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Nkomazi East Blog 2011: 1 & 2

So, we meet again…

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Take a deep breath and imagine. It’s 10.30 am (far too early for uni students) on July 23rd and you’ve just arrived in a foreign land; a foreign land that will become home for the next 2 months. What would be going through your mind? Nerves? Excitement? Regret? Honestly, tiredness is a definite, and probably a combination of so many different emotions. Personally, I was quite nervous to meet everybody again; despite the fact that I had already been in Cape Town for 10 days. Nervous excitement is probably more accurate. The beauty is that everybody is in the same situation and semi-awkward conversation soon picked up in arrivals at OR Tambo Intl. In fact forget the awkward turtle, there was an awkward zoo. Buses were boarded with a moderate faff – more on this topic later. As soon as we left Jo’burg there was a group realisation that we were in fact in Africa – and that was an amazing moment. Although I’d been to Cape Town it definitely hadn’t felt like real Africa. And that is the thing that hit most people immediately; Africa is so much more than what you see on Comic Relief. Yes, there are some shocking sights, but there are also so many awe-inspiring people, places and traditions.

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Climate Change

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Being a geographer I can assure you that training week is the biggest cause of global warming facing the world. Let me just say that the ice was well and truly broken, in fact it was smashed into smithereens. Those of you reading will probably be confused, but ice breakers (fun activities to help us get to know each other through sheer embarrassment) are a key aspect to the training week. A positive attitude was definitely required, especially after a cold shower and fixing a leaking toilet.

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That same positivity was required throughout the week as we waded through the piles of Tenteleni training blurb. Don’t let this put you off though, it’s only 5 short days and it was over before we knew it. Everything in the training week was there for a reason, even though we didn’t realise it at the time. As a group we figured it would be great to do a drama for the educators when we first met them. A fairly corny news report was constructed with our anchorman (Mark), roving reporter (Rachel), Tenteleni volunteers (Sonali, Daisy and Rosie) as well as our weather girl and boy (Emma and me). Dreams came true during this performance…saying “back to the studio” is an experience and a half. The educators loved it, and it was great preparation for the next 8 weeks.

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The observation day was great although I was well and truly thrown in at the deep end and asked to teach a lesson. Wanting to be a teacher anyway, I secretly loved it. By Friday, feet were seriously itchy to get stuck in. The end of training week Braai (BBQ) was so hardcore we were in bed at 11.30pm. Let’s just say some people celebrated a bit too hard…

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If I still have your attention that’s great. Let’s talk accommodation. After rocking up to the Matsulu Game lodge, Spice of Life seemed a little anti climactic. Spice is located on the N4 (the main road from SA to Mozambique) about 1km from the border. Do not despair though, for you chicken lovers there is a KFC 5 minutes away. And chicken dust is in plentiful supply (more on that later). The humble pink bungalow will soon become a home from home. There was a sigh of relief when Sherelle revealed she was lying about us having to shower in stack of tractor tyres. Although to begin with there was no hot water and only one toilet, but that was soon rectified. We even had our very own pet mouse ‘Timothy’ who had a free roam of the house and often came to say hi. We haven’t seen him in a while…

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At times, Mark and I have theorised about how a mob of scheming leopards have been stalking us. Only dad (PC Jonny) believes us. Leopards aside, the African sunset is a stunner, and there are many Kodak moments down at the river (15 mins away). We once saw a hippo chilling in the water, but for a crocodile infested river, there is a distinct lack of crocodiles.

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Matthew Hussey

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October 22, 2011 at 9:40 am | Projects, South Africa | No comment

Nkomazi East Blog 2011: 3 & 4

I bet that you look good on the dance floor

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Tenteleni gives you many transferrable skills, none more important than the ability to laugh whilst making an absolute idiot of yourself. Throughout training weekend, at the weekend (not wearing one’s Tenteleni t-shirt of course) or in the classroom; it is something you will do day in day out. I find that the laughs of my grade 8’s get me through the day – of course they are usually laughing at me (or my Birkenstocks), but who cares as long as they’re learning right? Social Science would be so dry without the comedy styling’s of an assistant educator. There are some schools in Nkomazi that aren’t involved with Tenteleni. And we didn’t think it was fair that they didn’t get the chance to laugh at us Brits abroad.

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We were invited to one school to partake in traditional dance. Quite upsettingly, they had no costumes for Sherelle and I, so we left it to our colleagues to get their boogie on. Safe to say, sides were splitting – especially when Mark jabbed the ceiling fan with his spear. Our Tonga girls (Daisy, Rosie and Sonali) were epic! And our Swazi girls (Em and Rach) were wicked. LOL is all I have to say about Mark and Papa J. If their dance was a piece of class work I would have given it a ‘Good Effort’.

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Mark’s playful plethora of past times

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Games become a big part of your life whilst on project. For some reason, an iPod just doesn’t do entertainment justice in Africa. I’m unsure where he gets them, but Mark seems to have a game for every occasion. Whether it is ‘Torch Dash’, ‘Contact’ or the dreaded ‘Psychologist’; there is always a game. If I’m being totally honest, I’m not a big fan of games, but they are absolutely H.I.larious.

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My personal favourite is ‘Torch Dash’. It was SO much fun. Bear with me whilst I try to explain/describe it. Are you ready? You’re about to start an offensive on the ‘Spice of Life’ hostel to rescue the hostages. One of your fellow soldiers has just cut the power to the building. All is dark. Suspecting an offensive, the guard sets up the search light. It expels a beam of light across the grounds. The attacking soldiers hit the ground. Getting caught in the beam is a death sentence. Over-descriptive explanation aside, this game is amazing. It’s actually very tense, and the long grass helped us camouflage ourselves as we crawled towards the house. I definitely advise you playing this next year. ‘Contact’ is a very good game that requires a lot of ‘clueing’ of words. It made many nights at the hostel a little more interesting.

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Matthew Hussey

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October 22, 2011 at 8:51 am | Projects, South Africa | No comment

Pemba Blog 2011: Weeks 3 & 4

Welcome back! We hope that things are well in the UK. We’ve been very busy in schools since our last blog, helping out with English Grammar, Literature, Civics, Mathematics, Geography, Biology and Physics! Our project co-ordinator, Ursula, has visited us in schools to see how well the project is going, participate in lessons, and take lots of photos also.

Unfortunately we’ve been without Ursula for a few days because she had to visit Unguja to collect our work permits. During this time we visited the North of the island with Fidel Castro School to a beach near Ngezi forest called Vumawimbi. Much like Misali Island it boasts clear blue sea and white sand. Nearby there is a viewing tower where on a good day you can see all the way over to Mombasa, Kenya. We hope to visit the North of the Island again with Ursula to go there.

Ursula returned to find that we had a whole new family living with us! The head teacher from one of the schools we are working in has now moved in with his family due to renovations on their home. So, we now have a very busy household and lots of children to speak Swahili English (Swenglish) with. We have also had the opportunity to help with the cooking – making chapattis and preparing herbs and spices.

Other work that we have been doing when not in schools includes: working in Sober House, a rehabilitation centre for young men and assisting in Chake Chake library with a man called Mohammed who runs English classes for both Primary and Secondary school-aged children.

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Sober House is in Mkoroshoni and here we are teaching basic English language skills to a group of 12 men aged between 22 and 40 who are recovering from alcohol and drug addictions. They follow a strict programme, learning many new skills, and recovered addicts volunteer their time to help others. English language is an important new skill for them to learn and our privilege to be helping them out.

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Our work in the library is an effective non-formal way of helping children and young people to practise their English speaking skills and Mohammed is a very hard-working dedicated librarian-come-teacher. He also runs a weekend school in Mkoroshoni, which we have been invited to attend when we next have a free weekend.

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However, coming up this weekend is the ‘mid-project review’ when we from Tenteleni will meet with our EdLITE partners for project evaluation workshops, some leisure time and of course lots of Tenteleni icebreakers! We are looking forward to being all together again and will report back on our activities very soon.

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Beth and Romina

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October 14, 2011 at 4:48 pm | Projects, Tanzania | No comment

Pemba Blog 2011: Weeks 1 & 2

Karibu! What an action packed two weeks it has been! We volunteers, Beth and Romina, arrived in Chake Chake to find our starved PC, Ursula, who had struggled to find food here during Ramadan. Luckily for us it was Eid and we soon found our favourite eateries for lunch (consisting of buns and tea) and dinner (kebab, egg and chips).

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Training started promptly on Sunday and we met our EdLITE partners: Mohammed, Haji, Mussa and Mzee who are all currently working in the four schools we are placed in – Shamiani, Connecting Continents, Wawi and Fidel Castro, respectively. Training week was a hit with all involved; we got to know one another, played lots of games and famous Tenteleni icebreakers, and even managed to fit in a visit to the Pemba museum, which our EdLITE partners were almost more excited about than us!

Our first week in schools started off a little disrupted due to a ferry disaster in Unguja but soon we were into the swing of school life in Pemba, welcomed by all teachers, students, community members and even the village sheikha, who attended two of the Working Together workshops. Romina has also had the chance to work in a Primary School, teaching them some English nursery rhymes and Beth has been involved with afterschool Biology food testing practicals.

In our free time we took a boat trip over to Misali Island – paradise in every sense of the word, apart from a couple of snake encounters. Here we had the opportunity to go snorkelling and see lots of corals and little fishes, which as a biologist I should probably be more accurate in naming. We have also visited Wesha beach resort for well needed rest and some western home comforts such as burgers, pizzas, and even a flushing toilet! However, we are very much enjoying Shamba living – each day fetching water from the well with support from many children and villagers who are amused at our “muzungu” (White Person) method of hugging the buckets as opposed to carrying them on our heads, which for the record is EXTREMELY
difficult!

For now, it is “wazungu bye bye” (White People Bye Bye) from Pemba as we must prepare for our 5:30am wake up and cycle to school. “Usiku mwema” Good Night!

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Beth and Romina

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September 26, 2011 at 10:04 am | Projects, Tanzania | No comment

Pienaar Blog 2011: Final weeks

Writing our final project blog, I unquestionably feel sad that the Tenteleni project in Pienaar has finally come to an end. Over the last few weeks all of the volunteers , myself included, have really felt like we’re becoming a part of the community and it’s such a shame to leave when you’re starting to really see the changes your presence has made in the schools and the surrounding areas.

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Some of the most exciting days over the last few weeks have been those our project has arranged within school which included the Arts and Cultures event and the Sports day. These were certainly lively, to say the least, and despite the frantic worrying and fretting that each event wouldn’t go to plan, both of them somehow managed to work out.

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At the Arts and Cultures events, all the schools joined together and performed cultural dances, songs and even plays and the atmosphere surrounding the event was pretty amazing to see. As well seeing the schools perform, some of the volunteers here in Pienaar also thought it would be a good idea to present something ourselves… and I don’t think any of the schools were prepared when we began our rendition of the Spice Girls complete with dance moves and solo performances. It was quite literally show-stopping. As one of the teachers said to us with a shocked look afterwards, ‘well that was certainly unique!’.

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Luckily, come the Sports day, we’d all decided that Tenteleni had had enough embarrassment for one lifetime and were instead left to referee rather than attempting to join in and wheeze our way across a sports field. This time the focus was left solely on the kids and they did an amazing job running, playing netball and football in the absolutely boiling conditions on Msogwaba stadium. Perhaps when I say kids though I should specify that the competitive streak of some schools had them entering what looked like 18-year-olds into the under-11s football squad (if you’ve ever seen Spacejam you can imagine them as the huge scary monsters) and they certainly flattened some of their fellow teams.

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For once this week, I am also not the only one writing up a story about Tenteleni, as a journalist from Mpumalanga news showed up to cover the days events. All this was fantastic until we opened the paper the following week to discover the journalist had renamed Tenteleni ‘TenteleniVic’ and had obviously found some of the volunteer’s names a little unexciting and so had changed them from Dave to Dare. All in all though the day worked out really well despite a few stressful moments and some injuries, with Shishila Primary School coming out on top with most trophies overall.

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As we reached our final week in Pienaar, I for one certainly felt the time had come far too soon. Our last days were spent taking photos of the kids, playing games and generally trying to take in as much of the atmosphere as possible before we finally disappear. On the final day of school, all of us were also taken aback by the effort the school put in to say “thank you and goodbye” to us.

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At my school, Tiga, a huge assembly was held with the entire school present, followed by performances from the children we had worked with most, speeches, dances, singing and finally they presented us with cultural clothing with the message that I must never forget them. When our bus came to pick us up, all of us were quite the spectacle in an array of African clothing, headscarves, shoes and even jewellery which the schools had given as presents and I felt quite honoured that our presence there had produced such affection from the schools themselves.

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I find myself in the strange situation now of being the last volunteer left in Pienaar, as the others have gradually left on their flights home one by one. Instead, I will get to explore Africa even further as my project co-ordinator and I are travelling down to cape town over the next few weeks… Where we’re going first or what we’ll be doing is yet to be decided as it seems the relaxed atmosphere of South Africa has finally caught up with us. I’m certainly sad to say goodbye to my time with Tenteleni though, and for those of you reading this blog, I’d certainly encourage it both as a life experience and as an amazing opportunity to work with incredible people, both in the township and on the project itself.

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Alice Myers

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September 26, 2011 at 9:25 am | Projects, South Africa | No comment

Matsulu Blog 2011: Week 1

When packing for a two-month excursion to foreign parts, how much should one take? Well, if you’re me, the answer would be everything and anything. Now the pre-departure stress of squeezing all remnants of my life into a suitcase, followed by tediously taking out object by object of negligible weight, made little impact to the luggage weight. It wasn’t until the suitcase and I were on the road to Heathrow airport that such stress no longer overrode feelings of great anxiety and excitement. Having checked in my not-so-surprisingly overweight suitcase, I wait all lonesome with bated breath for the arrival of fellow volunteers. Complete relief overcomes me once they’re in sight, my mind now at ease knowing I’m travelling with company. I might just about manage to hop on the correct plane.

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Up in the air and on my way to Jo’burg. When the lights are dimming and heads are dropping into slumberland, it isn’t the best time to have a disagreeable stomach, especially when crammed up by the window. Fortunately for the couple sat next to me, someone must’ve been looking out for them, for my bile stayed self-contained till I was perched above the toilet. I couldn’t have been more ecstatic to have an airplane toothbrush, even if the toothpaste wasn’t the most refreshing.

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Touchdown after twelve hours of blood-clotting worry. By now I wished for a teleportation device to transport me to my final destination – a five-hour bus ride didn’t seem the most appealing. After much packing, unpacking and repacking of luggage, none of which by my account, onto a minibus filled with the most vile mixture of odours, we were finally on the road to our awaiting home. Home at last, that is Libuyile Lodge, safe and sound. Rather content to be welcomed by a good old-fashioned South African braai and some much appreciated warmth in these winter times here. I was yet to learn that my jumpers and scarves most definitely should’ve taken priority place in my suitcase.

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As Sunday morning awakes me, training week is officially upon us and it’s time to oil the rusty workings of my brain. Slowly the clogs turn, we’re eased into the week’s events with a training introduction and the first of many workshops, on aims and expectations. Our very first visit out of Libuyile Lodge landed us at the oh-so-culturally-rich Spar of Malelane, a place that would bring much happiness to our Mondays for many weeks to come. Internet access and shopping time brings a smile to any volunteer’s face!

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By the next day, Tenteleni training is thoroughly in the swing of things. 8am wake-ups for training week would seem like sweet, sweet lie-ins when the dreaded 5.30am alarms kicked in for school days the following week. But still, my body clock doesn’t agree with these lie-ins and I am yet to appreciate such restful sleep. And so, one is very eager to begin training, to settle any anxieties and to share expectations.

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Many a workshop was covered, the least enthralling being Health and Safety, despite its essential purpose for the project. Enthusiasm being the major essence of any Tenteleni volunteer, icebreakers were used extensively to break down barriers and for future reference at everyone’s placements. These brought much laughter and joy, making time speed up rather quickly. When it came to attempting to learn the local language, SiSwati, of the Mpumalanga province, much hilarity passed between us volunteers. I most certainly know, that for me, languages are a major downfall, but one can only try and try I shall. For I cannot compare SiSwati to any other language I have come across; the clicks are just almost impossible, not too natural for a native English speaker like myself to master. It is now very easy to comprehend how difficult it must be for SiSwati-speakers to be fluent and understand English, for they are two languages incomparable in many a way. Using SiSwati will be essential for gaining respect from the community, particularly elders, whilst participating in cross-cultural exchange.

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Now cross-cultural exchange has its own workshop, emphasizing the importance for every Tenteleni volunteer to be proactive in conversing with those from other cultures. A fair few locals from differing backgrounds dropped by the lodge to facilitate workshops such as SiSwati and local customs. How interesting it was to learn of others’ beliefs and traditions, and now very eager to leave the lodge and get involved with the community. By the end of the training week, we would most certainly be able to tick our box to note our involvement in cross-cultural exchange. As Wednesday night draws to a close, thoughts of my first appearance at Sehlulile Primary School rests on my mind.

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The time is five thirty am, please wake up! The time is five thirty am, please wake up! The first taste of awakening this early is not quite as daunting as I initially assumed. Well, the darkness peering in through the windows is clearly a sign it’s not natural for us humans to be out of bed. Even when the sun has arisen, little light disperses throughout the lodge. Now it’s surprising one manages to dress and groom oneself in an adequate manner with such gloomy conditions, worsened by the vast amount of tree canopies that encompasses the lodge. We say our farewells to our project coordinators, and with our school lunches in tow we alight onto our minibus. How strange it is to feel as if we’re the schoolchildren on our merry little way to school for the first time ever. Excitement and anticipation fills the air as we slowly bump along the stony path. The innocent child expecting Christmas day is alive within me.

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Stepping from the comfort zone of the bus, and then treading cautiously past the principal’s office brought me to linger outside the staff room until granted permission to enter. I felt a certain lack of sense of belonging, temporarily lost for purpose. When ushered into the staff meeting, I stood rather awkwardly crammed by the door, for what seemed an eternity. Slightly intimidated by the not-so-spritely and smiling faces before me, but let me not forget the time of day, for it’s a rare quality for everyone to be chipper at seven in the morn. After much discussion between the staff, surprisingly in English, the principal officially introduced both my placement partner and I to the staff team. With my nerves now settled and my anxiety levels under control, we’re shown to the front of assembly. Surprised, was I, that the number of school children stood before me was so few. There is no assembly hall, just a congregation of learners at the steps of the school. It is already very clear the great difference of available resources the school has compared with UK schools.

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Whilst my mind wanders, I’m ever so slightly daunted by the entire school in front of me and the challenges ahead of me. The children begin singing, and suddenly I’m overwhelmed and feel completely at place at where I’m meant to be. Dazed by hundreds of beautiful, innocent faces staring up, I’m impatient to settle into the school already. And so, we’re introduced officially in assembly to all the learners. How heartwarming it was to listen to hundreds of innocent children’s voices singing so angelically.

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At Sehlulile Primary School, Tenteleni is clearly well established as two educators are enrolled as volunteer coordinators, who are there to give guidance and support specifically to Tenteleni volunteers. The day continues by successively being introduced to each class from grades 4 to 7, greeting the learners with some basic SiSwati I’ve picked up from training week. Placed on my face is a constant smile that cannot be wiped away. As I walk from classroom to classroom, it becomes more natural to stand before such large classes of children. And with every class I enter, the excitement of beginning work at the school progressively intensifies; it only just dawns on me how lucky I am to be where I am, doing what I am.

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Louise Sutton

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September 19, 2011 at 1:51 pm | Projects, South Africa | No comment

Barberton Blog 2011: Day in the Life

A day in the life! So a few people, namely my father, have noticed that most of what I write about, if not all, are the weekends I have been spending in and around South Africa. There is in fact a base reason behind me coming all the way down here. I am out here with an organisation called Tenteleni (SiSwati for “Do it for yourself”). This is an educational charity that is run by student volunteers, for student volunteers. I was recruited at Bath and after going through interviews and training weekends I eventually ended up in Barberton on project in Fairview Mine Primary school.

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A normal day starts with an alarm at 5.30am. This was excruciatingly early for the first week but now just means that the whole day is shifted and I am in bed by 10pm the latest (if I haven’t fallen asleep on the sofa before this :-p). Diana’s alarm goes at 5.45 and if i havn’t got out of bed by that point its about now that i do. I am completely fed up with Big Ben chiming away!!! (diana’s alarm tone…). Usual morning routine commences and sat down with breakfast at about 6.30am. If we are getting the noisy cramped combi that takes the other educator’s to school we would have left by now, however most mornings we are collected by the amazing Principal of the school who conveniently lives next door (has nothing to do with the fact that she found our homestay… obviously!).

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Ms Skohsana picks us up and we are on our way. Fifteen mins later and we arrive at the Gold mine. Driving in through the guarded gates, we are met by a few fenced-in dogs and a few men looking for a ride deeper into the mine. Getting closer to the school and suddenly there appear hundreds of children from both sides of the road (approx 420 learners). We slowly turn into the playground trying desperately not to hit a child and having to hoot a few times some mornings. The kids just are not aware of the BMW that is coming up behind them!!

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On Monday and Fridays there is an assembly from 7.20am to 7.30am and then supposedly 15 mins of ‘Drop and read’ although this rarely happens. Classes start at 7.45am and there is then a very confusing timetable that is kinda made up by each teacher as they go along. Most classes that are meant to take place do, although not for the 45 mins they are meant to… and when a teacher is behind, they write the date of the day the lesson was meant to take place, not the actual date…. even more confusing!

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I, on the other hand, have not been based in a classroom for much of the project. After the first few days I saw that there was a lot of work that needed to be done in the library. The teacher librarian was already very overworked due to a lack of staff and so the library had been a bit neglected for the last 8 months. This somehow has led to a massive amount of disorder and general mess.

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The library now and me with the principal!

When I first walked in I was faced with three cabinets that were lined up facing me (although they are capable of opening from both sides), behind which there were shelves, drawers but not in a cabinet, files, a white board, a metal frame and lots of books. This all belonged to the mine. After I managed to sweet talk the mine assets manager, he removed all of the rubbish and I was able to work a lot better with the space that I had. It took two whole days of sweeping and mopping before the floor was remotely near looking slightly clean. I had found some foam squares that all connected together so that became the cover on the floor and I moved the shelves around until I was happy with the space that was available for kids to use. Once all the shelves were positioned it was onto the tiresome and time-consuming job of cataloguing. Each and every book in the library is meant to have an accession number, a call number and a label on the outside. Most do, although there seem to have been several sets of accession numbers started and so some have got the same number but two different books… always confusing J. I am 6 weeks down the line now and I have made a dent but there are still more books to do. I aim to finish them all but I will not be surprised if there are some left. (It doesn’t help that I have recently run out of stickers for the outside of books…)

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Although it has been hard work, and every day at school, although with the odd few occurrences, is very similar, I am very proud of the library and I was chuffed when the principal came to visit it and was in love!

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Outside of the library I have been tutoring a few of the grade 3 boys that are somewhat behind their age group. I have taken them for a few maths lessons, worked on some reading with them and have recently started going into Grade 3 and taking English with the whole class. Their educator has said that she finds it very helpful having someone that is a native English speaker as she finds it very difficult to switch between SiSwati and English quickly. Something I can only imagine would be very hard to do. For the remainder of the project (so only a week and a half now!!) I will be in the grade 3 class more often, helping in English and also helping to correct the maths work. As from January, they will be learning English from a younger age, and grade 4 is taught completely in English, so it’s good for them to start getting used to it now!

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There is a break for ‘lunch’ at 10 till 10.30 in the morning where there is a mad rush for the kids to get their food. Diana and I normally have a quick bite to eat in the staffroom and make a drink before heading out into the playgroud. I am trying to learn some of the jumping games the kids play and more recently we have started to teach rounders!! It is the game that the kids will be competing in on our Fun Day next week!! They are all starting to get more excited which is good news!

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School finishes at 1.30pm (ish, big ish!!) and all the children get their respective buses back to their village. If we are going with the educators, we hop into our combi and bomb it to whichever non-formal placement it is we are doing that afternoon (or like today, Tuesday, I come to the URC to update you all!). If we go with Ms Skohsana we go in the same direction and get dropped off by our loving principal.

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The days can be long and hard and now the hot weather is getting hotter, things seem longer and harder!! Still having as much fun though! And still looking forward to the weekends! Will let you know how the rest of my English classes go!

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Abigail Thomas-Verweij

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September 19, 2011 at 1:25 pm | Projects, South Africa | No comment

Barberton Blog 2011: Weeks 1-3

Week one – Hardcore in-country fun-times training

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“It’s that time of night again!” was a phrase that was used every single night this week. A day (not always particularly long) of hard work and many a flipchart sheet, followed by cooking of that night’s dinner of choice, normally led to the inevitable giggly-on-the-verge-of-delirious mood that came through tiredness and pure brain drain! We practised our lessons and forms of teaching. We met our shiriki partner Puleng and the five of us spent time getting to know each other and how each other’s brain ticked.

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We had a few very interesting chats with NGO representatives from the area and tried to learn about the local customs as much as one can by listening and not living. Learning SiSwati was good fun, with lots of help from our Puleng (it turns out a fair amount of the language pack is Zulu…) Once we were well versed in the volunteer role, and one episode of Blind Date later, we were armed with objectives and aims for our time in Barberton and ready to meet our schools and our homestays!! J Emjindini watch out – the girls are moving in!

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Week two – Let’s get it started ha, let’s get it started in here!

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A lot of firsts this week. The first hike around the Barberton mountains. Amazing scenery and beautiful weather. Here’s to the rest of our 8 weeks in this beautiful country. Looking down at Barberton from a height was definitely a good way to eat lunch J.

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The first night in our new home and Diana and I are staying in quite a small room. It’s a lovely house and the family are the best. We could not have been luckier. It will definitely test our abilities to deal with each other and live in each others pockets though!

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Our first day in school. Diana and I were picked up at an hour in the morning that I had not seen in a very long time, and I think the last time I did, it was probably at the end of a day rather than the start. Turns out the sunrise over Barberton is quite spectacular though!

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First breakdown over frustrations at school. I have since found a place for myself in the library but Fairview Primary and its educators were much more dysfunctional than I think I was expecting. Having found my home in the library I really hope I am able to help bring the reading programme that is already in place, back up to the surface of every day.

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First South African food experience. With the help of a few of the educators at school, Diana and I were taught to eat with our hands. It wasn’t as messy as I was scared it would be! Will definitely be practising at home when dinner is served by Nonhlanhla, my sesi (sister).

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First dive into the non-formal placements. We are based in Thandanani, which is a home-based care centre where kids come for food after school before heading home. We had a good treasure hunt where we hid questions around the centre, which they had to match to answers at the end. Then played a rather epic game which very nearly killed me!! Although it’s chilly chilly in the mornings, it is not beneficial to be wearing that many layers at 4pm and be running for your life from a 10-year-old child that insists you WILL be stuck in the mud!!

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I am also helping out in the location library – a very small but charming place that I have already enjoyed sitting and reading in, being asked every now and then by learners if I can help explain a question or help them answer a question in good English! There will also be work in the URC, the resource centre where we get our internet, but that hasn’t started yet. And I think the bulk of it will be helping with the spelling bee that they are presently organising! Yeah, we get to mark a shed load of spelling tests…. J

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Weekend exploration adventure 1 – Vibrant Maputo

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After a hard week at school, it was time to venture outside the walls of Barberton and South Africa. Last weekend was a hike, some chillaxing and church on Sunday. An explore of the Emjindini trust with all its animals filled the rest of Sunday nicely and I certainly had my eyes opened to the sheer broadness of the quality of living. This weekend the Girls were on tour. We (eventually, but that’s not the point) got into our hire car and made our way for the border. Mozambique, here we come!

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We met up with the other volunteers from Matsulu, Pienaar and Nkomazi East in the backpackers’ hostel for one night, then proceeded to meet lots of new people, left, right and centre whilst having a great weekend in what was really not the nicest of cities. The beach was not a beach that we could spend any length of time on, but then the weather was not that great until the last day (of our four-day weekend!). We did enjoy some pretty amazing seafood whilst chilling in the restaurant of a hotel on the beach of Catembe, and we left the warzone behind feeling the end-of-break blues.

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Week three – Gone in sixty seconds

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This week started on Wednesday, what with the national holidays on Monday and Tuesday. Most evenings were spent chatting with Sabelo my new 19-year-old bhuti, tasting the new foods that Nonhlanhla was putting in front of us and at school working in the library, up to my elbows in dust and what I can only figure was a rat’s old digs.

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Diana and I have been taken along to a few sports games now. Fairview are very proud of their netball and football skills and they have every right – they are very good! The educators are all very welcoming and after a very successful “Working Together Workshop”, things are running much more smoothly now. There is no pressure for us to be where we should not and I think that harmony may be reached! (as clichéd as that sounds :-p)

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Abigail Thomas-Verweij

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September 19, 2011 at 11:00 am | Projects, South Africa | No comment

Pemba Blog 2011: A Project Coordinator Perspective

Ramadan, Eid, Cows Beaches and Shamba Life

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Twenty-one hours, three stop-overs (Doha, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam) and an audiobook (When God was a Rabbit) later, I finally completed my journey from London Heathrow to Pemba Island ‘International’ airport, which turned out to be little more than a hut with a glorified bit of tarmac in front of it. As the small six-seater plane made it through the clouds and the island came into view I had my first taste of what the next three months would hold – palm trees, blue sea, white beaches and lots of tin huts.

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Pemba is a small island (only 67km long) about 80km north-east of Zanzibar (Unguja). In Arabic it is known as ‘El Huthera’ (Green), which actually describes the island perfectly as it is almost jungle-like everywhere apart from the towns and sea. The population is under 400,000; so in such a community visitors, especially ‘wazungu’ (white people), stick out like a sore thumb. But the most predominant aspect of Pemban life which immediately stands out is the friendly nature of the people. Everywhere you go people will greet you warmly, and even try out some English on you and let my practice my (shaky) Swahili. Everyone is very willing to help, whether you want to find a cold drink, try a local dish or just have a wander round town, so I have already made plenty of friends in Chake Chake, the main town.

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When I first arrived on Pemba the holy month of Ramadan was still being observed, meaning that during daylight hours all adults and children above the age of 7 fast, only eating a small meal at 6.30pm after the sun sets, and a main meal in the middle of the night. Pemba is predominantly Muslim country, the only Christians seem to be those who have emigrated from the mainland, which meant that getting any food during Ramadan was near impossible, apart from at market stalls late at night. For the first few days I survived on egg and chips and oranges I managed to scavenge from the market – all I can say is Pemba should advertise itself as a new extreme diet boot camp during Ramadan.

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The festivities that came after Ramadan more than made up for a few days of going hungry though. I was invited to spend the day with Nassor, one of my local colleagues from our partner organization EdLITE [http://www.edlitezanzibar.org]. The day was a fantastic rapid introduction to Pemba culture and lifestyle. First we had breakfast at Nassor’s home, including some special Eid cakes and chai, which tasted delicious after so long without a proper meal. Then Nassor took me on a tour of all his relatives’ houses, as is tradition on the first day of Eid (sort of like relative visiting in the UK, apart from here most live within walking distance). I seemed to meet most of the population of Gombani village, as well as a few of the surrounding areas, and at each house I was given more special Eid cake, chai or juice, which was all delicious. By the time we reached the final house I was stuffed, only to be greeted with an invitation to join them for lunch, which consisted of a mountain of rice. By the time I left I felt like I had put on a couple of kilos during the morning, but also that I had begun to understand a little more of Pemban and Muslim culture.

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The next day Nassor had a completely new adventure in store for me, which was great as all the schools and offices were still closed to celebrate Eid. We drove out to a small rural village in the south of the island, where an income-generating project involving cows has been set up. One of the cows had given birth, but was then unable to stand up. So I joined the group of men who had a plan to get the cow back on its feet. After a short trek through a forest of coconut, banana and clove trees we reached an area where three cows were tied up, one certainly looking worse for wear. The men began to dig holes in the ground to drive in some wooden poles, watched by all of the village children. After about two hours work in the hot sun (I was sweating and I was only sitting down), the men had built a small wooden three-sided structure and began to drag the cow up the hill and squished it inside. Apparently this was going to help it stand. I have no idea whether it worked or not, but the poor cow looked like it needed some water and to see a vet, not to be hauled about and poked with sticks. Nevertheless it was interesting to see life in the rural village and explore some more of the island; just the view of the jungle and hills was worth the trip.

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On Saturday the volunteers, Beth and Romina, arrived in Pemba, which was quite a relief as I had been roaming Chake Chake alone (or with newly acquired Pemban friends) for the past week. Muzungus are pretty rare in Pemba, so when I did see one I had the tendency to jump upon them and quiz them about what they were doing on ‘my’ island. One turned out to be a newly arrived peace corps volunteer, while another was a M&E guy from UNDP, both of whom were equally surprised to see another foreigner. So when the volunteers arrived we made quite a spectacle snaking through the small streets of the town. I felt rather like a mother duck with my brood of volunteers following on behind. The very next day we started our training programme with the four local volunteers, Mohammed, Mzee, Haji and Mussa. It was a great feeling to finally have the project underway, and soon the small room was filled with hysterics as we taught them ‘Old McDonald had a farm…’ and exchanged ideas on culture. The local volunteers were particularly interested and confused by what they called ‘courtship rituals’ in the UK, just as we were equally bemused by the Muslim tradition of men having up to four wives. While they were bemused about the fact you might date someone for years before getting married (and might not actually want to ever get married), we were equally confused about how a husband managed to spread himself between four wives. Apparently he can keep some kind of diary system or something…

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One of the biggest challenges of living in Pemba is the language barrier as few people speak English well, and my KiSwahili is still limited to greetings, introductions and finding food. This challenge manifested itself when we ran out of toilet paper in our hotel. First we asked the receptionist in English, then we found our phrase book and thought we had it solved (karatazi ya chooni). However he returned with the paperwork concerning our room instead. Due to the desperation of the situation I then attempted to act out toilet paper in some kind of bizarre charade , while also repeating the phrase in Swahili, with the poor receptionist guy looking more and more confused. Then in a last ditch attempt I tried drawing a picture, but my artist skills are pretty limited. Thank goodness for Mummy packing an emergency supply of tissues!

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At the end of the week we were invited to a head teacher’s house for lunch, and afterwards to a debate at one of the secondary schools. After lunch the teacher gave me a tour of the local area on the back of his moped, which was an adrenaline pumping experience as he was talking on the phone, while negotiating chickens, children and pot holes, while also gesticulating to me all the local points of interest. At the debate we were introduced as special guests and I was asked to be in charge of scoring the students’ grammar. If only they’d know how limited my knowledge of English grammar actually is…

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Finally it was the weekend and we could enjoy a day out of Chake Chake. We took a boat trip to Misali Island, about 1 hour and a half by boat from Pemba. We spent the morning exploring the island’s beaches and chasing crabs around the beach, and the afternoon snorkelling along the coral reef surrounding the island, which was fantastic. I have no idea what any of the fish were called, but they looked so beautiful and colourful I could have stayed there all day. Unfortunately the sun had other ideas and I had to escape into the shade before I became a lobster.

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On Sunday we moved from Chake Chake to our home for the next ten weeks, in a small village called Vitongoji, about 10km from Chake Chake. There is not much in the village apart from a few tomato sellers, a primary school and lots of small children. We went to collect water in the evening, but all of the nearby taps were off, so we had to go about 10 minutes away to the well. By the time we got there we had a huge band of small children following us. When it came to carrying the heavy buckets of water back to the house Beth and me attempted to carry them on our heads, which drew whooping, clapping and singing from the children. After a couple of minutes we had to stop though – my head has still not adapted to African living.

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We were supposed to start the project in the schools today, but unfortunately there has been a disaster in Pemba, so today was declared a national day of mourning. In the early hours of Saturday a ship sailing between Unguja and Pemba sank, taking with it about 200 or so of the 800 passengers on board, most of whom were Pembans returning home [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14864400]. Such a great loss of life has really affected the small community here, with almost everyone knowing someone who was on the boat.

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So that’s the news from my first two weeks in Pemba island and my new homeland. I’m sure the next few months will hold numerous adventures and excitements – and I’ll be sure to let you know!

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Ursula Hankinson

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“Adventures with my rucsac”

http://adventureswithmyrucsac.blogspot.com/2011/09/ramadan-eid-cows-beaches-and-shamba.html

September 13, 2011 at 8:37 pm | Projects, Tanzania | No comment

Pienaar Blog 2011: Weeks 3-5

So let’s describe the story so far,

I’ll explain all the experiences we’ve had in Pienaar.

In this, our week number five

All of us have seen the township come alive.

We’ve visited the Chief’s festival, and seen all the sights

Struggled with strange food, and been visited by termites.

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But let me begin with our story in school,

Each of us has settled in and is no longer the fool.

We’ve even got a timetable – that mythical creature,

And our lessons are currently the talk of the teachers.

The kids are amazing and have been teaching us games,

But their culture and energy put old England to shame.

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In the after school placements, our projects expanded.

At Daantje youth centre – Tenteleni has landed.

Unfortunately it seems, the kids are as yet unawares…

That or they’re merely running off scared.

Hopefully next week, some of them will arrive

Otherwise our company to them, we will have to deprive.

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At Siyakhula and Two Sisters, the orphan centres of our scheme,

The kids are getting used to us and are having a scream.

Patrick as yet is still to choose a wife,

But whether they’d accept him or not is still a cause of strife.

At Msogwaba library, the quiet has been disturbed

With Tenteleni invading as a new African herd.

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We’ve still had the weekends in between all of this,

And because we’re so knackered, they’re always pure bliss.

But don’t be deceived that they may have been quiet,

In fact they’re the opposite, and always a riot.

Last weekend saw the first full moon,

And with it, the Pienaar project descended in a swoon.

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We visited a rock gig, and partied all night,

Stayed up too late, and only went home when it finally got light.

Then next morning, feeling a little worse for wear,

We went to the chief’s festival and lost all our cares.

Watching the dancing and listening to the beats,

All of us were soon enough tapping our feet.

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Unlike the partying of last time, this week we stayed local,

Saw all the sights and were a little less vocal.

We travelled to Blyde River Canyon, a truly stunning sight,

And on Sunday visited an elephant sanctuary, where we saw them in their might.

Unfortunately all this action’s made everyone ill,

But hopefully by next time there’ll be plenty more thrills.

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Will fill you in again soon so try stay updated,

And apologies if this blog was a little belated!

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Alice Myers

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September 1, 2011 at 8:26 am | Projects, South Africa | No comment

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