Group 1: Isaac, Emma, Fiona, Nathi
First full day at Umthombo - a safe place for street children. We squeezed into a taxi which took us from the hostel to the centre and, first thing, we attended the morning staff meeting. Here everyone explained what they would be doing in the project that day which was very interesting to hear, especially as it was mostly in Zulu.
After speaking with volunteer coordinators Irene and Sisanda about what we could offer to Umthombo we were given a small tour of the place - very colourful and not without a few Scottish flags painted on the walls. It was then time for us to begin.
The morning programme was mathematics (times tables) followed by sport in the form of soccer and surfing. We struggled to explain some of the maths that we find so simple to children who were of similar ages to us but had only very basic maths skills. It was really rewarding when they understood and started getting all of the answers right on their own. Some of the kids weren't very open to our help; some seemed embarrassed to be asking for our help. On the other hand, we made a few friends through the morning programmes.
Over lunch we planned the next day's session and decided to do a drama programme which could involve kids and staff. We hope to be able to connect with the children through this and get them out of their shells.
As they are preparing for a surfing competition, there were only a handful of kids still in the centre in the afternoon. We introduced 'uno' (card game) to the Durban streets and got smashed at pool.
We felt the day was slow but successful in meeting people and building up a rapport with kids and staff. We hope to do some good work over the next 3 weeks.
Group 2: Edee, Caragh, Anna, Charis, Caitlin
Our adventure began at a very early 7.30. After a hectic hour, we jumped into the first of many khumbis (a south african "taxi") with the help of Emmanuel, our local celebrity. Obviously it was overflowing with people and we had to squeeze 6 more in there, to say it was awkward is an understatement. After our second khumbi we finally arrived in Umlazi where people double took at the sight of 5 ghostly pale girls clambering out of a "taxi".
Firstly we went into Maskay 'nursery' to talk about volunteer placements and where we would be of use. There was a mixed response and the only thing they offered volunteer wise was to clean the next day. Willing to help, we agreed. We walked through section R of Umlazi where we saw many a chicken and greeted the welcoming locals. Onto another Khumbi to the creche owned by Emmanuel's mum.
The creche was smaller than we expected. There were only 7 boys but they had enough energy to keep us all busy! Due to the fact that were all TANKS, we helped clear an area for the new creche to be built, as the current location isn't ideal for the children. We set up a tent that two generous Norwegian guys had donated to the Jabulani Project. It took us too long to put up considering we have all been camping before and there were 6 of us. However when we finally were able to show the boys they all loved it. After 2 hours of high energy playing we had to put the tent down. The boys got very, very upset. To keep them amused without the tent we exchanged songs along with dances from each others countries. After a few renditions of 'the hokey-kokey' and 'heads, shoulders, knees and toes' we left to catch yet another khumbi.
We arrived at our next appointment, an orphanage named Place of Safety. We met with two workers there called Angel and Pamela. They were extremely helpful and keen to accommodate us with volunteer placements both in the orphanage and in children's homes that they were connected with. We planned a week long placement with them during their teacher/ child care workers training week, as they needed some helping hands. We all left extremely excited about the future prospects, discussing how successful the day had been during the two khumbis home.
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| Volunteer Edee with kids at the creche |
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