Meine Lieben!

Besser spät als nie! ^^ Ich habe gerade den Blogeintrag von vorletzter Woche online gestellt und hoffe, dass ich diesen hier ein wenig schneller managen kann.

Was die Arbeit angeht hab ich einiges zu tun. Irgendwie bin ich ständig gleichzeitig durch Inhalte entsetzt und unheimlich zufrieden, weil ich wenigstens versuche etwas gegen das Schlechte in der Welt zu tun. Und ich habe ein großes Talent dazu, mich in beide Gefühle reinzusteigern… ;) Ihr kennt mich ja.

Die meiste Zeit der letzten Woche habe ich mit Nachforschungen verbracht. Offenbar werden in Südafrika beständig Männer in überfüllten Gefängnissen vergewaltigt und die durchaus darüber in Kenntnis gesetzte Welt interessiert sich eher wenig dafür. Es gibt hier sogar einen Fernsehspot, der als Präventionsmaßnahme gegen Alkohol am Steuer ausgestrahlt wird. In dem Spot werden Gefängnisinsassen gezeigt, die in eindeutigem Ton Dinge wie „Diese Hände werden dich nie wieder loslassen…“ sagen.

Um mich nach der Arbeit auf ein wenig andere Gedanken zu bringen, habe ich mich am Montag nach Feierabend mit Steffi auf ein Tässchen Kaffee getroffen. Wir haben ein wenig weiter an unseren Garden Route-Plänen gefeilt, viel gelacht, es genossen sich auf Deutsch zu unterhalten und dabei völlig die Zeit vergessen… Endresultat: Allein im Dunkeln den Weg nach Hause antreten. Ja, ich hatte Angst.  XD Aber ich bin in einem Stück zuhause angekommen.

Ich habe mich nun doch entschlossen wenigstens an einem Tag der Woche den Schreibtisch zu verlassen und mich an einem Social Justice Projekt zu beteiligen. So habe ich mich am Dienstag der Gruppe angeschlossen, die zu ...

Sweethearts!

Better late than never! ^^ I have just loaded up next-to-lasts blog entry hoping to manage this one a bit quicker.

Work keeps me busy at the moment. Somehow I am always shocked by concerns but also very satisfied because I feel I am at least trying to fight against the bad in the world. And I have got a big talent to get all fired up for both emotions… ;) You just know, how I am.

Most time during the last week I spent on research. Apparently the rape of men in overcrowded prisons is quite common in South Africa and even though the world does obviously know about this, nobody is really interested. Imagine, there is a spot in South African TV meant as prevention measure of the “Don’t drink and drive” campaign. It shows prison inhabitants saying something like “these hands will never let you go again…” in an unmistakeable way.

To get my thoughts out of those horrific themes I have met Steffi last Monday after work for some coffee. We filed on our Garden Route-plans, laughed a lot, enjoyed to speak some German and forgot the time completely… Result: Going home alone in the dark. Yes I have been scared. XD   But I arrived at home in one piece.

I finally decided to spend at least on one day of the week some time without my desk getting involved with a Social Justice Project. So I joined the group going out for Sisters Inc. In this project we are working with women, who live in a shelter separated from their former environment. The others were training them for job interviews during the last sessions and so we went on with this. It was just amazing to see how happy and positive these ladies behave although they have been through a lot of struggle.

After I had spontaneous ...

No, I haven’t quite been up Table Mountain yet, or any mountain for that matter (as I have learnt there are in fact many mountains in Cape Town that surround the city like solemn men.) I do feel though that I have a panoramic view of the city. Indeed, I have scaled some heights, Bar 31 to be precise – a club that overlooks the city on the 31st floor of a skyscraper. Not a bad place to spend an evening.

My panoramic view, however, doesn’t require me to scale heights. It has been a week of contrasts which has given me a real flavour of the city of Cape Town. It has ranged from swish cityscape where the Waterfront provides the centrepiece to upmarket Camps Bay to trendy night market in Muizenburg to vibrant Guguletu. It seems Cape Town has a bit of everything on offer – it is immeadiatly obvious to see why it attracts so many.

It seems so easy here to insert here some flippant remark here about the future direction of the city. But my experiences have made me wonder – walking through the V&A Mall on the Waterfront leaves you with a sense of being anywhere in the world, but spending a day in Guguletu leaves you with a real South African experience. It seems impossible to make an insightful judgement of how this integrates to form present-day Cape Town.

Anyway, I feel should remove myself from such topics until I have the chance to explore further. It has continued to be a blur since my last blog – as predicated my sense of time hasn’t got much better (this blog is late!) But I’m enjoying the fluid motion of life in the city; there is always something to do.

I’m also enjoying volunteering on a project as it allows some structure and an ability to properly engage with the city. I feel ...

The other Saturday there we climbed Lions Head. Straight from the Old Biscuit Mill, we headed on a mini bus to the starting point.

I was with girls from the office and my room mate Yvonne. Now baring in mind Yvonne had already climbed the mountain two years ago and was wearing only ‘boat’ shoes, I thought this cant be too strenuous.

As per usual Amani, Clare and I had our big handbags, after all we’d gone straight from brunch and our morning shopping, why wouldn’t we have our handbags? What a mistake!

So the first quarter of the mountain was okay. Just a loooong steep hill. But the sun was beating down. We were all in jeans.

The long steep hill soon turned into a rocks we had to clamber over.

Every five ten minutes Yvonne was looking behind from 50 metres ahead to make sure we will all still in tow. I just wanted it to end.

BUT THEN, the rocks turned into a wall. This is where our sweet handbags were thrown onto our backs into a makeshift backpack. Surely Yvonne could remember this involved climbing?! We watched as we let other groups of probably more experienced climbers scramble up this wall whilst we decided whether to do it.  Okay so a climbing a wall doesn’t sound too hard but 600 metres high sounds a bit more daunting right ? The signs ‘users climb at own risk’ didn’t attract me either. It was one thing getting up too, we knew we had to get back down.

Anyway with a little encouragement from a Capetonian who admitted he climbs the mountain every week, we were up this wall and didn’t have far to go.

Finally at the top we were welcomed to an incredible view and many people sitting eating picnics, enjoying the rays and the beautiful city in front of us. Was it worth it? YES!! Anyway the ...

It's been so long since I've written but it's been so busy! I'll try to give a breif recap of things that have been happening the past couple of weeks!

Masikuhle: The kids at my creche are awesome! They're all so cute and excited to see you every day. Our most important job is making sure they all get fed, sleep, and are happy while they're here! I was really excited that a little girl named Tash is now smiling and playing because when I first arrived she was afraid to sleep and wouldn't eat anything but now even though she is still not a big fan of sleeping she plays and interacts with the other children which is really great to see! Also the kids have been learning how to write their names Guillaume has made great progress teaching the kids and I try to help them practice their letters and write their names in straight lines on the paper the biggest success in thisd field is Chulumanco who can write his name out in nice neat letters. Explaining things to the kids is sometimes difficult because of the language barrier which is more difficult because some of the kids also can't speak the same language as the teachers but with having them trace their names and with constant encouragement the kids make some good progress! 

Surfing: I joined the surfing project in the afternoons because my work at the creche finishes at noon time every day when the kids go to sleep for their afternoon nap. Muizenberg is only two train stops from Steenberg so it's very accessible and working with these kids is awesome too! The kids are actually all very good at surfing and we do warm ups with them on the beach and then help push them into the waves and tell them when to paddle and stand up in the water. All of the surfing volunteers are also really nice which just makes ...