Reliving some African Adventures

COUNTRY: Southern Africa (Swaziland, Mozambique & South Africa)
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Teaching & Care Work
WRITTEN BY: Elise Dean-Jones

So our African adventure may have ended in real time, and some have already arrived safely home, but we still have many more stories to tell!

Following our trip to Victoria Falls, we spent another day or so in Swaziland before the 5 of us (plus Dutch volunteer Ingrid) set off for our 10 day road trip down the east coast to Cape Town, with our guide Mpho, who had also accompanied us to Victoria Falls. The first stop was St Lucia, where we went on a river boat cruise spotting hippos and crocodiles, then onto Durban, where we thoroughly enjoyed the beach scene & shopping and spent one of our days there at uShaka Marine World, a combined aquarium and water park, which our inner children really enjoyed!

During our stop in the Wild Coast we had the opportunity to meet and pat two male cheetahs- one was quite inquisitive and starting licking our legs! Laura, Josh, Ingrid and I went quad biking through the reserve, unfortunately spotting no animals. We were mainly focusing on trying to keep up with each other after numerous road incidents; Laura nearly ran into a tree at one point, and my bike decided to stop working halfway up a hill – needless to say I was gripping on the brakes for dear life to stop rolling backwards! Josh, of course, seemed to know what he was doing, and made the rest of us feel inadequate.

Our next ports of call were Port Elizabeth and then Tsitsikamma, where we bravely embarked on the world’s highest bungee bridge jump! We all knew it was coming up on our journey, but no idea that it would be today until Mpho told us during a very filling breakfast, which was a smart move, otherwise we may not have eaten that day! We arrived at Bloukrans Bridge, where we all prepared for the most frightening moment of our lives. I was chosen to go first, so I didn’t really have time to chicken out, and just jumped off! For sure it was scary, but by the time I reached the top I was jumping for joy, so proud of our achievements! Everyone went down one by one, and all bought videos/photos to show you when we get home – just in case you didn’t believe us!

The next day we went zip lining over some waterfalls, which was stunning, and Rosie, Lydia and Laura went on a Segway tour through the small town in Tsitsikamma where we were staying; despite the rain they said it was money well spent and lots of fun! The following day we finally reached Cape Town.

Hout Bay, Cape Town, would be our home for the next month as we continued with our volunteer work. During our first week we were introduced to our ‘crèches’ – similar to the NCPs we worked at in Swaziland. Lydia and Rosie were placed in Hangberg, whilst the rest of us were at schools in the Imizamo Yethu township. Unlike Swaziland, where ‘kombis’ were the primary source of public transport, in Hout Bay they had ‘cockroaches’, which were generally old, beat-up cars that took us to our schools everyday. Sometimes you couldn’t tell the difference between a cockroach and a regular car, Rosie and Lydia certainly figured that out when a stranger they had hailed down offered to give them a lift anyway!

When we first arrived at our crèches the kids instantly surrounded us, trying to grab hold of our legs in obvious excitement. Siyazama is the biggest of the 3 preschools, with over 70 kids and a large building with 3 classrooms and an outside playground. It had originally been created by the government, and it has only just been returned to the people of Imizamo Yethu. Laura and Ingrid are working at quite a small preschool, as Sophie (pronounced So-fi-ya) the principal, runs it out of her own home, and is jam packed with kids squeezed into the small rooms of her house. Lydia and Rosie's placement has no electricity, meaning no light when it is cold and dark during the winter mornings in Cape Town.

Initially we settled into our new home and preschools, even though it was school holidays for the next 3 weeks, many children still came to have something to do during the day. Some of us went to an after-school care program (more like a holiday program right now) called Ikhaya le Themb to spend time with the kids there, doing craft activities or playing netball or soccer outside.

That weekend we visited the Bay Harbour Markets, a very popular tourist spot in Hout Bay, as well as the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town. The markets had amazing stalls and delicious food- I think we visited there every weekend! That's all for now- I’ll save the final 3 weeks’ adventures for the next blog!