Although sky diving was definitely the highlight of my weekend we also did a spot of tree planting with Greenpop, a social enterprise which believes in sustainable living and aims to educate the next generation about the environment. We worked with their staff members, a group of primary 6 students from one of the local schools, a group of volunteers, and even a group of guys who came tree planting for their mate's birthday! Together we planted 40 trees, got a bit of a farmers tan, and ate a wee picnic in the car - such a good morning :) In the afternoon I also attempted a bit of surfing at Muizenberg and discovered that I have absolutely no sense of balance at all...I guess I knew that already though! Even although it was so much harder than it looked it was "totally rad!" (as Monique would say - a volunteer coordinator who is staying with us from KwaZulu Natal). In the evening we then had a braai (what they call a BBQ here) and I almost burnt off my eye-brows!
Now that I've caught you up on the weekend I'll try to catch you up on the last couple of weeks!
Last Wednesday, the 23rd, we attended a reading for a book called 'Nobody will ever kill me' by Mbu Maloni, a 21 year old man who wrote about his experiences growing up with his mother in a township just outside of Cape Town. As Mbu read his story most of the audience couldn't hold back their tears - it was a heart breaking story about how he managed to overcome the difficult circumstances he was born into and his fight for a life which is better than the one he has had. Some of his friends and family were also there to support him and it was lovely to see how proud they were of him for achieving so much. The whole experience really helped us volunteers to understand what life is like for many of the children we work with at pre-schools, nurseries and after-school care programs, and everyone bought the book to help support Mbu, his girlfriend, and their newborn baby. Later in the week we also had an Apartheid workshop to understand the racial segregation of whites, blacks, coloureds and Indians in South Africa in the 20th century, the impact this segregation had on every element of their lives, and how this might shape the way they view volunteers who come in to their predominantly black communities to try and help. So overall it was a pretty educational week and it's always good to learn more about the people we work with!
Last Friday, the 25th October, we went to the Africa Cafe for a 12 course dinner - I have never eaten so much food in my life...but I wore elasticated trousers, just like Christmas dinner, which was a good last minute decision to make! Every course from the dinner was from a different part of Africa and it was an all you can eat sort of thing so...if you weren't full after 12 courses you could just keep eating more!
Last weekend was also jam-packed with activities, from beaching and shopping on Saturday to climbing Table Mountain and paragliding on Sunday! You probably don't want to hear all about the beaching and stuff so I'll start with Table Mountain. When I told the girls in the office that we were climbing Table Mountain everyone thought we were insaneeee! I thought they were totally over exaggerating when they said it was hard work but OH MY GOD they couldn't have been more right! The path we took was called Platteklip Gorge and pretty much consisted of these giant boulders that you had to climb the whole way up. THE WHOLE WAY. My bum muscles are now amazing! As if that wasn't hard enough, it was 30 degrees that day and not a hint of wind to be found. To cut a long story short, we got to the top after 2.5 hours totally sweaty and exhausted but man it was worth it. The view from the top was just incredible! :) After catching our breath and taking some photos Cora and I then got the cable car down the mountain (it has a rotating floor so you get a good 360 view!) and then jumped in a taxi and went paragliding from Signal Hill. I'm not sure how to describe paragliding but we basically jumped of the hill (with someone who actually knew what they were doing) and did some twirls above the seafront which was awesome! I have a very nice flattering photo from the event...
The week after was pretty chilled and we just watched some movies and went out for dinner to say goodbye to some of our volunteers. The first movie we watched was called The Bang Bang Club and was about 4 photographers during the Apartheid. It is a true movie which is sort of based around this really famous photograph that appeared in National Geographic in the late 1900s. The picture shocked the whole world because it depicts a vulture that is waiting for a starving child to die.
The controversy surrounding the photo then arose when journalists asked the photographer, Kevin Carter, if he had saved the child from the vulture after he took the photo. To everyone's surprise, even his own, he just walked away and did not know what happened to the child, he just took the picture. This raised a lot of interesting debates about photographers hiding behind the lens, so in this respect it was quite an interesting movie.
As well as movie watching, skydiving and climbing table mountain I also went on project to TEARS, a cat and dog home, with our vet volunteer Miren. Although I went to take some photos for marketing I got totally distracted by the puppies (eeee! so cute) and a 3 legged dog which captured my heart!
Wow! Well I think that's it! It has been a busy couple of weeks but there's still lots to be done and more exciting plans for next weekend!
Until next time :)
Sarah
