Lindsey Mae's blog

After the township tour, it was time to get to work!  We started each morning at about nine as a group.  We had a quick meeting to start off the day, then we split up into groups of two and were assigned different kindergartens.  This is Steph, and my group of kindergarteners…

Aren’t they adorable!!!  I miss those kids.  At first is was pretty intimidating, with 45 kids under the age of 5 or 6, all piled into one tiny classroom for 8 hours a day, it can get a little crazy.  But after we got the hang of things, it wasn’t too bad, and I am really glad we had the opportunity to work with them.

When we first arrived to Cape Town, they drove us to a place called a township.  Townships were created during the Apartheid to separate white living from black living.  They are usually undeveloped and not allowed to expand anywhere outside of the land boundries.  We had the opportunity of living in Langa township with a host family for two weeks.  At first, I have to admit that I was a little nervous, very out of my comfort zone, and I finally realized the meaning of culture shock.  The first couple days were pretty rough on me.  I feel like my perspective on their lives was focused more on what they don’t have, instead of what they do.  They don’t have any rules against littering, no speed limits, no Walmart, no toilet paper in the bathrooms (sometimes soap), no shower (my home didn’t, but some of them did), no peanut butter (there was peanut butter in certain areas, but it was hard to find and not many people use it), no restaurants (that I knew of at the time), and did I mention no peanut butter?!  It was not only what they didn’t have that had an effect on me, but also their style of living, it’s completely different to anything we are used to, and there is no way I can really describe it to you except through pictures, so here are a few. 

This is what they call a hostel.  A hostel can be defined in two ways.  For them it is a way of living for the lower class residents.  They are built like apartments, having several rooms, and an eating/sitting area.  Each room (about the size of a small childs room) will house up to three families.  We took a tour of one of the rooms, and it had three beds in it, with a little electronic stove, a small tv, and very little space.  A family will consist of a mother and/or a father, around three to four children, and sometimes grandparents.  They will have the parents and grandparents sleep on the bed, and the children on the floor.  Everyone there buys their electricity at the store, and it is relatively cheap.  Rent is also cheap, if I remember correctly, it is 50 Rand per month, which is about 8 US dollars.  This picture shows one of the nicer hostels.  On the other side of these buildings, you will most likely see ropes going from one building to another where they all hang their clothes to dry. 

This is one of the hundreds of barber shops around.  Seriously, you will see 5-10 of them just on one street!

This is the view from the outside of a settlement.  People live in settlements usually when they are unemployed, or when they are saving money to live somwhere better.  Basically they will pick a piece of land, and using anything they can find, they will build their family a house.  Unfortunately, it is very difficult to upgrade to a house once you live in a settlement because no one is allowed to sell their homes once they decide to live there.  The only options for people living here are to move into a hostel, or to rent off a piece of someone elses home, in hopes of one day being able to own it. 

This is an example of what one of the settlement homes would look like.  They are literally made of anything they can find.

They have stray dogs everywhere!  Most of them kept their distance, but this mom and her puppies were super friendly and adorable!  The women here are absolutely amazing, they walk around with anything and everything on their heads, and most of the time they don’t have to use their hands to hold them up!

This man was building a roof for his home.  It is winter their and rains quite a lot, so a solid roof is very important. 

These is what they call a cash store.  They are everywhere throughout the township, and these boys were more than willing to let us take a picture of them 😉

Langa high scool

These are random kids that we ran into while we were getting a tour.  All of the kids absolutely love having their picture taken (as long as you show them the picture after you take it!)

Ok, so I have to apologize that I haven’t updated my blog at all since the beginning of my trip.  After the first couple weeks I rarely had internet access, and when I did, everyone else was in line for it so we only stayed on just long enough to check facebook and email family.  There is so much to say about my time in Africa, so I’m just going to use pictures to do most of the talking.  Unfortunately, I pulled a Lindsey and my camera is sitting in Kruger Park right now, hopefully it will find it’s way back to me soon.  In the meantime, I stole pictures from all of my friends, and I will have more coming soon, so this is what I have so far.

Seriously one of the cutest little girls in the whole world.  She was extremely quiet and shy around all the other kids, but once they all went outside to play, she turns into the happiest little baby.  It took everything in me not to bring her home….

So this picture shows about half of my class.  This was taken right after breakfast time.  The kindergartens are run by neighborhood moms who just want to help out the community and keep the kids safe.  They have no government funding, nor do they get paid.  They serve the kids two meals a day, plus a snack, and the money comes out of their own pockets.  I still don’t know how they do this all day everyday, they are amazing.  The owner of this kindergarten is blind, and she started it in 1999.  I had a chance to sit down and talk with her and it had always been her passion to work with kids, so she became a teacher.  When she got ill and became blind, she still wanted to help kids, so she had her daughters and neighbors help her start this kindergarten.

Some of the volunteers brought coloring books and crayons to give to the kids.  They absolutely loved them, and now it is a daily routine to have them color.

Nap time!  As you can see, all the kids behind this adorable little boy are “sleeping”.  Can you imagine getting 50 kids under 5 to all lay down in the same spot and actually sleep for an hour?  Yeah, thats pretty much how it went every day, but at least it was an hour of quiet time 😉

Ok, so I arrived about 4 days ago, in Langa, Cape Town, South Africa.  Langa is one of many townships located in SA, and learning about their culture and how they work together as a community to survive has been a once in a lifetime opportunity.  I have been living with a host family which consists of the host mother, Maria, her two daughters, Ruth and Rebecca, and Ruth’s 11 month old daughter Bucca.  (don’t think that is spelled right, but it is pronounced booka)  My project group consists of eight girls, and Nathi, our local project leader who was one of the men that started Happy Feet.  We spent our first couple days getting used to the area, and we even went into Cape Town’s bowl, which is their main city.  We took a tour bus around the entire city, up to Table Mountain and through the many beaches in the area.  It was absolutely beautiful, and hopefully I can have enough time to download pictures for you guys so you can see what I get to see every day.  The computers are already slow as it is, and I am paying for it by the minute 😉  So we then started working on Monday with the many kindergartens that the local mothers have started to keep the kids safe and off the streets while their siblings are at school and parents are working.  Lets just say that those few hours that I am there are the craziest of my day.  There are about 45 kids, from age 1-6, all in the same room about the size of a normal bedroom, with wooden floors and no windows.  They don’t have many supplies, and it is all we can do to keep them occupied.  The mothers that volunteer to be their teachers, don’t get paid, and they have them for over 8 hours a day.  They get fed two meals per day, and they have some learning time, but like most pre-schools and kindergartens, it is mostly play time.  Because they are so young, they don’t speak english, so they can’t understand us and we can’t understand them.  Most of the time a child will come up to say something to me in Xhosa (their native language) and I will nod, smile, and say ok, then they will run off happy as can be.  In their culture, the children touch thumbs to say that you are cool, or I like you.  It’s kind of like our high five, which we give them a lot as well, they seem to think that giving high fives is a game of some sort 😉  They also love to dance.  I taught them a simple country dance, and they all wait in line to do it with me, so cute!  After we work with the kindergarten, we head over to happy feet.  It is an organization started my Nathi and his partner (can’t pronounce or say his name…) started to keep kids safe and off the street by dancing.  What I learned yesterday absolutely amazed me!  They aren’t taught any of the dances, they make them all up as they go!  It is so inspirational to watch and be a part of.  We are the first group of volunteers that actually get to work with the kids and learn from them, most of the time people just come to tour the town, not work with them.  It’s also funny to see them go crazy over our hair!  They don’t see blondes or brunettes, and even long hair absolutely makes them go crazy!  I think they spent 30 minutes just playing with my hair yesterday (the kindergarten kids like hair too, they just aren’t as gentle about it…)  Well, thats all for now, I have to head back to work!

Until next time!

Molo! (the Xhosa word for hello or goodbye)

Well, I am almost ready to go!  My flight leaves tomorrow, and I arrive in Cape Town on Friday.  I won’t be able to contact anyone by phone, due to my phone not having a sim card.  A whole month without a cell phone, who needs them 😉  I got pretty freaked out today, I don’t know what it is with people!  You tell them you are going to South Africa to do humanitarian work, and instead of congratulating you, they give you a skeptical look and tell you to be safe.  Then they tell you about people they know that have gone there, and instead of telling inspiring stories, they pause and stare off into space like they are deep in thought, then look back at you and tell you once again to be careful!  So supportive… but needless to say I came home and looked up how to be safe when traveling to South Africa, and I am just so grateful that I won’t be traveling alone.  Matt gave me a blessing today and I am as prepared as I can get, so now all I need to think about is how much fun I am going to have.  Next time you read, I will be halfway across the world, in a completely different time zone!  Honestly, the thing I’m most concerned about is the 26 hours I will be spending in an airplane, flying over endless ocean, no way to escape, I guess there will be no turning back after that.  If I don’t make it, its because the plane ride killed me, not the lions 😉

Ok, so most of you know that in exactly 2 weeks, I am headed off for a 4 week adventure to South Africa, a foreign land to which I am not familiar with at all.  I figure that since I can’t call everyone and let them know what is going on there, now is a better time than ever to create a blog.  What inspired a 20 year old girl to go out of the country for her first time, knowing absolutely no one that will be with her during the trip, I have no idea!!  But don’t worry, I have had several people tell me how dangerous South Africa is, and recommend that I watch Taken, while giving me skeptical “Is she insane” looks.  Thanks guys, I feel so much better 😉  Its a good thing I don’t care what anyone else thinks (and the fact that I am 5,000 into it, I guess there is no backing out…)  But regardless of the previous comments, I am extremely excited!  It is still unreal to me, and probably will be until I arrive at the South African Airport.  Do you know that feeling where when something really exciting happens you are pumped about it for the first week, then after that it just stresses you out when you realize that the idea is grand, but thinking about everything you have to do just seems impossible; then something happens that pumps you up again.  Well, I live for those moments.  I can’t describe to you the excitement I felt when I decided I was going to do this, but after that excitement left, all I did was worry that I wasn’t going to be able to pay for it all.  So many little things that happened after that, just reminded me that as long as I have faith, and pay my tithing, that everything will work out.