Drakensberg Mountains! KZN, South Africa

Breathtaking!





Can you spot me anywhere?

Child Aid Project, Soweto

Community development aimed at improving conditions for children and the community as a whole.

Bye Bye South Africa…Back in St Vincent!

Yes, it’s true, I’ve already left South Africa :( I really did not have any time in the last weeks to write an update... I left South Africa on 3rd March and am now back in St Vincent! It’s still as beautiful as ever! I’m here to finalise the program – the ‘evaluation’ phase, which includes sharing my experiences with the new volunteers, meeting with people in the community who supported us (especially financially!), writing reports and sharing and reflecting with other team mates who have also returned. Out of the 12 of us who eventually made it to projects in Malawi, Mozambique and me in South Africa, 8 of us have returned. It’s great to see them again and to hear about their experiences. There are lots of pictures to see! Lots of stories to hear! All of us had good times and great experiences at our projects, of course not without challenges, but there are always challenges…
But first let me update you about my last weeks in South Africa.
January and February flew by, especially February when I got a chance to visit another Humana project in South Africa as part of my program. I visited a project that aims to improve the lives of children in impoverished communities, called Child Aid. There are a number of Child Aid projects in South Africa and I visited one in Soweto, Johannesburg, which also gave me the opportunity to see a bit Soweto! The project was impressive, with many well established programs and active staff. My investigation was more focused on the HIV&AIDS programs of Child Aid, but I also experienced other activities such as training of volunteers, orphans and vulnerable children support and community committees. I’ll post a few pics up. I had a good and safe experience in Soweto (I don’t think luck has anything to do with it, it’s just overrated). I was taking public transport and walking around everywhere (with other volunteers and staff). Of course it’s dangerous at night – same as many other places in the world. Similarity with my project (TCE) was the home visits and the sensitizing in the communities. Different from TCE was the diversity of programs and focus of programs and activities. I won’t bore you with the details though, especially because I wrote a whole report and now it feels like I’m writing it all over again ;) Anyway aside from the project I managed to visit other areas of Soweto and of course I could not miss the famous Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu street :) (Vilakazi Street - The only street in the world where two Nobel Prize winners have lived).
After my investigation week and writing the report, I had a few days off before my departure. This was a nice opportunity to do some last minute site seeing. I wanted to see some different landscape and decided to check out the famous Drankensberg mountains in KwaZulu-Natal province in the east. Very beautiful!! Very different from my project area – more mountainous of course ;) much greener and much cooler. Managed a small hike there and a dip in the sea afterwards! Some pics to follow…
Gosh, so much to tell about my overall experience, but I don’t know where to start and I don’t want to repeat what I’ve already written earlier…
It was a great experience but of course there were some challenges, in the project as well as in general. For example, in the project, when we didn’t have enough funds we could not carry out our work efficiently, for example, lack of money for transport meant not being able to go out into the communities further out. Communication was a challenge in general as I was slow to learn the language and even though many people speak English, you miss out on a great deal when you cannot follow conversations. Ignorance was a huge challenge, especially regarding the issue of HIV&AIDS, but also just health in general and other issues. But I’m glad I got the opportunity to share my knowledge and to learn other things. I’m pleased with my work overall, but of course I wish I could have done more! Yes, I know 6 months is a short period of time, especially in such a huge country with its diversity and richness (and poverty!), but ‘development’ is slow and I had to learn to be more realistically ambitious (if that makes sense…). But 6 months is a long enough period to learn a lot and to broaden your horizon (if you are open enough). Ok, enough brackets (!)
So I made it to the end of the program! But not without the support of many people! Especially here in St Vincent. I’m also very grateful for your support, those of you who kept up with me through this blog and who wrote to me with kind, motivational words :) It was great to write here (even if I would have liked to write more..) as a reflection and a kind of diary (especially coz I have a really bad memory!). It’s also great to be back here in St Vincent around people who had similar experiences so we can share and have this time to kind of ‘wind down’ before going back to ‘reality’. Although what we experienced in our projects was probably more real than we’ve previously known ;)
Alright, I really should stop writing now…and I think this time it will probably be the last time I write here. I might post some pics and brief updates of what I’m up to and where I am. At this moment I have no concrete plans. I’m job hunting (for paid positions this time coz I’m broke already!). So if anyone knows of any community development vacancies that might be suitable for me – preferably in Africa, but Asia is also on my mind, please let me know :) Thanks a bunch.
For now I will try to enjoy (heeheehee) my last days in St Vincent.
Thanks all for your super support. I miss you and I will miss you more. All the best for the future and do keep in touch.
HUGS!
Noumi

Cape Town and around...

New Year…Same Same??…

Hello people! How are you all?? Hope you had great holidays and hope the New Year is treating you well :) I’m back to the project since the second week of Jan after a super holiday. I saw my whole family over Christmas and we enjoyed a road trip down to Cape Town and the Garden Route. Of course we did Cape Point, Cape of Good Hope, Table Mountain etc…Unfortunately we missed out on Robben Island because we were too late with booking – it was sold out until January :( Oh well…next time… :) I’ll try and post some pics, but you already know my difficulty with that so no promises…
I only have one and a half months left here, and I still have an investigation period to carry out in another project at the end of February so it’s going to be busy these last few weeks. I’ll be heading back to St Vincent in March to finish off the program. Just don’t ask me what then after that?? I will let you know when I know ;)
Now I’m just trying not to think about having to leave this place, although I’m also looking forward to St Vincent and seeing the friends I made there again. There’s still a lot to be done here and of course I had planned much more than I could do in reality…for example, I wanted to obtain bicycles for the Field Officers, but this has been a much longer process than I expected. I knew when I started that 6 months is not a long enough period to make what would generally be considered ‘big’ contributions, such as building a whole school (yeh yeh I know some of you are thinking anything is possible!), but still it is frustrating not to be able to do everything I want to do. The main obstacles are time and funds, as usual! But of course I am very happy with what I have achieved so far, especially regarding education. I am very glad that I have contributed to the education of many people here, not only those in the project itself, but people in the communities, in the streets, taxis, schools, workplaces, etc. I have not only educated about HIV & AIDS, but also other topics, especially world geography as people are always interested in where I come from and where I have traveled. Many people in the area I live in really do not know much about other parts of the world, let alone about the geography of their own country. They are, however, a bit more familiar with neighbouring countries and a handful of other African countries, because of the large number of migrants from those countries. For example when I mention Kenya, it is better recognized than when I mention The Netherlands, but then again I can’t really generalize because it depends on who you are talking to because the football fans will definitely know The Netherlands. And anyway who in the world, apart from anyone who is completely isolated from any form of media, hasn’t heard of Kenya by now ;)
Anyway, like I have mentioned before, this country is just humongous and it’s a pity that I have not been able to explore it as much as I would’ve liked to…But I cannot complain, I have been able to see different sides of this country – there are many different sides, many contrasts. I have seen cities with their modern infrastructure and affluent suburbs as well as their run down areas and poor townships. I have seen the rural areas with their beautiful vast landscapes, mountainous and flat plains, with fertile farming areas as well as arid areas with water scarcity. I have seen the well equipped universities in the cities and the barely standing school buildings in the villages. I have met highly educated people with well paying jobs and fancy cars and the poorly educated street vendors or unemployed beggars. I know you can find such contrasts in many countries, but for some reason it’s more accentuated here. I have also mentioned the great multiculturalism here, the various races, languages, traditional beliefs etc… it’s quite mind-boggling, especially considering events in recent history. I’m not gonna go there don’t worry…
I’m just happy to have gotten the opportunity to visit this amazing country! Now it’s as if I’m posting my last entry before I leave the country, but I hope not, I hope I will get another chance to write again and maybe post some pics before I leave. For now, I wish you all well. Take care and keep in touch…
Ciao!

some people pics...mainly kids tho...

The heavenly Limpopo sky says it all!!

Already three months!!

Here I am again :) and finally some pictures!
I’m not even gonna make excuses this time…I will just try and pick up from where I left off…Er…if I can remember…let me see…about the life here apart from work. By the way work is going very good…it’s not as slow as I thought it would be – not at all. We have weekly deadlines and every week we get new tasks, so it’s not routine and boring at all…it’s great experience for me who usually needs time to prepare things, now I’m having to learn to produce at very short notice e.g. summary of certain required statistics. I’m managing so far!
So I’m living with two other volunteers, South African, and I’m working with mostly South Africans in the project, which is great because I’m learning lots about their culture – or I should say cultures as they are all from different parts of the country and different tribes so it’s really multicultural and representative of the country’s rich culture! So I’m living with the two volunteers in a three bedroom house - we’ve actually moved house because of the lack of security in the house we were staying in. Even though it’s not such a dangerous area here, we still want to be on the safe side as you never know. But I actually liked the other house better - it had more character, especially the backyard was pretty with flowers (including a nice francipani tree that reminded me of st vincent..), fruit trees (mostly peach, but also guava and fig (i think..)– but I didn’t get a chance to try them out as they ripen in January or February – I’ll pay a visit then as it’s not too far). The new house is really new, just finished being built and landscaping still needs to be done so no fruit trees yet…actually no trees! But latrine is much better! As I mentioned before this area lacks water so all houses – no matter how big and fancy – don’t have running water in the house. So even the new house we have moved to has the latrine in the backyard like all other houses. We do have a tap in our yard as we did in the previous house so that’s really great. By now I am used to the bucket ‘showering’ and hand-washing my clothes. I actually quickly got used to the life here, only the language is still a barrier, but many people speak English so I’m spoilt in that I’m not forced to learn the language, but it’s a beautiful language – Sepedi (or Northern Sotho) – and I’m slowly learning. I also quickly got used to the food – lots of pap (a kind of thick porridge of maize meal) and cabbage! The white pap is not new to me, but here they have a brown one which is the first time for me to try it – I prefer the white one though. I’m enjoying new vegetables like butternut and enjoying others which I never ate much like beetroot and spinach. The only thing which is a bit much for me is the canned baked beans – very popular in this area, with a kind of mango chutney called achar and lots of bread…
My daily routine is getting up at 5:30 or 6:00 (it’s not difficult to get up even earlier because it’s already light by 5:00), then ‘shower’ (this always take time since there are three of us and one bathing basin so we have to take turns), breakfast (usually bread, but sometimes I spoil myself with cereal!), then off to work at 7:00 or 7:30 depending on the plan of the day. I travel by public transport – similar to St Vincent, minivans, called taxis here, are abundant and easy to get around with. They also usually blast music – but very different music than St V., they also drive fast, but they are not as lively decorated and not named as the ones in St V. Lunch varies depending on the day’s activities; it can be a warm meal of pap or rice with veggies, or bread with baked beans and achar or bread with avocado (my favourite). End of the day varies again depending on the activities, but usually I’m home by 18:00, but work does not end there –there are always lots of assignments to mark or some report to write. Dinner is usually rice and veggies – but I’m not doing too good on the veggies because I’m not taking the time to buy them :( There are lots of vegetable stalls all over – by the road side, at the taxi ranks (= bus stations) so there’s always a chance to buy veggies. There’s also a chance to buy necessities at the numerous “Tuck Shops” or “General Dealers” in the villages. They are small shops selling bread, some vegetables, drinks etc. But usually we do all our shopping in the nearby shopping center – luckily we have one! If you are at the shopping center, you don’t feel like you are in a rural area, even though it’s just a small outdoor (i.e. not a mall) shopping center with two supermarkets, three banks and some clothes and furniture shops. It is actually a shopping center for neighbouring villages as well so people have to come from some distance to do their banking or weekly shopping. While some have to take a taxi for around 20 minutes, for us we can walk for around 20 minutes to the center, so it’s not bad at all :)
Alright, I hope now you have an idea of how I’m living here. I will hopefully get a chance to send some season’s greeting to you all as the year end is drawing near. I will have a few days off, so I hope to be able to do some sightseeing because I haven’t yet had a chance to and this country is just full of wonders! I hope to have some nice touristic pictures next time…
HUGS!

more landscape pics...(people to follow..)

some landscape pics...