I hope you have your reading glasses...

Sooo, my very first, belated report, and what to say! Well, firstly that it’s very belated. Sorry about that! By rights I am supposed to be writing every quarter, but the time has somehow flown by here! In fact, being more than halfway through, it makes the return date far too tangible for my liking. So much time having spent integrating, observing and understanding quite how I can make a difference here, and now time is against me to implement them. But we’ll talk business later, you can expect that from 7 months in Africa I would have a lot to say, and having left it this long I have no idea where to start, so I will start with the most obvious topics first and see where that takes me!

Aaaah the food! It is a long way from the diverse selection you get in England, however, being new to me, I am happily getting used to African cuisine. The staple foods are pap and samp, both coming from the maize plant. Pap is basically one solid lump, mostly tasteless, and so is eaten with something else. Pap and gravy is the classic combo. As is pap and pilchards, pap and chakalaka, pap and worst (sausage) and pap and achaar. Basically, we eat pap a lot! And if not pap, samp! Achaar is a very strong tasting mix of mangoes, oil and other things, and takes a lot of getting used to. Worst (pronounced Vorst) is the South African sausage traditionally eaten a lot by the Afrikaners. In terms of meat, we have been steadily making our way through a cow that was killed in November, and I have to say I think has deteriorated! 3 month old windpipe isn’t easily digested, especially when one remembers how often the power has cut out to the freezer. I’ve also had chicken intestines (chicken mala), chicken feet, but not yet chicken heads.  Would you believe you can crunch right through those legs? Lastly, one of my favourites is Mopani worms. I hope to take as much back as my baggage allowance to share some with everyone! Veg is eaten less often here, and if it is it is normally either spinach or squash. I am coming to miss brussel sprouts just a little.

In terms of drink, there are two options. Salty, lukewarm water, or “cooldrink”. The former explaining the high consumption of the latter, “cooldrink” is just fizzy pop, kept nice and cool and is very tempting in hot weather. They come in almost fluorescent colours, similar to the way soft drinks are in America. Hence I have decided to be very careful in my diet all round – it is very easy to slip into bad habits without your mum nagging you. The warning signs came when looking in the mirror, and for the first time in my life I am putting on weight. This peaked just before the summer holidays (which start in December here) finished, and by the time I return I hope to be back to normal. The South Africans do love seeing me put on weight though, in contrast to my partner who arrived slightly porky, and receives some disparagement of his now slimmer body.

The sights and the smells and the sounds of a Township are very different too. Sometimes walking home, I can shut my eyes and pretend I am at a festival; the smell of litter and fires, the crunch underfoot of broken glass, and the sound of someone blasting music far off somewhere in the distance. Imagine orange, sandy “roads”, tin shacks, concrete boxes and the occasional modest bungalow scattered about. It’s not something easily compared so I will take many photos before I leave. Botlokwe is a widespread settlement made of conjoined, expanded villages. We live in the southernmost village of Sekonye, and thus have an amazing view out into the expanse of the bush. To be able to see for miles and miles (and miles) of acacia trees, with a winding dirt road in the distance is incomparable. Having been lucky enough to travel through many of South Africa’s biomes, the bush up here in the north is my favourite. Maybe it’s because I am attached to the place. Last weekend we travelled with African papa up to the family farm in Bochum and the bush there was my most favourite. It was a calm, cool, grey day and walking up a dry river bed, the peace of mind was exquisite amongst exam woes for the learners.

On that day the weather was gorgeous, although this is definitely not always the case. It is often stiflingly hot, and this was worst during the first few months. Quite a tan was built up from exposure during the hour – walk home ever day, but for now I am glad it has cooled down. African thunderstorms are amazing though, and can last for a whole day of flashes and rumbles. Sometimes it rains so hard I almost can’t be heard shouting over the noise of the drops pounding on the tin roof. Despite the beauty and the soothing sound, it tends to cut off the power, sometimes for a few days, which is a nuisance, but going back to basics, and candles, is actually quite nice. The cold bite of English weather goes amiss here for sure, and the learners ask me how I can wear only a t-shirt when it is like 20’C!.

I should talk about my African family. I have two brothers, Chico and Moloko, 18 and 29 respectively, and my sister Shibu, who is 26ish. At first we were all together, but now Chico has left, and Shibu too for Jo’burg, and the house is now just Moloko, Chris (my partner), Myself and African papa Stokie. He is an absolute role model. He is the first host in the 5 years of the project in Botlokwe running to actually request hosting volunteers, and he looks after us very well. Whatever interesting things he does he tries to include us. He himself is a teacher, as well as a very well respected member of the community, and a member of several important groups. Very disgruntled (as are many) with South African politics, he even talks of starting his own political party. Being interested in politics myself, I have had many a discussion with him, and even printed off Labour’s 2010 manifesto for him.

The community here is very friendly. Our site supervisor was impressed at how different our attitude is to most people with regards to townships. Townships are generally feared by some people, due to normally being associated with crime. Although there is some crime here, and we don’t go out at night on account of this, Botlokwe is relatively safe. Then again, compared with Jo’burg, most places in the world are relatively safe. The community stands together, especially given the corrupt and incompetent police force. Recently, I visited a house being burnt down, known to be that of a notorious criminal in the community, and the vigilante justice stood firm. Police came, but that will be as far as it will go. Stories of officers asking for bribes, or other corruption, are rife, and the news of the Mozambiquan taxi driver murdered at the hands of the police I have heard made it to BBC news.

 We do stand out however, being the only white people in the township, and this attracts a fair deal of attention from adults and children alike. Not a day goes by when I am not mobbed by children, and it has forced me to improve my interaction skills with little kids! There is also a huge language barrier, more so than I really expected, and communication skills are put to the test, especially as learning the language has been slow so far.

In a nutshell, the year so far: arriving, getting settled, and getting a first taste of teaching, and the challenges here. Of seeing how things work, the lack of teaching that occurs, the lack of willingness to learn by a lot of the learners, and the difficulty of teaching in the conditions. After the first short break, we saw the kids through their final exams, had a slightly tedious period at the end of the school term where apparently the kids just don’t bother to come to school, and enjoyed a well earned summer holiday travelling. Having had a taste for how things worked, we hit the ground running in term one in January. It has been a heavy slog, but the details I will discuss later. We have term 2, and half of term 3 left! But I plan to stay in the area, and continue to teach, specifically grade 12. Why do anything else? I have seen a lot of South Africa already, and I came to make a difference, so that is what I will do.

My travelling is now mostly finished, but I have done a good deal of it. In the first holidays, I spent a week with other volunteers from Project Trust in Durban. Durban is the Indian capital of South Africa, and has the highest amount of Indian people in the world anywhere apart from India. It served as a good microcosm for South Africa. From out hostel, 200m in one direction led to a tourist trap, Ushaka marine world, and 200m in the other direction led to a street we had the misfortune of walking down at 5am in the morning; a fresh pool of blood on the pavement, drug dealers, and the most eerie vibe I have felt almost anywhere. Comically, I had decided at this point to match a beige shirt, beige shorts and walking boots, in a Indiana-Jones-esque style, which was not what I expected to be jokingly wearing when offered drugs and female company. Durban however was really good, and the best experiences were just going out and exploring, finding some amazing curry places. They eat bunny chows, which is curry served in a hollowed out bread loaf. I’ve managed to get a reputation for trying very hard to experience the cultural things, and one occasion attributing was the day I dragged everyone out the Hare-Krishna temple. It had been recommended, and sounded good, so I stressfully led everyone around town trying to find a Combi-Taxi that was going there. The trip out to the Indian township through the Kwa-Zulu Natal landscape was half the experience. Sarcastic remarks were however uttered as pulling up to the temple, we saw that it was much smaller, far less ornate, and far more plastic that the original picture suggested. The tour lasted around 5 minutes, followed by around an hour of existential argument with a Hare-Krisha Priest, and some time drinking mango lassi. Of course as well as such events, we spent some time on the beach!

Before Christmas I travelled all the way down the east coast on the Indian ocean, visiting lots of places, backpacking along the way. I did this with four girl volunteers from Polokwane, but even went some places on my own. I met lots of interesting people: locals, travellers, volunteers and even some English folk. There are a lot of Dutch travellers, as the language is almost interchangeable with Afrikaans. It was nice to be among English speaking people, unlike the broken English in Limpopo. It was good also to see these other people’s perspectives of the county. Bearing in mind Limpopo is 99% black, and notably mostly Sepedi speaking (the different languages found roughly speak for the areas cultures), in travelling I saw more of the Zulu, Xhosa and Afrikaans sides. The Afrikaans are unsurprisingly outspoken on the direction and politics of their country, and it was interesting to see how their sides of the arguments differ. Perhaps not unsurprisingly, they are very critical of the ANC leadership, not unjustifiably so though.

I was worried that by free-association writing I would end up with a very tangential piece of writing but l would like to take a break from writing about my travels to talk about the politics. Let me first exemplify this “duality” of perspectives on the politics. Before I do I have to mention that everything pertaining I do not claim to be fact, much is hearsay and anecdotal, and that I take no sides, and only observe.

 A well known and recorded story is that Jacob Zuma (the president) was accused of raping/sexually assaulting a woman, who turned out to be HIV positive. Now he was not charged; let’s assume this was an entirely unbiased trial. He was reported to have said that “it was okay because he had a shower afterwards to wash the HIV away”. The Afrikaners do pick up on this and say “look who is leading our country!”. Some of the more politically aware people here (my papa) say that it was said in sarcasm, as he was aware of it being a plot to discredit him during the previous rounds of elections when he was running against Thabo Mbeki for presidency of the ANC. If you ask those who are less aware and perhaps slightly more brainwashed, they will deny that he ever said this. Some of you will challenge this and say “well how could a president really say something that stupid” – after being re-elected this year, he said that taking good care of your dogs, and taking them for walks, as well as using hair products, was part of “white” culture, and should not be followed by blacks. Despite the poverty in the country, and the fact that he is given presidential houses, he still felt the need to build a million pound ranch for himself, allegedly using taxpayer money. Much of the evidence I have received is anecdotal, and it’s hard to establish the truth, or any kind of reason from a lot of the stories I hear.

There is to an extent complete political dominance by the ANC in the country, despite their failings in education, health, the police service and corruption. They are still voted for, I believe, due to their liberating history. Talking to some members of the community, I asked them why they vote for the ANC. They reply “because they champion black rights”. I ask some to name policies, to which they can’t. Then some express distrust of the “white” political parties, some even accusing them still of plotting to create a volkstadt (homeland) for the whites in South Africa. Of all the ludicrousness, the one thing I can’t foresee is the country going in a backwards direction in terms of racial rights. Then again, people do vote for UKIP and BNP in England... Frustratingly, Nelson Mandela himself said that he didn’t want the ANC to be voted for because of its history in the struggle for freedom, yet that seems that it does occur. I mentioned a lack of knowledge of policies, and even I have not found out much on the differences between parties, but I think that highlights that voting here is maybe still racial, as opposed to, well, political, as we are used to in the UK.

The other main party here is the DA, which is the “white” party. They are the prominent party in the Western Cape, which is the most “whitely” populated area, and which has to be said is a little more developed than the other provinces. Cape Town is a uniquely cosmopolitan area in South Africa, and there is a migration of the more skilled people from Jo’burg, where most of the jobs are, to Cape Town, which is seen as much more pleasant. To take one quote, bias yet revealing, one Afrikaner I met compared the Western Cape to Gaul as described in the Asterix and Obelix stories; a tiny idealistic place surrounded by the oppressive Roman Empire; A tiny, relatively well functioning area amongst the sea of corruption and unexplainable things of the ANC. To put this in perspective though, this was said by a slightly drunk but intellectual man with whom I was engaged in some light hearted cynicism with, and the Western Cape is definitely not without its problems. I have to say that every Afrikaner I met whilst travelling was pleasant and liberal minded. Blatant racism still exists here, but I have only really seen it from those up here in Limpopo. It is possibly to sympathise with the Afrikaners to some extent. Nelson Mandela himself was very concerned during his political talks about preserving the rights of the whites post apartheid, who do exist in minority here, and since that time it has to be said the country has seen some bad leadership from Thabo Mbeki (who was an AIDS Denier) and Jacob Zuma.

Corruption is a huge issue, much like it is in other areas of Africa, and like in such places money is power.  Jacob Zuma himself was due to face corruption charges if he were not re-elected. However, having being re-elected now for a second term, there is less vested interest for him to be corrupt as he cannot run for a third term, although he could well run for a different position within the ANC. The ANC has provincial executive committees and the one for Limpopo was recently disbanded, due to their “factionalism and criticisms” of the ANC leadership. Although it is worrying that this “criticism” was silenced, the move was done more realistically to get rid of the corruption in provincial executive. Limpopo is notoriously bad for corruption, and it seems to be common knowledge that the premier of Polokwane was found burning millions of Rand of dirty money. My Papa sees this as a good move, but only if these disbanded individuals are not allowed to run in the elections for the next provincial executive, preventing them from being able to “buy” their way back in.

Having said this much, I ought to mention the other big topics that dominate politics here. Firstly is education. South Africa spends more money per capita on education than any other country, yet still yields poor results. The education system can be another tangent (or maybe another entire entry). There was a large scandal last year as text books due to be distributed failed catastrophically to meet their destinations, and it was found that textbooks were being burnt by the warehouse storing them for Limpopo in Polokwane. The government promised to rectify the problem this year by introducing a tracking system for the books, but in reality the situation is very much the same for a lot of schools. There was an Annual national assessment exam introduced last year to see performance across the country, and the average for Grade 9 maths was incredibly low, 13% in fact, only I marked those exams for my school and their results were even worse. The term one tests for this year have been equally bad, and it remains to be a large challenge, but that will be a different section! The other day I read an article stating in a global survey into education systems in developing countries, of 144 countries, South Africa came 140. When they did this in relation to maths and science education, South Africa came 143! Just some interesting facts for you.

Another big topic has been around the rioting and wage deals for miners and farm workers, especially so since the Marikana incident. I speak of some things assuming some basic knowledge, I am not sure how much of these events reach BBC news at home, but I know the Marikana incident made its way into our news for some extent; for those that don’t know, I will try to explain with some transparency on the issue as the enquiry were is not yet finished.  Rioting/strikers may or may not have been running towards or away from police whilst they may also may or may not have been under the belief that they had been made invincible by magic, whilst holding “traditional weapons”, sticks blades and spears allowed on cultural grounds. The policed fired shots which may or may not have been in self defence, killing many. You see, it may sound like I am taking the piss slightly, but people really do believe in witchcraft, and some believe in magic and traditional healing – some people still refuse to take ARVs (Aids medication) and instead take traditional medicine from traditional healers. If you combine that with the violent nature of the country (Jo’burg being one of the worst cities in the world for crime, and the country notorious for rape), and you can begin to understand.

There are a million such anecdotes, stories and experiences, some which spring to mind straight away, others part of a haze of understanding which has built a picture for me. All the time I stay conservative in my opinions afraid of misunderstanding, although I hope from this amount of time I am starting to hit closer to the truth.  You can see every time I try to explain something it leads me onto another topic, which is why I am afraid explaining myself is going to be very difficult, if not at least long winded, but for me things are more apparent due to all the interlinking experiences of politics, school, travelling and day to day life that I have had. Maybe if you re-read this whole thing it will help you come up with your own opinion. I certainly have my own on many things (hopefully you can read between the lines), including my own inkling of what may or may not have happened at Marikana.

See despite two whole paragraphs I haven’t even managed to actually talk about the striking miners and farmers! Striking and civil action is very common here, and people do it to some disregard, and I remember one volunteer at placed at a hospital complaining about the situation left by striking workers and ambulance drivers there. In some cases the trade unions are almost more powerful than the government. This tendency to strike is one of the many things bequeathed to the country from the apartheid era, when such resistive mobilisation was very common. The miners strike over wages, but they receive still a better wage than the farm workers. Some farm workers currently receive only R80, which is around 5 Pounds, which is little considering they work for ten hours a day in the heat. Some of them are given very poor housing and living conditions too. The government is planning to increase this to R110 though. Again this is an issue that I have experienced duality on. Some people accuse the mine companies and farm owners of profiteering whilst giving poor wages to workers. Talking to an economist I met, he told me that the mine companies (most of which are international ones) are internationally regulated and thus are not capable of being able to profiteer to such an extent. Likewise the farm owners are accused of profiteering, yet they themselves say the demands of R150 day will bankrupt their farms. It is hard to know where the line of truth is. If the demands really are too high, then it is irresponsible of those people leading the people to strike, but sympathising with the working majority is a dangerous way of gaining support, which perhaps some do. If the farm owners are being unreasonable then action must be taken. Many of the farm owners blame the inefficiency of South African labour for the need to keep the wages low. The same economist told me there was a global index that rated the production efficiency of workers, with Asian workers having the highest rating (South Korea being no.1) and South Africans being  very low if not the lowest. Lastly, it has been stipulated that the ANC government is very reluctant to do anything about mineworker’s wages due to the fact that a large amount of its member have shares or part own these mines.

Quite a few people I have met have thus lost faith in the political system. In fairness, the sides of the ANC I have seen do contrast a lot with the picture made by Mandela in “the long walk to freedom”, but let’s not lose perspective. Plenty of people in the U.K are fed up with the politics, and most politicians are capable of saying stupid things.

If I finish talking about my travelling; I went some amazing places on the east coast, did some really good hikes, learnt to surf (just about) and had some really good fun, especially bumping into the Project Trust volunteers from Botswana and Swaziland randomly in a dorm room at 1am. One of my favourite places was called Wilderness. I decided to go there, as it sounded really un-touristy, and I managed to pick awesome backpackers that was really chill and hip, and it even had its own vegetable garden from which you could just go and pick whatever you wanted and cook for free. It was there that I decided to go on my own to, but it was there that I met some of the best people, including 3 very funny Afrikaners who I talked for hours with. I took the opportunity to go shark cage diving in mossel bay and see the great white sharks, and go sandboarding, which was more tiring than fun! After that I went to Cape Town, where almost every single project trust volunteer from southern Africa was going for the festive season. We did let our hair down a little, to the extent that some of us were fitting a year’s worth of such a scene into a few days, but I still managed to see everything I wanted to. I half got a reputation for going off and doing my own thing while most were still nursing their hangover. I got to see the city, some museums and such (which, would you believe, is a big deal being deprived of such culture for 5 months), went to Stellenbosch for a wine tour of the vineyards with some of the Afrikaner people I met in Wilderness, went to Robben Island, went on a tour of the peninsula, and hiked signal hill (which you DONT get phone signal on, ironically), Lions head, and Table mountain, which was exquisite. Xmas day was spent halfway up table mountain in a cave with the entirety of those staying at our backpackers, having hauled up there speakers, food, and plentiful amounts of champagne. We even took advantage of the cinema, and went to see The Hobbit on the waterfront. We were sad to say goodbye to everyone, knowing we wouldn’t see them again for another 7 months, and also to Cape Town, as we were not going to experience anything as developed as that for a long time too. One thing I took advantage of was the availability of proper coffee, which is sorely missed. Also on the last morning I took the opportunity to get some of the good wine I had tasted, and also some “proper cheese”. I may be being a little poncy but the only “cheese” they have here is Parmalat, which is very  processed, artificial and plastic, and so I thought I would try an experiment; I bought some gruyere, camembert, gorgonzola, goats cheese and others from the food market in Cape Town to give to my family to try. To be fair, my expectation for their reaction was about the same as my own trying gorgonzola 10 years ago, and that was what I received. Leftovers were happily polished off by me and my partner, a last remnant of the civilisation left behind.

You probably want to hear about the teaching; it’s difficult. You have already read the statistics, and they are believable from what I have seen. I will talk about the conditions n’all, but I want to say that I am really happy to be here trying to make a difference in this place. It wouldn’t be half the experience it is without the many challenges and hopefully this will serve me well in the future. I like taking a step back and trying to make solutions to the problems. I’ll talk you through my classes.

 First is grade 12 maths and physical science. The teaching I do for this is all extracurricular. Before January in the previous school year I had been teaching grade 11, and decided to follow the same learners into grade 12; I had already built a relationship with some of the students, and could see that some of them were committed to showing a great deal of dedication and interest for their studies. Previous volunteers I don’t think stepped into this territory, perhaps because it is quite advanced maths and physics, equivalent to A level. Some of it is different to what I studied, and it requires me to keep one step ahead of the curve and learn what I am teaching! Like I said, it is new ground for volunteers to help in this area, but it became apparent that maths and physical science were the two most important subjects for university applications, and it is what both the school and the country do worst at. If I could take this opportunity to actually use the things I learnt in school to propel these learners into higher education that would be a mammoth achievement in my eyes, and would be the sort of difference I came here to make. Having said that, it is hard to teach older kids – some older than me! It is very tempting to be friendly with them, which I am to some extent, but I also have to be prepared to check them when they are out of line. Frustratingly I won’t be here to help them revise for their final exams, which are worth 75% of the whole year, but hopefully I can prepare them well for before I leave and leave them with lots to do.

Grade 10 Computer application technology is another class of mine. “CAT” is what the volunteers are required to do as minimal, as aside from the head teacher who is very busy, no one else in the school can teach it; most are not very computer literate. I and my partner split the course, with me teaching mostly the theory side, which is interesting as it is new knowledge to me. It is perhaps the shorter straw, as the learners prefer to do practical, but practical lessons are very difficult, as there are more learners than computers, and somehow something is always broken or not working. On top of that it requires a lot of patience as some of the learners take a long time to pick stuff up on account of them never having ever touched a computer before! Sometimes I make sure I can be in the lesson to help if Chris is teaching practical. The kids are also very adept at doing things they have not been told to do, and I have had to send a few kids out for playing games – takes me back to my days at school, I was much better at not being caught.

Grade 8 English is a big challenge. There are 68 kids packed into one classroom, and needless to say this makes it hard to teach. Keeping a whole classes attention in these conditions requires some extreme enthusiasm and inventiveness, and can be done sometimes. Not all the kids are so attentive though, and I decided that what I could achieve in the timetable was not enough. English is possibly the most important subject the kids can learn at a young age. I am scared of sounding imperialistic when I say that but it is true. English is the “language of instruction” in SA, which means teachers are supposed to teach in it. It means all the textbooks and exams are written in English too (with the exception of an option for Afrikaans which seems backwards to me, even discriminatory). The amount of exams I have marked where I can tell that the learner simply cannot read the question is staggering. The majority are in fact way below the level of English outlined by the grade they are in. In the government work-schedule, the first week included “present pictures and initiate a discussion”, which would be difficult considering some learners have difficulty in writing their name. This large range of abilities makes it hard to teach, as one or two have good English, and others cannot speak a word. To remedy this I am taking up extra lessons, but I have an ambitious project involving enlisting volunteers from within the school, and organizing them, making a workbook for them to follow and getting them to work with the learners in Grade 8. They will have the ability of giving a lot of individual attention, something which is lavished even by the naughty learners, and is impossible in the normal classroom situation. They can also teach using Sepedi, which is something I cannot quite do. If things work out, they will be an invaluable help, more so than they can imagine, and hopefully the scheme will continue after I have left. The learners are really reluctant to speak English which is a shame, but if I can improve their confidence and skills then maybe I can encourage a culture of speaking English in class which will be beneficial to all the learners. The absence of books available within the skill range has forced me into writing a few short children’s stories, hopefully to rival Biff and Chip.

Grade 9 maths is the real hair-puller though. All through the school grades learners are able to be promoted to the year above despite failing, until grade 9 that is. You will find in a grade 9 classroom a huge mix of ages (some 20), and adolescent kids, badly behaved. Overcrowding is again a problem, and all in all classroom management is very difficult. It can be the most depressing class, to have come so far and tried so hard for some apathetic kids to throw it back in your face is really hard to deal with. Their level of maths is so poor, to achieve a pass from most of the kids is going to be extremely difficult but again I am doing everything I can.

Another thing to mention is how I have gained a severe dislike for marking. I now fully sympathise with teachers over a lot of issues, including the workload of marking, and more specifically bad behaviour, and how frustrating it is to deal with! I would like to apologize probably to a lot of teachers for my bad behaviour in lower school now, one or two springing to mind in particular as a remember making it a goal to be disruptive. Oh how the tables have turned. It has also dawned on me the quality of my education, and how amazing some of my teachers have been.

With such a large amount I wish I could affect, I know I need to be careful in investing in too many projects. If I limit myself to what I have now and work hard to the end of the year I should be okay. In fact I have stayed behind these holidays to teach grade 12 and to prepare for the next term to give me the head start I need, and I will probably do the same in the June holidays, especially as I leave only an month or so after they finish. Trying give a good heads up on things for the next volunteers will also be a big focus though, to ensure they get a good start, and I would love to try and find a way to help them learn the language a bit more before they come. I have never been in an environment where I was surrounded by a foreign language, and the first few months were squandered slightly; people said we would just “pick it up” but knowledge of some basic grammar and vocab is definitely needed in such a situation, and some help was given by the peacecorp volunteers who had language training.

I spend one day this holidays going to the clinic to get some experience of healthcare here, which I think will be very relevant with respect for applying for Doctors without Borders when I am older. I learnt a few things about how things worked, and didn’t realise how big a problem AIDS is as a disease. I can see that it has implications and is  a difficult thing to solve within a community, and awareness and education on the subject is pivotal in controlling the problem. They say if I get a letter from the district office I can observe some testing, but that may be difficult, as “shadowing” as it happens in the UK is not known here.

I may have shot myself in the foot talking about the dangers of over committing and then listing everything that I am doing, if I mention on more thing (on my own head) it is the last; Dodge ball. I hope the UKDBA read this. Having been sponsored 6 balls I said I would bring dodgeball to the nation. The game transgresses all cultural boundaries, and I see kids in the dirt streets playing similar games. I spent the first period of my time settling and adjusting, ideally I would have started last term but I let time get the better of me, especially as there was a big pressure to do extra teaching. In honesty, I could not find a pump for the balls in the school or township so I hitchhiked to town to buy one, and am excited for starting now. The other problem is that there isn’t really an enclosed space, so I will have to improvise, but I will be sure to record the results! I am also making sure to exercise regularly, partly just to stay in shape and also to stop myself getting fat. There was a 5k charity run to raise money for a special needs school in the township, organised by my papa. I congratulate myself on trying and doing my first run out of school, and keeping a steady slow pace and not stopping. 40 minutes isn’t an ideal time, but try to remember how hot it was! I am really considering if I will be able to train for a longer run, and doing it as fundraising when I return, as one thing that I could really change which I can’t effect from here is the overcrowding, but if I can fundraise for them to build a new cluster I would help them out a lot! London marathon? Who knows...?

There was a four day weekend last term which coincided nicely with the African Cup Of Nations quarter finals. I know the local Peacecorp volunteers well, and they are really nice, and we squeezed 12 of us into two cars on a road trip, going through Tzaneen, to Phalaborwa, Blyde River Canyon, Graskop and finally Nelspruit for the game at the Mmombela stadium. I think I may have seen every stadium used for the world cup now. The trip was amazing and saw some really good sights and got to know the yanks very well. The year has been a learning curve in terms of learning to look past cultural stereotypes and I have to say the Peacecorp vols were a blast, and they do really good work too. The game we saw was Togo against Burkina Faso. Not quite a big name game (Adebayor was playing), but the atmosphere was good, though the sky was a cloud of giant flying insects that kept flying into the crowd. Coming back was nice too, as I got to see all the villages of the volunteers as we dropped them off – I like seeing these places and knowing the area. Every time my papa goes out to a village I ask to come along and I have seen quite a few places now. There is something hugely exquisite in pulling out onto an orange dirt road going on for miles into the distance with nothing but the huge sky and bush all around, and it is definitely something that I will miss a lot when I leave.

 Although I haven’t been to a game reserve yet, I have certainly experienced the wildlife. I have seen giraffes at the side of the road, as well as game (gemsbok, impala, ect, I am not an expert on the differences), baboons, monkeys and zebras. I am determined to see a snake, and I am told you can find cobras locally. There are giant eagles that fly by, but the thing I like most are the butterflies. There are giant, vivid butterflies here and there that I love to see. I (lame, I know) liked butterflies in England on account of my dad used to working with them, and liked knowing the names of them all. Here, I know none of them, although some look similar to native ones. We get huge swallowtails (those I know from books) flying about all over the place. We also get lots of bats too. My dad would be jealous. There are also a fair share of creepy crawlies, bugs, locusts, spiders, cockroaches ect. Not so many rats but there are lizards everywhere, I caught a big one the other day and it bit me! Then of course, there are the mosquitoes. Jeez. Going into some outhouses there are SWARMS of them, but the most frustrating thing is when you are trying to sleep and you have 6 in your room zzzing into your face every five seconds, so that you slap yourself in order to try and kill them. I usually spend 10 mins just chilling, walking around the room, looking to kill them.

Apart from the fatness, the tiredness from working, the heat rash, and mosquito bites I am in good shape. One thing I do miss is a good shower, I have not had one for 3 months now and probably won’t till I leave, and I desperately look forward to my nice power shower at home. Cold baths are not quite so fulfilling. Because of said conditions and the heat, I decided to get my head shaved, and I think I will stay a skin-head for a while now. Most likely I will come home bald, bearded, and with a tattoo of the family crest (a crocodile).

Eish you know 7000 words are enough for you to read I think. I will definitely post again in the near future, but if I were you I would print this thing out for bedtime reading! I hope this reaches the people intended; those not on facebook or who I have been writing letters to. Uploading pictures to the blog might be tricky, but I have taken a few for you all to see, so all in good time!

I think that’s enough for now, I hope this has given you a  good insight, and stay subscribed for more news!

Gabriel Aegerter, South Africa