Group update from Shelby in Cape Town

Brad, Antips GapBreak volunteer

COUNTRY: Southern Africa (Swaziland, Mozambique & South Africa)
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Teaching & Care Work
WRITTEN BY: Shelby Stapleton, In-Country Partner

The group are doing fantastically – it is such a breathe of fresh air to have some Australians in the mix :)

Chicky and Bryar are at Angels and Starfish educate – working with 4-6 year olds. This placement is often quite interesting, as the school is funded by a British charity so gives the illusion of being well resourced and "under control" however, the kids are still from the township, and are often the poorest and least disciplined.

They are finding it a new challenge working with children who speak English (compared to Swaziland where they don't) yet they still don't listen! They leave everyday full of energy and the teachers love having them around – they bring a fantastic positive attitude to the school, but I think are finding themselves tired towards the end of their trip!

Brad is working with an Italian volunteer at a preschool called Jelly Tots – this is the stark opposite to Angels and Starfish – the preschool is run by one lady out of her front room, and they lack all the basic resources, however her passion keeps them going, and the kids here are incredibly well behaved (when Sofia is around..!). The atmosphere at Jelly tots is always incredible when I go, Brad is their first ever male volunteer, so they are loving having such a good role model around for the boys in the group.

Izzy is her normal crazy self, and is working at a very challenging placement In the other township in Hout Bay. The preschool she is working at is only for children who's parents are drug addicts and are in a rehabilitation program across the road. She is changing between classes of 3-4 year olds and 4-5 year olds – and they are loving her positive attitude and amazing energy!

They all also participated in our Mandela day events last week (I'm going to help Byrar write a blog about this today or tomorrow!) where the country in encouraged to give 67 minutes of the day to the community to commemorate the 67 years he gave to the country. We helped rebuild shacks that were destroyed in a fire recently, helped with a street clean up and attended at photo exhibition where local teens had been taught how to use SLR cameras to take photos of their lives in a township.

On Monday they went out shark cage diving and had a BALL swimming with 18 sharks in the ocean…. (I'm sure this will be in the blog too!). In the afternoons they have been up to all kinds of sightseeing mischief – table mountain, lions head, today they are headed into Cape Town to see some museums (the slave lodge and district 6) before having dinner at Mama Africa – a great restaurant in the middle of town where you can eat any african animal you can think of! They are off wine tasting this week as well, and this weekend are going sightseeing around Cape Point and boulder beach – to sit next to penguins on the beach,.,…!!

Hope that keeps you up to date on them for the time being – I will sit with them tomorrow and write another blog post. Hope you are well, chat to you soon :)

Thanks so much,
Shelby Stapleton
Cape Town In-Country Partnet