COUNTRY: Southern Africa (Swaziland, Mozambique & South Africa)
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Teaching & Care Work
WRITTEN BY: Elise Dean-Jones
Friends, it has come to the final stage of our trip to Southern Africa, and we couldn’t be sadder to leave.
The last blog post left you with the end of our first week in Cape Town, so here’s what we've been up to in the 3 weeks since then.
Every weekday we caught a cockroach up to our crèches, where a typical day during holiday time would involve reading stories, singing songs (some we learnt in Swaziland and taught to the kids here), playtime, lunch and then putting the kids down for a nap, which was our cue to leave for the day. We found that the kids here knew a lot more English than those in Swaziland, so when it did come time to teach or read stories the children could follow along much more easily. Despite their knowledge of the language, they sometimes chose to ignore us teachers until we offered incentives like stickers!
Unlike the others placements, our school doesn't have any electricity. This is problematic during winter mornings, where it can get very dark. So towards the end of the trip Lydia, Rosie and I all pitched in to buy some rechargeable lights for the classroom that Liesel- the principal- could charge at home when not in use at school. When we brought them in she told us "You are now bringing light into 74 people's lives", which is something I think will stay with us for a very long time.
After volunteering at our crèches in the mornings, we had the option to join in on some afternoon volunteer work around Hout Bay and Imizamo Yethu. On Monday and Thursday afternoons, a group of high school boys from the township come together to discuss ethical and moral issues within the community. We got to join in and discuss our opinions on different topics such as differences, relationships, life choices etc. I think I can say for all of us that it was a really enlightening experience to hear the boys' ideas and their positive attitudes - we could really learn a lot from each other. As a special treat we also got to take the boys on an excursion to the Cape Town Science Museum, which we all thoroughly enjoyed.
The after-school care club didn't start up again until our last week in Cape Town, during which some of us volunteers helped to re-paint the exterior walls of the main building and also donated some paint for the logo to be printed on the wall. All the staff were very impressed and so grateful that we could do this for them, and it certainly gave us immense joy to help!
Josh and I plus a few friends volunteered some of our time at a soup kitchen run by a woman called Mirriam, who twice a week serves bread and soup from the back of a car to the hungry people living in the community. She shared a story with us that a young boy had told her the reason he stole was because he was hungry and didn't have any money for food. This made her more determined to have the soup kitchen running not just twice a week, but nearly everyday, as it would not only feed people but would hopefully eradicate most of the crime in Imizamo Yethu. Us volunteers were so inspired by what she was doing that we collectively donated some money to her cause, surprisingly the equivalent to what she would receive in a month from the government. She was so grateful and overcome with emotion that it reduced us all to (happy) tears!
On the afternoons where we weren’t volunteering, we decided to see some of the sights Cape Town has to offer, including the famous Table Mountain (we were very lucky to have clear blue skies that day), the spectacular view from Chapman's Peak, and exploring the city centre of Cape Town.
A couple of weekends ago we went on the Red Bus tour, which filled us with information on Cape Town's history and enabled us to join on the Constanta Winelands Tour – which was $4 for tasting 5 different wines! The next weekend we booked a tour to see Boulders Beach, the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. The highlight was riding bicycles through the national park alongside the captivating rough ocean, where so many ships have been captured. Lydia, Rosie and Laura and a few other volunteers attempted to go shark-cage diving, but the bad weather, sea-sickness and lack of sharks made it a less than ideal day. However, luckily they went back a second time and had a much better experience, even managing to spot some sharks! Josh and a couple of other volunteers attempted to go skydiving, but unfortunately the weather resulted in it being cancelled multiple times.
All the volunteers also had the opportunity to go on a homestay in Imizamo Yethu during our final two weeks in Cape Town with two different women, one of which was Mirriam, the same woman who runs the soup kitchen. Both women had grandchildren staying in their home so we were welcomed by the whole family. It was a really wonderful experience to stay in their homes, eat their typical food and really talk and engage with each other. Needless to say we all now have families to return to in South Africa.
Our final days soon crept up on us, and all of us were very emotional and sad to be leaving. Although the children at our schools might not have understood to the full extent that we wouldn't be returning after the weekend, there were tears in our eyes when we had to say goodbye to these kids who had stolen our hearts within the last month. The teachers all hope that we will come back soon, and I know that we all really want to! Our time in Africa has been an amazing, life-changing experience, and to any future Antips volunteers who might happen to read this, I can vouch for all of us and say that we strongly recommend the Southern Africa trip; you get to see so many places and meet so many great people!
Despite splitting up to go in different directions, we know that the tight knit family we have formed will stay in contact. Our time here may be over, but we have made friends for life.
Thanks Antipodeans for the amazing experience!
Elise, Josh, Laura, Rosie and Lydia
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