibia

0 Promotion to official party planner

Even though I still can’t really believe it, it’s almost Easter time, the weather is slowly changing to autumn and school holidays are beginning. For Stella, Louisa, Magnus and me that means that it’s time to travel again. Tomorrow we are starting to escape the momentarily rainy Joburg weather making our way to the north – but first some words to my work of the last days.

In the mornings Stella and me are still doing our normal work for Cotlands which means for the moment a lot of office work: no matter if it’s data capturing for incoming donations or sorting files we are slowly but surely becoming experts! But this week we also had some more interesting work to do. Cotlands is just launching a new “donate your birthday” campaign and we could help to set up a small advertising event. The campaign allows people in an easy online way on the Cotlands homepage to give their birthday over to the good cause and instead of birthday wishes they ask their friends for a certain donation for Cotlands. That’s why the theme for our advertising event was a children’s birthday party. We could help buying all the decoration, decorate the room with all the Cotlands-orange stuff and in the end we could take place in the “children’s party”. Invited were some press people, South African celebrities that are supporting Cotlands, some donors and staff members of course. “Donate your birthday” is going online on first of April, so hopefully it’s going to be a success!

But now to our travel plans… After already having seen many nice places in South Africa we are going to leave the country for the first time of our stay and go a little bit farer to the north to Botswana and Namibia. There are many stops on our schedule like the Okavango Delta, the Makgadikgadi  Pans, the Namib Desert, the Skeleton Coast and maybe one of the highlights: A short trip to the Victoria Falls at the boarders of Zimbabwe and Zambia. We are leaving tomorrow morning at six in the morning and come back in three weeks’ time. I hope that I will be able to upload some pictures in the meantime otherwise I will report back with a detailed travel review at the end of April!

0 Finally new work!

After many worries about our work we finally found something to do! In the mornings we still go on working at Cotlands and the amount of work is still changeful but in the afternoons we are working for St Mary’s now.  St Mary’s is a children’s home near Cotlands that gives home to 60 children aged between seven and 21. Some of them are orphans, some were abused or neglected and some have been infected or affected by HIV. They live in six different cottages together with a house mother. In their cottages they have their bedrooms - single rooms for the oldest kids and 2-, 3- and 4-bed rooms for the others - a cosy living area, a dining area and a kitchen. The hole premises is quite big and they also have a lot of space to play outside.

Since last week we are going to St Mary’s every day at two o’clock. The children are going to many different schools so their homecoming times are also differing. When we’re arriving only some children are already back home. We look after them while they are eating their lunch and wait until the others gradually arrive. When everyone finished eating it’s time for homework at half past three. Stella and me both have our own cottage where we always help with the homework. In my cottage the children are aged between seven and sixteen and they are all very cute and nice. Somewhere between half past four and five when everyone finished the homework it’s time to go home for us. When there is some spare time in between lunch and homework there are many things to do with the children as St Mary’s has a very nice premises with a small soccer field, a basketball area and a little pool.

So far we really enjoyed our work in the children’s home because the children as well as all of the housemothers were very nice and welcoming. Furthermore after working with babies for half a year it is also very nice to work with some older children again because there is so much more that you can do with them. So far they were especially interested in German music so that we always had to bring our cell phones for playing Cro or Helene Fischer for them – only the best of course! They also tried to learn some German so that they are now always seeing us off with a cheerful “Tschüs”.

I’m really happy to finally have some satisfying work again and I already fond of all of the children!

0 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.

0 Some bad news

Today I unfortunately have some very sad news for you and especially for us Cotlands volunteers. For different reasons Cotlands had to undertake some changes in their offers and is now closing the Baby Unit. The Baby Unit was the last residential facility at Cotlands Gauteng after the closing of the facilities for older children in the last few years. The sixteen babies that were living here are now trying to be placed with adoptive families as soon as possible. Two of the toddlers already left this week and some more adoptions are arranged. The babies that can’t be placed fast enough will go to other children’s homes. Originally it was planned to close the Baby Unit by end of April but for the moment I think it even looks like everything would go quicker. For us that means that many changes are going to come. Since New Year we were working in the Baby Unit most of the days. Now that many babies are leaving there is increasingly less to do for us and by the time that it is actually closing we don’t know what tasks will be left for us. Our organisation will still go on concentrating on their early learning facilities but that’s nothing where we are usually helping or where we can even help a lot.

Cotlands will also be moving to another building because the current one will be way too big without the residential facilities. As far as I know a new building is not found yet but there will surely be no place for us volunteers to live. For the moment we are living in the Cotlands building so we also don’t know what will happen to our living space. So in the next weeks we will have to face many uncertainties – if we are unlucky we could even have to leave South Africa earlier.

Luckily we are having our AFS midstay camp next week. We are spending five days in the Drakensberg mountains with all of the other German volunteers and some AFS staff members. Besides the fact that we are already looking forward to see anyone again we will have a lot of time to discuss the arisen problems of everyone and hope to find a solution for our situation with the help of AFS. Until then we try to make the best out of it even though it is very annoying not to know what will be happening here in the next weeks and months.

0 Back to work

Now it’s already three weeks that I am working again after our Christmas holidays - so certainly high time to tell you about what was going on here since we’re back.

When we had left Cotlands in December everyone was pretty much in pre-Christmas stress - many toys had to be prepared, lots of donations came in, Christmas presents had to be brought to community project children and some new babies found a new home in our Child Care Unit. So we wondered if calm would have returned in New Year and we were very excited if the babies would have changed a lot in these three weeks.

The first thing that we realized when we went to work on Monday morning was that calm indeed had returned – and it was even a lot calmer than expected because almost everyone was still on holiday. For us that meant that there wasn’t really any work to do except working in the Child Care Unit so we directly made our way to the babies. We had been a little bit scared that they might have forgotten us over Christmas but when we opened the door some excited toddlers already came running towards us hugging our legs. And like we had already feared they really had grown a lot. Two of them had learned to walk – we were a little bit sad that we had missed that – so now we have four children that are walking and running around always keeping us busy. Our oldest two-year-old child is even learning to go to the potty now – what can be quite exhausting because it doesn’t really always work yet – and they are all starting to babble away more and more. Two of the rather younger ones also learned to sit and the very small ones grew even though they are still tiny. Two babies had left Cotlands during our holidays and are now living in South African families, but in exchange we got four new babies, so that here are living eight babies that are younger than two months for the moment. As they are all still crying a lot we often feel like not having enough hands to care for all of them and it can be so exhausting because you can always be sure that as soon as you steadied one of them the next will begin to cry. One of them is even a preemie. She was born after seven months and even though she is six weeks old now she is much too tiny and I am always scared to break all of her bones when I am dressing her with the smallest baby clothes we have which are still way too small for her.

My favorite job in the CCU for the moment is playing with the toddlers. Especially those who already walk are getting more curious with every day so that we try to take them out for a walk or for playing at our playgrounds as often as possible.

Since New Year we also had to bring the babies to the hospital several times. They are all regularly going to their routine checkups, to assessments and depending on their needs also to occupational or physical therapy. All these things take place in different hospitals, so that we could already make very different experiences with South African hospitals. One of them that specialises on children living in children’s homes was very nice – we never had to wait too long, the waiting room was quite comfortable and we even got tea and coffee. The others unfortunately weren’t that nice. They were very crowded and we had to wait at uncomfortable wooden benches or sometimes even without any possibility to sit (and that’s a little bit exhausting if you are carrying a baby on your arms) for several hours. One time we even had to leave after eight hours of waiting without even being treated because they were closing and the baby only had an eye infection. After these first experiences with public hospitals in South Africa I definitely hope that I won’t get injured here in any way!

Some days we also had little baby emergencies. Luckily it never was anything really bad, but if the babies have temperature they are directly brought to hospital to be sure that it’s nothing serious. So it happened that we were called to the Child Care Unit some time in the evening and spontaneously had to work night shift until early in the morning like 4am so that the CCU would not be short-staffed during the absence of the social worker and the sick baby. And working night shift is much harder than we expected in the beginning, because you are not allowed to sleep or do anything that distracts you, you can just wait that a baby begins to cry and you can feed it or change a nappy and fight against your eyes trying to shut. When the call that they are ready and we could pick them up from hospital was coming we were always very relieved! On other days we got wake-up calls very early in the morning during the weekend having to drive a child to hospital, so sometimes it could be really exhausting because we didn’t have more than 3 hours of sleep several days in a row.

All in all it was very nice to see the babies again after such long holidays and it’s really sweet to see especially the older ones getting more and more attached to us. And we are also getting used to the work with the babies: By now sometimes we even manage to leave the Baby Unit without being dirty with porridge or pumpkin from head to toe! Also changing nappies or dressing the babies goes a lot faster than in the beginning. Nevertheless in the end of our working day we’re also always a little bit relieved  to leave the CCU because being surrounded by crying children and talking nonsense all the day can really make you crazy!

Next week we will probably get our new roster and then we will also have to do some work in the Toy Library and in the office again. For now I’ll have to catch up with some sleep but you’ll surely hear from me soon!