One month in

We have now been at our project exactly a month today and time seems to be flying by. We have all got stuck into our duty here at Underberg Primary School and Hostel as "big sisters" and I am loving every minute of it. For you all to understand a bit more of what my time here is spent doing I think it might be useful if I give you a brief summary of what our days consist of.

Our day starts at 6:25am when the first bell goes off and from then until lights out at 8:15pm it is almost none stop. After getting the children up, dressed and ready for school we head over to the school to begin our day as learning assistants. Chelsea is across the road in the pre-primary and myself, Olivia and Erica work in the senior primary. Erica and I work with the two Grade 6 classes and Olivia works with the Grade 7's. When we first arrived things were pretty slow and we weren't given much responsibility by the teachers but now a month in things have picked up and I really feel like I am making progress with the kids I am working with, particularly in English . In English Erica and I teach 2 boys, one who is autistic and another with an extremely low reading age. Over the past month it is amazing to see the progress they have made and it is a great feeling to know our hard work and lesson planning for the 2 of them is starting to pay off. Although my main focus is with the kids in Grade 6 there has been a couple of occasions where I've had to cover Grade 1 and 3 classes because teachers have been absent. After the school day is finished we are back in the hostel helping and supervising informal prep (homework) before preparing an evening activity for the children to do after supper. Seeing as the Grade 7's have exams coming up they are, very reluctantly, in formal prep (revision) after supper and have to miss out on evening activity. After evening activity it is snack time before showering and in bed for lights out at 8:15pm.

Olivia unpacking and putting up her photos

It took me a good week to put all these up

Our duties are Monday - Friday and from when the kids go home on a Friday afternoon we are free to do what we want. Seeing as Underberg is a small town there isn't a lot to do here and we have no car to get out of the town (plus it is too dangerous to get in any of the taxis or buses). This means we are pretty limited with what we can get up to at the weekend. However, on our first Sunday here Charles, our host, took us and his family to Glenhaven for a braai (South African BBQ). Glenhaven is an adventure resort just 20 minutes outside Underberg and I am pretty sure we will be spending a lot more time there.

Rope swing at Glenhaven

Our first braai

Olivia and I going for a little paddle

We have also made friends with a lot of the locals who have invited us to braais and social events which have been great fun and has meant we've never been bored or stuck with nothing to do at the weekend. Unfortunately I haven't been to as many as the other girls as I have been fighting with my immune system since arriving here. But after a lot of coughing, vomiting, a jova (injection in your bum that seemingly cures everything) and two 3 hour long trips to the local clinic the nurse final told me I had a lung infection. Thankfully between the jova and some strong antibiotics I am feeling so much better.

Hodgson's Peaks

When we first arrived at the hostel Charles told us about an opportunity to go on the Grade 7's 3 day hike up Hodgson's Peaks, one of the highest peaks in the Drakensberg Mountains, and without realising just quite how difficult it was going to be Erica, Olivia and I agreed to go on it.

I really won't go into much detail as it was dead grim. Day 1 involved a 14km, up hill, hike to a cave where we slept for 2 nights. Day 2 involved me throwing my guts up all day with altitude sickness and not being able to go on the hike up to the peak. Day 3 involved  a 14km, down hill, hike out of the mountain, one of the Grade 7 girls falling down a ditch, breaking her ankle and having to get a horse to carry her out of the mountain.

One thing is for sure, there is no chance I am agreeing to another school hike anytime soon.

At the beginning of the hike, blissfully unaware of what was yet to come

The mountain furthest in the distance is Hodgson's Peaks. 

Close encounter with a baboon

#thisisprojecttrust

Finally back at base camp after 3 days in hell

National Heritage Day/National Braai Day

A week ago today was National Heritage Day/National Braai Day and the children got the day off school. We took them all down to Glenhaven where they spent the day swimming and canoeing around the lake. We then headed back to the hostel where we had a braai to celebrate.

My girlies

They really don't feel the cold...the water was absolutely freezing

Having a compulsory braai on National Braai Day

Our rather large family minus Chelsea and a few kids

Anyway that is all for now, I think I've frazzled my brain writing this post.

Rachel x

Arriving in South Africa

Turns out I'm not very good at this whole blogging thing seeing as it has taken me over a month to write one post but here goes anyway...

5 weeks ago now I left all my home comforts behind in Edinburgh and packed my bags for South Africa. Even after months of fundraising and preparation, it all seemed very surreal as I said goodbye to my family and friends at Edinburgh airport.

Since arriving I have been attempting to write a blog post but keep getting distracted with other things. It has been non stop since we got here and I could go on and on about everything we have done but I think it might be best to keep it short and sweet.

After over 24 hours of travelling we finally arrived in Jo'burg and all 38 of us stumbled into The Ritz Backpackers where we spent our first 4 days. We had Wednesday night to settle in and catch up on sleep but on Thursday morning we were up at 5am and heading to the Children's Memorial Institute. Both Thursday and Friday were spent at the Children's Memorial Institute volunteering at NGO's (Non-Government Organisations) in the building. Although very tiring it was good to get straight into volunteering and working with children as it gave us a feel for what was to come before we were completely thrown in at the deep end at our own projects. I spent my 2 days there with Shannon Low and we moved between different NGO's. We started on Thursday morning working with autistic toddlers and by Friday lunch time we were in the kitchen serving up the food for the children. We had to wear hair nets as we served the food and all the locals who work there found it hysterical that these white girls had come in for the day to help them serve up spam.

Myself, Shannon Low and Shannon Hartley looking stunning as we served up lunch at the Children's Memorial Institute 

On Saturday and Sunday we went to a local church hall where we listened to talks about the culture and history of South Africa from our country rep Ian. On Sunday we had a talk from a Project Trust return volunteer called Chris Trott. Chris is now the UK Consul General in South Africa and he gave the most awe inspiring talk about his life and everything he has accomplished since being a volunteer. From being ambassador in 4 countries in Asia and 4 in Africa to directly speaking to Nelson Mandela's wife after his funeral, the man has done it all. After Chris's talk we had a picnic in the church garden before going back to the hostel to get organised for heading off to our projects the next morning.

Roughly half our country group on our last night in Jo'burg before heading off to our projects

That's all for now, hopefully I'll get round to writing a post about the past month at my project at some point today...but then again it has taken me 5 weeks to write this.

Rachel x