Friday, December 25, 2009

living in a different reality


africa is real. it's the only way i can describe it. the people here are absolutely incredible. the stories they have, what they have experienced and witnessed, is all more then i can comprehend. i have so much respect for them.

i feel as though i am living in a completely different reality. most of the women here are abused and although there is a law against it, many men don't know that. most of the girls over 9 have been raped more then once. we had a baby, patrick, who was found when he was only a few days old. he was on the railroad tracks. it is normal for women my age to have a child who is a few years old, i can not imagine what this is like for them...the opportunities lost is unbelievable. and there are actually 160 (not 116) children here in a very small space so they dont have any opportunity for privacy.

even though the suffering here is so great there is also so much hope. the children have the most contagious smiles...their enthusiasm for life is unmatchable! they appreciate the little things, they help eachother with everything, they make games with what they find, they always have a hug and a smile for you first thing in the morning. i think it is impossible to be in a bad mood here!

there are 8 german volunteers here who stay for one year, most of them have been here 4 months so far. in the other flat is david, knut, jana, hannah, and sophia. their flat is where we do our cooking and general living. in the other flat (called the AVIVA flat because there are often temp. volunteers from an organization called AVIVA living there)it is thomas, marlon, and my roommate marieke. our room is ridiculously small...enough for a bunk bed and a bed at the end of it a desk (no chair) and thats it. its way smaller then dorm rooms and i love it! we have laundry hanging everywhere and it looks a little like a bomb has exploded...its amazing =) the germans are all incredible! we have so much fun with the day to day living. cooking for 9 is always an adventure and we usually blast music during the evenings. i love these guys! last night we celebrated christmas...we made a huge meal and then lit a bunch of candles and turned off the lights. we have a small christmas tree (about 1.5ft high) set up and had a secret santa. a couple of the girls made cards for everyone with our favorite childs hand and feet prints as well as a candle that was decorated by them. it was the best present i could have received! we had some wine with dinner and then after they sang some german christmas songs which was awesome.


i've only been here a week but have done so much!! one of the big things was marieke and i had to go to the hospital with someleze. she is 4.5 months old and so so sweet. we had an appoinment for a checkup(she had really bad diarhea and was throwing up a lot) at 7:30 in the morning. we ended up waiting there until 1pm and then after a five minute discussion with the doctor went to the pharmacy, another 1.5 hour wait. we didnt end up getting back until 3pm!!! someleze is one of my favorite children...her smile is infectious! one of my other favorites is mama. she is 7 years old and quite the trickster. she also has a wonderful smile. shiny is another. he is about 4 and i spent about 6 hours with him one day just walking around, balancing on things, playing on the monkey bars, playing hand games. he is really cute and i love hanging out with him.

we have been working really hard the last week because of christmas holidays. all the children are off from school so we have been trying to keep them busy with different activities. i always feel tired but i wouldnt have it any other way!

i love this! i wish i was staying longer...africa is changing me in ways i never imagined. i can't wait for the coming weeks!!

i hope everyone had a wonderful christmas and i will try and write again soon!

much love and light.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Day 1!

day number one...feels more like it is day number four or something! i'm absoluntely exhausted but could not be happier.

my flight to cape town was 12.5 hours (leaving 30mins late) and i sat beside a medical professor who told me about a doctor who is now living in alberta somewhere who used shock therapy on homosexuals in south africa in the 1970's. i'm going to leave it at that and we'll just say it was an interesting plane ride.

i arrived in south african and was immediatly hit by a wave of heat and humidity, even though today was fairly clowdy and "cool". I can not put into words the smell here. it is something you can not describe...truly incredible. it feels so good to be here.

i got my baggage, which all arrived!, and then went out into the airport only to find that my driver had forgotten about me so i waited around for a couple of hours and people watched. once he arrived i went to drop my bags at the steyn residence (thank you!!!) and then off to the orphanage. on the drive over we passed by two different townships (slums) and the memories of my last trip started to come back. i am remembering how easy it is to forget. you come home and you forget about the four children you see who are dressed in rags and playing on the cement on the sied of the busy highway. you forget about stopping at a red light and having 3 boys no more then nine years old come up to your window trying to sell you everything from santa hats to garbage bag replacers. you forget about the little things that make africa what it is. i'm glad im starting to remember.

i arrived here around 2pm and it turns out they had no idea i was coming! simphewe is the man i was dealing with and he was off today so we had a bunch of sorting out to do. i was originally going to stay in one of the cluster houses with the children but i am now staying in a flat (within the orphanage) with some AVIVA members. they are other volunteers and are here from germany, holland, and norway. there is another flat housing 5 germans and they are who i will be working with most of the time.

once my housing situation was sorted out i got a tour of the orphanage and i was immediatly surrounded by children who all wanted to hold my hand and know my name (which is apparently pretty hard for them to pronounce). the cluster house that i was supposed to stay in had 12 children and they all sang a welcome song when i came in...the song was in english but there was so much giggling that i didnt understand all of it which was wonderful. they then told me all of their names...i have no idea how im going to learn all these names! but i have made it my goal to learn a few words in the native language and so far i know 'hello' and 'brother' and 'sister' yay me! haha

it's great to be here but i was reminded that i am also in a place where many people have incredible stories. walking with sophie, one of the germans, she told me that most of the girls who are over the age of ten have been rapped at least once. there was also a baby who was only a few hours old brought here this morning after someone found him in a ditch. it's a hard life here and i admire the people so much.

anyways i am off to have a much needed shower and then bed because i feel like i am no longer making sense. the internet here is iffy so im unsure when i will be able to connect again.
g'night =)

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

And So It Begins!


What an adventure so far! And I'm only in London!
I arrived 2.5 hours early for my 7:10pm flight to London from Calgary only to find that it had been delayed by three hours and then was delayed again. We ended up taking off just after 11pm. The flight went pretty well...I sat next to a Dublin student (accent!!!) who had been on exchange this semester in Calgary. Neither of us could figure out why he came to Canada when he could have gone to Australia!

I watched 'District 9' on the plane and it's amazing! I definitely recommend it (yes dad, that means you. i know its about aliens but trust me on this one). And does it make me a loser if I actually like airplane food? We even got cookies! Come on, cookies have to count for something!

I'm currently waiting out my five hour (cut back from ten because of the flight delay) layover. London is amazing!!! The Heathrow airport is huge and just trying to find the terminal for my connector was an adventure! They also don't post which gate you are at until about a half an hour before your flight starts boarding which is kinda neat. I didn't sleep much on the plane so in theory I should be exhausted but maybe it's the high I get when I travel but I am no where near tired! Everything here is incredible! Everyone has accents...yes, I am just realizing this, and they think mine is hillarious. Even the key board on this computer is different (that will be my excuse for the bad spelling)! It took me over a minute to try and find the @ symbol.

There were a few other people heading to South Africa on my fligh but I wasn't able to talk to them much but we are going to try and meet up again before our flight leaves. This next one is going to be incredibly long...12 hours and 10 minutes. I'm kinda wishing I had brought some kind of gravol or something to knock me out but I've decided to leave all the coulda woulda shoulda's behind me.

I am incredibly excited to get to Cape Town but I'm trying to enjoy the journey. So far all is well! I'm not sure when I will be able to update next but I found out that I do have internet at the orphanage...not sure how available it will be.
Hope everyone who is reading this is having a wonderful day! =)

Monday, December 7, 2009

Intro to Adventure

Dear Diary.

JUST KIDDING! That will definitely not be how I start these off. Dear…Blog? People who want to follow me around the world? Haha I have no clue how to start this so I might as well jump right in! Basically, as most of you know, I am heading out to take on the world! Or at least explore and experience a part of it. I am going to try and keep a blog for most of my travels so that everyone back home can keep up, if they choose, and I don’t have to be sending out millions of emails and facebook messages.

My adventure starts off on in one of the townships (slums) of Cape Town, South Africa. I will be volunteering for a little less then a month in an AIDS orphanage I visited last time. It’s called Baphumelele Children’s Home and houses up to 100 kids at any given time. The plan is for me to help out with general care (feeding, cleaning, playing, and teaching) of the kids and I’ll be staying in one of the ‘houses’ with some of the children. At the moment I'm also fundraising for the orphanage so if anyone is interested in donating ($5??) please let me know!

On January 11th I’m meeting up with Joe and Brian (two of my fellow shipmates from Sea|mester) and we will be doing some exploring in Cape Town until the 15th when we jump on a 112ft, double masted, schooner for 90 days (January 15-April 14). This is a working ship and after covering over 6000 miles (not km!) we will dock in Antigua after crossing the southern Atlantic Ocean, visiting St. Helena, Brazil (Bahia, Recife, Fortaleza, Belem), French Guiana (Devil’s island), and Caribbean Lesser Antilles (Barbados, St. Lucia, Dominica, Guadeloupe). I am taking the Intro to Marine Biology, Intro to Oceanography, and Professional Skipper Crew Training classes while onboard. As well, I will be working on specialty scuba and sailing certifications on the way.

After my sea rat experience my plan is…well..ahem…my plan is to… okay I actually don’t have a plan. But ultimately I will be traveling until I run out of money. I would love to start off exploring the Caribbean and then move on to South America and/or Australia/New Zealand and working along the way. It is all dependent on funds and what I am feeling in the moment.

Regardless of what I end up choosing I am stoked for it all to start!! And I certainly wont be waiting much longer…only 7 days!!