South African Experience – Part 2

This is the second post about my trip to South Africa to volunteer with Volunteer Eco Students Abroad (VESA) in May/June 2019.

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The second portion of the volunteer activities on my VESA adventure was Education. The first was Construction (covered in my previous post) and the third was Conservation. We spent two days at both a school and an orphanage/daycare.

It is pretty mind-boggling that they manage with such a lack of resources. The teachers are amazing and well respected, and getting an education is highly valued. The elementary school (that’s what I would classify it as) resembled old army barracks in construction. A series of long buildings divided into classrooms. Each room had rows of desks with up to THREE children squeezed into the seat! A table or old desk with no storage in it for the teacher. And some also had one set of shelves or a storage locker at the front of the room – all were broken in some manner and most contained nothing.

Many of us had brought school supplies and other items (VESA had sent lists in advance if we wanted to bring things) which were collected to be distributed later. The kids were all asking us for pens. And they really did need them.

The buildings were all painted green and yellow, and the school uniforms were also green and yellow. There wasn’t any playground – just bare soil and some walkways. But the kids are very resourceful.

When we got there we were divided into groups of four or five and assigned to a classroom. Our first was a Grade 6 class. The kids all wanted us to sit with them – which was a tight squeeze in those desks! The teacher got us to mark the kids exercise books as she reviewed the answers. Then… she had some of us actually get up and teach part of the lesson! ACK! I got given a grammar lesson – I was petrified! The teacher gave me the answer key to teach from thank goodness! Honestly, grammar was always my least successful part of English classes! But I managed, I think. I hope!

If you got out your camera or asked to take a photo you were mobbed with kids wanting in the photo – then they all wanted to see it.

During the break/recess, which was pretty long, we all hung out and played with the kids out in the yard. I got a frisbee and showed a group of younger ones how to play – which is quite the achievement as I’ve never played. I have to say we were all doing quite well – this is the official Frisbee Team photo.

We spent two days helping out. The second day we were in a Grade 4 class helping with Math. At least they were teaching math there the way I actually know math. Not like they have been doing here in Canada lately.

The other part of the Education work was spending time at a “creche” – an orphanage/daycare run by a lady called Mama Doris. She started out taking in orphans and over time expanded into daycare for teen mothers so they could continue with school. Our activities there consisted of playing with the little ones mostly.

I had taken along face paints and supplies for them, so did face painting on the kids. They all wanted to paint and were getting into it so I just went with it (which if you know me and my sanitation procedures was hard!) One particular girl kept coming back for more painting and wanted to paint me, so I gave her a brush. Yep… here she is and here’s her work. Decent eye for colour and design for a two-year old.

I had no mirror so until this photo was taken had no idea what I looked like! I kept trying to put her down but she would climb up my leg again. When it was time to leave it took two of the adults who were there to convince her to let go.

The second day I help paint a mural on one of the buildings. Raj, one of the other volunteers, had bought paint and supplies in town and recruited some artists in the group to help. See if you can figure out my contribution to this…

We got Mama Doris to pose with it too.

On the evening one of these days I went on a Night Safari – well, a Sunset Safari – in iSimangaliso Wetland Park which is a UNESCO World Heritage Conservation Area. It was pretty cool – literally and figuratively! Saw quite a few animals, but some were too far or too fast to capture with my camera, but here is what I did get photos of:

Three Rhinos! All of these had their horns removed for protection. The third photo gives an idea how close they were. They were all strolling down the road towards us, and ignored us completely.

Then Water Buffalo! That is two of the Big Five, right there! They were pretty skittish and the bull was a bit threatening, even at the distance they were from us.

Also saw a few zebra – they were usually a bit far away and the light was fading.

Then we went up to a lookout where you could seen the Indian Ocean from one side and the St Lucia Estuary on the other.

On the way back we passed this Kudu walking along the rode, completely unconcerned about us.

We also saw Wildebeest, Warthogs and other antelope species. It was a pretty satisfying drive.

Stay tuned for Part 3 with Cheetahs and Crocodiles!

To find out more about VESA check out their website at www.vesabroad.org

 

South African Experience – Part 1

My trip to Africa – which included South Africa, Swaziland which is now called eSwatini, and Mozambique – lasted from May 16th to June 6th. It has taken me until today to share as I then left on June 8th to work at a camp as a cook/baker for the summer and only got back home this past Sunday!

It all started back in September 2018 when I saw a flyer on the bulletin board in the Student Services Building – it said VOLUNTEER NEXT SUMMER on it. I was looking for more volunteer opportunities so I took the flyer to my desk to read more. They were holding on campus information sessions and the last one was at 4 p.m. that afternoon. I was off at 4 so I hot footed it over to learn about the program.

The organization is called Volunteer Eco Students Abroad (VESA) and originated in Australia; they have offices in several countries now. They have projects currently ongoing in four countries – South Africa, Ecuador, Laos and Fiji. I was most interested in the South African one (mostly due to climate – not a fan of jungles, and it was on my “list”). So I filled out the interest form at the session.

Two days later I was accepted and made my deposit. You pay your way and spend time doing volunteer labour, then have the opportunity for lots of adventure tours and experiences after. With the African project there was an add-on tour to Mozambique which I opted to take. Why waste the opportunity to see as much as possible while there?

VESA encourages the volunteers to do fundraising to offset their costs. I made and sold Christmas cards and did a Facebook Fundraiser – and I am incredibly thankful to all my friends and others who supported me!

I left home on May 16th – rode the GO Train for the first time and then the UP Express to the airport from Downtown Toronto. Was a good time of day as nothing was very busy.

My flight left Toronto at 6:20 p.m. and we landed in Frankfurt at 8 a.m. the next day (local time). Then it was a long day to kill, flight didn’t depart until- 8:45 p.m. for Johannesburg! Ate breakfast and dinner at a restaurant in the airport, used the “rest” lounge which had recliner style chairs where you could nap. Walked around, did crossword puzzles, etc. The flight to South Africa was 10 hours and 40 minutes long. They turned the lights off right after feeding us. I was really tired but sleeping is NOT easy is economy! Then another long layover as the flight to Durban wasn’t until 3:15 p.m.!

Finally arrived in Durban around 4:30 p.m. on May 18th, then waited for the VESA representatives to greet us. Then it was a three-hour drive to our destination.  This was the longest transit I’ve ever done on any of my various trips – from the time I left home to the time we arrived at our destination it was 52 hours! I was exhausted.

Unfortunately, as we were driving at night, I wasn’t able to see anything on the drive to St. Lucia. We arrived in the complete darkness at BIBS which is the hostel where we were staying. It was pretty late – around 10 p.m. They had dinner for us, and did introductions, assigned us to our work groups and briefed us on what we would be doing. And also gave us strict warnings about roaming about on our own and the dangers of the area – mainly the hippos!

I was very surprised that we were actually starting work in the morning. I thought we’d be given a day to recover from travelling! They did let us “sleep in” so we didn’t have to leave until 9 a.m. My group was assigned to construction for the first two days, then we rotated off to the other areas – education (school and a daycare/orphanage) and then the conservation projects (wild cat sanctuary and crocodile rehabilitation centre).

VESA has posted the season report so if you are interested in specific details of what we accomplished you can read about it here.

The group of volunteers was around 72 I think, and there were a couple of parents who came with their kids in the group. So, while I was still actually the oldest, I wasn’t the only “mature adult” in the group.

Before we left for our projects in the morning on Sunday, we were taken on a walking tour down the street to see where the stores, coffee shop, pharmacy, etc. were. And more warnings about hippos and not going out of the hostel grounds alone. This was the tourist strip in St. Lucia – lots of hotels/hostels and tour offices. It was only a few blocks long and at the end there was a roundabout and the entry to the park was just past that.

 

Then we got on our assigned buses and were taken to a Zulu cultural centre which was fascinating.

We were provided with demonstrations of traditional dances, dress, had social structure explained and the site was set-up as a village so we could see the buildings and compounds that were used.

There was a demonstration of reed mat weaving and I was the “volunteer” who got to try it! I thought I did pretty well.

We then ate a packed lunch in the parking area and after left for our assigned projects.

I consider that I was lucky to get the construction rotation first as we ended up working one and a half days, the other groups got two full days. Although, our two days were the hottest of the week! Really hot!

There were two construction sites so our group was split up and I was in the group taken to the smaller site down the road from the larger site the first afternoon, and then worked on the first site the second day.

Everything gets done the hard way – had to carry “bricks” (which are the shape of what I know as “cinder blocks”) from the roadway down to the building sites, then had to mix the cement BY HAND. That means you dump sand, gravel, bags of cement powder and add water on a sheet of plywood or just on the ground, and use a shovel to mix it.  This is not easy! Then you shovel it into a wheelbarrow and then hope the strongest person there will move it to where it needs to be!

All holes were dug by hand too. Luckily our group had an assortment of strapping young men who were a bit competitive in that area.

Above is Site 1 on day two. I was pushing wheelbarrows of sand dug up at the top of the hill down to fill in the foundation, then I got in the end “rooms” to spread and level off the sand. This house was five rooms long.

Above is the house from Site 2 – as I was there on the first day the construction stage is earlier on. The last photo is what it looks like now at the end of the season.

It was exhausting work, particularly in the heat. But satisfying.

So that was the first four days of my trip and the construction portion of my volunteer activities.

I’m going to break this up into a series of posts. For my benefit as well as anyone who is reading it!

If you are interested in finding out more about VESA check out their website: www.vesabroad.org

I’ll be back soon

Sorry for the long absence. I’ve always posted at least once a month since I started this blog but this summer has been very different for me.

I will be posting about my trip to South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique back in May/June hopefully by the end of this month. I have lots of photos and stories to tell about my volunteer experience with VESA and the wonderful things I saw and did.

I got home from Africa late on June 6 and immediately had to leave again for my summer job as a cook/baker at a camp at the south end of Algonquin Park. I’ve been working 13-16 hour days since June 8, and in that time I’ve only had 2 days off… so when I’m not working I’m sleeping. My last day of work is August 25, then back to college on September 4.

Once I’m home I’ll have a chance to rest and start posting again.

Here is a photo of a sunset in Tofo, Mozambique – we were high up at a lodge overlooking the estuary.