Monday 12/05
Went to CCP for the day with Hannah and Abby - staff meeting 0800-1100. They always start with worship and d/v (devotional) time - best thing ever! Then a lot of nitty gritty as they have recently begun procedings to break off from Project Gateway's umbrella as they are getting very big(there are other very complicated reasons for this move - but we are only just starting to brush the surface of what our role is in the organisation let alone in the bigger 'politics' of these things - so we're waiting and seeing. i don't think it affects us as volunteers - and that's the main thing at the moment!)
We also got our 'timetable' (i use this phrase very loosely!) for the week and i think (my memory is a little hazy at this point in time!!) that abby and hannah went to Georgetown Secondary while i was going to Nontiwele (no idea if that's the right spelling!) to teach the children about HIV/AIDS.
I jumped into the combi that was taking us and they drove off; and despite my polite musings that i was sure we had left someone behind (the guy who had told me which car to get into hadn't followed me) but they continued insistent that everything was fine(i mean i was a newbie after all!)
It then turned out that we were going to a church creche first and then onto the school so that was interesting as I saw a large, understaffed creche in a very small space for the first time (hence the falling in love with a month-old baby in the previous post) and as the meeting was conducted completely in Zulu and wasn't translated I have no idea what was going on! Whatever was being talked about was certainly sobering and challenging for the staff - and as this was my first day part of me thinks that it was easier for me to stay in a cloud of fuzzy misunderstanding!
From the creche we went onto the school. At the school the lessons are also done nearly solely in Zulu to make sure the learners(students) get the best understanding of what is being said - which is fine - tiring to stay alert-looking after a while tho!
Tuesday 13/05
I spent alot of time in the same school observing the facilitators from CCP interact with and teach the children. It is so tiring to be in that environment for essentially the whole day because I found I was continually checking my behaviour, how people were responding to me (and the others) being there, feeling slightly(!) out of place because of being white etc etc. Indeed, by the end of the day I found myself surprised when I occasionally looked at my hands and discovered that I wasn't black!!
Wednesday 14/05
I asked to spend the time back at Bethany House because I wanted to see what I could do practically to help rather than spend time being driven around and observing lessons which were beginning to make me feel rather useless (not that I told them that - I know it was very important for me to see and try and understand where the staff of Bethany House work for me to be of any use at all!)
I made a start on re-doing some of their informational posters about HIV/AIDS which they take into the schools with them - as they normally just write out info out on flipchart paper and take it with them.
Hannah, Abby and I have been working hard on that since then - and although most of my original plans were scrapped because Abby is an absolute and complete perfectionist(i know she won't mind me saying that coz that was the reason she used to change them all in the first place!) - the posters are really taking shape! And, although we seem to spend far more time on them then seems relevant (proportionally) we are hoping to be able to laminate them so they will last far longer and be far more useful to the staff in the long-term.
While I was doing that Hannah and Abby were having a more detailed tour of the community work of CCP - so that I sort of feel that I should've jumped on the combi that morning - but I found out more about the history of CCP in a meeting that Rob (one of the overall managers/facilitators whose house we looked after for the weekend a while back...) did - so I was gald that I was there for that.
Thursday 15/05
We spent the day at CCP doing posters; followed by a light lunch with the staff - which was a lot of fun and laughs! Then we had a 'debrief' session which was supposed to be serious but the 'stress-relieving' game we played at the beginning (Zip-Zap-Boing for those of you who are interested..) turned into a full on tournament which eventually turned into a dancing/singing session followed by an in-depth discussion about marriage/men/family (all the male members of staff had wandered off by that point..)
so we stayed chatting for awhile and then came back to Gateway - where we found Becky and the tourism dept in a flat-spin as they had had a last minute booking from 19 pastors to stay in cell accomadation that weekend. And also that the Jo'burg Oasis team were coming to stay for the weekend because of the escalating violence in the Jo'burg townships prohibited them from working in their usual projects.
Much fun was had looking for random keys in the large disorganised pile of keys in the office(which is our to-do list for sorting....)
Friday 16/05
After a hectic four days we had another day 'off' from our respective projects and met up with the few members of staff for the fledgling projects onsite (Hands and Feet) who collect and distribute donations to other smaller community projects in need and run the hospital feeding schemes etc.
We went out to one of the creches in one of the nearest townships(Edendale). Unlike Thandi's creche which we visited with Di, Edith and Becky a couple of weeks ago this creche had not been done up and painted by previous teams. There were 20-30 odd children between 0-5years in one of two small rooms which this woman had on the side of her house. They had virtually no toys or stimulation and some of them were quite scared of the cuddlies and various other toys which we took with us. We also took some food and some blankets as its now getting 'cold' in the winter(i will never get to used to calling this weather winter!!)
It was fun to play with the children but it was incredibly difficult to begin to process the conditions in which were doing so. The room was small, dark and the smell took some adjusting to! The children seemed to be less apprehensive of us than the children at Thandi's creche which was the opposite of what I was expecting but lovely nonetheless.
We were there till lunchtime and we had lunch given us by the staff of H+F when we got back to PG - which was difficult to accept as they had spent most of the time telling us how their over-stretched staff situation was exacerbated greatly by a shortfall in funds at the moment.
Spent some time on the computer and then had a very long and rambly conversation with Kylie (working in the Gateway School of Fashion) which lasted literally several hours till the Jo'burg team arrived after being rescued by Hannah and Phil from driving into a township!
A huge amount of lasagna had been cooked so we mainly just ate and chatted for the rest of the evening - till the majority of the Jo'burg team headed to bed after a 7hr odd drive and we were in bed not too long after.
The weekend 17/05-18/05
The weekend was different to how I we had planned - but alot of fun. The Jo'burg team headed out to the beach very early on Sat. The Wildcat Girls followed into
I wrote about Gateway Shopping Centre in my church magazine when I was writing about my pending trip to SA a couple of months ago as a method of contrast to the type of work I would be doing and the environment I would be working. And boy, is Gateway Shopping Centre different.
Its absolutely HUGE. Hannah, Izzy and I spent basically the entire time on one floor! Didn't act do that much exploring of the centre which I now regret, but at the time I didn't think doing one floor could possibly take that long!
I didn't buy much but spent a lot time jst soaking everything in - can't say that it'll be one of the things I can say was the greatest use of my time out here - but it was alot of fun to spend time with the girls and to at least see the 'largest shopping centre in the southern hemisphere' which I feel I would have 'missed out on' had I not gone - even if in reality that wasn't quite true!
and spent some time chilling out before a late bed for me - because I was 'too tired' to actually go and get into bed!!
Sunday morning we said goodbye to the Jo'burg team early – hoping and praying that they will stay safe despite escalating violence in the city - as we went to church with Edith and Irene (older members of the Project Gateway crew, surrogate grandmothers to everyone and anyone - including the Wildcats and general legends/local celebrities).
They took us to ECC (Eagle Christian Centre) which was an experience and a half! Exuberance isn’t quite the word! The worship was pretty awesome and the preacher was a bishop from
We all shook a lot of hands and hugged a lot of hugs, everyone was so welcoming!! Although I feel I should be getting used to that by now!
We have in fact been invited to their outreach event in a couple of weeks time because they were so impressed with us(may I add that we did nothing other than what most normal Christians do when they visit a new church – which is generally sit there looking nervously excited and join in as best they can!)
After a three-odd hour service we headed home for a ‘make-your-own’ lunch and a few of the hardcore shoppers headed out to do yet more shopping while the rest of us took a bit of time for chilling out/general headspace. I sat in the sun and read =D. Sunday was the first day I truly missed home – because of one of the songs we sang!! And so that was unusually tough because I had gotten used to the idea that I really wasn’t going to miss home very much at all. It was all fine – just had to be conscious not to wallow and sit around thinking about home too much!
We then ran the childcare for a special service which was going on at PCF – some amazing things happened in that meeting – which we were unfortunately not able to be in – but we had a rather chaotic time keeping 20-odd kids of a rather large range occupied for the best part of three hours – was a little insane at times – but all good fun!
Monday 19/05Spent most of today at CCP – another brilliant devotional this morn and then time spent simply making some more posters/typing up lesson plans for the staff. Then a meeting about our holiday and what we want out of it with Becky and some general chill-out time!
This week I think we get to start driving vehicles at CCP – which scares me somewhat – but just want to get it over and done with really!
Have also set aside some time to really spend some time in the school IT room – looking forward to getting my teeth into that!
We are also going abseiling this weekend down an 100 and something foot waterfall this weekend in a town about 30-60mins away which I am really looking forward to!
Hope alls well
Peace out x
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