My first week in South Africa was pretty chaotic, but very exciting! After a 7 hour flight from Heathrow to Dubai, then a 8 hour flight to Johannesburg, then a two day stay in Johannesburg visiting Soweto, the Hector Pieterson and Apartheid museums, last minute training and finally a 1 ½ hour flight on a rattling 27 seater plane into Mthatha airport. The plane journey was beautiful, soaring over the mountains of Lesotho and down into the outlying areas of Mthatha. The so called airport is just one small building in the middle of miles of just space and a few small buildings with corrugated iron roofs. Our host met us at the airport to drive us to our project. The open rural space quickly descended into a heavily overcrowded bustling town. My first impressions of Mthatha were that it is crazy. There are people absolutely everywhere, always on the roads walking alongside and in-between cars, there are no lanes and cars just weave in and out of imaginary ones, densely packed pavements, noise, traffic lights (or robots) that dont work or are ignored and dilapidated buildings that stand beside structured colonial style buildings.
My very first impressions of Mthatha are still valid today. Unfortunately I experienced the negative side of living here when we were attacked by some men trying to steal from us, but thankfully another man stopped his car and scared them off there are many good people here. Now we know what the locals are talking about when they say Norwood (the area we are living in) is dangerous! Im sure it was just a one off occurrence though. But we are more confident going into town now that weve explored and know where we are going/not going. Also I am getting more and more used to the staring, pointing, picture taking and constant hellos. Ive even mastered driving in Mthatha! Its really quite fun, the potholes make it like off-roading! Everything has become very familiar very quickly, and it definitely feels like home.
Once we arrived, our host did everything to make us feel at home. The children also had painted beautiful welcome posters that were displayed in the room that I share with my partner Maya. We decorated our room with loads of pictures and cards and it already feels more like home. We met the children briefly during their dinner, all 28 of them announced their names. They are all Xhosa names, which have clicking sounds as some of the letters which to us white westerners is alien but to them is completely normal!
Our first morning we were woken up at 6am by the lovely, but loud, sounds of the children singing and screaming in the courtyard outside our door. We went outside for a reading from the Xhosa bible, prayers and singing. Then we had 2 ¼ hours to fill with games to get to know the children, we played all sorts, but it had been a while since I had played childrens games, so I was a little rusty! The children are beautiful and so happy, eager to please and catch your attention. They also have incredible voices, even the small ones sing in perfect harmony! Im very jealous. It is inspiring to see how despite their tragic backgrounds they are able to be so friendly, happy and inviting to newcomers and each other. Although, most do not speak English and those that do, do not speak it well. This was quite a shock we believed that they all could speak at least basic English! It means that teaching all subjects in English is a struggle for them.
We started teaching almost straight away, but unfortunately the work they did before we arrived has gone astray so we have no idea what their ability is or what content has already been covered. Teaching is a challenge, mainly because the childrens first language is Xhosa and few understand basic English. Another challenge is that there are three lessons being taught simultaneously in the same small classroom, creating obvious distractions. For example, my English lesson involved the class repeating animal noises, much to the amusement of everyone in the classroom. The class sizes can also be quite large especially with new children coming in. The biggest number of children that weve had so far was 34, with the capacity for Thembelihle usually being 20-25. But now it is back to a smaller number, a lot more manageable! I have begun to really enjoy teaching certain subjects. I am really enjoying teaching maths! It sounds crazy but I have missed maths after not choosing it as a subject to carry onto A-level. I also find that the children are more understanding of mathematical concepts, perhaps because it requires less English. I have been teaching group 2 (the oldest group of children) about 2D and 3D shapes, including making some very good 3D models of prisms out of strips of cardboard from an old cornflakes box! I have also started to teach group 2 geography, which I love! Going back to my lessons on river processes has been fun and its great to see them hitting rocks together and shouting ATTRITION at me!
Our afternoons are spent with the children doing activities. When it is hot we take them to the field and play netball, rounders, football… sometimes a mixture of all three. We also found an old parachute behind some boxes in the classroom that we dug out and the children had hours of fun playing games with it (despite the fact that there are huge holes in it, obviously the work of the classroom rats). When it is cold, the children watch movies in the classroom, unfortunately for us the most requested film is High School Musical I may have to invest in some ear plugs. Ive also been making bracelets with them out of thread and beads that I brought with me from home. I tried to teach them how to knit after finding lots of knitting needles and yarn in the classroom. Some of them are quite good! They probably would have been even better if 101 Dalmatians hadnt there to distract them! One day we set up an assault course for them in the field which they really enjoyed. I also have been baking with them! So far we have made cupcakes, shortbread and scones! They love baking as well, especially the tasting part!
Thembelihle Home celebrated Heritage Day which was such an enjoyable day for everyone. We cooked a traditional meal of dumplings and Xhosa bread made outside on the stove, which was delicious! We also painted our faces and the children did some traditional dancing and sang Xhosa songs. The children completely come alive when they dance, Ive never seen them so happy. It was a brilliant introduction to the culture here, Im so happy to have been a part of it.
We also had the chance to take the children to a funfair in Mthatha. The Rotary Club let the children in for free along some snacks and juice. The night before we spent hours making dozens of scones for the day, only to discover that scones in South Africa are what we call cupcakes in England. But the children seemed to like them anyway! In the morning we prepared a feast of sandwiches, scones, crisps, sweets and juice and waited for the taxi (obviously running on African time, like everything here!) for two and a half hours to take us to the fair. The children were so excited, maybe even just as the prospect of going somewhere new for once. They all went on the swings and the waltzer before tucking into the feast we had lovingly prepared. All in all it was a lovely day, I wish we could take the children to more of these kinds of things!
We have started to take the children to a local church in Norwood every Sunday, the children love the singing and dancing, and just the different environment they get out of going to church. Although, services are strangely half in English and half in Xhosa, so they can only understand half of it. They have been invited to join the Sunday school and take part in the Christmas service which is run by the children. It is good for them to be around other children from the community, and be involved in a community event, and also to learn some new Christmas carols! Some of the children are very religious, and religion plays a huge part in all of their lives. Im starting to get used to prayers every morning and evening, and I havent been caught out at lunch for a while for forgetting to say God bless our food before starting!
Recently a woman has been coming into Thembelihle in the afternoons to teach the children beadwork. It will be a good skill for the children to have and they seem to enjoy the challenge. Most have now managed to make a South African flag out of the beads and some have even moved onto making earrings. Although, this means that our afternoon lessons have been shortened to only one hour, stretching us on the lead up to exams in three weeks time. We are writing the exams ourselves and preparing the children with revision. It means our evenings are filled with writing exam papers and revising with the children but hopefully it will pay off if they achieve the grades they want.
Apart from that my time here has consisted of storms, heat waves, proposals of marriage, worms medicine (for the children, not us, thankfully), rush hour traffic, learning Xhosa (well, trying), the arrival of a KETTLE (this, I have decided, is my favourite invention), shaving the childrens heads (which is possibly the most strangely satisfying experience ever), finally getting round to cleaning the fridge, cooking dinner with no light, chopping vegetables with blunt knives, discovering my love of samp and beans, mending two dozen shoes with superglue and spending hours trying to explain that South Africa is a country not a continent.
