Christine's Last Post

Today I am leaving Durban, after an incredible three weeks.  I came not knowing what to expect and uncertain about the role of a white person from Scotland in South Africa.  I’m still not sure I know the answer to that, but it is a question which we all have to keep talking about within Jabulani and with friends here.  I think perhaps the biggest impact Jabulani has is through the investment in people.  The individuals who are supported to develop through work and education are now supporting others.  They are the entrepreneurs and decision-makers of the future.  The work done by volunteers with children is also an investment in their future.  The volunteers in schools as classroom assistants in Cisco, in the after school care at YMCA, and at Bobbiebear are able to give time and attention to children which the levels of staffing here make difficult.  They are helping to develop communication, social interaction and learning skills as well as helping the children to relax and have fun. I think as I leave though I am very struck by how much personal development there is for all of us while we are here.  The Jabulani family in Scotland and in South Africa is growing and all of us benefit hugely from working together, listening to each other and attempting to make some impact on the inequalities we see.  I will definitely come back next year.

A scene from a street in Durban.  It is rubbish collection day.  Early morning and in the middle calss white street is being visited by people who have less than affluent people throw out every day.  Not an unusual scene – it happens all over the world.  A father has found a pair of trousers which is trying to fit on his son, using a belt to keep them on as they are far too big for the boy.  What I find almost unbearably moving is the huge grin on the boy’s face as he looks at his “new” trousers.  It makes me reflect on how often here I am lifted by the warmth and spirit of people who have so little.

On Saturday 23 February, 24 young learners from Grades 11 and 12 at Dloko High School came together for the first of three nonviolence workshops.  The workshops have been developed by Susie Lendrum, a psychotherapist from Edinburgh who is in Durban with the Jabulani Project, in collaboration with Velo Manzimi, Deputy Principal of the school.  Susie is an experienced workshop trainer and writer about working with loss and grief.  The aim of the workshops is to encourage the development of a group of learners with a commitment to a culture of nonviolence.  The specific goal is to reduce teenage pregnancy and HIV infection by helping young people to make more positive and considered choices in relationships.  There was a very positive response to the first workshop, with boys and girls showing a real commitment to listening to each other and sharing their feelings about how they relate to each other.  The other facilitators on the course are Alex Wallace from Jabulani, and Crispin Henson, Director of the International Centre for the study of Nonviolence. 

On Thursday 21 February, Nthutuko took Alex, Lucky, Alan Brown and me to his home village.  Nthutko was giving 10 school uniforms to children in his old primary school, through the Jabulani Project.  This was one of the most memorable days of my South African experience.  The drive up to the valley was spectacular, and the valley itself very peaceful.  The children were very friendly and curious about this unexpected interruption in their routine.  The remarkable principal of the school was about to retire after 58 years of teaching.  She has also had 12 children, 9 living, so a very productive lady altogether, and still showing a wonderful enthusiasm for her school and children.  She’s keen to get in to computing now.  We also had a meal with Nthutko’s family and saw where he lived as a child.

Gap Year Students

Anna, Emma, Fiona, Isaac

Today and yesterday were the beginning of our gardening project in the Umlazi High Schools.

On Tuesday we went into Dloko High School. We started off the session with a name game, everyone had to say their name and something about themselves. We got treated to a traditional Zulu dance from two of the more confident boys. We went on to play a game where two groups had to try to get themselves in order of height/shoe size/birthday without speaking. They didn't quite get the silent bit but they loved it when their team won. We then played splat which they absolutely loved, everyone got extremely into it and had a good laugh.

Isaac arrived fashionably late due to his helping out Alex with technical support for his meeting with the Principals of Durban high schools in the morning. He rolled up just in time to be part of the session at the beginning of the main section.

We split the group of 27 in half. The plan was for one group to take part in the practical part of the session whilst the other took part in the theory and then the two would swap over. Isaac and Anna took charge of the practical side.

The theme for the session was composting so the practical team's task was to choose a site for the compost bin inside the school grounds. The first group went out and were themselves split into two teams. Each team presented their case for a specific site. After a small discussion/ debate between the two groups, a blind vote was taken and it was clear the group were happy with one site. They very much enjoyed presenting their points and the interactivity of the session.

The other half of the class stayed in the classroom and got taught the theory of the compost. None of them seemed to know about compost - they said they didn't grow things at home. They weren't very switched on but we managed to get the basics across and drill into them what you could use to make compost so hopefully the compost heap will get off to a good start.

We had a short recap and summary at the end of the session and the group went off very motivated from a hard but rewarding hour's work. The teachers gave us great feedback.


Today the plan was to go into Zewlibanzi High School and then on to Mangosutu University where we would be taking a class. We were joined by Nathaniel for the day as he would later be involved in the university.

Our session in Zwelibanzi was meant to run in the same format as the session of the previous day and was supposed to start at half 2 but it was getting on for quarter to 3 and no one had arrived yet. The 29 members of the Global Committee of Zwelibanzi had been designated at the gardening group. We managed to get hold of a couple of members in hope that they could round up the rest but in this we stumbled upon some real internal tension within the committee. The lack of commitment to the gardening project was low down on their list of troubles.

The committee was rounded up and we helped chair a meeting between all the members. Alex, who was only meant to be joining us as an observer, had to say some blunt words to the committee as he was the one who suggested it be founded in the first place. They had a dialogue to try and sort out a few of the internal problems but it was clear these were not going to be fixed in one sitting. So we focussed the conversation back onto the gardening and everybody seemed happy with the clear arrangements we set out for it.

We had planned to split the group, as we had done in Dloko, however due to the time constraints we took all 29 to an area we thought best fitting for a compost site. Fiona and Emma did a small theory lesson at the site, explaining simply what compost was and why it would be beneficial to start up a composting site.  We then discussed what could and couldn't be put in the compost pile and who would organise taking waste products from the soup kitchen. We also discussed who would be in charge of watering the plants twice a day and decided on having two different people per day.

We left Zwelibanzi with a slightly easier feeling than there was at the start but there is still a lot more work to be done.

Our class at the University was one of the extra classes offered the the Grade 12s. It was an English class and we were teaching them how to write a CV, an invaluable asset here as in Scotland. The large class was split into three, as were the teachers. Isaac and Anna had a class of around 120, Emma and Fiona had around 100 and Nathaniel bravely led a class by himself of 30-40 pupils.

Emma and Fiona were quite nervous to being with but the students were mostly very attentive and eager to learn so once we got into it, it was relatively easy. It was our first experience of proper teaching but we had come well prepared with notes and activities for the learners to do. We guided them step by step through the process of writing a CV and they all ended with a first draft which they could take home and work on. We asked them to bring finished versions for next week's lesson which we would then take in and read over. We were pleased with how well the class had gone and were really proud of ourselves for taking on such a challenge.

Isaac and Anna were together teaching a class. We were both nervous due to the fact that neither of us were teaching our own type of CV writing. We decided to do a combined CV with more aspects of the South African style of CV. It was fairly slow to begin with, however it picked up towards the end and we received some brilliant examples and questions from the group. We did also manage to get a good bit of audience participation in the end even though they were apprehensive at the start.

The day can go down as a successful one. We challenged ourselves and it paid off.

Zwelibanzi High School garden