Cape Town has been more than welcoming and more than worth her status as The Mother City. Warm and hospitable, she has taken me under her matriarchal wing with aplomb, greeting me with wonderful weather and an amazingly convivial atmosphere.
It’s far too easy to heap praise upon praise, and I know for a fact that thousands of other volunteers, visitors and tourists would be saying exactly the same thing as I have just said. Instead I would rather make a comparison with my home town of Loughborough.
I have always been a little bit jealous of people who have a dream. Ever since I finished middle school, friends and classmates always had such strong and defined wishes of what they wanted to do with their lives. They want to be movie stars, lawyers, dentists, police officers, diplomats, engineers, world champions and the list goes on. I have never had that dream, the one about becoming as good as possible in that one thing that interests me the most. What my dream is, is to have a dream.
I don’t always see myself as a ‘people’s person’. I love it when I’ve gotten to know wonderful new people, but the process leading to that moment for me is exhausting. I am in desperate need of my alone time, and I hate to be in someone’s way.Nevertheless, I decided: ‘What is life for if you don’t step out of your comfort zone once in a while, and what better way of getting to know a culture than living in the middle of it.’ So off I went to South Africa.
I am definitely not the hiking kind of girl. Sure, I appreciate a calming Sunday walk with a nice view, but the adventurous stuff I am happy to leave for others more suited to thrills. Nevertheless, I heard that climbing Table Mountain is kind of obligatory if you’re staying in Cape Town for a long period of time, and if so many had done it before me, why wouldn’t I be able to?
The Building Project is located in Village Heights, an informal settlement near the township of Lavender Hill. The aim of the project is to build a community centre to help both children and women in the area.
I had already decided months ago that I was going to do it. I dare say it was actually one of the many reasons I chose to do my volunteering months in South Africa. A breath-taking leap from Bloukrans – currently highest (216m) bungee bridge in the world
Monday 5 August: I arrived at Steenberg station ready for my first day as a care volunteer at Masikhule Educare. As I waited with my fellow housemate to be picked up and driven to the care project, I pondered the two months ahead.
If global capitalism had a human face, it would not be that of the corporate CEO swirling a glass of overpriced brandy behind a mahogany desk, but that of the countless multitudes whose poverty and dispossession make possible his extravagant quality of life. I saw many of these faces during my visit to the Vrygrond and Capricorn townships last Friday.
For a self-confessed rookie chef, cooking for around 100 homeless men and women living on the streets of one of Cape Town’s largest suburbs seemed a daunting task but, with the numerous helping hands of the Projects Abroad volunteers, the chicken curry and rice was quickly knocked up and shipped out to the community of Parow.
Error: No posts found.
Make sure this account has posts available on instagram.com.