Monday 17 June 2013

A typical day at my Neighbourhood Care Point in Swaziland


COUNTRY: Southern Africa (Swaziland, Mozambique & South Africa)
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Teaching & Care Work
WRITTEN BY: Danielle Edwards

Hey everyone! Sorry about the delayed updates of our trip! Things have been super busy here in Swaziland over the past 3-and-a-bit weeks, spare time has been pretty limited. The four of us volunteers are having an absolute ball here, and already dreading the fact that we have less than 2 weeks left in Swaziland until we begin our new adventure to Cape Town, South Africa. After having the excitement of being in Kruger park for the first week, it was now time for us to get really stuck into the community work we came here to do.

There were so many mixed emotions when we reached the first morning of our NCP (Neighbourhood Community Point) work, we didn’t know what to expect and what would be required. Issy and Will were in a group along with another volunteer from the Netherlands. Jessie was also placed with a girl also from the Netherlands to work in a rural NCP. I was placed with a Dutch volunteer, so it has been good for us to be able to spend time and interact with our international partners.

The first time we walked into our individual NCPs, the children came swarming towards us and greeted us with huge smiles and big warm hugs, the feeling was overwhelming and amazing at the same time. I noticed that many of the children were wearing clothes with holes and tears in them, along with shoes that were so worn the soles were non-existant. This was upsetting at first but after a couple of days it was something that we learned to accept as a sad fact of life for these children in Swaziland. Although it was blatantly evident that these children did not have much, they were all always so HAPPY and POSITIVE.
At Ekuzukekeni (my NCP); from 9:15am until between 10 and 10:30am the children do lessons and learn English. They already know a few things in English such as numbers, the alphabet, days of the week, months of the year, shapes, animals, time or colours. It is incredible the amount that the children know considering the majority of them are at kindergarten level and also considering English is not their first language. Each day, we volunteers will prepare different lessons to help revise what the children already know, and expand their knowledge further as best we can.
 
After the first set of lessons, the children will eat their breakfast after praying and washing their hands out of a bucket. There are two cooks at the school who will prepare the food for the children, anywhere between 25-55 kids per day. It’s upsetting to discover that a percentage of the children that go to the NCP’s have little food at home and therefore they come to school just to be fed 1 square meal. They eat Maize which is similar to porridge but has more of gooey texture. Breakfast done, the children will play for a little while before being brought back into class for further lessons. Often, this is when we will give the children worksheets for them to complete with the help of the volunteers and the classroom teacher. Before we know it, lunch time comes when the children are usually served a traditional Swazi food called Pap along with beans and other vegetables if they are available.

Not long after the children have eaten lunch, they will brush their teeth with toothbrushes and toothpaste provided by previous volunteers to the NCP. They will say a prayer and sing songs before departing for the day. Many of the children who do not live close to the NCP will be driven home in a car, sitting in the tray of a ute, whereas others will walk home along with their relatives.

The challenge for the volunteers has been to prepare lessons and subjects to teach the children for the following day. There are ages between 3 - 7 years in one classroom at a time so it is crucial to ensure that there is enough challenge all students, as well as simplicity to meet the requirements of the younger kids. Once a week, each NCP has a sports day where some of our staff come to the school to play games and sing songs with all of the children to give them a break from studying - as well to educate them about physical activities. Dance is a big part of the Swaziland culture so that's always a big part of it!

There were also chances during this week to participate in activities in the afternoons, such as hospital visits, painting at NCP’s and SiSwati lessons. Visiting the children in the main hospital in Swaziland was quite an overwhelming experience as it was difficult to interact with some of the patients. There were sick children, with parents who didn’t know much English who we were trying to cheer up and make feel better. Don’t get me wrong, some children loved the attention and toys, other families didn’t appreciate the intrusion of outsiders coming in a large group, which I personally can’t say that I blame them.


Our second weekend in, we spent at Malalodja to go zip-lining! The weather was not off to a good start, with heaps of wind and possible chances of rain. The place where we stayed was so cute, they were little cottages with proper blankets and duvet’s, and we had such a good sleep! The next morning we woke up bright and early to head off zip-lining, luckily the clouds had cleared up in the sky and we had an awesome day zip-lining. It was such a rush to glide along the wires between the mountains; it was truly an incredible experience.

The week that followed the zip-lining weekend was also spent at our NCP’s working with the children in the same way as the first week of volunteering. This week was more special I personally think though because at this point we have started to form a bond with the children and have seen them grow since the first day that we met them. We started to notice certain children who have got a better understanding on writing letters of the alphabet, or other kids who can almost write their names. I think it’s a great thing to take the time to not only notice these improvements, but to congratulate and acknowledge them.

Our next adventure in the placement was the 5 night trip to Mozambique where we got quite a change of atmosphere and we had time to chill out, relax and enjoy the ocean-side. We got to experience the local social scene at the bars, and meet new people there. One thing that I noticed in Mozambique was that everyone was trying to sell us something, whether it was boys walking around with trays of bracelets or elderly people walking along the beach trying to sell various things like clothing, sarongs, artwork, seafood, fruit, wooden figures or anything else you can think of, at first we would politely refuse up until it got to a point where we had to be stern and consistent with our answer of ‘no’ otherwise they physically would not leave us alone. We also went on an ocean safari on one of the days in Mozambique where we had the chance to see whale sharks, dolphins and manta rays, but unfortunately we saw none of the sort. One of our fellow travellers wasn’t in the best state on the boat ride leaving him feeling ill and pale faced, but unfortunately for him, he can only blame himself from the night before! Other volunteers also participated in other activities in their spare time such as horse-back riding, surfing, and bargain hunting at the markets and just tanning/relaxing on the beach. It was such a great week all in all, but by the end we were glad to be heading back to Swaziland because it is such a great place.

Not only were we excited to get back to Swaziland, we were also more than keen to go to the annual Bushfire Festival which goes over 3 days with artists from many different states performing live on the stage there! There were craft and food stalls with stock from different countries. There were plenty of late nights and early mornings with good food/drink and brilliant music! There were so many people who had travelled from all over to attend the festival, so it was great to interact with other tourists.



Now Bushfire is over and we are getting stuck back into our project work at the NCP’s this week! Sorry for keeping you all in suspense for this long! Talk soon J

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