The start of our journey...

Katie, my volunteer partner at the school in Ingwavuma and Patrick, who is volunteering in Manguzi about an hour from us and I all got a greyhound coach from Jo'burg to Richards Bay which took ten hours! We were fortunate enough to sit at the front of the second floor of the coach so we had a great view. We were sat next to a family with a little girl who was the most adorable child ever- so easy to please and very content with being placed on our laps to be entertained. Her dad was afrikaans and the mother was an English South African and they told us lots of stories and asked a lot about england. Some of their opinions regarding black people were a little bit surprising to hear but then I remembered that they were brought up in a time when that was all they were taught and you have to accept that. I had to bite my tongue a few times and just listen.

The journey went surprisingly quickly and we were met in Richards Bay by Janice Hall- who has hosted 'gaps' before and we were to stay with her the night before beginning our journey to Ingwavuma the next day. Even though it was evening when we arrived, it was incredible humid outside and we nearly cried with happiness when she asked if we would like to go in her pool when we got to hers! We literally got changed into our swimming stuff and jumped into her pool after meeting her husband Mike, and his mum Jean (the sweetest 89 year old I've ever met!) with their sheep dogs Jess and Jamie. It was so funny when Jamie kept jumping into the water with us and running around the edge of the pool. We had a braii which was so good! The Hall's were originally from England but moved out to Richards Bay over fifty years ago and we could not have asked for better hosts. The next morning Janice showed us around Richards bay which was incredible as the water was so blue and we ran down to the water on the hot sand and even saw a monkey just chilling on the beach! I would love to go back there!

We started the two hour drive to Mkuze which seemed like the perfect place to put a Wimpy in the middle of nowhere! We had lunch there with Janice and then had to wait for Allan who is looking after Patrick at Kosi bay to pick us up and take us further into the mountains towards our placements. He brought a mini bus which was great as we each had a seat each and a great view of the journey. A highlight was seeing the Jozini dam which is so beautiful. Stopping there and seeing some school children just waiting and not looking at the view made me think “why aren't you looking at the beautiful view?” but then they are surrounded by this all the time and it's just home to them. We finally reached our point after Patrick decided to play some songs on the cd player such as 'Africa' and some Lionel Richie which was hilarious, at the town of Bombanana (I still think this name is funny) with a t-juction where Katie and I were being met by our principle to go left to Ingwavuma and Allan would take Patrick right to Kosi Bay/Manguzi.
After looking for a grey polo and lots seeming to turn up at the same time, our principle Linda Sikonyana (this is a guy for any confusion about the first name!) finally arrived and drove us up the mountain to Ingwavuma. It was really strange because we were in this really backwards place but everyone had their radio's on playing modern music. We drove past Nansindlela school to where we are staying which is in a teachers compound which consists of about four houses which is where two teacher families stay and the rest are teachers who leave their homes in the cities to live here when they are working. Matt, our country manager was already here and we all went down to the school before he departed and I was surprised that the school was fairly big and the buildings were in good condition. The primary school and high school are separated by a swamp with a path running between them and because it was evening and very quiet we could hear all these frogs screaming and it was such a tropical sound. You don't even notice it when the place is full of students! The path is a bit scary when there are students going either way because I'm worried I'll get pushed off into the swamp- better be a nice teacher to them! The principle and his wife invited us to their for dinner and we had pasta and watched TV with them and their four year old daughter who is very naughty and cheeky and showed us her dance moves. She was so excited to have us here! We had to stay in another house for that night because our one had not been lived in for a while and so they had no electricity. Katie and I shared a single bed in Rose's room (Rose is now living with us) and it was a fairly uncomfortable night as we hadn't had a wash and it was quite cramped in the single bed.
Our first two days at school were hot and full of meeting different teachers. I still can't remember anyone's name!! we were introduced to everyone at the staff briefing in the morning by the principle and everyone came up to us to introduce themselves which was lovely. In the mornings before the briefing starts, all the staff start singing a prayer and then one person says a prayer afterwards, which was really nice to hear in the morning. It is about half an hours walk to school in the morning and you see students on the back of 'bukkies' which are small trucks and the law not to sit in them as it is clearly quite dangerous has not been enforced in this area yet. The children at the school, especially the younger ones, treat us like we are famous and are always saying “Hi, how are youuuuu?” and following us. One little girl gave me an apple with both her hands after I sat talking to them at break time and we were taught in orientation that this is a sign of respect- I felt like a proper teacher getting an apple on my first day! Some of them asked to touch my hair which I thought was a little bit strange but it was because their hair is so different and they all said “it's so soft!” to me. We just sat in on a couple of lessons to get the feel of how the school works which was useful because I forgot what it was to be like in a school environment. It was very hot though- there has been a heat wave here and it has reached up to 35 degrees! One thing that really shocks me is that lots of the people here are still wearing their jumpers- I just don't get it, it's boiling! There are chickens and dogs running round the school which took a while to get used to at first but they leave you alone and are quite fun to watch.
Bongi, is a teacher at the school and is looking after us whilst we stay here. She is one of the most sweetest people I have ever met and looks after us so well. Katie and I were feeling really down and trapped here over Friday and Saturday and she has been so good to us, inviting us to her house and talking to us to sort our problems out. We felt like we were not needed at the school any more because it seemed that the person we were meant to be replacing for maths and science has been replaced by someone else so it was all a bit confusing about what we are actually doing. Also the house has really been getting us down as it was left in a horrible state. The people living here last year did not clean and so we were confronted by a kitchen and toilet full of huge cockroaches. They are the most horrible, disgusting creatures I have ever come across and it's not fair that we have had to work so hard to get rid of them. Finally after hours of cleaning, spraying and killing it seems that they are going away. We must have killed hundreds of them and we find them in our room. Sometimes it's funny because we scream at each other when we are concentrating on getting one and there is another one heading for our feet, but after a while you get so tired and just want to cry because they keep coming. Flip flops are no longer a shoe, they are a cockroach killing device! Hopefully our efforts will pay off soon.

We are living with Rose and another teacher who has not come back yet (people are very relaxed here) will be moving back in next week and apparently he is lovely. We make a special effort to clean up after ourselves and Rose has been amazing sorting out our electricity and replacing the broken cooker. I have seen the occasional lizard but they don't really bother us and I think they are quite sweet! Due to not having any running water, we have to collect rain water from a water tank and if we use the toilet, to flush it we put water into the tank. To have a bath, we boil water and put cold water into a basin which sits in the bath and you kind of have to lean over it to wash which is an art I'm still trying to master! So basically, we try not to waste any dirty water as it is used for flushing the toilet! Our meals so far have been basic and i'm ashamed to admit I have not cooked yet and Katie has done them. I really don't have a clue! I tend to stand by and kill roaches and then wash up! Mienky and another male teacher (I am terrible with names here!) are frequent visitors to our house which is nice because then it's never lonely here in the evenings.

Orientation Week- Johannesburg

So...I've been in South Africa for just over a week and already so much has happened!

I left Heathrow with four other volunteers on Friday morning and after a very long flight stopping in Abu Dhabi, we arrived in the city of Johannesburg at about 5am on Saturday morning. The first flight was very uncomfortable and cramped but the second was better however I barely slept the whole time so after 3 hours sleep before I left home it took me a couple of days to return to normal.

When we were landing in Joburg the first thing I saw was lots of colourful lights for miles which looked really pretty. We got through customs easily and then looked for the guy from the hostel who was picking us up. The heat hit us even though it was so early and I was in jeans and a hoodie! The journey to the Backpackers Ritz where we were staying was magical because the sun had just come up and the sky looked beautiful. We were surprised to see people already up and on their way to work and also people jogging. I felt like I didn't want to go to sleep because the whole world seemed to be waking up at this time. We got to the Ritz and were shown to our dorms as we wanted to get some sleep before our day started at about 9am. Emily and I, being the only girls at the time went into our dorm but quickly turned around because we scared ourselves as we didnt expect other people to be in the room for some reason and they were all so still...it was really freaky! Where it was so light it was so hard trying to sleep on my top bunk when I could see over the city and hear these really loud birds outside and I was just feeling a little bit over tired to even sleep. It was all a bit surreal! However, I did manage to sleep for a couple of hours.

We stayed in Jo’burg until Tuesday morning. I wont bore everyone with what we did everyday but when we had talks on culture, history and travel and just general meetings with Matt, our country manager, we went to a church hall just down the road from the hostel. In total there was eight of us- seven from England and one guy from New Zealand. My favourite part of the orientation was when we went to Soweto- the famous township which is just outside Jo’burg which I expected to be still full of tin huts and poor conditions. However, I was surprised to see that even outside of the wealthy parts, the majority of the houses have been rebuilt over the years and the conditions are much better for the millions of people who live there. I particularly enjoyed learning about the June 1976 student riots in Soweto where black students protested against the government law that they must speak Afrikaans in their schools which they were not prepared to do because they had their own languages to learn in already and the system started to become too much. In these riots some of the students died as the white police fired at the crowds and the museum was really interesting. It occurred to me how little I know of the history of this country and how I wish they had taught it in England at school because it's such an important piece of history. Going to the apartheid museum afterwards reinforced this as we learnt about the life of Nelson Mandela. It was a huge shock to find out that he survived the prison on Robbin Island for twenty seven years and still came out of it with his original beliefs about the apartheid system. The weather stayed beautiful throughout our time in Jo'burg with short storms in the afternoon which cleared the air and one of my highlights of the orientation was sitting on my top bunk with another volunteer, Sophie, watching an electric storm over the city which we kept trying to capture on camera and failing because it was so quick! There were a couple of people we met in the hostel who were lovely including a South African lady who gave us lots of good advice about the country and a couple of Dutch girls who had been studying here for sixth months and told us that it is not long enough to explore the country! On the last evening we had a braii- the south african barbeque- outside with everyone looking over the city which was really fun and we were all excited to be finally starting the journey to our placements.....

35 days

So...the weeks are going really fast and my big adventure is just around the corner! I'm feeling really excited now but also nervous and unprepared at times! I got my South African visa last week which made it seem so real and met up with Katie (fellow lattitude volunteer) and her family for lunch which was lovely.

I'm now going to be staying in the country for seven months, the last three weeks after my placement will hopefully be spent with my friend in Cape Town which will be amazing as I haven't seen her in 5 years! There's so many things I want to do whilst I'm out there- climb table mountain; go on safari (elephants are most important!); go to the Drakensburg mountains, travel down the east coast; go to swaziland...the list goes on!

The plan for teaching at Nansindlela was originally to be in the junior school where we would assist with classes and take those when a teacher was absent, I believe, but this has now changed... One of the teachers has left and they don't have a replacement for him yet and so he asked if we would take over his role in the high school....but there was a slight problem- it would be teaching the equivalent of A level maths and science! I didn't do either of those subjects and it would have been impossible for me, however, Katie and I still wanted to help so now we are teaching the younger grades and their teachers are going to take the older ones. So, I will be teaching grade 8 english, and grade 9 english and maths! That covers just over 20 hours a week- a full time teaching position. It's a huge challenge but I can't wait! It makes me feel that we really will be contributing something to the school and it will be so worthwhile :) Better start learning my maths again!

What I'm looking forward to...

• A new country and culture: one of the reasons I wanted to do this in the beginning was the opportunity to immerse myself in the culture of somewhere so different to where I live. England is just so boring sometimes and I can't wait to go into a colourful country and meet so many new people!



• Travelling: we are going to have so much opportunity to travel at weekends and school holidays and it's going to be amazing to just explore somewhere new!



• Wildlife: I think I mentioned elephants earlier.... There is an elephant park really near where we are staying too :D



• Teaching: I've had a little experience of this before and loved it- so although the full time position is a little daunting I know it's going to be a lot of fun! Also, I'm going to learn so much myself about the job and it's going to be great work experience if I decide I want to become a teacher after uni.



• Orientation week: We are spending 3 or 4 days in Joburg with all the volunteers from the UK, New Zealand and Canada and are going to Soweto and the apartheid museum which I'm really looking forward to. We are also doing a teaching course there.

Current concerns/worries...

• The flight!: I'm not the biggest fan of flying and we have a 7 hour flight to Abu Dhabi and then another 8 and a half hours to Johannesburg- it's going to be a long journey!



• Malaria tablets: I'm in the process of sorting out my prescription but apparently the ones I am going to take make you feel sick all the time and I am terrified of being sick. There are other brands but they all have horrible side effects so I can't really win :(



• The lack of electricity and no running water: we are staying in a house with some other teachers and it has no running water and limited electricity. I know this will make me appreciate what I have at home but I love my showers in the morning and will really miss them!



• Being homesick: I don't usually get homesick but I've never been away from home for more than a week! 6 months living in a completely different culture and adapting to a whole new way of life will take some getting used to and obviously I'm going to miss my family and friends.



• The language barrier: I don't speak Zulu. I think that kind of sums it up!



• Sunburn- lets face it, I'm quite pale and it will be quite sunny...

I wasn't sure what to write in this post but hopefully it's given a nice overview of how I'm feeling about it all. What seemed like 'just an idea' about eighteen months ago is suddenly happening! I'm looking forward to my friends coming home from uni for Christmas and seeing all my family before I go, this time is going to just fly past. Big thank you's to a few people who have supported me throughout :) xxx

10 weeks to go!

My trip to South Africa is not so far away anymore! The weeks seem to be going really fast and I can't wait to go! I have saved up all the money now which is a huge step because it was a lot to raise and I never thought I would do it with three months still left to go. On Friday I went to a pre-departure meeting in Reading and met the other volunteers and had a great day :) I found out the school I am going to which is called Nansindlela school and also the girl I am going to be with so it all seems very real now! Nansindlela is in the Kwa-Zulu Natal province of South Africa and the area is very rural and I think teaching at the school is going to be quite a challenge, which I'm looking forward to! Thanks to everyone who has helped me get this far, I really appreciate it!

Five months to go...

Update: flights have been booked; travel insurance paid for; CRB form sent off; 2 out of 3 injections done; new passport on its way and I have got a new full time job starting in less than 3 weeks! still lots more to do but I am getting there! :)

"Believe you can and you're half way there"

A year after I first started saving and fund raising for this trip I have managed to raise £1500, which is around half my total that I need to go to South Africa! I am hoping to raise the other half by writing to trusts, hopefully doing a sponsored swim and mostly through working full time. I am currently trying to find a job where I can work in the week so fingers crossed that I will find something soon (i have applied to so many places!!) Only 6 months until I leave!

18th Birthday :)

Just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who gave me money for my 18th Birthday! It is all going towards my South Africa fund and I am so lucky to have over £600 to put towards my savings for this trip!! It has really helped me out and I am nearly half way to my total, so thanks so much! I had a great birthday surrounded by family and friends, who I will miss lots when I am in South Africa this time next year :D

Update on fundraising...

Havn't posted anything in a while, but I am trying to keep fundraising in between other things :) Did another car boot sale a while back and had so many clothes to sell (big thank you to Lucy and Amy for donating their unwanted clothes) and am going to do lots more soon!

Car boot sale and setting up our stall at the May Day

I had a stall at the Bransgore May Day yesterday where I sold cakes (as usual thank you mum!) and had a game with Lollies where people paid to try and pick out lollies that had coloured ends to win them. Thank you to Mel who came and helped me all day, I really appreciate it! We didn't sell all the cakes and lollies so I sold them today at school. Thank you to everyone who helped me sell them including Lucy, Amy, Annie, Stocks, Heidi, Claire and others and everyone who bought them!! Made around £80 from the two days, so pleased with that.

I can't believe that this time next year I will be in South Africa, it doesn't even seem real. I know that these next 9 months will fly by though and soon I will be sat on that plane thinking.."oh no what have I done!"...only joking, I'm excited! ;) Big thank you to Linden who has been really supportive these past few months, and to the other's who are also going to South Africa (and Malawi for Dave ;)) next year!! xxxx

Valentine's Day Cake Sale!

Today (Valentine's Day) I held a cake sale at school :) Last night Mum and I made about a hundred cakes and heart shaped biscuits. The majority of the cakes had love hearts on and in about 12 minutes they had all gone! I expected to make £30, but made £35 all together, so I was really pleased with that!!

Thank you to everyone who helped me including Heidi, Amy, Lucy, Jenny, Caroline and any one who came and supported me! I really appreciate your help :) My fundraising is going well so far, I have raised over £1000 towards the total cost of my gap year so thanks for everyone who has supported me so far!

Craft, Cakes and Clothes.

A big thank you to my family! Firstly to my Auntie Euna in Brighton who had a Clothes Swap with her friends last week and is donating the proceeds to my gap year. Sounds like you all had a lovely time and thank you for your generosity!



Secondly, to my Auntie Dawn and her friend with who I went to a Christmas fair and we sold cakes (thank you mum!) and my auntie's hand made craft. People were really interested in what I was raising money for and some were very generous :D I really enjoyed the evening and I am pleased with how my fundraising is going so far :)