Sabulani

I decided it was about time I explored Norwood a bit more…after all I have been living here for 2 months now and have only really taken the same couple of roads into town. Before I came, I was told Norwood (the area of Mthatha I’m living in) is the most dangerous area and to be fair, my project partner and I have already been attacked in broad daylight whilst walking home with our shopping. But I decided it was about time to get more involved in the community and see what lies beyond Thembelihle…it gets pretty lonely at times and I’ve decided I need to make some friends out here, haha!

So. Sabulani. Located next door – yes just over that wall there to the left, Maya…well done!

I had been invited over a couple of times by Thomas who works there, but have never really found the time to go over and introduce myself properly! Sabulani is a project for boys (well actually more like young men) who cannot afford to go to mainstream schools. Father Guy runs the project and is a very generous man who often gives donations to the Thembelihle children! He takes on young men who have the potential to go far in their studies but who have been denied the opportunity to be stretched to their full potential for one reason or another. The home where approximately 13 boys live provides a ‘studying environment’ suitable for them to work and revise for their exams, whilst at the same time giving them a place to live and paying for them to attend local schools. The project also stretches further, to benefit the local community by inviting boys of all ages from the surrounding area to play soccer and escape the streets of Norwood. I was shocked to see a plaque on one of the walls in memory of a boy who was stabbed in the local area a few years ago, so the community side of the project is really inspiring. The project also owns the building in the field across the road where children go for extra maths classes and a teeny tiny room holds a preschool for about 15 children. In the evenings there are aerobics/fitness classes run by Thomas which are much cheaper than any other ones in the town and which give everyone and anyone the opportunity to get fit without giving up on them (something which apparently happens a lot in the professional gyms in town). After going along to one session to see what it’s all about, I was inspired by one old lady who has had a hip replacement, but who still drives the 2 hours to get here for the session and then 2 hours back home again most evenings! I think I might sign up for the sessions…for a laugh, for something to do in the evenings, to get more involved in the community, to make friends and to get rid of this pap/samp & beans/high carby food belly which seems to be forming around my waist!

What I did take away from my little visit is something very interesting. Talking to Thomas I found out that most (but not all) children in South Africa don’t really start school until they are 12 years old, compared to just 5 years back in England. Which may explain why many of the children in my group 1 class couldn’t do 1+1 without using their fingers? It has helped me in some ways with planning lessons and being proud of what I and the children can achieve. If a lesson goes bad I still look at what good things have happened, even if it is just one child understanding a concept or being able to work out a sum!

Some of the men at Sabulani are 26 years old and are in grade 12…a grade which most 16 year olds have reached in normal schools. I am now becoming more aware of the smaller charities around the area and hope to visit Sabulani more often to see what I can do to help! Thomas is keen for me to share some of my Karate skills…it seems this is the new Norwood craze!

Charity

I love the way charity is done in South Africa. Most of the time people see charity as giving money to a good cause and that’s it (don’t get me wrong, giving money is great and appreciated by the people who receive it), but here it is different. Today we received a donation from one of the Baptist Churches in Mthatha. Although we often get donations from people…food, toiletries, clothes etc. this was different as the donors actually came and spent time with the children too. They donated some meat for their dinner and cooked a Braai (South African BBQ) for them whilst keeping them entertained with games and singing and dancing. So. The children not only got dinner, but also had a chance to meet some other children – something which I think benefits them more than anything. Being stuck in the cramped Thembelihle grounds 24/7 isn’t fun, particularly with the same people around you all the time.

If you see an opportunity to help someone in some way, make the most of it. Feel good about what you’ve done, not because you think it has done good, but because you can see the difference it has made J

General News

My Karate classes have been going down a treat in the evenings and strangely enough it feels good to be punched in the stomach again after such a long break from the sport…the only thing is the puncher has no hand pads and I’m always on the receiving end so I come in afterwards with rather large red splodges across my stomach! Ho hum…she’s happy and it’s great to see her escaping her worries!

Lessons are going well…end of year exams are fast approaching (late Nov), so I’ve been busy revising with the children and re-teaching lessons taught by past volunteers (although this is tricky as I only have a vague idea as to what was taught)! A lady now comes in during the afternoons to teach the children beadwork which they are getting quite good at!

Mthatha is as crazy as ever. I have now been the witness of a man standing in the middle of the road, draped in blankets with his trousers down to his ankles, peeing into his hands and washing himself with it…strange. Also, a man putting his hand break on at the front of a queue at a crossroads before jumping out of his car and running down the hill after a man who had stolen something from his trailer. He’s braver than me! Ohh and the funniest thing ever – I was walking back from town and crossed the single bridge over the Mthatha river, where no one ever obeys the traffic lights (or ‘robots’ as they are called here) on either side. I approached the middle of the bridge after walking past a growing traffic jam to see two cars facing each other, bonnet-to-bonnet. Not too unusual. Normally one will reverse backwards to let the other one through and finally decide to follow the robot rules. But after a closer look I discovered neither car had a driver in it. Both of whom were sitting on the handrail on opposite sides of the bridge, facing different directions and stubbornly ignoring each other. I wonder who it was that gave in, in the end. Apartheid still seems to be an issue here. One driver was black, the other white.

Church has become a bit surreal lately. The children have been taken to Sunday school to practice Christmas carols, whilst I have stayed in the main church with the older girls. Being an atheist I still don’t really understand what is going on and half the service is in Xhosa making me even more confused. On Sunday I was left a little embarrassed as everyone around me collapsed to the floor before wailing, crying, screamed and shouting, whilst I sat in my chair clueless as to what to do, as I didn’t feel his ‘presence’. Oh well, another experience to add to this year’s growing list, at least!

My ears are still ringing from the ‘Away in a Manger’ and ‘Silent Night’ practise we had in the classroom today! The children have been invited to take part in the Christmas service which I’m secretly looking forward to, but strange hearing Christmas songs in late October with the sun beaming down outside!

I hope people are enjoying reading my blogs. If there’s anything people want to hear about, let me know as I love sharing both my good and bad experiences of this year with you all. I'm trying to keep them varied and honest so if there’s anything people want to know, just get in touch J Hope everything’s OK where you are!

Halloween

I must say I do get pretty excited about all the celebrations throughout the year; Halloween, Christmas and Easter, birthdays etc. So I felt like a bit of a kid myself when it came to organising a Halloween party for the Thembelihle abantwana. I dressed as a witch with a bin bag wrapped around my waist and my hair backcombed…the children’s reaction was priceless when they saw me – a mix of amusement and horror! Each child got a little paper invite and turned up wearing the special Halloween masks they made in Art & Culture and the classroom was decorated with the egg carton spiders which they had also made! We played pin the bone on the skeleton which involved me drawing a ‘masterpiece’ of a skeleton on the blackboard with chalk. We had music playing, a treasure hunt and apple bobbing. I must say though, that the highlight of the party was at the end when we asked the children to spend 10 minutes practising a ‘trick’ of their choice before coming to knock on our bedroom door for ‘trick or treat’. I was very impressed with the performances they came up with which featured a mix of traditional Xhosa dancing and High School Musical performances – all pretty surreal in the dark with only a torch shining on their spooky masks! Explaining the idea of trick or treat was slightly more difficult with some of the kids. We had some knocking on our door coming in, grabbing a handful of sweets and running off back to the classroom! Others didn’t knock but just started singing to a closed door…very cute, and the smiles and hugs at the end made it all worth it!  Possibly one of my favourite nights here at Thembelihle so far!

Emotions

Today I think was the first time I have felt properly home sick since I arrived here. No idea why…maybe because I finally got round to reading all your lovely emails and messages as I haven’t had much access to internet recently (don’t get me wrong, I love hearing from all of you so keep it coming!!!).

Anyway, today I found myself acting as a mother to a girl only a year younger than me…a strange feeling, but as I cuddled her and gave her a kiss to calm her down, I realised how much I enjoy providing emotional support to the children. After a little chat in broken Xhosa/English I managed to help her sort out the problem and by the end of the day she seemed much more relaxed and happy about the situation.

This evening I went to evening prayers in the dim light of the children’s sitting room, as I do nearly every evening at 7pm. It started as usual with singing and then the usual chorus of whispers followed by the shaking of hands before a circle was formed for the final song - quite a cheery one today which was sung a total of about 5 times just for the fun of it! Smiles, clapping and loud singing are always a good way to end a day…then BAM! The birthday girl, usually the most confident and loudest of the lot in the classroom, plods over to me from the other side of the circle with watery eyes and head hung to her shoulders, she bursts into tears in my arms as all the other children continue to sing happily around her with only a few glances over to see if she is ok. Although I still don’t know why she was crying, I can have a pretty good guess why - no one wants to spend their birthday away from home, especially when you have just turned 10. As I sat her on my lap and hugged her for the rest of the prayers, I could actually feel the lump growing in my throat, this time not from missing home, but for her…a strange switch from how I had been feeling the rest of the day.

As I looked around the room, I also watched a 9 year old singing his heart out during prayers…a young boy who has spent half his life in the home, still with the biggest cheekiest grin on his face…

There’s no time for me to feel homesick here when the children that surround me day in-day out are often so unexpectedly taken away from their own families with no idea when they will be returned home. For now, I’m still happy to be here and to be their ‘Mama’ as I am now more frequently being called.

Hats off to mum back home <3 xxx

JUNGLE MONKEYYY!!!

October’s weekend off was spent in Port St. John, about a two hour drive from Mthatha. Staying in the Jungle Monkey backpackers was brilliant…again I got to meet some other travellers and found out from a wise old man whilst sitting around a fire, that my name means ‘illusion’?! Surrounded by ocean, jungle and mountains, I got a taste of it all. A bouncy boat ride out to sea in a rubber duck with a motor, gave me a glimpse of dolphins and humpback whales…many of which came right up to the boat and I was a bit wary at one point that it was going to capsize us! A slow boat trip up the river in the evening, followed by an early morning start for a trek through the jungle, guided by two men in bare feet…so glad they were there - I would NOT have been able to spot the apparently poisonous spiders which were strung across our path. A fluorescent green frog which jumped on my forehead and super glued itself there (serves me right for picking it up), along with lots of other strange looking insects! I came out with a couple more bites than I started with, but playing Tarzan on the natural woody swing across a rocky river was definitely worth it! The sundowner on the top of a mountain on Saturday evening was definitely a highlight, as was the bumpy bukka ride back to the backpackers in the dark, through the jungle where fireflies lit the trees above us and I even found a glow worm! :D South Africa is amazing.

This one’s for you Dad! x

I know how much you love gardening; planting your tomatoes and beans and coming in with a huge grin on your face when you’ve managed to pick a handful for tea, and today I thought of you as we cleared out the Thembelihle garden, watered the plants, painted the bricks separating the grass and the driveway and dug up the weeds (with the forks we eat our lunch with, haha). So if you’re still up for sending out some of those seeds of yours I’m sure the kids would love it J I hope you enjoy the photos I took for you…

xxx

Big Momma

I hate spiders. Anyone who knows me well enough will know that. I was laying on my bed just chilling yesterday break time looking at the posters on my wardrobe door that the kids had drawn/painted to welcome me to their home. You know when things don’t register straight away with you? Well my eyes skimmed over one of the paintings and onto the next, just as I thought to myself…’oh that’s strange I’m sure I’ve never seen that picture before, why would one of the kids draw a spider for me?’. Then my hands went clammy, and my body started shaking and I swear my body temperature must have increased by a couple of degrees as I stared into the eyes of what you could call a tarantula (a skinny one to be fair), but a tarantula still – one which literally stretched from one corner of the A4 paper to the other. So I ended up not chilling that break time and went into my preschool lesson just a little shaken up.

Talking of creepy crawlies, the kids all have worms, there are still ants in my kitchen (no matter how much I clean the surfaces and wash up my dishes straight after using them) and I’ve come across way too many giant centipedes for my liking. I’ve been told that now Summer has started, the Cockroaches are on their way too…

…not everything good comes with hot weather.

Black Curls

So I lapped on the sunscreen ready to go to the field with the kids when I was told the children would be spending the afternoon having their heads shaved…something they have done every couple of weeks or so, I guess to keep the nits away and to keep them cool in the 36°C heat we’ve been having! So I offered a hand and ended up spending most of my afternoon doing it – was actually a very satisfying job (just look at the concentration on my face, haha)! Shame about the sticky sunscreen though, as I came away speckled in teeny little black curls all over my body which would NOT wash off!

I’ve decided if all else fails, I’ll be a hairdresser when I return home…

Karate

This morning, I heard a little ‘knock-knock’ on my door…something which isn’t that unusual here J I invited her in and we had a little chat over breakfast. She told me she wanted my help with something, before completely opening up to me about her past. I obviously can’t repeat what she said, but it was pretty horrific and she’s recently found that she gets angry about little things. She burst into tears and begged me to help her by teaching her Karate. Now, I’ve already tried to get permission to hold a Karate class for all the kids, but this is something which isn’t really possible here due to their behaviour and individual circumstances. But I’m hoping this time it will be different as I have been asked directly by one of the children for help. So fingers crossed it will all work out.

One thing is for sure though, and that is that for once I am almost 100% sure I’m making a difference to these children’s lives. For one of them to actually come up to me and be so honest shows me she has a lot of trust in me.  And for me to be able to offer her an emotional form of help, makes me even more motivated to do well at this project. This is definitely a conversation I will never forget and when times get tough, I will be able to think back to this day and why I am here and how I am making a difference to her life.

I’m looking forward to getting back into training after this short break away from it all and it will mean I'm getting some exercise which doesn’t involve lifting small children and spinning them round which is always good J

I just wanted to say thanks to Sensei for training me in the sport for…nearly 9 years is it now? Thank you J

RIP Josh…training won’t be the same without you <3 xxx