10 pics to sum up South Africa
posted by Jarrod at 8:51 am
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Wrapping up in South Africa
So my time as a volunteer has drawn to an end.... it's been whirlwind in the last few weeks, with Christmas coming and going and my time at Cape Town slowly winding down.
As a volunteer the bamabanani days have been an absolute blast. Whilst being hard work, due to the sun and long hours, it's so much fun getting the kids out of the townships and onto the beach for all sorts of activities. I've particularly enjoyed spending the day with the kids and in involving them in all sorts of sports.... from cricket to soccer to beach volleyball to singing and dancing. The afternoons were often spent around a stage being entertained by kids singing and dancing their booties off... remember that here hips don't lie ;)
Time with my host family has also been particularly enjoyable with lots of fun and games in Plumstead. The other international volunteers have been great and I'm really going to miss them, and my host family, once I return to Australia. It's only been a short time but already I feel quite close to the family and they always treated me as though I was exactly that: family. So much love and happiness in that home, it was great to be apart of and experience South African life in this way!
I'm definitely also going to miss the weather and spending my time working with kids outside. It's really one of those surreal opportunities that you have to pinch yourself about.... almost too good to be true sometimes!
But like all good things it must come to an end at some point.... I'll forever remember South Africa for all the amazing times I've had and the great fun - I'm really going to miss this place! But not as much as South Africa's going to miss me for my great singing and dancing........
As a volunteer the bamabanani days have been an absolute blast. Whilst being hard work, due to the sun and long hours, it's so much fun getting the kids out of the townships and onto the beach for all sorts of activities. I've particularly enjoyed spending the day with the kids and in involving them in all sorts of sports.... from cricket to soccer to beach volleyball to singing and dancing. The afternoons were often spent around a stage being entertained by kids singing and dancing their booties off... remember that here hips don't lie ;)
Time with my host family has also been particularly enjoyable with lots of fun and games in Plumstead. The other international volunteers have been great and I'm really going to miss them, and my host family, once I return to Australia. It's only been a short time but already I feel quite close to the family and they always treated me as though I was exactly that: family. So much love and happiness in that home, it was great to be apart of and experience South African life in this way!
I'm definitely also going to miss the weather and spending my time working with kids outside. It's really one of those surreal opportunities that you have to pinch yourself about.... almost too good to be true sometimes!
But like all good things it must come to an end at some point.... I'll forever remember South Africa for all the amazing times I've had and the great fun - I'm really going to miss this place! But not as much as South Africa's going to miss me for my great singing and dancing........
posted by Jarrod at 7:50 am
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
What a week!
Things are going great over here in Cape Town, with a lot of new experiences and interesting moments for my first work week. Firstly the household where I'm staying is great... 'the Martins' are exceptionally warm and its one BIG family - there are 8 otehr volunteers staying there: a really cool mix from Holland, Denmark, Germany and at least 8 from a very large South African family...
Work has also been really enjoyable with lots of different experiences and situations occurring. I've spent a couple days at a creche, where I mastered the art of face painting, at a street festival in one of the townships (great music!) and involved in team building workshops. It's allowed me to see a nice variety of the opportunities available over here and working with the kids is always good fun. The creche was particularly interesting as its in a relatively rough area of town, the kids have pretty tough backgrounds and demand a lot of attention, but getting them out and about and spending time with them is a real eye opener....I've loved every minute of it, although my back is finished after having 4 and 5 year olds climbing all over me all day long... they require lots of attention!
I've also done a fair bit of cultural and social familarisation over here! Living and working with people from all over the world is a great opportunitiy, and naturally being summer time the country is party crazy at the moment... Everything from winery tours, to days on the beach, to karaoke at 60th birthdays to pub crawls and club crawls - an entertaining week to say the least!
Next week sounds pretty interesting too, with a fair bit of Santa time as there's lots of Christmas parties planned, be good to get out and about even more!
Work has also been really enjoyable with lots of different experiences and situations occurring. I've spent a couple days at a creche, where I mastered the art of face painting, at a street festival in one of the townships (great music!) and involved in team building workshops. It's allowed me to see a nice variety of the opportunities available over here and working with the kids is always good fun. The creche was particularly interesting as its in a relatively rough area of town, the kids have pretty tough backgrounds and demand a lot of attention, but getting them out and about and spending time with them is a real eye opener....I've loved every minute of it, although my back is finished after having 4 and 5 year olds climbing all over me all day long... they require lots of attention!
I've also done a fair bit of cultural and social familarisation over here! Living and working with people from all over the world is a great opportunitiy, and naturally being summer time the country is party crazy at the moment... Everything from winery tours, to days on the beach, to karaoke at 60th birthdays to pub crawls and club crawls - an entertaining week to say the least!
Next week sounds pretty interesting too, with a fair bit of Santa time as there's lots of Christmas parties planned, be good to get out and about even more!
posted by Jarrod at 6:00 pm
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Getting down to business
Orientation is finally coming to an end and now the real work starts. In a couple of hours I'll be picked up from the luxurious hostel, complete with pool, a bar and awesome table mountain views, and will be heading into the burbs to starting both my volunteering, and also my stay with the host family....
The week has been great, with many activities and tours throughout. It's a case of every day providing me with a different perspective of Cape Town and giving me a different insight into African culture. There's certainly been some highs and lows along the way, and the experience
has particularly demonstrated the difference between the haves and have nots, as well as providing a background into the history and development of the country.
It's also been a pretty unique bonding experience with the group who arrived last Tuesday. We've done all the tours together and been through all the icebreakers so that now when we do leave we've got a pretty strong network of friends built up. Everyone here seems to have a different perspective of how their projects will pan out, so it will be interesting to see how everyone finds it after a couple of weeks.
The week has been great, with many activities and tours throughout. It's a case of every day providing me with a different perspective of Cape Town and giving me a different insight into African culture. There's certainly been some highs and lows along the way, and the experience
has particularly demonstrated the difference between the haves and have nots, as well as providing a background into the history and development of the country.
It's also been a pretty unique bonding experience with the group who arrived last Tuesday. We've done all the tours together and been through all the icebreakers so that now when we do leave we've got a pretty strong network of friends built up. Everyone here seems to have a different perspective of how their projects will pan out, so it will be interesting to see how everyone finds it after a couple of weeks.
posted by Jarrod at 8:46 am
Saturday, December 02, 2006
township in cape town
the view of cape town
kruger again
kids from the township
the view of cape town
kruger again
kids from the township
posted by Jarrod at 4:11 pm
The week in pictures
kruger
girafe at sunset
view of the surrounding bays of cape town
baby hyena
girafe at sunset
view of the surrounding bays of cape town
baby hyena
posted by Jarrod at 3:58 pm
Friday, December 01, 2006
Learning Cape Town
So i'm into the swing of things in Cape Town and so far so good!
On Tuesday I arrived and began my week long orientation as part of volunteering in South Africa. Meeting volunteers from all over the world has been a great experierence, and getting to know everyone means that this week has been a blast. So far we've done walking tours of the city, visited the SASTS offices, spent time on Robben Island (prison where, amongst others, Nelson Mandela was held) and toured around the Cape of Good Hope..... Lots to have seen and done in those first days, it's all become a bit of a blur - plenty of nights on the town have helped that. A highlight would have to have been catching a local band and listening to the 'rhythm of Africa' - lots of bongos and drums... they even pulled of an awesome cover of Gnarls Barkley's Crazy song.
The city is a lot more user friendly than Jo'burg and has a great feel. Beautiful backdrop (the Table Mountains) plus the great coastline and the much more relaxed vibe. I can see myslef growing to like this place more and more!
Anyone must run, I'm off to a Djemba Djemba drumming class, should be interesting!
On Tuesday I arrived and began my week long orientation as part of volunteering in South Africa. Meeting volunteers from all over the world has been a great experierence, and getting to know everyone means that this week has been a blast. So far we've done walking tours of the city, visited the SASTS offices, spent time on Robben Island (prison where, amongst others, Nelson Mandela was held) and toured around the Cape of Good Hope..... Lots to have seen and done in those first days, it's all become a bit of a blur - plenty of nights on the town have helped that. A highlight would have to have been catching a local band and listening to the 'rhythm of Africa' - lots of bongos and drums... they even pulled of an awesome cover of Gnarls Barkley's Crazy song.
The city is a lot more user friendly than Jo'burg and has a great feel. Beautiful backdrop (the Table Mountains) plus the great coastline and the much more relaxed vibe. I can see myslef growing to like this place more and more!
Anyone must run, I'm off to a Djemba Djemba drumming class, should be interesting!
posted by Jarrod at 4:43 pm
Monday, November 27, 2006
Arriving in Jo'burg and a Safari update!
So the trip to Kruger was amazing!!!
Feeling more and more like Ranger Stacy and her type, I had the best time out in the bush and it was an absolute treat to get amongst the action of Africa. Of the big five i only saw 4, minus Leopard, but getting up real close with wild zebras, lions, hyenas, elephant, buffalo, hippo, crocs, rhino and giraffe amongst others was awesome. Doing a night drive with the tracker was pretty ace too, very authentic experience. Keep an eye out for me on Animal Planet next year, would be perfect as a safari commentator.
Moment of the trip would have to have been cracking out an Apple iBook the Brazilians had and watching Ronaldinho videos around the camp fire.... talk about perfect ... ;)
Arriving in Jo'burg was a surreal experience... such an amazing bustling, enormous, heaving city that so far i like - although it does feel like things could turn nasty at any moment....it's got that sort of 'keep an eye out feel'. I have to say, like most places, it's nothing like i imagined. Whilst there is extreme wealth, the city is as a whole much more striken by poverty than i expected, and South Africa's past can still be felt just beneath the surface..... White South Africa is much different to what i expected as well. Afrikans definitely seems to be spoken more widely than English and there's a distinction between the two 'white tribes.' Overall there has been some amazing progress, I'm constantly being suprised by the way of life here!
Tomorrow I'm off to Cape Town to meet SASTS and start my volunteering experience. I've heard a lot of positives from other travellers so I'm really looking forward to get into it, should be a great challenge.
More updates and photos to come!
Feeling more and more like Ranger Stacy and her type, I had the best time out in the bush and it was an absolute treat to get amongst the action of Africa. Of the big five i only saw 4, minus Leopard, but getting up real close with wild zebras, lions, hyenas, elephant, buffalo, hippo, crocs, rhino and giraffe amongst others was awesome. Doing a night drive with the tracker was pretty ace too, very authentic experience. Keep an eye out for me on Animal Planet next year, would be perfect as a safari commentator.
Moment of the trip would have to have been cracking out an Apple iBook the Brazilians had and watching Ronaldinho videos around the camp fire.... talk about perfect ... ;)
Arriving in Jo'burg was a surreal experience... such an amazing bustling, enormous, heaving city that so far i like - although it does feel like things could turn nasty at any moment....it's got that sort of 'keep an eye out feel'. I have to say, like most places, it's nothing like i imagined. Whilst there is extreme wealth, the city is as a whole much more striken by poverty than i expected, and South Africa's past can still be felt just beneath the surface..... White South Africa is much different to what i expected as well. Afrikans definitely seems to be spoken more widely than English and there's a distinction between the two 'white tribes.' Overall there has been some amazing progress, I'm constantly being suprised by the way of life here!
Tomorrow I'm off to Cape Town to meet SASTS and start my volunteering experience. I've heard a lot of positives from other travellers so I'm really looking forward to get into it, should be a great challenge.
More updates and photos to come!
posted by Jarrod at 7:58 pm
Monday, November 20, 2006
Not long to go....
So this week I'm off to South Africa! I'll be landing in Johannesburg this Thursday and can't wait. Apart from trying not to think about the 22 bed dorm I'm booked into, I'm really looking forward to heading to Kruger National Park on Friday. I'm in search of the big 5, but really I'll just be happy to be out their camping it up under the stars. Hoping not to look like an extra in 'Out of Africa' the whole safari thing is one of the main reasons to get over there - should be great fun!
Beyond that I'm also looking forward to my placement in Cape Town. I'll be based in Plumstead working on the Future Factory and Live Wire placement. The project deals with empowering the lives of underprivileged children and focuses on empowering them through sport coaching, dance and life skills. I particularly look forward to making a difference through the power of dance, a skill I've always believed myself to be blessed with..... :P As I understand my primary responsibility will be sports development and facility management. Can't wait to get over there and get into it and meet my host family, should be great!
Beyond that I'm also looking forward to my placement in Cape Town. I'll be based in Plumstead working on the Future Factory and Live Wire placement. The project deals with empowering the lives of underprivileged children and focuses on empowering them through sport coaching, dance and life skills. I particularly look forward to making a difference through the power of dance, a skill I've always believed myself to be blessed with..... :P As I understand my primary responsibility will be sports development and facility management. Can't wait to get over there and get into it and meet my host family, should be great!
posted by Jarrod at 11:53 pm
