Surviving Cape Town

Since I’ve already established that CT cannot be considered part of Africa, it is easy to explain why my work-life balance has tilted ever so slightly to the “life” part. I HAVE been working; don’t get me wrong but nothing as challenging as my previous volunteer experiences. Funny enough, I did not factor the potential for this into my thinking when I booked the trip so it’s worked out rather nicely for me. I’m having a mini holiday before my real holiday, which would mark the end of the trip…which I will not whine about at this stage but can’t deny that when the thought crosses my mind unpleasant things happen inside me. Now, waffling aside, the real point of this post is to talk about my recent activities in CT so here goes

The kids at the pre-school have been my main preoccupation work-wise. As with all my crèche/pre-school experiences, this has been equally enjoyable. In fact more enjoyable simply for the fact that the kids speak near perfect English (in addition to Afrikaans and Xhosa (pronounced: click-sound-osa; will let you have fun with that!) – very impressive especially considering they are age 4 on average) which makes communication all the more easy AND interesting. Some of the things they do and say take me right back to my childhood and it’s odd how easy I can relate given that I’m over twenty years older than them. One 6 year old has a Michael Jackson obsession and he randomly breaks out into song (more so recently when he noticed that I sing along with him; fun!) and has moonwalking and break-dancing down to an art. Some of them have started to develop wit and perceptiveness - we were talking about weight the other day and one of them pointed out that I can’t be considered fat but ALMOST fat. The other teachers and I could not help but burst out laughing at this rather astute observation - just got to love it! A few of them are rather naughty and taming them can pose some challenge but their lovely, gregarious ways more than over compensate for these frustrations. These kids are beautiful, full of life and each talented in their own way. I pray they grow up in a South Africa that allows them to flourish

Helping out at the orphanage has also been fun! The work I’ve been involved in so far has mostly involved running reading and Math workshops with the kids as a supplement to what they are taught at school. As previously mentioned, these are terrific kids who have an abundance of resources (certainly in relative terms) at their disposal. They are in want for nothing and have an existence akin to any regular kid in SA (or the West, I dare say). Being around them always puts a smile on my face - from their sly antics to their jokes and vivacious personalities

A funny observation has been made in the time we’ve spent working in Masiphumelele. On one of its more deserted streets, there is a colourfully painted wall protecting a small wooden cottage and right in the middle of the wall is a white coloured slot. The words: “Baby Rescue” are boldly emblazoned on this wall. Add this to the slot and someone came up with the theory that this could be a shelter of some sort where mothers who don’t want their babies, for whatever reason, can deposit them (through the slot) thereby maintaining anonymity. Apparently, under the slot dwells a nice, comfy baby cot that the abandoned babies would fall into and is checked once a day. The flaws with this theory [which was parroted as the truth for a while] are manifold but the one that first sprung to mind was: “what do these poor babies do if they get “dropped” off hours before the cot is checked?” Or “what if three or four kids are dropped off before the cot gets checked; do they just climb over each other and play house?” Anyway, it turns out that after all the debates this baby rescue place has nothing at all to do with rescuing babies. We still don’t know why it’s there but humour lies in the fact that we spent time, nearly each occasion we drove past, debating something that was so ludicrous an idea to begin with!

The fun side of things commenced on my first weekend. Friday afternoon (we tend to have these off work) was spent checking out the infamous Waterfront area after a failed attempt to climb Table Mountain (for weather-related reasons). The area has an eclectic mix of malls, arts and crafts shops, restaurants, cafes and a large arena for various entertainment acts. It is quite the tourist destination and most of the people there were whipping out their cameras for shots at every corner. Dinner that day was at a cozy restaurant called the Octopus Garden in one of the nearby towns called St James. The owner had gone through a phase in the past where all visitors were allowed to write on the walls of the restaurant. Reading these random scribbles made by people in days gone past was one source of entertainment. The other was when one of our fellow volunteers sat at the piano in the middle of the restaurant to display his, hitherto unknown, musical talent. The whole restaurant was singing along to various ballads soon enough…of course this was way past the main course, dessert and drinks…pure comedy!

The Saturday was spent with a bunch of the other volunteers on a tour of vineyards around CT. The wine connoisseurs amongst you will know that SA, specifically CT, is famous for its relatively recent wine history and offering. We got to see vineyards in the Stellenboch, Franschoek and Paarl areas and have to say, it was pretty good wine and though I’ve never visited a vineyard or wine factory, they all seemed well run. We were also taught the art of wine tasting, which was an interesting [read: humourous] experience. It was a whole day affair and after all the wine tasting and gallivanting, we were ready for a big meal and bed!

On Sunday, a few of us hired a car and drove out to the Kirstenboch National Botanical Gardens, which was a far better experience than I envisaged. The garden is littered with SA’s national flower – the protea in almost every colour imaginable. The lawns are all green and perfectly mowed; various ponds and statuettes scattered across its uneven layout. CT’s full mountain range is in close proximity and appears to loom over this picturesque haven. There were different species of birds floating about and we even spotted an owl and its young, resting in a friendly tree. It was a perfect day and many a family were making good use of it – picnicking in the greens, playing Frisbee, kids chasing butterflies, everyone seemingly blissful. It took us a few hours to tour the whole garden and we retired to one of its restaurants for a scrumptious lunch. We then drove around Cape Town and made our to one of the towns on its outskirts [can’t quite recall the name now] to spend our evening listening to Joyce Meyer speak. I didn’t really know who she was prior to this and as I haven’t been to church in a while, have to say that she did have an inspiring thing or two to say, obliterating my initial apprehension at tagging along with the other volunteers to this event. All in all, it was a great day!

The following weekend was relatively tame: Friday afternoon was spent checking out the popular Boulder’s Beach, located in Simon’s town, which is close to Fishoek. Boulder’s Beach is home to the African penguin and we spent half an hour or so watching these little fun creatures frolic about on the shores of the Atlantic. We then made our way up to Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope, apparently the south western most part of Africa. The view from the clock tower at the tip of Cape Point was absolutely stunning; pictures just don’t do it justice I think! For the umpteenth time, I found myself swept away by the beauty of this country

On Saturday morning, I hopped on the train (yes, these folks actually have a train system that works!) and spent some time in the buzzing CT metropolis having a wander around and sorting out my hair, amongst other things. I then met up with one of my volunteer friends for lunch in the town centre and a trip back to the Waterfront. We hopped on to a boat cruise, which took us round to see all of the CT harbour area, with Table Mountain in clear view from the ocean. Our tour guide was funny and witty, making the experience all the more fun. We stumbled upon a rather entertaining, FREE open-air concert thereafter, ending our day with a bang!

Sunday morning was spent checking out Robben Island, previously home to many a political prisoner, not only from SA but actually worldwide. The boat ride across lasted 20 minutes or so and we were given a full tour of the island, including one of the prisons, where we saw the tiny cell Nelson Mandela spent 18 years inhabiting. Our tour guides described, in detail, the morbid circumstances under which the prison was run and gave us a good history lesson of the roles various countries played in South Africa’s history, specifically in the evolution and abolishment of apartheid. The island, very beautiful and rich in history has become more of a tourist attraction and some of its buildings are used to host international conferences and such. We got home late that afternoon and had a barbecue to celebrate our sun-filled existence and again, ended our day with a bang!

As you can see, I’ve been very hard at work. Having fun is not always easy, but someone has to do it! I will try to “survive” the rest of my time in CT :D

T-I-N-A...methinks!

I’d been told Cape town (CT henceforth) would be THE South African experience but have to say that it has completely taken my breath away. From its azure skies to its beautiful white sand and stone beaches, not to mention its astounding mountainous perimeter; its nothing short of paradise. CT [and its surrounding towns] is laid across mountainous plains with the largest mountains (including the infamous Table Mountain) forming its boundaries; or at least so it seems, looking from the inside out. It’s also home to world-renowned tourist attractions like Table Mountain, Robben Island and a myriad of vineyards. I will be sure to update you guys on my views of all the aforementioned

Since my arrival in the area, I’ve had to remind myself on a number of occasions that I’m still on the continent and haven’t been magically swept away to the Western world. I mean other parts of SA have had the Western feel but can’t say it’s anything like this. CT is what I imagine a fusion of Colorado and San Francisco would look like. CT city is something of a commercial hub for the southern part of South Africa and is well endowed with glossy, tall office buildings, large shopping malls, hotels, well-tarred roads and all the mod cons. The surrounding suburbs have lovely homes scattered across hills and mountains with meandering [again, well-tarred] roads that reflect the uneven plain. The view driving through any of these towns is very eye-catching: formidable mountains in the horizon, surrounded by the perfectly blue ocean and as one drives up or down any one of the many mountains in the area, there is ample opportunity to appreciate the view of the city

I’m staying in a little town called Fishoek, which is about an hour’s drive from CT. It consists of a decent stretch of beach, a town centre with a few shops and amenities, with the rest of it being residential. The set-up is pretty much as described above and the view from my room in the house if of the ocean and a series of mountains as well as the rest of the town; our house is up on a hill. It’s a lovely home to approximately 20 volunteers and we are in need of nothing; at least to my mind. I share a room with 4 other girls and it’s very comfortable; certainly one of the most comfortable accommodations I’ve had on the trip. Traveling to CT ended up being a whole day affair as my flight from Richard’s Bay was cancelled so I had to wait a few hours to catch a later one and finally arrived in CT at about midnight. My appreciation for the level of comfort the accommodation had to offer was at its height on that day – I curled up into that soft bed and slept like a baby

Needless to say, my work out here has been the least challenging. Most of our work is done at an informal settlement and a township, both near the Fishoek area. The informal settlement is called Red Hill and consists of makeshift houses that are thus because the settlers are forbidden to put up any permanent structures as the government has plans to relocate them…these plans have been under implementation for 16 years or so with no real evidence that they will ever materialize. There is definitely an income gap between the folks in Red Hill and those in Fishoek but it’s not as wide as some of the places I’ve seen. We teach at a couple of crèches in the township and the kids are all healthy and appear to be well looked after. They are not particularly disadvantaged and the crèche works like any other – a decent establishment where parents can leave their kids while they attend to their jobs. The kids speak good English and are happy and thriving. I enjoy being around them and helping to educate them. The age range for the kids is 1 – 6 years. There are about 35 kids in total, all very adorable. We are currently in the process of refurbishing the other crèche and spend several afternoons a week working on that. From what I’m told, there are many more kids at the other crèche and the school requires a lot more help from volunteers than the one I work at
The other township - Masiphumelele (Masi for short), is in a more developed setting – tarred roads, proper houses, decent amenities and shops etc. It’s however more crammed compared to Fishoek and has fewer mod cons to offer; the majority of the population there is black South African. It is difficult to say with any certainty that set ups like Masi are a legacy of the racism and segregation that came with apartheid, but that would be my guess. That said, walking through the streets of CT, one has to note how multi-racial it is and the general feel is akin to that in any major Western City

We work at some of the Masi schools (in a teaching capacity) and some of the clinics in that locality. There is a vet shelter for stray or abandoned domesticated animals, which a couple of the other volunteers work at. There is also an orphanage for kids infected or affected by HIV, which we do some work with. In all frankness, the children at this orphanage are in want for nothing. Their every whim is taken care of. In addition to the basics (i.e. good food, comfortable home, parental attention and guidance, good, clean clothes), they get extra help with their academics (through us – we help them with reading, math and homework), swimming lessons, piano lessons, help with any sport/thing they express an interest in…the list could go on. The set-up is truly impressive. I’ve seen a few orphanages in the last 6 months, nothing like this!

We run a reading and art workshop at one of the libraries in Masi, which some of the kids attend on a daily basis. They are mostly enthusiastic about the sessions and it’s one way of keeping them busy doing something creative and productive. I love these sessions!

HIV/AIDS awareness in this area is nothing like what I encountered in St Lucia. They are probably where St Lucia will be in a few years to come, if AI’s and other efforts are far-reaching – the subject is no longer taboo; education initiatives have taken root such that AI’s help is not even needed. Most people view HIV testing as the norm rather than something to be ashamed of or treat in a clandestine fashion. I don’t have any of the statistics for the region at hand but will be really surprised if it is anything like the dire levels noted in the KwaZulu-Natal province

If I ever needed concrete evidence to rule SA out as a typical African country, CT has offered that evidence. I’m sure some, if not all of you will agree with me after reading this post that This Is [definitely] Not Africa!

St Lucia - gone too soon

I honestly cannot comprehend how fast the last month has gone. All too soon, my time in St Lucia has come to an end and in line with my reflective mood I wanted to share my main highlights during my time here

I had a substantial amount of my time apportioned to working in the local crèches and inevitably I had favourites amongst the kids. That said I found each of the hundred odd kids that I interacted with to be an absolute delight and I will always cherish the memories of my time spent with them. For now, just a few words on each of my special ones:

Smangah aka Bubbles: he’s 11months old and is built like a 3 year old. He has a big afro and every time I pick him up, I have to resist the urge to bury my face in his big, soft curls. He is just adorable. He always wants to play with the older kids though he is not even walking yet and I think some of them are actually scared of him. He means no harm and is a very sociable chap. He loves his food (which may account for his size, though he’s not fat, just big) and will smack his lips in delight as each morsel touches his tongue. Just has to put a smile on your face

Pilo: she’s barely 2 and in absolute denial of this fact. She wants to hang out with all the older kids and do things that she lacks the mental and/or motor skills to execute. Just have to love her; she has a beautiful smile and I find her assertiveness very endearing. She insists on feeding herself though she ends up using half the food to draw a circle around herself, with half of the other half smeared around her face; hysterical! She took an instant liking to me and the feeling was reciprocated

Lily: 9 months old, absolutely gorgeous and you can already tell she’s a lady. She has a soft voice and you can barely hear her even when she’s crying her heart out. She has a lovely smile and was a favourite amongst most of the volunteers

Princess: about 2 years old. I call her the scowling diva. I don’t think I ever saw her smile, not even once. She would usually be found sitting alone, wearing a scowl and totally disinterested in the world around her. On occasion, she’d go out and play with the other kids but she was mostly happy [as happy as a scowling diva can be] to be alone. I’d try playing with her and she took to lego and playing with dolls or sitting on the seesaw. She used to hate being touched (especially by me) but after a while, I think she just got used to me and the other day I carried her round the school for a walk and she feel asleep in my arms, her head comfortably nested in my bosom. I love her and hope she learns to smile soon

Pumelela: about 5 months old and his name translates to “Success” in English. He is a doll! He is so pretty most people think he’s a girl when they first see him. Light skinned, little afro, beautiful eyes and smile and a very friendly personality. He hardly cries; I believe the only times he does is if he’s hungry or sleepy. He loves his food and aims to finish whatever serving he’s given. Eat-belch-fart-play-sleep is his routine at school pretty much. I took a strong liking to him and it was hard to say bye to him

Senzo: about 2 and a half and is the cutest little boy. He just loves to cuddle and is quite the smiler. Can be very naughty and is usually up to some trick or the other. Loves his food and will usually go through his portion plus the leftovers of his friends! He has a happy-go-lucky personality that I love

Natti: he’s 11 but has development problems that haven’t yet been diagnosed. Until about a month ago, he was crawling around like a baby and only recently started walking though not independently. He drools and makes sounds like an 8 – 10 month old but can feed himself and is fully potty trained. Apparently there is nothing that the education system can offer him by way of special attention and I guess his folks have given up on getting medical help. He is such a lovely boy; will usually greet everyone with a smile and likes to play with his toys or just be. I’m sure with some help he can do so much more but for now he’s just another baby

Zola: 9 months old, could be older but also seems to have some development problems. He can’t sit up straight and is usually always lying down or cuddling close to someone. He doesn’t eat very much and is a very quiet baby. He is beautiful, with the saddest eyes ever and a look that just melts your heart

My next highlight has to be the work I did on HIV Education. As I’ve alluded to in previous posts, the HIV situation in SA (specifically in the Kwa-Zulu Natal Province) is a dire one and the efforts of AI to turn things around is important and must be commended. It was good to see the seriousness with which most of the locals attended the sessions. They all asked intelligent questions on the subject and generally had a positive attitude towards the education initiative. Sadly, most of our organized sessions have a disproportionate female to male ratio. We tried to deal with that by organizing a football tournament to draw in the male crowd, with the caveat that they spend a few hours getting some HIV education. It was a great success; the guys from the village turned up in their numbers, paid attention during the HIV session and asked, again intelligent and insightful questions about the subject. I was pleased to a part of the whole thing and I hope in time to come the myths and negative social behaviour attached to the disease will be eradicated in its entirety

I got involved in home-based care during my time here and found it to be a great experience. As a reminder, what this essentially entails is going into the villages and offering a door-to-door service to patients at home, offering medical care and advice where we can do so. Note that the law in South Africa prohibits foreigners, even if qualified, from giving out full medical care unless with a valid license, which I’m told is near impossible to get one’s hands on. So a lot of the work is limited to just providing human contact i.e. show these people that someone cares about them, provide food supplies and nutritional supplements and if possible dress wounds and take care of other first aid needs. Most of the patients we see are HIV positive so are usually on a lot of medication, experience complications and other ailments that come with the disease. I am usually in awe of how positive they all are about their circumstances and they are all so appreciative of the work we do. The most heart-wrenching case I saw was a 2-year old boy who is HIV positive (contracted from his mom through the birthing process) and has his ears, hands, feet and genitals are covered in sores – a symptom of the disease. He sat quietly, sucking on his feeding bottle as we dressed his wounds. In addition to all this, sand fleas had raided his feet, so we had to take them out, always a painful experience but he displayed such equanimity and strength, barely crying; I was in complete awe of him. Not long after we were done, he was sucking on a lollipop and playing in the yard with his sister, happy as a bunny. Made me think what a great thing childhood is; it makes one see the world in such simple terms…
I also got infuriated by some of the inefficiencies in the SA medical system that were highlighted by some of the cases; people not getting the right medication for their ailments because medical staff couldn’t be bothered to properly assess the patient’s needs and deal with them accordingly. As if the AIDS epidemic in itself isn’t something of a wake-up call…

My experiences in St Lucia, as in all the other places I’ve been, have been inspiring, rewarding and given me much food for thought. Tomorrow I head out to my sixth and final volunteer project based in a town near Cape Town, in the southern most part of South Africa

Swaziland!

I hadn’t planned to dedicate a separate post to describing my weekend in Swaziland but as it turns out, I’ve spent most of my other weekends in St Lucia bumming around and not doing anything particularly exciting or new so the Swazi weekend was as much adventure as I’ve afforded myself in the last month (excluding the run-in with the wave that claimed my camera’s life, of course). Hope you find it at least somewhat entertaining. Apologies in advance for not being able to provide photos from the trip; it was the week after the demise of my camera, when I still harboured a delusional version of hope that it could be fixed

First, the geography lesson: Swaziland is one of 2 countries located within South Africa [the other being Lesotho, located farther south]. It also borders Mozambique to the North East. Swaziland is actually a kingdom and [I cringe a little as I say this but still think it a fair comparison] bears a lot of similarity to the kingdom depicted in the movie: “Coming to America”. The trip was Miss M’s idea and since she lives in Jo’burg, a good 5 -6 hours drive away from me, arranging the logistics of getting there worked out to be a tad tricky. After juggling a few options, it was decided the best solution was for me to rent a car from St Lucia and drive to a town midway to Swazi for both of us (she and her boyfriend (BF henceforth) would be driving down from Jo’burg) and we’d journey on to Swazi from there. Now, for those of you that don’t know me well, I’m hardly the most experienced driver out there. In fact I only passed my UK driving test in April this year so agreeing to this was a rather bold [read: risqué] move on my part. I was fairly confident that I could pull it off though, so that Friday afternoon, I got into my rented car, tuned in to a radio station with decent music, laid out my map on the passenger seat next to me, and with my heart thumping at full speed, I embarked on my journey. I drove for 5 hours to get to Piet Retief, the town I referenced earlier and for the most part it was long stretches of clear road. I built up my confidence and even overtook a few cars along the way. The trickiest part was when I came to a rather long stretch of road where there were some road works going on and it seemed like all of a sudden, 6- 8 foot long commercial trucks surfaced out of no where. Driving around them was pretty damn scary, to put it mildly. I ordered myself a large burger to congratulate myself on my achievement of getting [myself and the car] there unscathed and to kill time while waiting for Miss M and BF to arrive. By the time they did arrive, we were running seriously late for making it to the border before it was closed for the night. Miss M, a far more experienced driver than me, took over the wheels and drove like a deranged lunatic to get us there… BF in tow. We made it just in time, quite literally having to run through immigration, road tax, etc. We drove for another hour or so to get to the Ezulweni Valley in Swazi where our hotel was located. It was late at this stage, pitch black outside and hours of driving and chatting had left us all spent and ready for bed!

We were up bright and early the next morning as we’d booked ourselves in for half a day of white water rafting on the Usutu river. Breakfast was a hurried affair and we soon made our way to the office of the rafting company, which was located nearby from the hotel, thankfully. We had to then get driven from the office for an hour or so to somewhere near Mbabane (Swazi’s capital) where we’d then hop onto the river. Our fellow rafting chums were on the bus with us. It was a morning of fun! Though it has to be said that nothing beats white water rafting on the Nile. The rapids were on Usutu a lot tamer in comparison. The banks of the river were, in some parts, lined with the most extraordinary looking rocks I’ve ever seen. They looked like they’d be sculpted but there were actually natural and came in all colours and shapes. The scariest part of the rafting session was when we came to a damn and had to go down a steep slope about 4 metres deep. We felt that in the pit of our bellies! Miss M and BF shared a raft while I shared one with one of the guides. My raft never tipped over whilst theirs tipped over quite a few times! Fun! The morning zapped by quickly and we soon had to make our way back to our hotel to relax and organize ourselves for the rest of the day

We had a gander through a Swazi newspaper [well it was more like a brochure] to glean ideas of things to do. We found an interesting-looking restaurant and thought we’d check it out. It turned out to be way more than we expected. The restaurant was in a resort – the Hawane (pronounced: Hawanee) Resort, it was called. And the chef there had an array of African dishes on menu; boy did we eat our hearts out! And every single morsel of food was divine. Put 3 food lovers in front of food that good and expect them to have a field day! Nothing went to waste! The view from the resort was a stunning one: it was on a hill so we could see rows of mountains and valleys ahead, all covered in green. It was breathtaking and we were so sad we hadn’t booked ourselves into that resort, as the price was similar to what we were paying at our hotel, but with all this on offer! After dinner, we chilled with glasses of wine in the lounge area and had a rather intense conversation that took us into the wee hours of the morning; religion, marriage, African cultures, family, banking (an odd one to add to the mix but being an ex banker and with Miss M and BF still in the banking world, we were bound to touch on the subject at some point), just to name a few. It was a great conversation; one I’m bound to remember for a while to come. We almost got kicked out of Hawane, so we took our fun to another hotel, where we ordered cups of tea and tried to wind down. We finally made it home, very sad that it was our final night in Swazi

We woke up reasonably early the next morning as we wanted to do some more sightseeing and were keen to avoid leaving too late as we all had work early the next day. We went to see the Phophoyane (pronounced: poponyanee) water falls, which wasn’t much it turned out, but was recommended as a must-see by a friend of Miss M. On the way out to the border, we passed by a dam (can’t recall the name now) but boy was it beautiful. We drove to the top of the dam and marveled at the beauty of the river down below. Its banks were covered with a mixture of lush green vegetation and rocks, similar to the ones we saw on the Usutu river. Overall, driving through Swazi showed that its landscape was stunning: mountains, valleys, rivers, all surrounded by lush, lush green. There were lots of gum trees as well, which were pretty but BF gave me a little history lesson which revealed that these trees are grown to feed the paper production efforts of one of the largest paper producers in the world. These trees are not indigenous to the habitat but were there solely for commercial purposes. They are cut down and new ones planted every 30 years or so. The effects of these efforts have been far reaching; its affected rainfall patterns, wild life movement and habitation, amongst other things. Parts of South Africa have also been subjected to such changes and in some cases complete eco systems have been eroded or replaced as a result. I was quite sad to hear this cause I felt it sort of took away from the beauty of it all. Swazi is a very sparsely populated country and sometimes we’d drive for miles before seeing houses or signs of human life

Sad and reluctant to end our weekend of fun, Miss M, BF and I parted ways at Piet Retief, after grabbing some hot wings from the nearest Chicken Licken! It just had to be done! We were met with very heavy rain during part of our journey to Piet Retief and I hoped that I wouldn’t meet this sort of weather on my way to St Lucia. My luck was not shining that day as half way to St Lucia a massive thunderstorm began. I drove as carefully as I could and after what felt like a whole day, I finally arrived at the house safe and sound

TIA demystified

Taking a slight departure from regular travel and work updates, I want to talk about a subject that has been bugging me for a while now. TIA is a term that most Africans are well versed with and probably use on a regular basis. For those of you not in the know, TIA is an acronym, which means: This Is Africa! Within moments of setting foot on African soil, one is bound to encounter and/or experience a TIA moment and hence be introduced to the term. Admittedly, it is usually used in jest but it actually highlights fundamental problems with life in Africa. But before I delve into my rant, allow me to site some examples of TIA moments
• You are in transit in an African airport and en route to your next flight, your hand luggage [which happens to include some alcohol that you bought in the duty free shopping area in the airport of the country you just left] is scanned. The officer says you have to pay an amount to the authorities, but if you pay him half that amount [yes, as in bribe him], he’ll let you through with no hassle – TIA
• Blackouts [as in no power/electricity], water rationing, very clogged drainage systems – TIA. The water source is at low levels or dried up and there is no backup plan!
• Heaps of rubbish in random spots in cities and townships. This rubbish will often be seen being burnt in various parts…meanwhile a few metres away a youngling is squatting, doing a No. 2 – TIA
• Public bus drivers taking liberties on the road and driving around like maniacs; like they own the town – TIA
• Dirt roads or tarred ones with massive potholes, women practically need sports bras to come anywhere close to comfortable while sat in a car driving on said roads – TIA. The government built half the road then realized part of the road was private property so they tarred half of it and left the rest. In some cases, the government didn’t even plan a road, the residents just created one!
• Formal functions and events commence 2 – 3 hours later than the scheduled time with no apologies or advance notice – TIA, in fact we are working on African time here, hello? What world do YOU live in? Have you not heard of African time? No? Well, now you know…TIA!
• You walk into a restaurant and order food which only arrives 3 hours later – TIA, it could be worse you know!
• Children get flogged in schools for disobeying rules or doing badly in tests – TIA
The list is potentially very long but you should now have a sense of what TIA moments are all about

What I find most disturbing about TIA is the ease with which we all accept it, and in fact, laugh over it. I say “we” because I am very guilty of this charge too. But being back here and working alongside Africans and non-Africans alike, while witnessing TIA in action, I have had to question the sense in doing so. If a function starts later than scheduled without apologies, why don’t we protest or hold someone accountable? Why do we accept it or laugh it off as just a TIA thing? It’s ironic, because tardiness is very disrespectful (being late just screams: “I don’t respect your time”) but from our early days we are taught to show respect for our elders and society at large [but maybe that is the problem: we “show” respect without necessarily “having” it]. When the police stop us for no apparent reason and we soon find out that they want a bribe, why don’t we make that individual accountable for their actions? Understandably, sometimes there are extenuating circumstances surrounding these scenarios I’ve just laid out and we can see what is driving people’s behaviour, but even that fails to make it right. These situations are understandable BUT NOT justifiable. The truth of the matter is that by not saying anything to reprimand friends, family, work colleagues, people we meet on a daily basis for acting ignorant; by laughing at and with them and dismissing these situations as TIA moments, we are compounding an already formidable heap of problems

I also wonder why we can perpetuate [and applaud, I dare say] such negative aspects of the African way of life but don’t tout the positive aspects of it with the same enthusiasm. I mean things like:
• Africa is a beautiful continent and each country has its unique [and outstanding] features to offer. They don’t even tell us that at school!
• Its children, though victims of poor leadership, war, poverty, abuse, deprivation, still find the courage to smile and stay positive about life
• That while most of our cultures may seem archaic and extinct, they teach the essence of humanity - to love and care for one another and look for the interests of communities rather than individuals
• That quintessential African hospitality stands the test of time. Most Africans are very happy to welcome strangers into their homes and treat them like family. I always thought this was true only in Ghana and Liberia but my travels have proved it to be a pretty pervasive phenomenon
• That art has always and continues to be a hallmark of our identity. That in the depths of the dirtiest slum, a ragged-looking chum is hard at work on his canvas producing a masterpiece, inspired by God-knows-what. That even though it is not widely known, some of the best artists through history e.g. Picasso, were inspired by such works of art, hopefully produced under less morbid conditions
• That a zillion pounds cannot buy the feeling one gets when somebody beats the drum well and another bells out a tune simultaneously and we all join in dancing and enjoy that feeling of togetherness; we all know that singing, drumming and dancing is an important part of the African way of life but how often do we acknowledge or applaud it?
I just want to know why we don’t talk about some of these things when we consider piping out TIA

By suggesting this, I am not saying we should ignore the negative things that happen around us, brush them under the carpet and focus only on the positives. Africa’s problems are mammoth by any measure and simply cannot and should not be ignored; certainly not by its own. What I am saying is that we should try to fix the negative things around us by starting with the little things that we CAN change – turn up on time for events; organize ourselves in our communities to deal with environmental pollution and appropriate disposal of waste; educate ourselves about issues that affect people in our villages, towns, cities, countries. And while we are at it, let us promote and/or educate others about the positive aspects of our way of life. I see no reason why we can’t turn TIA on its head and make it something that has positive connotations. I long to see the day that happens! But then again, it might not happen in my lifetime, after all…TIA!!!

The St Lucia stint

Life in St Lucia is moving on smoothly, for the most part, and I’ve pretty much fallen into the swing of things. The main dent in my time here is the demise of my camera during a chill-out session at the beach in my first weekend. I was actually dozing off whilst reading a book when a huge wave suddenly came and washed my stuff away, including my camera. It’s not working as I speak, though I’m working on getting it fixed and, fingers crossed, it gets resuscitated. That obviously means no pictures for most of my activities in St Lucia. Anyway, it’s now time to give you guys an update on my work out here

The St Lucia project is AI’s second biggest (Zambia was the biggest) and a lot of the projects out here bear a strong resemblance to those in Zambia. I won’t bore you by repeating what these entail but will rather focus on the more unique projects

There are 3 projects on offer to volunteers: community, medical and photography. The community project entails teaching/education as well as HIV/AIDS education and helping with various initiatives in the community. The medical project mainly involves providing home-based care in much the same format as that done in Livingstone. The medical volunteers also get involved in HIV education. The photographers typically go on game drives to take photos of animals and the landscape and also spend time editing these photos for the AI database and help with some of the nature conservation efforts in the community. St Lucia is well known for being one of the larger nature conservation sites in South Africa

I signed up for the community project and for the teaching aspect of it, we spend our mornings teaching at 2 local crèches in the Kuhla village. The children there are not necessarily disadvantaged; the crèche, like any other, simply provides a place for parents to leave their kids while they take care of their job responsibilities during the day. That said, you may have surmised from my previous post that folk in Kuhla are not exactly rolling in cash, certainly not in comparison to those in St Lucia. Life in the village can certainly be improved in many regards. The age range of the children is 4 months to 5 years. The setup at each of the crèches is very different with one having far less children who are well attended to and is very well organized. The other crèche is more chaotic in comparison with a large number of children, seemingly incompetent/laid back staff and is rather unorganized. The children are all beautiful though and while I get involved in teaching the older ones, I prefer to and have spent far more time with the younger ones. Teaching the older kids is similar to the work I did in Zanzibar, Kenya and Mozambique, so thought I’d give myself a different challenge this time round. Working with the babies involves more diaper changing, feeding, putting to sleep, wiping snot and tears, playing games and general hangout time than working with the older ones affords. I’m really enjoying it and may well be taking a couple of them home with me

My afternoons are spent working on one of several projects:
Reading club
Quite different to that in Zambia in the sense that there is less of a focus on getting the kids to read but rather a focus on getting them to pick up the skills that will enable them take an interest in reading. This approach was developed based on what the school we work with identified as a weak area for the kids [note, they are aged 12 – 14]. We teach them using a lot of word games [anagrams, word searches, forming sentences with new words, spelling games, hangman, etc] to expand their vocabulary. Some of them have quite weak grammar so some of the sessions turn into English lessons. That said, a few of them are also very bright. (During my first session I was subjected to some form of interrogation, the most poignant question being: “what are your life achievements?” I never do well in answering these sorts of questions and the look on the young lady’s face told me she wasn’t exactly impressed with my answer. I was highly amused and struggled to keep a straight face throughout the whole scenario) The sessions are usually fun and very relaxed but sometimes we make them competitive; we sit on the grass in the shade [under large trees] and catch some cool breeze while we are at it

Gardening
We have a couple of small gardens that we tend to with the aim of providing vegetables and small crops to the people we visit on our home-based care runs. We’ve recently done a revamp of the main gardens and planting season should soon commence. We are currently worried about things like keeping the soil fertile (it’s mostly sand in the area) and maintaining a functional compost heap

Orphanage work
AI is affiliated with a school in one of the nearby villages, which has a number of orphans in attendance and we go over once a week or so to play with and help feed them. There are about 40 orphans or so aged about 6 to 15. They are lovely, very energetic kids and usually good fun. Most of the orphans live with relations in the village. Currently, a set of rooms is being built for a few of the orphans on the school premises, as they have to travel quite far to get there. AI is spearheading this initiative and we work on the project several times a week. The building is now at the furnishing stage so we are spending time constructing beds and putting some finishing touches on it. The kids should be able to move in, in a month or so

HIV education
This is probably the most important aspect of the work being done out here. It is estimated that the infection rate in the region/province is about 80%; note that a sixth of the world’s HIV/AIDS patients are South African. Estimates also suggest that 1000 people die each day from AIDS in South Africa. A lot of work is being done to remove the myths and ignorance around the subject. Apparently one of Bill Gates’ charities has been heavily involved in HIV education and research in South Africa. Nelson Mandela has also been very vocal on the subject especially since his son died of the disease some years ago. Although some of these efforts are often negated by very ignorant comments made by equally prominent people like SA’s current president: Jacob Zuma. Our work in the Kuhla village is with the schools, teaching 12 – 14 year olds about the subject and concurrently with adults in the neighbourhood (the sessions with the kids are actually held in the mornings whilst those with the adults are held in the afternoons). The good news is that they all seem to take it seriously and usually ask questions and want to know more about the subject. Like Zambia, however, there are some cultural issues that may limit the extent of all this good work e.g. it is not uncommon to hear about very young girls getting raped for no apparent reason (turns out 1 in 100 children contract HIV via rape [as in penetrative sex] in South Africa) and women saying no to sex also appears to be a tricky issue while promiscuity in men is the norm rather than a taboo. We tested some of our students’ knowledge the other day and the question at hand was: “what will you do if your partner wants to have unprotected sex and you are uncomfortable doing so?” One answer we got [from a girl] said something along the lines of: “say no but if they persist and threaten to kill you, then acquiesce and get tested as soon as possible thereafter”…need I say more? It has to be said that given some of the shocking statistics around HIV/AIDS in SA (if you are keen to know more on the subject, I highly recommend reading the book titled “28 stories of AIDS in Africa”), it is equally shocking the it’s government has done relatively little to alleviate the problem given the wealth of resources available to them, certainly in comparison to other African countries. A substantial part of the HIV/AIDS work being done here is by charities and NGOs…a disgrace really…yet there seems to be enough money to improve infrastructure in the run-up to hosting the World Cup next year!

10 families
AI has put heads together with the chief in a nearby village to identify the top 10 families in need of help. This help may range from educational needs of children to helping to provide shelter, food and nourishment to these families. I’ve not personally been exposed to this side of the project but from what I’m told, the efforts being exerted are far reaching. AI has helped some of these families set up gardens to provide food; built houses where current accommodation is deemed unsuitable; volunteers go along to help children with homework and other educational needs. The aim is to basically help these families get on their feet and be able to fend for themselves. It’s proved very successful thus far and the families that have benefited from the programme in the past are currently doing well

Once again, I find the work I’m doing very rewarding and am in awe of everyone I work with. My fellow volunteers are all enthusiastic and the people we work with are usually humble, receptive and grateful for our efforts. I find myself getting attached to this way of life, yet again, and will be very sad to leave in a week or so. One month is just not enough time to spend on any one project, it turns out! Oh well, will just have to make the most of my remaining time here, I guess