TIA - That is Africa!

Part IV

Hey folks,

big promise…the pictures will follow really soon - likely on Thursday?!

Some of you - particularly my mom - asked me to write about the way I live here in Plett! Well, ok…I’ll try. Isabelle, the main coordinator of BIA, owns a relatively big house in downtown Plett where all the volunteers stay. It is white from the outside and has only a ground floor. We have two little terraces and a garden. The whole house is surrounded by high fences and the doors need to be locked - preferably - at all times as it has been broken into the house a couple of times already. The most recent incident happened just a few weeks before I arrived. Concerning the safety, it is kind of strange: When I’m in the townships I feel safer and more secure than at night here in the house. The standard of living can be compared with that of a Dutch student house. Here, however, we don’t have a dishwasher that’s why I’ll appreciate it even more back in Enschede ;-). We don’t have a TV but a stereo…I have found my ultimate radio station: Algoa FM…so corny…but I love it:). At the moment, we are 7 volunteers (Diet, Eric, Tamara, Anneleen, Bie & Saskia) whereas I’m the youngest one…yeah! For each volunteer, the working days are individually organized since we all participate and work for different projects. One day per week, however, it is more or less compulsory to do office work…such as translating texts, laminating certain papers, cleaning the garage etc. Part of our living room is the office of BIA. So every morning at around 8.30h, Isabelle, Fiona and Belinda the coordinators of BIA ‘invade’ our house to do their work. Eric is then surrounded by almost 10 women without any male support…poor guy…hihi! Most of the volunteers have to share a room…I’m sharing with Anneleen, a teacher from Belgium who is very nice and with whom I get along very well!

My personal schedule looks like this:

Monday: Plettenberg Bay Secondary School
Tuesday: Primary School in the township ‘Kranshoek’
Wednesday: Office work
Thursday: Primary School in the township ‘Kranshoek’
Friday: Plettenberg Bay Secondary School

Mondays and Fridays I’m assisting the English teacher, Nikki Manuel, of the Plettenberg Bay Secondary School in the preparation for and during her classes. She only teaches 11th and 12th grade students…so not really children anymore but therefore not necessarily less complicated - on the contrary. Except for one other teacher, I’m the only white person in a school of about 600 students; quite a unique and unusual task. The majority of students is open and friendly but in some cases, I really have to earn the students’ respect…you can see it in their faces: “What does this white chick want here at our school?!” Last Friday, Nikki was away for a camp with the 12th grade, so I had three classes of 11th graders all to my own each with about 40 students. I took the preparation for class very serious as I knew that they were hardly listening to Nikki in her function as a teacher…so quite a challenge for me! For two of the classes, my strategy worked out fine…I’ll better neglect to talk about the rest;-9. What I recognized…the disadvantage of being white is definitely that if the students ask me an embarrassing question or say something inappropriate…I blush which they - of course - find very entertaining. Grrrr! During one of the breaks, one of the 12th graders came up to me and gave me a little note on the front page with a rose and on the back literally saying: ‘Hey miss hope your enjoying your day. I just want to say that your realy cute and like your smile hope I can see more of you. You’re a real angel you know. Love. Joy’ How cute and courageous is that?! Good that I didn’t read it in front of him…because…what did I do?! - Of course, I blushed again…ups.

Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I am at the primary school in Kranshoek - a township about 15min away from Plett - helping Eric with his painting project. The school has an empty wall of about 50 meters - I would think - upon which we try to put together with the students a nice and meaningful painting for the school and also for the whole township. I’m just coming back from that project and totally enjoyed it…it has been one of my best days here so far!

Last week, I had my second REAL South African experience being sick and lying in bed. Monday evening, Saskia and I went to a really nice restaurant with ‘candle-light dinner atmosphere’…Monday night I awoke with really bad stomach cramps lasting about four days. You may guess where I must have eaten something bad?! All the volunteers told me that they have also made similar experiences…the reason why it ‘hit’ me so early was probably because I told my housemates what a great immune system I have because of me doing lots of sport…so you may say that it was probably the punishment for me being that arrogant…haha.

This weekend, Saskia and I rented a car and went to the ‘Tsitsikamma’ National Park about 1 ½h away from Plett. The weather was unfortunately not as perfect as it has been the last couple of weeks but, nevertheless, we enjoyed it staying at backpackers for one night in the town of ‘Stormsriver’. After some difficulties at the beginning with our rented car - you have to drive on the left - I very much enjoyed it. We got a 25 year-old Golf which had been, however, completely renewed...awesome and sooo stylish car. Sorry Hugo, but I really want one of those;-)! Sometimes, I forgot to drive on the left…ups…but Saskia proofed to be a very good reminder. After a nice hike up a very steep mountain over a suspension bridge, we also visited the bridge from which one can do the highest bungee jump in the world…I got dizzy just from looking at it…haha. No way that I’m ever going to do that…not even for a million €! A couple of times, we had to stop because of monkeys on the street…looking exactly like the ones you can see in the zoos back in Europe. Especially cute were the mothers with their little babies on the back! The weekend ended with a visit to a township bar…interesting to see and experience. Schlammi, our ‘practice’ in playing pool paid off;-)!

I’ll go grab a bite to eat…ttyl!

Love, ani

PS: Luce…ben het niet vergeten...gefeliciteerd met je VERJAARDAD....wens je een prachtige dag!!! Duizend kusjes!