Kayelitsha And Other Stuff

Remember I said that the water at Smitswinkel Bay is freezing? Well, compared to the water at Clifton, Smitswinkel water has a tropical temperature.

Tonight I'll have been here for exactly two weeks, with four more weeks to go. Time really does fly when you're having fun.

By the way, I'm sorry for not uploading any pictures, but I seem to be unable to...

Not much happened on Monday. On Tuesday I had my first JUMP HI (Junior Undiscovered Maths Prodigies - Herschel Initiative) lesson. We got this book with instructions and exercises for the children to make, and the teacher leading JUMP explained what we would do during the first lesson (we're starting with fractions...). Not much happened. We won't meet the children until next Tuesday. I do wonder what it's going to be like. The children speak Xhosa (not Afrikaans, as I thought earlier) and maybe a few words of English.

Wednesday was a lot more interesting: We went to Kayelitsha with a group of some twenty exchange students. Five from Herschel (Kirsten, Sandra, Megan, Caroline and I), two from Bishop's (Brian and Marty) and a whole lot of girls from St. Cyprian's (I don't know if I spelled that right, though). It was quite a big group.

We first went to the centre of Cape Town, to a large Cathedral. The teacher from St. Cyprian's told us some of the history of Apartheid. It was quite interesting. After that we were off. Originally we were going in two small buses, but because we couldn't all fit in, Sandra, Kirsten and I got to come along in the car with Amy's mum (Amy is Caroline's exchange student). I'm fairly certain we had the better airconditioning...

We first went to District Six. District Six is quite interesting, because that was like the only neighbourhood where people of all colours lived together during the Apartheid. Therefore the government decided to bulldoze the whole area. When later houses were starting to get built there again, there was a massive outcry against it, so right now there's a small part of District Six that has houses on it. The rest is just empty, except for some grass and some bush.

After District Six, we drove on to Kayelitsha, where we went to Mama Amelia's house. Mama Amelia takes in practically every orphan and abandoned child around. Wednesday she took care of 95 children, while the government only grants her subsidies for seven! While we were there most of the children were at school, the younger ones were at home. They were so cute! As soon as we stepped into the house, they all immediately came over to us, stretching up their arms or hugging our legs. Everyone was holding at least one child's hand as we got a tour of the house (which looked actually quite nice compared to most of the shacks we drove past) and when the children discovered our cameras... My god! They were posing for pictures all the time and were delighted when they could see them back on the screen of the camera. Jane (Amy's mum) reckons they get visitors with cameras a lot and that they know exactly know what it is.

At one point while I was sitting at the ground, this one little boy came sit on my one knee and put his arm around my neck. A few moments later a little girl came sit on my other knee. They stayed there for the whole time until we left. My legs did get a bit sore though. I wasn't exactly in a comfortable position...

Anyway, I also made a movie with my camera, and at first the children were confused - there was no flash - but as soon as I showed them the movie... They became even more obsessed with my camera.

It was odd, though. There was no way for us to communicate with the children, as they only speak Xhosa. All we could do was try to talk with them through are hands. That was pretty awkward, but all in all it was great fun.

After that we went to this other place in Kayelitsha to have lunch. On the way there we came past this one shabby looking house that had a big sign saying "surgery." That did surprise me...

Lunch was nice. Next to the building where we had lunch there was also a little shop with all sorts of handmade African stuff. I bought quite a lot of souvenirs and presents there.

Thursday I had lifesaving againr. This time we only had to swim sixteen laps, instead of twenty. I came in second! Then it turned out two girls had actually done twenty laps... This lesson wasn't as exhausting as last week's. We weren't just doing exhausting exercises, we actually learnt one (simple) way of saving a person. However, this method is only to be used in calm water, to save someone who is conscious and calm, who just hasn't got enough energy to swim back to the shore.

Yesterday morning during assembly, three speeches were held. The first by Ash, Kath and Lily, about Holland, the second by Amy and Pascale about America and the last one by Fiona about England (she spent eleven (!) weeks there!!!). It was all quite interesting, as all six of them had made a powerpoint presentation. There were some very nice pictures of Holland between there. There were also some pictures there, which should make a few people back home glad that no one here knows them... Nah, just kidding. Everyone looks fairly normal on the pictures. At the end of the schoolday we got last year's yearbook (The Herschelian) from Ms. Bodenstein (my English teacher) who had a couple left. It's quite interesting to read. There are two pages about last year's exchanges as well.

In the evening we went to Clifton beach, for a picnic. We were there with all five exchange students plus our host families (only Ash and Gavin came later, because Ashleigh's waterpolo match had been postponed until 7.00, of course Kyle came along with Ash as well). Bronwyn also came along, and Carla, Kristina and Georgie came a bit later as well.

Bronwyn decided to go swimming. I decided to go along, and then Kath went as well. I think I went head under about five times. Kath and Bron didn't even let the water get above their hips. The water at Clifton is extremely cold, because it's part of the Atlantic, and there's a current coming from the Arctic there, whereas the beaches a bit more to the east (like Smitswinkel) are part of the Indian Ocean, so there's a warmer current there. Cape of Good Hope is the point where the two oceans meet.

At one point I was talking to Megan and Caroline (well, talking... they did all the talking, I just listened), a bit away from the rest of the group. They told me a lot about their school (Norfolk Academy, Virginia) and as Megan said: I'll know every person at that school before ever meeting them. I do think I should go visit them in Virginia some time.

When we went to sit with the group again, we started talking about cars. Of course, Megan and Caroline both have not only a driver's licence, but they each have their own car...

All in all, the week dragged on (except for Wednesday, which went to quick) and the weekend will probably go to fast. By now I completely understand why Ashleigh said that they live for the weekend here. In an hour or so we're leaving to go to Kath's aunt's farm. I don't know exactly what is there that so special about it, but as both Kath and Ash are very excited, I think I'll have a great time. We're going to stay there for the night.


Love,

Nienke