Secondary Project!

Project Trust encourage volunteers to take up secondary projects whilst overseas, however the working hours and nature of Thembelihle means that I sadly don’t have the opportunity to get involved in the wider community as much as I would like to. However… a week or so after returning from the New Year travels I was asked by one of the members of the church who heads up the Sunday School whether or not I would be interested in becoming one of the two Sunday School teachers. Those who know me well will know that I’m not particularly religious and when I was offered the job, was a bit wary of the fact I would have NO idea what I was teaching the children, but I agreed and have once again thrown myself in the deep end and out of my comfort zone (a new challenge is definitely needed)! So far it's going pretty well although i'm currently getting the kids ready for Scripture Exams?!?!?

The Sunday school at Norwood Baptist Church is held in two small sheds in the garden of the main church. They are pretty run down on the inside with stacks of broken old benches covered in a layer of dust and crawling with spiders – not a great learning environment. So as well as teaching, i’ve also offered to do them up a bit; mend the furniture, clean it all down and paint the outsides. Actually really excited!

Travels…

So I have finally had a chance to see more of South Africa. I must say there is a massive contrast between the Eastern Cape where I am living and the rest of the coastline I visited on the way back from Cape Town, where it felt more like being in Europe than Africa! It was great to see all of the other volunteers and hear about their stories from the various projects across the country. It seems everyone is having a great year and really making a difference at their placements J Thank you Project Trust!

I had a jam packed and much appreciated break from the project, climbing Table Mountain on New Year’s eve, sandboarding the longest ride in the country at 350m, quad-biking, mountain biking (with pushbikes?…painful), and finally jumping, or should I say pushed off the world’s highest bungee at Bloukrans Bridge – the highlight of the holiday! – type it into Youtube!!!

Arriving back in Mthatha and Thembelihle was a bit of a shock, but it definitely felt like home and I was glad to be back. I am now well settled back into teaching and am loving it more than ever. I am looking forward to meeting the new admissions this year. My favourite lesson back so far has been Group 1 Lifeskills – “the 5 senses”. I have never had so much fun with peanut butter, a ‘smelly’ sock and a hairbrush which I promised ‘wouldn’t bite’ when they put their hand in the bag with their eyes closed! YAY!

“Do they know it’s Christmas time…”

It feels a little ironic listening to Band Aid whilst being out here in South Africa. We have tried our best to make Christmas special for the few children who are left at the home over Christmas. Many have now be re-homed, either back to their families or to more permanent accommodation, whilst others are spending Christmas with safe relatives and will be returning to Thembelihle in January. I must say it is much quieter here now that there are only 8 or so children left…much different to the 26 I’m used to! We have had some interesting new admissions and children with extremely challenging behaviour, but with each one I remember why I am here J

The lead up to Christmas involved making paper snowflakes, tree decorations and stockings with the kids helping  to decorating the house, office and classroom…I must say their decorating skills are impressive! The day started early and involved lots of smiles hugs and screams of excitement as they saw the pile of presents under the tree… brand new clothes in time for church and new toys to play with…smiles all round! Church was a shorter service than usual and we all enjoyed singing Christmas carols in the heat! The children were then treated to a bouncy castle in the back garden and a Braai!

Thanks to everyone back home who donated presents, clothes and money…they had a super day! J

So…Do they know it’s Christmas time…? – They certainly do here at Thembelihle Home!

Brandy

The rest of the month has been spent being bitten to death by trillions of insects, finally hanging the mosquito net up above my bed, finding a new love of brandy and egg scented shampoo (Mthatha never ceases to amaze me), crawling cockroaches and swelteringly hot days followed by thunderstorms at night…WAHHH! Only in South Africa J

Exams, exams, exams…

Yes for you Scots out there, having the end of the school year in Nov/Dec may seem normal, but for me it was strange to be writing up the end of year exam papers after having been here for only 3 months! With Thembelihle being a home school and having no set syllabus, it was up to me to write the exam papers, invigilate the exams, create the mark schemes, mark the papers and write up the reports for each child at the end of it! So November was spent frantically making sure the children understood everything I had taught them over the past few months, holding extra revision sessions outside of lesson times, one-on-one tutoring and mini tests in lessons. I think the biggest challenge was writing the papers and finding the right balance between phrasing the questions in a way they will understand, whilst considering the different abilities within each class…much trickier than it sounds! Invigilating the exams involved sitting in on 2 hour long exams, although I must say I did enjoy the silence…I think it is the quietest I have ever heard them! Marking the exams was more rewarding than I thought it would be. Although there were some silly mistakes and some disappointing answers, overall I was very proud of every single one of them! They did me proud, and I’m am so happy with the A*’s, but more so the E’s which the less capable English speakers achieved – their faces when they saw they had passed…!

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