First Day At School
Wednesday was the first day me and the other sports volunteers spent at the primary school in Khayelitsha for the whole morning - and then at GAPA in the afternoon. GAPA is awesome but that will be for another time.
A quick note about Khayelitsha (Kai-lisha) it is the 2nd largest informal settlement in South Africa just outside of Cape Town, and it is also the fastest growing township. Officially 1 million people live there but in reality it's more than double that number.
We come into primary schools because physical education is not a compulsory lesson within the curriculum so they need coaches and volunteers to facilitate 1 hour for them each week. Because of this they're so excited and have so much energy which is awesome. If you can engage them and direct that energy into your activities then it's so much fun. At first we helped the school employed coach with his lesson - making sure the kids are doing the drills correctly, and not cheating.. They're so competitive!! And my fellow volunteer coach Aane, feeds off of this energy - he loves it.. And so do I! From now on we will try and make everything a game or competition to give the kids that extra kick.
It's amazing how quickly I had to pick up some Xhosa words to control the children. 'Baleka' became a integral command and my body language was so important when communicating. But obviously I could not run a session by myself. The most fun part of the whole day was playing 'buddies up' with the children, where you have to react with your partner - doing certain movements - when the coach shouts. The slowest pair are out! The joy on my partners face when she was lifted up the highest for the piggy back was the cutest thing. Ever.
Then after all the activities - my Xhosa supervisor/African impact employee - convinced me and Aane to give him 10 rand to pick up some chicken feet - popular street food sold in Khayelitsha which is very cheap. He brought back around 10 of them in a greasy brown paper bag. He then proceeded to teach us the correct way to eat them. First pull of the bone and suck off the meet and skin attached. Then what's left is the actual foot. The trick is to bite off the claws first making sure to find any meat attached, and then just pop it all in at once! Fiddle around with it around your mouth and give it a little crunch, fatty bits, skin and chicken flavour is the best way to describe it. And then you simple spit out any cartilage and bone that you have picked dry. It was really fun experience and I am not a fussy eater and found it rather tasty!
In the afternoon we did similar activities with children in the after school project GAPA. The little boys charging round with a football was especially fun. As well as the little girls who were trying to teach me various hand clapping games.
Back to the house in the afternoon/evening for a family meal and discuss weekend plans. Hopefully me and a couple others can hike up Table Top Mountain or even hit the beach. Definitely dancing surfing in the South African sea! Probably will be more pleasant than Cornwall!
Days are so busy and enjoyable I'm finding hard to find the time to blog as I'm so preoccupied with volunteer stuff and socialising on an evening. To my family: love you all xxx and I'm having an absolute blast with a group of wonderful people in an amazing part of the world. Learning so much everyday - it will take me forever to say everything!
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