With two days to recover from a rather intense Monday, I sorta jumped right back into the breach on the Thursday
In preparation for a huge camp on the weekend, we shopped for and brought up two stuffed full trailer loads of food and equipment, which only constituted half of what was going to be needed
Unloading sacks of flour, rice, re-arranging the pantry to fit it all and throwing away old things constituted the day, a pretty full working day
Later that night we went out for dinner, as it would be the last night we would be together (as Emilie was leaving back for Belgium after being here for 3 months)
, and it was a really nice change of pace... a rare time of just chilling out, not having to worry about preparing dinner and simply enjoying the last moments of that particular group
Noice :P
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Monday night, 25 June
Now this was one bizarre night. After a full, long day at L’Abri, and having gotten back to the YDC, showered, fed and quite nicely settled for the night, I then got a call from Rod at about 8:30pm
He asked me if I could open the gate for him in the following half hour or so, as he needed the L’Abri ute to bring the tractor tire back to the site, as there were big fires occurring around the neighbouring area, to which the tractor was required to haul the fire fighting cart; He asked if I wanted to I could follow him up, at which point my curiosity was well and truly piqued
I got changed back into my dirty work clothes from the day and jumped into the ute when Rod arrived; at that point the fires were reported by the site staff to be at the edge of the far boundaries of the site, and not of critical concern, so we drove around town to try and find a place that was open that could fix the slow puncture in the tractor tyre
Half an hour later, another call to the site staff revealed entirely different results; the fire had violently changed tack, jumped, and one of the cabins already lost. This in itself was confusing... I mean... ‘lost’... they couldn’t possibly mean it’s gone...???
At that point, we then started immediately for L’Abri. As we got closer to the Karkloof mountain ranges, within which L’Abri is situated, we began to pass large, spot fields of fire, which was eerie
These sporadic fields became more and more frequent as they turned into forest areas, closer to L’Abri, exponentially increasing in ferocity and intensity as we drove on
So much so, that we could not simply get anywhere near the site on our first attempt
We went back a little further down to wait it out, together with other tractors, utes and water carts from neighbouring properties; a tractor appeared shortly after, with a large cattle trailer full of fire fighters
Fire fighters, being an ALL elderly female group, armed with garden hoes!! It was quite an amazing site, and I tried to take a photo of it, and being night, I thought to use a flash and this was the result
The air was simply filled with ash; it was not possible to be outside the vehicle for any longer than 5-10mins. Gale force winds (later reported by the news), violently shaking the ute, folding entire sugarcane fields right in half, as if they were merely blades of grass. Sugarcane just does not bend like that; here we were, in the middle of mountain ranges, experiencing winds far, far stronger than any I’ve experienced on Australian coasts. With such incredible winds fanning the flames, the Fire protection officer of the region was found later to have said “You cannot fight this fire. You can only manage it and try to save lives.”
After awhile of waiting the tractors and trucks went up again in another attempt, which we followed
The video ends about a third of the way to L’Abri, as we had to stop, jump out and move a tree that had fallen onto the road, which we found ourselves doing 3-4 times on the way up, with some trees still on fire
Continuing on we drove passed raging fires on both sides of the road; on the side of one section of the road there were large log piles awaiting for pick up, but now engulfed in superheated (blue tinged) flames and showering us in thousands and thousands of glowing embers, in a fascinating display. We had to drive all the more faster through this part, as it was just too hot
Eventually we make it to the L’Abri driveway, and what a difference to the early reports of non-event at the site; the driveway itself was lined with increasing flames and as we hurtled the ute down it, we could not access one of the roads as the fire was constantly leaping across it
This part was such a blur; we crash stopped the vehicle right outside the main cabin, where all the staff were assembled outside already; a man came running up to the car yelling that we needed to evacuate immediately; 4 guys bundled into the tray, 2 women, and infant and 1 guy into the back seats and three of us in the front, and having not even stopped for 5mins we were hurtling back up the flaming driveway again
At the point of the road we had to stop, as the fires on either side were just too intense to continue, and here we waited for 20-30mins
After it appeared that one road seemed to subside a little, we drove out of the ranges, again having to jump out 3-4 times to move objects littering the road, seeing every now and again the burnt remains of a animal
We drove the some of the staff into town, and then headed back to the site
This was a few hours later, and with my limited personal experience of fires on this scale, I’d thought for some reason that they’d have heavily extinguished themselves by then. We came across this sugarcane fire at an even earlier point in the road
The video ends at the point where we pull up to a guy that seemed to be co-ordinating the efforts there, and asked if we could get to L’Abri. He very politely and calmly said that he wouldn’t recommend it as “they were getting ready to run” themselves. I thought that was an odd thing to say (calmly as well), when I then looked around and noticed people were sprinting to their vehicles, frantically turning them around and driving them towards us, with those not attached to vehicles simply sprinting
At the flurry of activity we hastily chucked a u-turn too, pulled back and moments later that position was engulfed in flames
Eventually we made it back to the site to find the workshop, two garages of all the tools and heavy machinery, and the adjoining shed of wood material up in flames
We gathered that one of the gas tanks had already let go, and the drums of fuel, before we’d gotten there, as the heavy garage doors had buckled outwards
This part was a bit of a blur too; the tractor with the water cart was positioned right in front of the workshop in flames, unable to move without the front tyre, me and Rod frantically worked to get that tyre onto the axle, all the while hearing a remaining gas tank within the workshop only a few metres away still expelling its contents into a building completely on fire
Needless to say, Rod’s comments saying that as long as we don’t hear the gas making ‘popping’ noises we were ok did little to assuage my worries
We eventually got the wheel on and bolted, the water cart functioning and, after an already long day at L’Abri, at three in the morning we started to fight this fire, eventually getting the best of it after an hour by half past four, and after making sure the rest of the site would be ok, got back to the YDC at half past five in the morning
According to the news the following day the winds were measured at 100km/h by late afternoon, fanning flames up to 60 metres high, and at one stage around 200 fire fighters battling to contain a fire that was leaping in 500-metre “steps”
And somewhere in the middle of all of that was a little Asian dude in a diesel ute :S
He asked me if I could open the gate for him in the following half hour or so, as he needed the L’Abri ute to bring the tractor tire back to the site, as there were big fires occurring around the neighbouring area, to which the tractor was required to haul the fire fighting cart; He asked if I wanted to I could follow him up, at which point my curiosity was well and truly piqued
I got changed back into my dirty work clothes from the day and jumped into the ute when Rod arrived; at that point the fires were reported by the site staff to be at the edge of the far boundaries of the site, and not of critical concern, so we drove around town to try and find a place that was open that could fix the slow puncture in the tractor tyre
Half an hour later, another call to the site staff revealed entirely different results; the fire had violently changed tack, jumped, and one of the cabins already lost. This in itself was confusing... I mean... ‘lost’... they couldn’t possibly mean it’s gone...???
At that point, we then started immediately for L’Abri. As we got closer to the Karkloof mountain ranges, within which L’Abri is situated, we began to pass large, spot fields of fire, which was eerie
These sporadic fields became more and more frequent as they turned into forest areas, closer to L’Abri, exponentially increasing in ferocity and intensity as we drove on
So much so, that we could not simply get anywhere near the site on our first attempt
We went back a little further down to wait it out, together with other tractors, utes and water carts from neighbouring properties; a tractor appeared shortly after, with a large cattle trailer full of fire fighters
Fire fighters, being an ALL elderly female group, armed with garden hoes!! It was quite an amazing site, and I tried to take a photo of it, and being night, I thought to use a flash and this was the result
The air was simply filled with ash; it was not possible to be outside the vehicle for any longer than 5-10mins. Gale force winds (later reported by the news), violently shaking the ute, folding entire sugarcane fields right in half, as if they were merely blades of grass. Sugarcane just does not bend like that; here we were, in the middle of mountain ranges, experiencing winds far, far stronger than any I’ve experienced on Australian coasts. With such incredible winds fanning the flames, the Fire protection officer of the region was found later to have said “You cannot fight this fire. You can only manage it and try to save lives.”
After awhile of waiting the tractors and trucks went up again in another attempt, which we followed
The video ends about a third of the way to L’Abri, as we had to stop, jump out and move a tree that had fallen onto the road, which we found ourselves doing 3-4 times on the way up, with some trees still on fire
Continuing on we drove passed raging fires on both sides of the road; on the side of one section of the road there were large log piles awaiting for pick up, but now engulfed in superheated (blue tinged) flames and showering us in thousands and thousands of glowing embers, in a fascinating display. We had to drive all the more faster through this part, as it was just too hot
Eventually we make it to the L’Abri driveway, and what a difference to the early reports of non-event at the site; the driveway itself was lined with increasing flames and as we hurtled the ute down it, we could not access one of the roads as the fire was constantly leaping across it
This part was such a blur; we crash stopped the vehicle right outside the main cabin, where all the staff were assembled outside already; a man came running up to the car yelling that we needed to evacuate immediately; 4 guys bundled into the tray, 2 women, and infant and 1 guy into the back seats and three of us in the front, and having not even stopped for 5mins we were hurtling back up the flaming driveway again
At the point of the road we had to stop, as the fires on either side were just too intense to continue, and here we waited for 20-30mins
After it appeared that one road seemed to subside a little, we drove out of the ranges, again having to jump out 3-4 times to move objects littering the road, seeing every now and again the burnt remains of a animal
We drove the some of the staff into town, and then headed back to the site
This was a few hours later, and with my limited personal experience of fires on this scale, I’d thought for some reason that they’d have heavily extinguished themselves by then. We came across this sugarcane fire at an even earlier point in the road
The video ends at the point where we pull up to a guy that seemed to be co-ordinating the efforts there, and asked if we could get to L’Abri. He very politely and calmly said that he wouldn’t recommend it as “they were getting ready to run” themselves. I thought that was an odd thing to say (calmly as well), when I then looked around and noticed people were sprinting to their vehicles, frantically turning them around and driving them towards us, with those not attached to vehicles simply sprinting
At the flurry of activity we hastily chucked a u-turn too, pulled back and moments later that position was engulfed in flames
Eventually we made it back to the site to find the workshop, two garages of all the tools and heavy machinery, and the adjoining shed of wood material up in flames
We gathered that one of the gas tanks had already let go, and the drums of fuel, before we’d gotten there, as the heavy garage doors had buckled outwards
This part was a bit of a blur too; the tractor with the water cart was positioned right in front of the workshop in flames, unable to move without the front tyre, me and Rod frantically worked to get that tyre onto the axle, all the while hearing a remaining gas tank within the workshop only a few metres away still expelling its contents into a building completely on fire
Needless to say, Rod’s comments saying that as long as we don’t hear the gas making ‘popping’ noises we were ok did little to assuage my worries
We eventually got the wheel on and bolted, the water cart functioning and, after an already long day at L’Abri, at three in the morning we started to fight this fire, eventually getting the best of it after an hour by half past four, and after making sure the rest of the site would be ok, got back to the YDC at half past five in the morning
According to the news the following day the winds were measured at 100km/h by late afternoon, fanning flames up to 60 metres high, and at one stage around 200 fire fighters battling to contain a fire that was leaping in 500-metre “steps”
And somewhere in the middle of all of that was a little Asian dude in a diesel ute :S
Monday, June 25, 2007
Monday, 25 June
Went up again to L’Abri for the day to continue work on the sleeping platform, though this time by myself; since we’d taken all the materials down previously, I spent the day clearing parts of the ground and digging holes for the supports
The digging part took quite awhile, as I had to go through copious tree root-age, and I kept hitting rock about 10mins into each hole. I had to continually try to dig around to find places deep enough and accordingly keep adjusting the orientation/measurements to make sure it would still work
By the end of the day I’d managed to get two of the heavy supports in, which I was pretty pleased with
The digging part took quite awhile, as I had to go through copious tree root-age, and I kept hitting rock about 10mins into each hole. I had to continually try to dig around to find places deep enough and accordingly keep adjusting the orientation/measurements to make sure it would still work
By the end of the day I’d managed to get two of the heavy supports in, which I was pretty pleased with
Friday, June 22, 2007
Fri night, 22 June
Later Friday night, we all ventured out to Shooters, one of the local drinking holes in town; being the only (yes, yes) white people in the establishment (and there being 5 girls), we attracted all sorts of characters
One of the guys that hung around for most of that time was a black fella that seemed fairly well known there, and the curious thing about him was that he spoke English like a white South African; quite well, and with an Afrikaans accent. The fact that we spend most of our time with black Zulus that speak accented broken English, this was something different
And on the way out of the joint, another guy stopped me and asked if I was Chinese, to which I answered yes (I figured, close enough, and as we were just passing by, I wasn’t exactly going to get into detailed explanation); at which point, he then pulled out his wallet, and took out a 10 Yuan note (the currency of China) to show me :S
Coming out of a bustling black pub, in a Zulu capital in South Africa, and being shown a Chinese note was bloody confusing, so I asked if he’d been to China then, to which he responded by saying that he’d just come back from Singapore, which confused me even more as Singapore use dollars (not Yuan), so I simply said in reply “cool”, and continued on my way
Weird
One of the guys that hung around for most of that time was a black fella that seemed fairly well known there, and the curious thing about him was that he spoke English like a white South African; quite well, and with an Afrikaans accent. The fact that we spend most of our time with black Zulus that speak accented broken English, this was something different
And on the way out of the joint, another guy stopped me and asked if I was Chinese, to which I answered yes (I figured, close enough, and as we were just passing by, I wasn’t exactly going to get into detailed explanation); at which point, he then pulled out his wallet, and took out a 10 Yuan note (the currency of China) to show me :S
Coming out of a bustling black pub, in a Zulu capital in South Africa, and being shown a Chinese note was bloody confusing, so I asked if he’d been to China then, to which he responded by saying that he’d just come back from Singapore, which confused me even more as Singapore use dollars (not Yuan), so I simply said in reply “cool”, and continued on my way
Weird
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Tues-Wed, 19-20 June
After coming back from the safari weekend on Sunday arvo, I found myself once again packing my bags and shipping back up to L’Abri
These days were allocated for the L’Abri staff (who I went up with) to go over top ropes training, and I was up there with one of the trainees, tasked at commencing work on a proposed sleeping platform
So as the staff started their ropes training, we started by checking out the potential sites; because the platform had the goal of immersing campers more deeply into an outdoors experience, this platform was to be right in the middle of a forest, not reachable or visible from any of the roughly beaten tracks or trails, which meant traipsing through shrubbery, fernery, crawling under and around low hung branches for the entire morning, through a forest floor that’s naturally green and damp and covered with leafy plant things
After deciding on a spot, we measured the area, felt around the green coverage on the floor for the rocks and then started to grab our materials from the main site
We then spent the rest of the afternoon transporting planks from the main site to the site; I commandeered the L’Abri ute, and spent the arvo bush tracking and hauling in the diesel Isuzu, feeling pretty blokey :P The whole process was so exhausting, I was actually in bed by 8:30pm!!
The next morning we continued hauling things, this time it was sourcing and measuring the huge logs that would be the corner posts of the platform; it was a good thing that we were leaving that arvo, because by that time we were again exhausted :P
All in all, a tough but productive couple of days :)
These days were allocated for the L’Abri staff (who I went up with) to go over top ropes training, and I was up there with one of the trainees, tasked at commencing work on a proposed sleeping platform
So as the staff started their ropes training, we started by checking out the potential sites; because the platform had the goal of immersing campers more deeply into an outdoors experience, this platform was to be right in the middle of a forest, not reachable or visible from any of the roughly beaten tracks or trails, which meant traipsing through shrubbery, fernery, crawling under and around low hung branches for the entire morning, through a forest floor that’s naturally green and damp and covered with leafy plant things
After deciding on a spot, we measured the area, felt around the green coverage on the floor for the rocks and then started to grab our materials from the main site
We then spent the rest of the afternoon transporting planks from the main site to the site; I commandeered the L’Abri ute, and spent the arvo bush tracking and hauling in the diesel Isuzu, feeling pretty blokey :P The whole process was so exhausting, I was actually in bed by 8:30pm!!
The next morning we continued hauling things, this time it was sourcing and measuring the huge logs that would be the corner posts of the platform; it was a good thing that we were leaving that arvo, because by that time we were again exhausted :P
All in all, a tough but productive couple of days :)
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Hluluwe & St Lucia (Fri-Sun, 15-17 June)
This was a really pleasant surprise; my intentions for this particular international foray were purely to concentrate on the volunteering aspect, and to stay in and imbibe as much of a culture as I could, rather than do that tourist thing; so I’d made no plans to travel around the area or country
So when I found out that there was a trip organised by YFC for us, the volunteers, I had mixed feelings, but for the most I was excited, in a quite bizarrely child-like way
We woke up and left the YDC in Pietermaritzburg at
Even on holiday we stayed in the middle of a rural homestead, a quite traditional community, and after we’d settled in our things, we then walked around and learnt about the area from the locals, the traditions, way of life, etc
At the homestead itself, we were really spoilt, with locally cooked food and a really, really nice setting; I remember walking into the dining area, seeing the layout and just feeling utterly spoilt
The next morning we woke up at 5am, at which I did the bravest thing I’ve ever done by going for a bloody freezing shower; yup, no hot water here!! After which we then departed at 6 for the Hluluwe game park in open safari vehicles
And then, as we crossed the boundaries and into the park, for some unknown reason, this overwhelming, kiddish excitement came over me
Maybe it was the shock of the cold shower in effect, or perhaps the hour of the morning, combined with me being in this surreal,
It was the same guilty, indulgent feeling I get when I’m in a cinema by myself watching trailers and eating the first lolly from the packet in anticipation of a great movie
Here I was, on this trip organised for us the volunteers, to be served nice food, to be able to see these animals and actually go for a safari; a safari!!
As a volunteer here, from the moment I landed, it’s always been, for me, about being here, of plugging in and helping, in any, small way I could, every spare day I’ve been trying to get idea of what I could fill with what team or what project, and in the off days, rest, so as to be energised for the team/project days
To have something done for me, organised entirely for my indulgence, my enjoyment, for my sake...
To have not earned it in any way, to not have to worry about anything except for packing my things, to take away all my opportunities to be ‘doing’ something useful, and to allow me to feel like it’s ok to be a tourist, for a few days...
To feel, for a few days, so overwhelming, so undeservedly...
... so gracefully...
blessed
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Day (insert applicable number, as I've lost count now :S)
So I’ll have to fall back to the archaic day, date and month system that I hear some people still use...
Tues-Wed, 12-13 of June
Coming off camp on Fri-Sun, and then I went back up to L’Abri a day later, charged with the task of constructing fencing for a railing
So I groggily woke up really early in the morning with an sms saying that I was going to be picked up WHEN I woke up (8am); I managed to scrounge some food and stuff into a bag, jump into the car and right back up I went...
Spent the morning trying to figure out what was where, what stuff I could use, and where I could find the trees that were going to be my raw material, had a bite to eat for lunch and then spent the afternoon measuring, sawing and hammering all the way till sunset, after which I then went through another basic computer lesson with Mzwa, one of the site staff
The site staff live in their own houses up there, so I was in the big Lodge all by myself; cooked myself dinner and made a fire to keep me warm
Was weird... I thought I would have a mini freak out whilst up there, figuratively being by myself, but I found it actually really, really peaceful; it was nice to have a task to set myself to, to work and live a little as my own person and not a YDC collective (i.e. a bunch of girls), or a camp
Woke up the next morning, finished a section of the fencing and then attempted to mount it... I think it sorta worked... gave another computer lesson on how to use formatting in MS Word and then jumped back into the buggy for the return trip... all in all, not a bad few days at all :)
Sunday, June 10, 2007
a working weekend part II
Saturday was an interesting day to say the least; I started the morning (6:30am) by making the fire for breakfast for the aftercare group, then heading to a different part of the site to help with a church group that was there for the day (8am); from Zulu street kids, to Indians rolling up in beamers and all sorts of nice cars... and very evangelical Indians at that...
And THEN at 11am I rolled off to yet another part of the camp site to help out with a 7yr old birthday party that was there from mid-morning to afternoon!! This group were all affluent whites, parents and children, for which I assisted in the use of the rock climbing wall (as a belayer) and the low ropes course; for all my head spins about traversing through three vastly different cultures and demographics within the span of a few hours, the kids were pretty darn cute...
Then (@ ~3pm) I rolled back off to the aftercare group to make the fires for the hot water, the main eating area (for cooking) and main meeting area... bit by bit my fire-making skills are getting back up to where they used to be, though I was coughing all weekend from all the smoke inhalation...
I stayed with the aftercare for the rest of the camp, helped pack up the site and came back on Sunday arvo thoroughly exhausted...
And THEN at 11am I rolled off to yet another part of the camp site to help out with a 7yr old birthday party that was there from mid-morning to afternoon!! This group were all affluent whites, parents and children, for which I assisted in the use of the rock climbing wall (as a belayer) and the low ropes course; for all my head spins about traversing through three vastly different cultures and demographics within the span of a few hours, the kids were pretty darn cute...
Then (@ ~3pm) I rolled back off to the aftercare group to make the fires for the hot water, the main eating area (for cooking) and main meeting area... bit by bit my fire-making skills are getting back up to where they used to be, though I was coughing all weekend from all the smoke inhalation...
I stayed with the aftercare for the rest of the camp, helped pack up the site and came back on Sunday arvo thoroughly exhausted...
Friday, June 08, 2007
a working weekend part I
Friday morning began @ 8am, where me and Rod made a trip out to the verify some camp site information, then we went back to the office to go through more maps and materials to be collated electronically
After which I then walked back to the YDC, packed and then bundled into a ute (along with 9 others) to head up to L’Abri, setup the camp and then waited for the aftercare group to come along
Aftercare in this context is far from the more familiar ideals where kids are dropped off because their parents are both working; the aftercare group here deals with kids that outside of school (if they go) have less than ideal home situations, and therefore spend as much as time as they can out of home, which here means the streets. Abuse, alcoholism, random boyfriends or girlfriends of their single parents are the norms in these households; parents or older siblings dying from aids is an all together normal story too
These are adolescent boys that don’t have much going for them in life; ages 14-19, they face a life in a country where there’s above 50% unemployment , where in one case a 17yr old boy had lost a father last year, his elder sister this year (both to aids), his elder brother had just returned from jail and found no issues with stealing from his family to fuel his drinking habits
For three days L’Abri takes them out these harsh realities, and tries to impart some life lessons and skills...
After which I then walked back to the YDC, packed and then bundled into a ute (along with 9 others) to head up to L’Abri, setup the camp and then waited for the aftercare group to come along
Aftercare in this context is far from the more familiar ideals where kids are dropped off because their parents are both working; the aftercare group here deals with kids that outside of school (if they go) have less than ideal home situations, and therefore spend as much as time as they can out of home, which here means the streets. Abuse, alcoholism, random boyfriends or girlfriends of their single parents are the norms in these households; parents or older siblings dying from aids is an all together normal story too
These are adolescent boys that don’t have much going for them in life; ages 14-19, they face a life in a country where there’s above 50% unemployment , where in one case a 17yr old boy had lost a father last year, his elder sister this year (both to aids), his elder brother had just returned from jail and found no issues with stealing from his family to fuel his drinking habits
For three days L’Abri takes them out these harsh realities, and tries to impart some life lessons and skills...
Thursday, June 07, 2007
more than meets the eye :D
i’ve managed to download a few trailers on one of my internet trips, and I cannot be more psyched about the transformers movie!! have been cautious and wary about the lead up to it, as movie tie-ins rarely seem to pull it off, but the trailer looks incredible... and gives me credence to continue to hope, as it’s not one of those trailers that show you all the best bits; the fact is, it shows you incredibly little at all; i can’t wait :D
Trailer viewable/downloadable from this link: http://www.jurassicpunk.com/movies/transformers.shtml
Trailer viewable/downloadable from this link: http://www.jurassicpunk.com/movies/transformers.shtml
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Day 17
Along with all the stuff that’s happened in the last few days, the two Irish girls that arrived last Friday have decided that South Africa isn’t for them, and will be returning to Ireland tomorrow, making their original plans for a 2 month stay turn into a 6 day one…
It’s a little weird for me, as I remember how hard it was to be here, just how incredibly hard the first week was, to be here in completely foreign land, to be staying with foreigners… just so much worked to do my head in… and the thought of leaving crossed my mind constantly
It could never be an option for me though; viki and I reckon that we couldn’t do that (return) because of how proud we both are, perhaps there’s a bit of asian-ness in there also, and how we can’t waste things…
Part of my brain is trying to focus on just what an achievement it is then, to still be here, but to also process that there aren’t going to be any more volunteers coming, and in the coming months the existing volunteers are gradually going home; in fact, now that the Irish are gone, I’ll be the only volunteer here for the last two weeks, which is very daunting prospect…
Either way, it’s been a pretty confusing sequence of days :S
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Day 16
This day was just as exhausting too; The day had already been scheduled for work at L’Abri, but that very morning I get a call saying that they needed me also for their soccer game with the street boys
I dunno what it is with working with ngo’s and having to play the sports that I’m worst at :S
So on swelteringly hot day, on a dry field with huge dirt patches, of extremely athletic Zulus, some not wearing shoes, and of a tremendous amount of skill, there was ONE non-black in the midst of the fury, kitted up at the end of the field as a goalie
After all that activity, I grabbed a quick bite to eat, travelled up to L’Abri and spent a few hours there tutoring about how to use computers before being able to finally call it a day
Needless to say, I slept quite soundly over those two days…
Monday, June 04, 2007
Day 15
I spent the day travelling out to the suburb of Howick to help one of the L’Abri staff dudes with his (work) computer
Travelled there by taxi, which here means squished with 16 zulus in a Hiace van 20+, from the middle of a black town to a church in an affluent white suburb, which was a weird experience in itself
I’m learning that stories here will always, always have a racial bias in them, even from the best hearted people here, but even with that in mind, there must be an element of truth of the street team (all black) of that church (all white) having an office, separate to the rest of the building, and in the basement; earlier that week the rest of the offices had been renovated with air condition units, but not theirs; theirs was where the old fans were dumped...
Spent the morning troubleshooting the one, old computer they’d been given to use, and then afterwards shown around Howick
There’s a small tourist bit, where they have a 107m waterfall that’s quite beautiful, after which we made our way back into the main town to get back to the taxi rank
Again the transition from affluent white suburb back into the Howick town centre is sudden and quick; the suburb is a pro-apartheid stronghold, a few minutes and meters later the town centre of Howick is ALL black; it’s gotten to the point that an alternative shopping area had been built a little further out of town that coincidently mostly non-blacks frequent
Behind the buses there are rings of people sitting in rags and on dirty paint cans, drinking home-brewed beer and playing gambling games to try and win more money for more beer
Also had to deal with in a more tangible way feelings of possibly underlying issues of being ‘used’ for my what I represent in terms of wealth and opportunities in another country...
All in all, an incredibly exhausting day, and a little confusing
Friday, June 01, 2007
Day 11
One of the things you’ll notice when visiting
I got lost today, walking back from the main office to the YDC, and found myself in what seemed to be a very white neighbourhood; along the way I thought I’d take some pics of what is very normal housing decoration...
A detention centre? Secret military base? Nope, this “Superior Security” is ALL around Pietermaritzburg Girls High... and it’s a government school...
I walked passed this house on my lost wanderings, and wondered why, in a country where property dividers are usually jagged, razor sharp pieces of metal, this fence was just singular wires... I thought no... it couldn’t be... these are wires at ground level on a BUSY walking street in a heavily populated school district...
Right at the end of the property “Alexpark Mansions”, there’s a little, little yellow sign letting people know, if they were interested, that the fence is electrified :S
Miscellaneous things I found amusing
Obviously “hooting” is a very big issue over in South Africa...
A medi-clinic on “Payn” Street :S Does anyone else find that a little sardonic?!
This gang is a group that is quite at large and wield all sorts of weapons in their rampages, but with a name like that, it's a little hard to take them seriously :S
This was a little novel; ordering a whiskey and coke will result in a glass of whiskey on the rocks, and coke in a little vase
And my personal favourite so far!!
Cuz you can NEVER have too much groot!! [This one is more care of the dutchies I stay with rather than South Africa :P]
Here's a pic of chix @ the YDC
As you can tell, they’re MASSIVE (yes yes, relative to me; the three at the back are actually stooping quite a bit (probably so I’ll then fit in the photo))
From left to right; Els, Emilie (Belgian), Rhode, Mathilde (weird huh, it’s almost ‘Matilda’), Klaske and ‘duh’
And from tomorrow onwards, add two more Irish chix...
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