Days off and Bap shift number 2

Hi All. I'm back!

Before I went to do shift number two at Baphumelele, I enjoyed my days off! Got invited back to Pats (host for my Monkey Town project) for lunch. It was really good to see her again, and the dogs, Morgan and all the animals! It felt nice to be back!! We had the usual posh dinner by the pool - nice!!!

Wednesday was a busy day too, Lynn and I were all over town! Firstly we went to visit a sick little girl (Pholile) for Bap, she was in our local hospital and it was her birthday so we took a cake and a pressie. She was so overwhelmed, a lot of the children at Bap aren't used to having all the attention on them, because it doesn't happen often!
Secondly we visited 'Home of Hope' a safe house for women and a place where children go inbetween fostering adoption. It was a lovely place. It was completely different to Bap, it was in a nice area, very clean, only 7 children, bright with lots of toys, lots of well trained care workers to stimulate and develop the children, their own beds (many children at Bap sleep on the floor) etc. It made me very sad for the children at Bap.
Thirdly we went to Cavendish Mall to do some shopping, although I only bought a book.
Fourthly we went to The Africa Cafe, which was great!! Its decorated beautifully inside, even the serving staff look great in traditional African outfits. They perform a traditional hand washing ceremony on you, so you can eat all the food by hand (which was fun!) We were served about 30 small dishes, so you can try everything. The food used some ingredients I have never heard off but was very nice, and I loved the mango and lime juice - yum.
So Wednesday was a very busy day but a good one!

Thursday I returned back to Bap for my second shift. It was a good day, actually managed to let the careworkers take the toddlers outside! (They don't get outside very much) So we spent the morning playing with toys on a patio area, they seemed to enjoy it! They even got to eat outside - woohoo!
On Friday the weather wasn't good so no going outside for the kids, but we did get lots of time to play in between doing all our jobs. All the kids love washing up liquid bubbles and balloons, so they will be good to take in on the last day. Lots of children were ill today so saw lots of poo and crying! Bapiewe is a little cutie, he tends ot get ignored a lot because he has cerebral palsy and just sits on the floor. but he's brill! So my aim is to get him crawling before I leave, he is trying but needs help to strengthen his muscles and move.
Saturday was a hectic day, some children were graduating from creche (I've not heard of that before!) but it was nice to see the girls dressed nicely in white dresses and looking clean for once. I didn't go to the ceremony but apparently there was a lot of singing, dancing and celebrating! Nenana (my favourite) was laughing and smiling a lot today which was so nice to see, (apparently see never smiled when she arrived at the Childrens home). I was saddened and shocked to find out she is nearly 5 years old, she only looks 2&1/2 years old. I dread to think what her life was like before she arrived at Bap, it's bad enough to see her body marked with burn marks.

It's tuesday now so I'm back to Bap tomorrow but don't have time to write what I have done on my days off so it'll have to wait till next time.

Hooray - back to Bap in the morning.

Bye for now
Han
xxx

Baby Patience

Baby Patience, originally uploaded by urbansoulpie.

Welcome to Baphumelele Childrens Home!

Welcome to Baphumelele Childrens Home!, originally uploaded by urbansoulpie.

Baphumelele here I come!!!

Hi Everyone!
I've just come back from my first shift at Baphumelele Childrens Home in Khayelitsha Township and it was brill!! Really enjoyed myself!
There are roughly 80 children at the home, from 0 to 18 years, some have disabilities, some have HIV/Aids, some have parents (that can't take care of them) and some don't, but it's a surprisingly happy place.

Friday was my first day and it went so quickly - probaly because it was non-stop all day! A normal weekday usually runs the following way -
6.am - Wake Up
7am - Go to baby house to prepare bottles, feed toddlers, find shoes for each child, brush teeth. Wash Up.
Playtime
9am - Break for our breakfast
10am - Make and feed toddlers snack and drink. Wash up. One to one sessions if enough time.
12pm - Serve and feed toddlers dinner and drink. Wash up.
1pm - Our dinner time
2.30pm - Collect children from creche.
2.45pm - Make and serve snacks and drinks. Wash Up. Playtime.
4pm - Wash all childrens hands.
5pm - Serve tea and drinks. Wash Up.
6.15pm - Brush all childrens teeth.
7 - 7.30pm - Finish for the day!!
Sometimes we have to assist in Homework groups with the bigger kids and there is also an option to get up at 4am to bath all the babies and toddlers.
Weekends are more chaotic because the older children are not at creche or school and the orphanage don't run any acticities for the children so they have nothing to do all day. Except for on Sundays when they have 'church', this is when preachers come to talk to the children, sing and dance. The children love it!

Saturday started when I got woken up at 5.50am by May (the Preist/Cook/Extremely Happy Man) singing "Jesus loves me", "He heals my heart". Three volunteers had managed to raise money to take the kids out on a fun day, which was really good. They got a bus ride, candy floss, bouncy castles, water slide, paddling pools, ice-cream, McDonalds, new swimsuits, and a day out of the township! They were all so excited and seemed to have a great day! Everyone fell asleep on the way home after such a long day! When we got back we had to start tooth brushing and washing up so we were all tired at the end of the day to.

Sunday was nice, we took the children to listen to the preachers, they love the dancing to the church music. We also had time to so some one on one work, this makes sure each child gets some alone time with one person. I took Patience (a little cutie) to play, she didn't smile much (she never does) but was engrossed by the flashing lights on the toy we were playing with.

This morning was very noisy, all the toddlers were shouting, playing and running about - hard work! We finish at about 9am, then we get brought back to Aviva house and the other shift go to Baphumelele.
I am so tired today! Been to get my hair cut this morning and now having a rest this afternoon. But it was worth it, really enjoyed interacting with the children and got so many kisses and hugs! Although learning 80 childrens names is such hard work!! Looking forward to going back on Thursday!


Han
xx

P.s. I know I'm not supposed to but I have a favourite already! Nenana is the sweetest little girl but unfortunatley very ill. Look out for photos!

The beautiful Garden Route.

Hi All,
Sorry I've only just got round to doing this, it's taken me a while to have the time to write.
Anyway, spent last Monday to Friday travelling the Garden Route with the Bok Bus. The Garden Route is famous for being a very beautiful, green part of South Africa and that it was, I saw some amazing views (when not sleeping on the bus!!)

Monday - Got picked up by the BokBus and met all the other travellers, there were 3 German girls, a Canadian guy, a German couple, a old Aussie man, 2 English girls, Adrienne the guide and me.
We had to drive for most of the morning to get on to the Garden Route but arrived at the Garden Route Game Reserve about 3pm. The game drive was very good, I don't think I'll ever get sick of going on game drives! Saw lots of animals (impala, zebra, wilderbeast, bontebok, springbok, lion, kudu and a snake and got very close to 2 rhino (5 metres away) and 2 giraffe.
We ate at the game reserve, which was strange because we had been on a game drive seeing springbok and they were serving it for dinner!!! I have to admit I did try it! It tasted like beef but was much less chewy and fatty, actually a lot nicer than most beef!
Stayed at a backpackers in the evening which was ok, at least i had a double bed to myself - luxury!!

Tuesday - Visited the Cango Wildlife Ranch in the morning, really enjoyed it! Got to see crocodile, alligator, snake, meercat, turtles, fish, jaguar, lion, monkeys, flamingos, fox, and got to stroke cheetah!!!! They ask for a 120 Rand donation to enable you go to into the cheetah enclosure and stroke them (plus you get a lovely cheesy photo of you stroking them)! The money is used to keep the cheetah and to start a breeding programme. They actually purr like house cats when they are stroked which sounded funny.
Next we visited a Ostrich farm in Oudtshoom, which is a semi-desert area so it was hot!!!! Really enjoyed the Ostrich farm, which surprised me because I didn't particularly like Ostrich before. Got to hold a baby ostrich, which was really cute (shame they don't stay cute!) Some people tried riding an Ostrich but no way was I going to do that!! It looked scary! They put a bag on the birds head, then you climb on its back, then they take the bag off and it runs!!!! But I was brave enough to get a neck massage off 3 Ostrich, which was quite nice (see Flickr for the photo).
The next stop today was the Cango Caves, which were ok, just big limestone caves like in England.
Stayed at Farie Knowe backpackers which was very nice, and again a lovely big double bed to myself!

Wednesday - Went 2 man canoeing in Tsitikamma Forrest in the morning. Shared a canoe with an old Aussie man called Kevin or Eddie (for some reason he had two names and was generally a bit odd), he was so busy talking, I did most of the rowing!! But he did keep me entertained with his stories. We canoed through a forrest which was lovely and so peaceful (apart from Kevin jibbering!), really enjoyed canoeing (I know thats a surprise Mum).
Spent the afternoon walking through Tsitikamma National Park, until we ended up at Storms River Mouth hanging bridge, which I walked over, bit disappointing because it wasn't scary at all. But the National Park was gorgeous, it even had it's own beach.
Next we went to watch the Canadian guy from out group do the worlds highest bungy jump, which looked so scary!!!!!! I think people must be mad to do it!
Stayed at a B&B in the evening which was lovely! I had a great room and again a huge double bed :-)

Thursday - Spent a lot of time driving again today, had a look round Knysna markets and an aloe vera factory before arriving at our accommodation, which was a farm in the middle of nowhere. It was nice to be surrounded by mountains and animals, but I didn't get a double bed! Boo Hoo!

Friday - Again a lot of driving today to get back to Cape Town. Our first stop on the way was Hermanus. Hermanus is famous for whale watching so after looking round the markets (got to get some shopping in!) I sat and was lucky enough to see lots of whales breeching. It's an amazing things to see! Unfortunately its hard to get good photos of the whales, its something you have to actually see.
Second stop was Betty's Bay to see the hundreds of penguins that live there, they look cute but can give a mean bite!
Got dropped back at Aviva house at 5pm-ish. Overall really enjoyed my trip and got to see some lovely places and so some good things.

So now back in Cape Town and try to do something different each day, theres so much to do! Went to watch the sunset at Camps Bay last Sunday. Camps Bay is a lovely beach with great views of signal hill and the 12 apostiles (theres actually 14 of them), then went out to dinner at the V&A Waterfront. And got to stay in a really posh hotel!!!!!!! One of the volunteers had booked her self in and asked if we wanted to come along, so we sneaked in!! 2 of us slept on the floor but we didn't mind! It was so nice and quite and had a lovely big, super clean bathroom, you get to appreciate these things when your used to sleeping in dorms. It was a treat!!

Visited the Turkish Baths on Monday, a funny experience!!! We weren't to sure what we were actually supposed to do so thought it would all be explained when we got there, but no! No one was very helpful! So we kind of made the best of what we knew, so we got changed (there are lots of little rooms with beds in, though I'm not sure what the beds are for!), then went in a hot room with marble slabs to sit on, then went between the steam and sauna rooms and the cold plunge pool. I came out feeling very clean! Which was nice, after feeling constantly dirty when working with the animals and in the schools!
But I think your supposed to take you own loofah and soap, scrub yourself in the steam room whilst dipping in the cold plunge pool, get a massage (on a marble slab) and the whole experience lasts for 4 hours - I think I would have no skin left after 4 hours. The masseuse looked kind of scary too.
Afterwards me and Angela went for a Carribean meal, which was very nice, I would recommend the banana fritters.

Start work at the Baphumelele Orphanage on Friday, I'll be working 3 day on and 3 days off. Looking forward to it but think they'll be tiring long days!

Trying to get some more trips organised for my days off from the orphanage so I'll keep you updated.

Take care all.
Love H

xxx

Forrest the cheetah

Forrest the cheetah, originally uploaded by urbansoulpie.

Gorgeous lion at Inkwenkwezi Game Reserve

Gorgeous lion at Inkwenkwezi Private Game Reserve
Originally uploaded by urbansoulpie.

The girls singing in the school concert.

The girls singing in the school concert.
Originally uploaded by urbansoulpie.

Welcome to Bulugha!

Welcome to bulugha
Originally uploaded by urbansoulpie.

The Ladies!

The Ladies
Originally uploaded by urbansoulpie.

Here is Nomakwesi (thanks for being our mummy for a month), Me, Sarah, Laura and Katie, sitting outside the teachers house, Howard is taking the phots, I'm not leaving him out on purpose - (promise Howard!!)

Bye Bye Bulugha School

Hi All
I'm now back in Cape Town staying in Aviva Volunteer House, and missing Bulugha school and my fellow teachers!!
Had a nice last day at Bulugha but it was sad! Katie and Laura the 2 other volunteer teachers are staying for another month so it was just me leaving. I spent the evening before making tons of pop corn to take for the children as a leaving treat - and they loved it, there was lots of smiles and grabbing hands!!

My last class was with Grade 1's so I was glad we were doing something fun - we had made 'instruments' out of rubbish (plastic bottles, yoghurt pots, tin cans, shells, rice, raisins etc) and too them in for the grade 1's to make a 'band'. It was so funy, they were so excited as I came out with a black bin liner and then laughed and laughed when they saw their 'instruments'!!! But they seemed to like playing with them (see the pic of Linden on Flickr), but after the class wanted to eat the edible bits of each instruments, what a shame!

Because it was a Thursday the school concert happened in the afternoon, I knew I would find it hard, but Matthew the teacher made me really upset - The children alwasys sing a song called 'We love Bulugha', but Matthew made them sing 'We love Hannah'! I know it sounds really cheesy but showing emotion doesn't bother the Xhosa people (the boys walk around holding hands and hugging etc) So when I had 80 kids all looking at me and singing 'We love Hannah', I admit I did have tears rolling down my face. I think it was because I was overwhelmed by my whole experience at Bulugha School. The children have nothing, most are uncared for and have tough lives yet they love coming to school and performing in the concert, always with huge smiles and enthusiasm - Not something you see in English schools a lot.

I really enjoyed my time at Bulugha, hopefully I have taught the children something and I have definately learnt lots from them. So I leave with a open invitation to return, great memories and a handful of love letters from some of the girls!!

Went on a game drive to Inkwenkwesi Private Game Reserve on Saturday morning, was very good, I saw impala, giraffe, lion, wilderbeast, zebra, a huge water monitor lizard, a white rhino and baby (gorgeous)!!!

Sunday I left for Cape Town. Was sad leaving the teachers house too, had such a good time, miss all my other teachers, Nomakwesi, Cintsa, Buccs Backpackers and being a 'teacher'!!! Katie was naughty and started crying as I was driving away so I did too - Miss ya!

Its now Thursday 3 Nov and I haven't done much in my week in Cape Town because I've spent loads of time trying to sort out my visa (nightmare) and I'm ill now, with another cold. But it has been nice to have a rest and look round the markets and shops.

Did manage to get to Robben Island yesterday, it was a good trip. Learnt a lot about the history of South Africa and how people were treated because of their race. Saw Nelson Mandela's cell and had a guided tour by a former prisoner.

Was supposed to be going to help out at the penguin sanctuary today but miss out because of my Visa trouble and being ill. Shame because they have 650 chicks so are very busy at the moment.

Hopefully going to go out tonight, if I feel better because my friends Diana and Marlous are leaving tomorrow. We've booked into a African restaurant, not sure if I should try Ostrich or Kudu or Warthog meat, apparently they are very nice!

Hope you are all ok, thanks for all your emails!
Love H
xxxx

P.s. Might not be able to get on the net next week (6-10 Nov) beacuse travelling the Garden route and hopefully doing lots of exciting things on the way!
x