My typical day...

Today was an untypical one as I made my 3rd trip to the Home Affairs Office attempting to renew my visa. And it has been halfway successful as I still need to make a 4th trip to pick up the sticker- if my application is accepted.... A tid-bit of advise for anyone travelling- get your visa at home, even if the embassies say it will be "no problem!" The hassle is just that much more other here on the other side of the world.

So today has made me miss my typical day in the village and it looks something like this:

5:00 am BEEP, BEEP..... up I get! Kettle on to warm water for either my tub-bath or to thaw the milk. Eat breakfast- banana with Cornflakes.

6:00 am Dishes, brush my teeth- there is no running water in the house so I either get it from the tap outside or the water tanks inside. Put on sunscreen!!

6:30 am head out the door. My host-Mom Agnes is a teacher at the local community early years-education centre and has already left for school at 5:00 am!
On my way to school I greet about 100 kids with either "Good morning!" or in Venda "Macharoni!" and "How are you?" I stop by at the Tshivhengwa's house- where I stayed in the start of January and greet many women from the village who are always busy either hand cracking Macedonian nuts, hand washing blankets, or sorting vegetables from the farm- They are my mentors for learning the Venda language.

7:15 am I arrive at school -If it is a Monday or a Friday the students are singing at the morning assembly and they fill the village with their beautiful voices!

7:30 am - 1:40 pm School starts- depending on the day I am either in an English, History or Geography class sometimes assisting the teacher or attempting to teach the students myself. I many stay with the grade 11- which each class has about 60 students or the grade 12's. When I am not in the classroom I am doing typing for the teachers or attempting to fix the photocopier!

2:00pm- 3:00pm The students in grades 10-12 have studies, and I try to help the students with any questions- of course most of the questions are relating to math... thus I am now learning along with them and am brushing up on my Maths!! Although the school day ends around 3 for the older students I now have about a dozen who stay and are learning how to type and use the computer. I have now been able to find some typing resources and am starting next week to teach them how to type- pending the return of our power as the plug has gone....

4:30pm ish I leave the school and make my way towards home, often stopping and visiting with many kids and adults to talk about our days, and to work on my Venda and their English. I often arrive home to many kids playing in Agnes's yard. They come and sit with me, and we talk about our days- they are slowly learning the days of the week and the weather. While sitting outside I will always have many girls from the village come and sit with me, weather I am reading, washing or just relaxing- we are now reading stories as I was able to pick up a traditional storybook last weekend while I was at Kurger National Park.

6:30 pm ish Agnes and /or I realise we are hungry, and decide what we are going to make! "Pap" is the traditional maize (corn) portage here that is the staple. I enjoy it with other vegetables such as "marow"(pumpkin leaves), tomatoes or squash. This place is the land of fruits and vegs' so I am fortunate that with every meal there is always a variety! The sun drops very quickly here almost within 5 minutes, so by 7:00pm sharp it is totally dark. There are no street lights or light pollution so you really can't see a thing.

8:00pm By this time I am tired, especially if the day has been hot and sunny! (Don't laugh!) Around now I'm getting ready for bed, so I can get up and do it all over again as 5am comes fast.

My days are simple and always filled with many smiles!

Here we are- Zote volunteers!

In the end of January we bid good-bye to 2 volunteers- Marielle in the traditional Venda attire has arrived back home safely in Holland! And Sarah (beside me on the right) has landed safely in Kenya where she is volunteering for another month. Despite the remoteness of Venda- it is becoming a second home to many of us from around the world!

Manamani Village

I am not alone here in volunteering in Manamani Village, for the month of January there were also 2 other volunteers in the same village and 2 more in near by villages. We are each here for our own reasons but we are bonded together by the welcoming spirit that people have shown towards us, the shared experience of learning the very difficult language of Tshivenda, and often by the reality that we really are the only "Makuwa's" (white people!) in the village or in town. Thus this often causes many humour moments such as numerous marriage proposals! (None of us have accepted.... yet!. )

Although I am here in this rural area of South Africa I have made friends from Australia, Holland and the USA. Our time together is often short as we are each busy with our projects but it is always great to get together to hear how everyone is doing.

I found out about this placement through www.volunteer.org.nz - they also offer many other placements through our the world! The organisation that I am being directly supported through is Zote projects- and it's founders were born and raised in the village of Manamani! www.zoteworldwide.org