I hope that you are well and are enjoying the British Summer sun!
Despite marking the Winter Solstice with a bonfire and the sun setting by 5.30 pm, winter in the Eastern Cape feels very comparable to a British summer. However a recent spate of power cuts has made us hugely grateful for hot water bottles and industrial quantities of candles.
I have continued to divide my time between the plethora of educational projects in Zithulele, ranging from making paper crowns to illustrate ‘Europe’ in Pre School, to helping to teach NGO employees about recent developments in national child protection policies. In the Independent School, I recently choreographed a routine for the Grade 1-3s to perform with their homemade pillbox shakers for the Zithulele Talent Show. This they executed very enthusiastically despite the difficulty in hearing the words to ‘Waka waka’ by Shakira owing to the faulty speaker connection!
In addition to doing some infection-reducing filing in the Maternity Ward and walking over the hills to do craft activities in a neighbouring Pre-School, I helped to organise the NGO-led sports day in celebration of Youth Day on June 16. Youth Day is a South African public holiday that commemorates the Soweto Uprising of 1976, in which students protesting against Afrikaans being the medium of instruction in local schools were met with fierce police brutality. It is a day of huge celebration across South Africa and was marked in Zithulele with a range of chess, Frisbee and Touch Rugby tournaments.
Outside of work hours, my friends and I have been helping to fundraise for the ‘Miss Zithulele’ pageant to be held in early August. So far, our movie night showings of ‘The BFG’ and ‘Black Panther’ have been very successful, despite managing to melt our plastic popcorn pans and burn the muffin mix. Self-proclaimed as ‘Team Useless’, we are trying hard to live up to the title.
Our misfounded faith in our immune systems was exposed a couple of weeks ago as four out of five members of our house were taken down with ailments ranging from E. Coli to pharyngitis. However, early nights and cups of tea, combined with the luxury of living next to a hospital mean that croaky voices are all that remain of one of our more challenging weeks.
At the end of May, the other Project Trust volunteers and I had the opportunity to spend time on safari in Botswana where the excitement of the accumulating stamps on our passports was exceeded only by the stunning sight of cheetahs on our way into Madikwe Game Reserve. We subsequently made our way to Swaziland for Bushfire Festival for four nights of cold camping but incredible music. Despite spending longer travelling on buses than at our destinations, and becoming honorary residents of Park Station in Johannesburg, we had a hugely enjoyable and rewarding time away.
Returning to Zithulele and being reunited with our colleagues and students was one of the highlights of the whole trip as we were bombarded with questions ranging from ‘How big is a lion?’ to ‘Why did you buy so many avocados?’!
I have been hugely fortunate to have also spent the past week in Cape Town where I have enjoyed trips to Cape Point, Table Mountain and Robben Island – in addition to relishing the luxury of coffee shops and food markets within 90 minutes drive!
With just over a month left in Zithulele, I have been reflecting on the whole new life I have lived in last five months and the speed at which the time here has flown. I expect that it will only be on my return to the UK that I will appreciate fully all that I have learned.
I am returning to Zithulele on Monday to spend my final 5 weeks in South Africa and look forward to updating you again after my return to the UK on the 12th of August!
Very best wishes,
Annabel
