Even though
I’m living in Johannesburg for more than five weeks now, so far I didn’t see a
lot of the city. I know some places close to Turffontein, where I live, like
the next Spar, a mall, our Gym, the hospital and park station, Johannesburg’s
central station. Slowly but surely we don’t need to navigate with GPS on our
cellphones everytime that we go somewhere anymore. It feels good to know the most
important ways and slowly getting used to our area. But anyway we only knew
very few places in Johannesburg because even if we were driving through the
city we were always using the same streets. That’s why this weekend we decided
to act like real tourists and take place in a tour with the red tourist buses
that we had seen driving through the city. Accompanied by five other German
volunteers I started my tour at the park station going on to places like Gandhi
Square, Gold Reef City and Constitution Hill. During our tour we got a lot of
interesting information about Johannesburg – about its foundation in 1886 and
its past as gold mining city, about its names origin that isn’t quite sure
because Johann was a very common Dutch name, and about its many nicknames like
Joburg, Jozi or eGoli, which is Zulu and means place of gold. We also went to
the Top Of Africa, a viewing platform on the 50th floor of the
Carlton Centre that was Africa’s tallest building for 41 years. As the weather
was very clear we had a great view all over the city.
To complete
our tour we went to the Neighbourgoods Market in Braamfontein that offers a lot of
fresh food, speciality goods and clothes. Many people meet here every Saturday
and it’s in the middle of the cultural centre for arts and entertainment. Even
though Johannesburg isn’t very pretty on the first look, it’s places like
Braamfontein that characterise the city’s very own flair.
To round
off the day we went to a “typical German” Bierfest in Montecasino and it was
very funny to see what South Africans think how Germans dress! We also had a
lot of fun with songs like “Polonäse Blankenese” and “Viva Colonia” that probably
almost no one except us could understand but everyone tried to sing anyway.
Today I
finally got a lot of photos for you, because I think that my weekend can be
much better described in pictures than by words. But before that, just a few
introducing words:
Even though
the spring weather here in Joburg is already very nice – normally at least 25°C
and the sun is always shining – I have to spend most of my time during the week
inside working. After work, at about 16:30, Stella and I normally go to the gym
and after that it’s already dark. That’s why we definitely wanted to do something
in the nature and open air this weekend and quickly found our perfect activity:
Lion Park.
Lion Park
is a small game reserve in the north of Johannesburg. Certainly it’s not comparable
to popular reserves like Kruger national park for example – and of course that’s
also on my to-do-list – but it’s a good start if you only want to spend one day
and not disburse too much money. And even though the name could suggest that,
the park is not only home to lions. There are springboks, antelopes, wildebeests,
cheetahs, giraffes, wild dogs, ostriches and of course brown and white lions
living in separated areas. And what’s probably the highlight: the lion and
cheetah cubs.
So we were
joining a guided drive through the different areas. Our guide told us a lot
about the animals and we had the chance to get really close to them and in
the meantime take lots of pictures. But the best is yet to come: the
interaction with the lion cubs. The cubs are between three and six months old
and live in a separated enclosure. We could stroke them almost like normal cats
and they were completely peaceful and so cute. Only one of them was quite
playful and that’s how I got my first lion scratches that I would not want to
miss anymore. But now see yourself!
Even though
I unreasonably didn’t stick to "business before pleasure", I still have to say
some words to our project. Because after our one month period of grace we got
some new duties: We have to bring the two five- and six-year-old children that
are living at Cotlands to school. It’s not far away so that we can walk and even
though we have to start work earlier now it’s a pleasant way to stretch our
legs and get some fresh air. Furthermore we normally don’t walk around in our
area because it’s not that save, especially after four o’clock, so it’s a nice
chance to get to know the area a little better.
So far it
was always varied to walk them to school, because we always met many other
children that are going to our early learning groups or our homework
assistance. At first we were a little bit confused when children, that we only
met once or twice before, ran across the street, loudly shouting our names and
just hugging us. But they are all really sweet and we enjoy having our personal
welcoming committee wherever we go.
Last but not least I kept my promise from the
last post: I took some pictures of our area and I hope that they can give you a
first impression of Turffontein.
After two
weeks that I’ve spent at Cotlands now I finally feel like I am having an
approximate image of all the things that the organisation is involved in. So
today I will try to give you a rough review of it and try to show you how I
spend my whole blessed day.
In general
I am working from Monday to Friday from 8 am to 4 or 5 pm. But as I am also
living in my project I often work longer because I see that help is needed
somewhere or donations have to be collected at a special time. For the moment there are three different
divisions in that I am working: The Units, the Toy Library and the office.
The Units
Twice a
week, on Mondays and Wednesdays, I am working in the Units. The Units include
all the projects where I am directly working with children. In the mornings my
work begins in the Early Learning Groups that are comparable to preschool. Here
I am working together with Stella and two teachers. Every morning at 8 o’clock
children from the neighbourhood at the age of three to six are arriving in our Cotlands
classroom. Before the class starts they are all getting porridge for breakfast.
After that school can begin! We usually start reading out a story to the children,
then review it bit by bit and transfer it to their everyday life. That’s how
they should learn from a cute animal story for example to be economical with
their food. After the reading session we assemble different play and learning
stations where the children can do puzzles, paint, play with dough, play
cooking and many other things. The focus of these games is often put on
colours, basic shapes or names of animals or food for example. Many things like
definitions of shapes (“a square has four equal sides and four corners” etc.)
are repeated every day but are still difficult to remember for some of the
children. But sometimes that’s also a
linguistic problem because English isn’t their first language. One day for
example I was sitting at a table and playing with dough with four little boys.
I was already thinking that they didn’t like me or that my English was too bad
when I realized that the only English words they knew were: “Yes teacher!” So
sometimes it can be difficult to communicate with the smaller ones because my
Zulu knowledge isn’t good enough for a real conversation. But most of the
children are already quite good at speaking English – many are probably much
better than me!
If the weather is good we also go out to play. At the Cotlands property there are
several small playgrounds where the children love to play. And it’s an
important place for them because it’s one of the very few places here where it is save for them to play. At the playgrounds we try to teach them things like rope
skipping, to walk on stilts or playing basketball and cricket.
After
playing it is always time to sing – not quite my favourite part because after
that I can’t get the melodies out of my head for the whole day – and then it’s
already lunchtime. After a short prayer the children get their lunch and Stella
and I are also taking our lunch break.
After lunch
we are helping with the baby massage or the after-school care. To the
after-school care school children from the neighbourhood are coming and we
assist them with their homework and supervise those that just come for playing.
When the students go home at 4 pm, and also if we got some spare time in between,
we usually go and help at the Baby Unit. This unit is the only place that is
always manned and it gives home to 11 babies and two older children at the
moment. The babies are at the age of two to 18 months and need a lot of care.
Our job normally is to play with them, but also to feed them – and that can be
the very hardest job! – to change their nappies, to dress them, to do baby
massages and anything else that accrues. At about five o’clock when the babies
go to bed we normally leave and try to get rid of all the children’s songs that
are stuck into our heads!
The Toy
Library
On Tuesdays and Thursdays we are working in the Toy Library. That’s a library with many
many different toys for children categorized into different learning targets or
themes. Children can come here and borrow the toys for two weeks and we also
use them in the Early Learning Groups or the Baby Unit. Our Toy Library here in
Johannesburg isn’t the only one. There are many more spread all over South
Africa and Cotlands founded an own Toy Library association that hosts seminars
and workshops for future librarians. Next
week a new Toy Library in Pretoria will open so that for the moment there are many trainings for the stuff that will be working there. We are also helping to prepare a lot of things for the
new library by making lists of the toys, photographing all of the items,
numbering and varnishing them and much more. On Monday when the new library is
opening we also have to help transporting the toys to Pretoria and are already
looking forward to see the opening.
The work
that we have to do in the library isn’t very difficult or exciting, but
sometimes it is a pleasant variation because even if we love playing with the
children sometimes it is nice to recover from all the action and the attention
that they need.
The Office
On Fridays
we are working in the office. Cotlands’ offices are much bigger than we first
thought and there are approximately 25 people working in them. So far we spent
only one day in the office so that I can’t say that much about it. We had to do
the inventory of a room and prepare Christmas cards for sponsors. This also
weren’t very challenging duties but nevertheless most of the time we enjoyed it
and are curious what other exercises are waiting for us in the next weeks.
I hope that
I could already give you a helpful overview of my work. If you want to see a little bit more just watch the Cotlands video below!
PS: I try
to illustrate my posts as good as possible and of course they would be much
nicer with pictures of the children but understandably I am not allowed to
publish any pictures of them and I will have to adhere to that. Yet I will try to take
some pictures of my area in the next days but so far this was not that easy
because I’m not quite sure if it is intelligent to walk around with a camera.
But I will figure that out!
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.
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.
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!
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!
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