0 Back Home

I think today I really owe you an apology! I promised to write this post more than two months ago…but somehow I just couldn’t make myself write anything because on the one hand there wasn’t a lot to report about and on the other hand it would have been so terminatory for my year in South Africa. But now I am settled in Germany again and ready to tell you everything about it – except that there still isn’t too much to tell you.

Before our group of nine remaining volunteers – some had to leave earlier for internships – left our “home country for a year” we still had an End of Stay Camp at a lodge near the airport of Johannesburg. We all met there for one night and had some group sessions where we talked about leaving South Africa, our personal feelings and plans and the theory of the reverse culture shock. The sessions were quite short, so there was a lot of time to compare notes with the others and to enjoy some last beams of the generous South African sun!

On the first of August we all left for the airport. Most of us were quite happy and excited to see the family and friends so soon, some had to fight back the tears and were quite sad to leave the new country and friends and some already made plans to come back for university. We all definitely had very mixed feelings, but for me actually the positive feelings prevailed. I had a great year in South Africa, but there also were so many things that I was looking forward to in Germany, beginning with being able to walk outside on my own and even in the dark without having to be overcautious, riding a bike again, drinking sparkling water, jogging outside in the forest  and many other little things.

After enjoying a last beautiful African sunset above the skyline of Joburg through the big glass windows of our terminal  we could finally enter the big plain and only then we really realized that we were about to leave for good.

The flight itself was quite nice. We were flying overnight so that I could sleep a bit and for the rest of the time I explored the movie selection. After disembarking in Frankfurt the four of us that went on to Hamburg almost missed our connecting flight, but luckily we made it in the last seconds before the gate was closed. When we finally arrived in Hamburg at 8am our families were all waiting, we quickly said goodbye and then set out for our homes.

Since the very first second that I set foot on German ground for me it seemed like I had never been away, but in a positive way. I still have all those great memories but now it seems a little bit like a dream. Only when I meet the other volunteers this dream becomes true again and then it’s definitely a great dream! At home and everything with my family and friends is exactly like it was before and I didn’t have any trouble to settle at all. In the beginning I always had to remind myself that I don’t have to check the streets for possible dangers when walking outside anymore, but even these habits I gave up very quickly.

Two weeks ago we had our first of two post processing seminars together with the volunteers from Ghana, that we already knew from the preparing seminars, and some others from different countries. It was really cool to see the others again and to exchange everything that had happened and I think we all had a really good weekend. Of course we also had some group sessions where we reflected on our experiences – it was also nice to compare experiences with those from other countries such as Columbia, Mexico or Australia – talked about possibilities to stay involved here in Germany and also had the chance to share our criticism and suggestions for AFS’s future.

I definitely plan to stay involved with AFS, by joining the local AFS committee and by becoming instructor for seminars. For our second post processing seminar we have the choice between seminars treating various parts of development politics or a seminar that’s the first part of our training to become instructor. I chose the second option and so I am going to have my next seminar in three weeks in Rottweil. Then I will write another short report on the seminar for you and this time I will really keep my promise!!

In the meantime I just moved to Heidelberg for studying medicine from tomorrow. So now I am quite excited what is expecting me in the next few days and weeks, but nevertheless already looking forward to the next seminar!

0 My last holidays - East Coast and Kruger

For the moment time seems to pass so very quickly! I just came back from my last holidays and now I’ve less than a week’s time left here in South Africa. Next Friday my End of Stay Camp starts where all of us volunteers will pass one last night at a lodge with our AFS coordinators and probably talk about our experiences.

For the moment I can’t really believe that I am going to be back in Germany in only one week. There seems to be so much left to do – so many things I still wanted to do, so many people to say goodbye to and of course packing my bags.

That’s why I don’t have time to give you a very detailed report of my holidays but anyway I think that pictures are going to give you a much better impression than any description could! To give you a very quick overview: my uncle from Germany came to visit and we travelled along South Africa’s East coast, starting with the Wild Coast and going all the way up via Durban until St Lucia where we left the coast and made our way to Kruger National Park. I really enjoyed these last holidays and especially Kruger was amazing! But see yourself...

I promise that you will hear from me soon – at the latest after arriving in Germany!

0 Lesson no 4

 

 

South African English

 

Before I came to South Africa I sometimes wondered if it wouldn’t be boring just to improve my language skills, as my English already was not too bad, instead of learning a whole new language. But when I came here I quickly realized that the South African English has quite some peculiarities that I still had to learn. It starts with all the different accents that developed as English isn’t the home language of most South Africans. So it doesn’t astonish that you can hear the weirdest and most diverse pronunciations of some words. I often actually feel like every single person here has his very own accent not comparable to anyone else and influenced by the very own history. In the beginning all these different accents made it harder for me to understand some people than I had expected. But by now I think I got used to it quite well and don’t need to smile approvingly anymore hoping that it fits the situation after not having understood what someone wants to tell me even after asking several times. And I also learned lots of new South African idioms, most of them originating from one of the other 10 official languages. At this point I just want to share some with you:

Sharp – was probably the first and maybe most important new word that I learned here and can mean almost everything. Most of the time you use it to show agreement or thank someone and it’s often doubled up to sharp-sharp and combined with a thumb up.

Robot – In South Africa robots aren’t strange figures from science fiction movies but the normal term for traffic light.

Bakkie – many people, including me, are driving them:  pick-up trucks

Braai – the South African barbecue.

Howzit (How is it?) – A popular alternative to “how are you?” that you are normally asking everyone you meet during the day.

Askies – the Afrikaans word for “sorry” and both words are probably those that you hear the most throughout your day as South Africans like to say sorry for literally everything no matter if something is their fault or not!

Lekker – another Afrikaans word that does not only mean delicious, as Germans might think. It can be used to describe all sort of things, including food, as “nice”, “good” or “great”. In the beginning it always sounded strange to me when people said things like: “That was a lekker weekend.”

Shame – is also a very important word in my South African English repertoire. Shame can be used in almost every sentence and means everything and nothing. You can use it to express pity or just say “shame” because you saw a cute baby. It works for any kind of sympathetic feelings.

Now, just now, now now – South Africans seem to have a very special relationship to time. That’s why they need many different expressions to describe when they are going to do something. I’m still not sure which of the three expressions is the worst, but I think it is just now what could mean every time in the next several days. Now is maybe comparable to later and now now is what comes closest to now. But there is one thing you can always be sure about: Even though it sounds so none of them actually means now! 

Eish – A cry often used to express surprise or frustration or just to fill the silence.

I make a plan – A phrase that South Africans love to use!

Auntie – is coming from aunt and that’s how women older than oneself often are called. Also at work the children use to call me auntie, mam or teacher.

Is it? – also a frequently used expression to show your interest or again just to fill the silence.

Klap – “I klap you!” is often used instead of “I smack you!”

0 Volunteer at Camp Footprints

Today it’s time for a topic that I already wanted to treat some time ago but somehow totally forgot to report about it: my stay at Camp Footprints some weeks ago. Camp Footprints is a project that organises camps for children with special needs. Lindy, the founder of the organisation that also worked for Cotlands in the past, invited me to come and work at one of the camps as a volunteer and so I spent a long weekend working at Camp Footprints. The camp took place at Phiri Camp in Dinokeng Game Reserve which is about 90 minutes’ drive from Joburg. The campsite was very nice, as there was a lot of space, a huge fireplace and nice bungalows for the night. Even though the children didn’t sleep in tents – it would have been quite cold anyway – sleeping bags provided the real camping atmosphere!

The whole program was set up and realised by Lindy, our group of 12 volunteers and the camp staff. Some of us, including me, already arrived Thursday afternoon, when we already set up some things and made a detailed time schedule for the program. Then on Friday morning the children arrived. They were a group of about 50 children from The Gateway School – a school for learners with special educational needs - at the age of 15 to 17. The needs of the children were very diverse. There were many children with ADHD, some autistic kids or with Down’s syndrome, some were physically disabled and lots of other disabilities but I also didn’t really get to know details about all of the children. Anyway I really liked the work with the children even though it was quite a challenge as I didn’t really have any experiences.

During the three days of camp we did lots of different activities with the children. Most of the time we divided them into groups and worked with several stations of activities from sack racing, egg and spoon race and other sporting activities to little dance sessions or soccer exercises. On the first evening we also had a big Potjiekos competition. A Potjiekos is a traditional South African stew that’s slowly cooked in a round iron pot over the fire. Four groups had to cook their own Potjiekos, set up a small restaurant and serve their dish to a jury that would rate the food, the atmosphere and the group’s teamwork. I was in the lucky situation to be a member of the jury so that I could try all the four stews and most of them tasted quite nice!

The rest of the evening was spent around the big fireplace with some singing and hot chocolate.

The next morning all the children had the chance to go on a game drive which was the first time for many of them. They were all really excited when we finally spotted elephants, giraffes and a lot of smaller game and tried to imitate the animals for the rest of the day.

In the evening everyone had to help planning and practising for our concert for the evening. With the help of us volunteers in three groups the children practised for a dancing, a singing and a drum part. After a lot of excitement the show was a big success: everyone had fun and all the children were quite proud of their performance. And to our luck after that they all wearily fell into their beds!

On Sunday morning the camp slowly came to an end. After breakfast, a lastquick game and packing up everyone proudly received a certificate and a group picture. Then it really was time to say goodbye what took quite some time because everyone wanted to hug everyone else. After that procedure the whole group got on their buses and left us behind, that we still had to pack up all the stuff.

Even though we only spent three days with the kids we all came quite close to them and it was fascinating what kind of secrets they committed to us after such a short period of time. They all were really amiable and it was a very nice experience to work with them!

0 Lesson no 3

 

Load shedding

 

Load shedding is one of many words that I had never heard before I came to South Africa. But after living here for almost ten months now I had more than enough chances to experience it myself!

As electricity in South Africa is always scarce, from time to time it may happen that it doesn’t suffice to meet the country’s demand. In these cases the electricity supply in certain changing areas is interrupted to avoid a national black-out that would have much worse consequences. And that’s called load shedding. Unfortunately load shedding often occurs in the evening hours when it’s not only dark and cold, but also when people want to cook. But as South Africans are very creative there are already lots of load shedding recipes available on the internet!

There also is scheduled load shedding that’s announced in advance. In summer people said there would be a lot of load shedding now to save electricity for the winter, but actually I feel like the load shedding got more and more since I came here and gets even worse now that it is winter. For me that’s not even such a big problem, because as I live at work and I’ve got the big luxury that we have an emergency generator. But normal households don’t and even many facilities where you would expect it don’t. So it regularly happens to me that I arrive at the gym motivated to hit the treadmill and suddenly it just stops moving under my feet. But that’s a comparably small problem. I have much more pity with all those people that are sitting in their cold and dark houses without any electricity and even the batteries of cell phones and laptops are slowly dying – and that sometimes several days a week!

0 Baking cupcakes at St Mary's

This Monday was a school holiday and I could finally fulfil the promise that I made to the St Mary's children to come and bake with them. During the normal school weeks it is always difficult because there wouldn't be enough time between coming from school, eating and doing homework. So when I arrived on Monday morning everybody was happy about the extra program because normally the children are often bored and don't know what to do on free days. They were even happier when I showed them what I had brought for decorating our cupcakes and I think that actually was the part that they enjoyed most of our baking session. In the end our results looked quite good even though I had to stop my assistants from burrying the cupcakes under a thick layer of colourful decor.

I also had my personal photographers that captured every step in pictures - sometimes maybe a bit blurred, but it's the memory that counts!

0 Lesson no 2

Weather

 

South Africa is situated in the southern subtropical zone, but due to varying elevation and the influence of the Indian and Atlantic Ocean it has a wide variety of climates. The Eastern coast for example is especially in winter the warmest part of the country thanks to the warm Agulhas Current. The climate at the western coast and also many parts of the country’s interior is much colder. Johannesburg on the other hand is situated at an altitude of more than 1700 metres above sea level. I need to drive only an hour to Pretoria which is less elevated and where the temperatures can be about 5 or 6 degrees Celsius warmer. 

So far here in Joburg the temperatures were quite enjoyable – even in summer. Most of the time they were between 25 and 30 degrees, on some rare days also up to 35 degrees. But because of the high elevation it’s very easy to get sunburned – especially for me with my rather sensitive skin – so that I sometimes only had to stay in the sun for 15 minutes until I started to turn red…In late spring and summer it was also raining almost every day. But not that long lasting gentle drizzling rain that I was used to from Germany. Instead it normally only rained in the evenings and most of the time only for less than an hour but so heavy that the streets seemed to turn into dirty rivers. Now that it is winter we haven’t had any rain for at least two months. That’s why it is very dry and bushfires are developing everywhere. Besides the winter temperatures for the moment are very cold! With up to 20 degrees during the day of course it is still quite warm compared to German winter, but at night the temperatures are almost dropping to freezing point. As our building is very badly isolated, my windows don’t shut completely and I only have a tiny little heater in my room I feel like living very close to the South Pole!

But what I really love about the South African weather is that no matter what season it is the sun is actually always shining. So even if it is cold for the moment you just need to go out into the sun to heat up - so it’s not comparable to the dark and uncomfortable German winter days.