0 Lesson no 2

Weather

 

South Africa is situated in the southern subtropical zone, but due to varying elevation and the influence of the Indian and Atlantic Ocean it has a wide variety of climates. The Eastern coast for example is especially in winter the warmest part of the country thanks to the warm Agulhas Current. The climate at the western coast and also many parts of the country’s interior is much colder. Johannesburg on the other hand is situated at an altitude of more than 1700 metres above sea level. I need to drive only an hour to Pretoria which is less elevated and where the temperatures can be about 5 or 6 degrees Celsius warmer. 

So far here in Joburg the temperatures were quite enjoyable – even in summer. Most of the time they were between 25 and 30 degrees, on some rare days also up to 35 degrees. But because of the high elevation it’s very easy to get sunburned – especially for me with my rather sensitive skin – so that I sometimes only had to stay in the sun for 15 minutes until I started to turn red…In late spring and summer it was also raining almost every day. But not that long lasting gentle drizzling rain that I was used to from Germany. Instead it normally only rained in the evenings and most of the time only for less than an hour but so heavy that the streets seemed to turn into dirty rivers. Now that it is winter we haven’t had any rain for at least two months. That’s why it is very dry and bushfires are developing everywhere. Besides the winter temperatures for the moment are very cold! With up to 20 degrees during the day of course it is still quite warm compared to German winter, but at night the temperatures are almost dropping to freezing point. As our building is very badly isolated, my windows don’t shut completely and I only have a tiny little heater in my room I feel like living very close to the South Pole!

But what I really love about the South African weather is that no matter what season it is the sun is actually always shining. So even if it is cold for the moment you just need to go out into the sun to heat up - so it’s not comparable to the dark and uncomfortable German winter days.

0 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!

0 Jo’burg, Jozi, eGoli & Co

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 50^th 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.

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0 Another side of Joburg

Photo: Dylan Harbour

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.

You will hear from me!

Frederike

0 First working days and other surprises

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.