Sawubona!

Sawubona! (I believe)


How are you my friends? Everything is just fine here! Great actually! I have experienced lots of things every day and I’m constantly enjoying it! I’m already a pro at travelling by taxi. Last week a taxi doorman was talking to me in Zulu the whole time. I was just nodding until all passengers were laughing very loudly. The girl next to me explained that this guy and the taxi driver were arguing about who was going to marry me. Eventually, I was only allowed to get out if I told them so in Zulu. It was almost dark outside when I finally was permitted to leave.


Lots of great things have happened in these days, but also some stupid ones. I was mad because I tried these lovely bangles from ‘Woolworths’ that didn’t fit. After some pushing and shoving it worked, but then they wouldn’t come off!!!! I was so embarrassed until I saw this African girl similarly struggling with a ring. After lots of Vaseline and hard pulling we both were able to remove the stuck items. Woolworths is quite a modern department store, but despite this you have to wait at the cash desks for a long time! Regardless of the store! I’ll give you an example: a customer pays with R100 and the cashier doesn’t have any change. What happens then? Well, the 3 other cashiers come over think about a solution for this problem. Then, after let’s say 10 minutes, they decide that they can maybe exchange some money which finally resolves the ‘situation’. Well that’s how it goes in every store. I think I’m already used to it and sometimes I don’t even notice it anymore.


What I immediately saw in South Africa is the huge amount of white cars. I think that 80 to 90% of the cars are white. Biza told me that that’s because white is a cheap colour and it’s easy and cheap to repair. It’s also a pleasant colour for the summer. Today I saw a red Ferrari racing though the streets. I can’t stand these expensive cars, they drivers must be either macho or Barbie dolls. I just can’t believe how you can drive by all these poor people in a car that everybody knows has cost you more money than they could ever dream off.


Last week there was another young child brought to Bobbi Bear with another tragic story. There was this girl (I think around the age of 3) found on the road. This girl had a muscle wasting disease and therefore needed a lot of care, something her mother couldn’t give her. The only solution she could think of was laying down on the street so she would be hit by a car. Thank god they found her and isn’t injured, so to say. Stories like these are very common here. Sometimes I feel pretty naive and a bit blind when I experience stuff like that. My eyes are now opening up and I’m getting more grateful every day for everything and everybody that I have! I won’t be saying out loud that I hate the fact that I forgot my straightener, anymore.


Last night I went to Cool Runnings with Puck, Brienne and Guusje. Biza dropped us off and came back later with Sia, Vukani (Veetje) and Oegloegloe. Oegloegloe isn’t his real name ofcourse, but his real name, including a click-letter is impossible for me to remember, so that’s why I gave him his new beautiful name, ‘Oegloegloe’. These guys are also working for Umthombo. Cool Runnings is some sort of bar with 2 halls. In the back hall there is a drumming circle session every Thursday. They’re playing jembe’s drumsi there, which are led by two guys playing huge bass drums. There’s no explanation, ‘you just gotta close your eyes and feel the rhythm’. I did quite well actually and my neighbour referred to me as her ‘Soulsister’ cause I’m black inside’. After an invitation I showed my African dance moves in the middle of the circle and my night couldn’t get any better! I’ll try to upload some of the pictures on Facebook tonight! Just as I thought the night was going great I got a wake-up call, Oegloegloe took me outside for a bit to meet some of the street children from Umthombo. One of the boys was sitting outside reading a car magazine and I asked him which car he would like to have in the future. A white Chevrolet. I asked why he wasn’t sleeping at Umthombo. He started to laugh. He needed money. He earned money by watching a car (a white Lexus) from a Cool Running’s customer. He sat next to the car until the man left and he earned R2 (€0,20). Five minutes later we left the place by taxi. R60, how cheap...


My internship is great. I’m busy pulling this online marketing plan off and I am busy approaching potential sponsors. Thank you so much to the people who already donated to OneVoice South Africa, so sweet! I take an hour each day just to read stories about South Africa online, weblogs for example. I also read information about the justice system, the government, the education system and poverty. I am learning very much and I am getting more fascinated about this country every day. As I said before, I am becoming a taxi traveller professional. Yesterday I was picked up by my future husband again on my way back home and it was pretty busy. I was sitting next to the door and a woman a.k.a. Big Mamma came in. There was no place to stand because of these tip-up seats everywhere, so there was only one solution; she had to sit on my lap. Nobody was surprised, not even when my head turned purple. When I got out and walked home I thought about the situation again  and shook  my head with a huge smile on my face. Fantastic! 


I hear some stories from my lovely hometown which concern me. It’s very sad to be so far away at these moments. I think about you every day and I miss you all! I truly hope that you will feel better soon and I wish you all the best!

I think another great weekend is waiting for me. The last one with Puck and Brienne though, which is really really sad! I don’t wanna think about that yet though.. I will talk to y’all real soon and thank you so much for your time and attention!


Much love, kisses and hugs!

Durban by night

Durban by night

This post was uploaded at the 12th of April

Hey guys! This weblog is written very quickly after the last one, but last night made a huge impression on me, so that’s why I’m writing you so soon!

The effects of apartheid are still visible in South Africa, also in the economy. A minority of the population is very prosperous, but the majority has to manage with very little money. Lots of black South Africans are unemployed and try to make a living by informal business. Officially, 26% of the population is unemployed, but the real percentage is probably somewhere between 40 and 60%. Most of the people are open to different cultures, but some white people still ignore the black people and the other way around.

When you’re walking through town, you see begging children, everywhere. They walk up to the cars at traffic lights and ask for money. I asked Marlijn if she ever gave the children some money, but she told me that many of the kids are addicted to glue (they all have this small yellow bottle in their hands), so when she can, she mainly gives to the elderly and handicapped, because they form the group that have the least opportunity to find work and limited access to social services. Last Friday I was sitting in this restaurant with Puck, Biza and Briënne, and in front of the restaurant was a woman sitting with her three kids. One of them was this cute little boy, probably around 2 years old. Out of nowhere, this beautiful white Lamborghini appeared and stopped in front of the boy. A girl came out and walked in to get something to eat. The little boy was trying to help the guy in the car to park, but when the car left, he was still standing there, empty-handed. Biza gave the poor child a bottle of coca-cola and the other two kids attacked the bottle like wolves.... It was awful to see.

Last night I went on a ‘Durban by Night’ tour, together with Guusje and Jeanet and a police officer named Martin. He took us to the less fortunate suburbs of Durban and told us about how Durban became the city it is today. Martin has worked for the Child Protection Services for 14 years, but quit because it had a huge impact on his personal life while achieving very few results. He cited ‘corruption within the South African justice system’ as the main reason for this. Martin worked in the child pornography and prostitution department, and has also worked as an undercover agent for a while. His first case was in the late nineties. It involved a young boy of eight, who was filmed by his own parents. 24 photos were found in their possession, on which you could see what the mother of was doing to her own child. It is all about the money in South Africa, and child pornography is BIG business worth millions of dollars. The parents were convicted to 16 years in jail, but when the father apparently offered a huge amount of money to the prison authorities, they were released after serving only 20 months in prison. The little boy is now 19 years old and lives at a foster home.  

During Martin’s time as an undercover agent, he often had a cup of coffee with his colleagues at this little cafe on the beach. One day, the owner of the place said to the police officers: “You guys must be drug dealers and if not, you’re definitely police officers”. They explained what they were doing and the woman told them that she was suspicious of a woman who often came at night to have a cup of coffee. While the woman drank her coffee, her child would disappear in a car – and when the car came back, the woman would walk outside, and let the kid leave again, in another car. She would then go back inside to drink another cup of coffee. The policemen knew right away that it was a prostitution case and they observed this situation for a week. After a week the woman got arrested. Her daughter was 15 years old at the time and had an average of two clients each night. The girl was brought to a foster home where she had a new chance at life – she eventually passed university with distinction and became a doctor. Martin told us that many people ask him why he is still doing this job in a country where corruption is such a huge issue. “This is what I wanted to do my entire life. Just this one life I saved is worth another 25 years of hard work” is what he said. That definitely brought tears to my eyes. It’s very unreal to be at the corner of the street where such awful things have happened.  

Next, the FIFA World Cup in 2010. Such a beautiful stadium, such a horrible story. Martin showed us a small community of very small sheds in Umlazi. These sheds are referred to as ‘shacks’ and this is where the poorest of the poor live in the townships. People build their shacks with anything you can think of and attach their shack to their neighbour’s shack, so they only have to build three walls. There are no floors inside – just mud and earth - and they wash themselves in small blue containers. Some people have been living in these shacks for more than 20 years. 

At another place, close to these shacks, there used to be another 500 shacks before the World cup. These shacks had been there for over 20 years. During the World Cup, one team was supposed to practise in the same area as that where the shacks were built and thus a decision was taken to destroy the shacks. Not just the 100 shacks at the place of the planned soccer match, but also the other 400 shacks; because professional football players also bring tourists to the country. The government promised to create a new place for these residents and this they did. Nonetheless, Martin refers to this place as a concentration camp. It is situated at an industrial area (no tourist will visit an industrial area after all) and after a few small roads we arrived at a remote area with lots of rows of small white houses. At first sight it appears to be quite nice, with these neat little houses, but when Martin brought us closer, it turned out that the small houses all consisted of four rooms and each room belongs to a family of 4-12 people. We found out that there’s probably only one shower for every 145 people. .. The worst part is that the kids were able to walk to school while at their former home – and now they have to go to school by taxi which costs R20 per day per child. And that while maximum income of each household is less than R80 (€8) and most parents have at least three children. As you can imagine, none of these children go to school.

The World Cup has cost an enormous amount of money. The country had to look more beautiful, cleaner and safer, especially on TV. Close to the stadium, they built lots of sport facilities. The main sport in this country is soccer, followed by rugby and cricket and hockey and volleyball for girls. There was even an American expert architect of sorts, who spent a fortune on basketball courts. Ever since these courts are here, Martin has never seen any child play basketball. He even said: “These kids probably don’t even know what a basketball is! They will probably lay it on the floor and play soccer with it”. Instead of these amazing basketball courts, lots of other beautiful and practical things could’ve been built with all that wasted money.

When we were driving back home, we passed the prostitution area. Lots of the prostitutes work independently to make more money. The prostitutes that work for pimps do not work for money but work for drugs. The clients pay the pimps and they will then take care of the drug supply for the girls. The ages of these girls are shocking. The age of 14 is no exception. A few roads further down, we drove through an area where lots of homeless people sleep. This really sent a cold shiver down my spine. It is a long road, with a huge row of sleeping people on the side of the road.

Finally, Guusje received a phone call from Bobby Bear (another project in Durban) and they asked if we had the time to spend the night. A few kids were just coming in for the night and they needed help. A little girl of three was saved by the cops when her mother tried to drown her. The mother was arrested and the girl survived. They also found a 9-hours old baby boy at the bathroom in a garage, but he survived. Thank God for that. Eventually Guusje and Jeanet went to Bobby Bear, because they only needed two people.

It is horrible to see what kinds of things are happening in this city. But I don’t think that I should close my eyes for these things and I really believe that things need to change around here. The biggest problem is the corruption from the government, which makes it almost impossible for auxiliaries (like the police) to solve problems. They’re trying to create a great tourist area to let Durban become a tourist city like it used to be and to maximize the safe areas. I truly hope that it will work out, because the success story that Martin told me is definitely one of the best stories I’ve ever heard..

Catching up 04/09/2012

Monkeys!!

This post was uploaded at the 9th of april

Hello everyone! Yesterday I learned the Zulu word for ‘hello’, but can’t remember it! So many things have happened in such a short period of time!

First of all, I moved to eTkweni Backpackers. I was told that I was going to have one roommate, but when I came in and saw all the stuff strewn around, I couldn’t imagine it was just from one person. One-by-one people started spilling into the room and soon enough it turned out that there were five people staying!  It doesn’t matter though, because they’re all great! Three are from England and two girls from Holland; their names are Puck and Briënne. These two girls are so sweet and they take me with them to visit all kinds of places. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays eTkweni organises a barbeque or ‘braai’. You have to bring your own meat, but they take care of salads and bread. Until now, we have ended up at a bar every time! I’ve also been out for the last four days and had such a blast seeing new places and meeting new people! On Thursday, we went to a bar called Cubana; a Cuban club very close to our apartment. There are actually no white people there, and when there are, they immediately join our little white club. Very funny, but also strange. Most of the black people have a good laugh at our dance moves... but I’m already used to that! They just love to teach us how to dance and we love to learn, so that’s very nice. When we finally perform our brand new moves, we normally get a round of applause!

On Saturday we had a boat party! I’ll try to upload some of the pictures. This party was organised by Johnny from eTkweni in a perfect South African way. A bus picked us up and took us to the boat. It was a 22-person bus bit I think there were closer on 60 people on board - so do the math (there doesn’t seem to be a limit on passengers in cars either! I feel like a Polish guy quite often, because we can fit easily in a small fiat Panda with 8 of us!). In any case, the music in the bus was very loud and there were even disco lights! I couldn’t move, because I was squashed between all these people and I was carrying a 5 litre bottle of chilli sauce. When we arrived at the boat there was still no alcohol or meat. The boat was supposed to leave at 7 pm, but eventually we left at 9pm. Johnny, Johnny, Johnny.... The party was amazing though! And nobody got seasick or fell overboard!

On Sunday Biza (who works for Umthombo, another project) took us to a party at a bar in Umlazi in one of the local townships. We arrived with seven Dutch girls (in one car, naturally) and Biza and me saw this huge outdoor party with lots of people! We were the only white people, so everybody was looking at us and some of them were laughing. A short African man came up to me and said: “What are you thinking?! We’re from the townships! Move that way, it’s not safe!” The rest of the people were very happy to see us and loved the fact that we came to experience the party. I think we’re already famous in Umlazi, because we had a whole hour of paparazzi stuff going on. After the paparazzi- hour, the locals taught us how to dance. While we were dancing, we had to stop and pose every now and then, so that we could be uploaded on Facebook. Four guys proposed to me, because they were shocked that none of us girls were married yet. After this awesome experience, me, Puck, Briënne and Biza went to Koko’s, where people were once again laughing at our brand new dance moves. After another 10 minutes of fame and photos we went home. Such a great night!

Besides the partying, I also have to work. I travel by taxi every day, which is still hilarious! For the taxi also counts the ‘there’s no limit’ rule. You have to shout when you need to get out which is still not working very well for me. I’ve often had to walk a couple of extra miles already. I’m sure I will get better at this in time!

Next is the language. English is the main language in South Africa and besides that there are 11 official languages in total. One of them is Zulu, which lots of people from Durban speak. This is actually the tongue-clicking language. The first time I heard this, I really had to laugh, but in the mean time I have got used to it. I’ve had a short Zulu lesson in Umlazi as well and I might have a little Zulu talent. I should keep practising!

I’ve also been to the beach where we also managed to make people laugh. You see, the sea was coming closer and closer up the beach and we were already at the top end of the beach. I was just telling the girls that the water was coming very close, but it was still at a safe distance so we continued relaxing in the sun. As the waves are pretty high around here, it didn’t take too long for a huge one to come rushing towards us. We tried to save our stuff by throwing them on the sand breakers and were able to save most of the things; besides ourselves, our clothes and our towels. The smarter African people were already sitting on the sand breakers for a little while, so they had the time of their lives. Again.. This was all very funny, but when we got back into the water I looked down and saw a blue wire wrapped around my ankle. After a few seconds it started to burn! There was this little creature attached to it, known as a Blue Bottle. This looks a bit like a Jellyfish and they appear in their thousands. Puck and I were both attacked and ran to the lifeguards together with dozens of screaming kids. They had to laugh, told us that it wasn’t dangerous and that it should be okay in an hour and so we left. We were planning to recover back at our apartment, but when we just sat down to relax a man came in screaming: “THERE’S A MONKEY IN YOUR KITCHEN!!” Some guys who were sitting downstairs saw the monkey swing right into our kitchen window and so the friendly man came in to save us. The small cheeky monkey left real quickly and didn’t cause any damage.  

As you can see, I’ve experienced lots of great and funny things already! I will probably visit some schools this week to collect some footage and experience what OVSA really does. I am really looking  forward to it, because until now, I have only heard what they do. On Wednesday evening I will drive together with Guusje and Jeanet and a police officer through the “dangerous” areas of Durban and he will tell us things about the FIFA world cup and life in the townships. I can’t wait, and I am looking forward to another awesome week!

It’s really sad that I have to share my adventures just by words and that you guys aren’t here to experience them with me. It’s a whole different world and it’s definitely one that I would love to share with you. I will try to keep you updated at least once a week!

I hope to talk to you all very soon and keep me posted about everything that’s happening in your life’s too! I miss you guys!

Thank you again for all the time and attention!

Catching up: 04/02/2012

Welcome to Africa!

 This post was uploaded at april 2nd.

I’m here! After a long 24-hour trip I at last arrived in Durban. I think that 80% of my co- passengers on the plane were South-African ‘Afrikaans’, so I planned to learn some of the language during the trip but that didn’t work out. It sounds very weird to me!

When I arrived at Johannesburg Airport (where I had to spend the night) a very friendly black guy immediately approached me. He asked me what I was doing in South Africa and where I had come from. When I tried to move on, he asked me if I needed a taxi. I said I was fine and walked through. I found out very quickly that his keen engagement wasn’t about my blond hair or my friendly face, but about booking a taxi! ...I probably gave this Barbie impression, because soon I was followed by six African men, all shouting: “Taxi! Taxi! Taxi! Best Taxi for you! Best Taxi driver from Africa”! Finally I decided to ask this innocent-looking, tiny, little man, for a place to stay and you guessed it... replied, “Hotel? I’ll take you there! Best Taxi!” Eventually I decided that my best option was to spend the night at the airport – no time to get lost and on-the-spot for my connecting flight in the morning.

 After spending the night wedged between two snoring Brazilian guys, I flew to Durban where I was picked up from the airport by Wilma from Be More. She gave me my Simcard (0730043397). When we were walking to the car, she told me with a smile that I could drive if I’d like to. I was surprised by this offer, until I looked into the car window and saw the wheel in front of me. Aha! the wheel is of course on the ‘wrong’ side! I slowly walked, a little embarrassed, to the other side of the car. That’s a thing I’m still not used to! In fact, every time I have to cross the street I still look to the right first and have to give myself a little pat on the back. In any case, the environment here is amazing! Everything is so green and so beautiful! At this moment I’m staying at a Backpackers in Ushaka where I have my own room. I’ve made two Scottish friends (gingers) and you probably won’t believe it, but their names are Billy and Willy!!

Today was my first day at OVSA! I was picked up by Marlijn (stepped into the car on the right side for the first time!), she is my supervisor. She looks a bit like Addison Montgomery from Grey’s Anatomy. She is very nice and has so far showed me lots of things!  We first went to this cute place to have breakfast, where a spider was walking through my yoghurt. “Welcome to Africa!” she said after I screamed! We searched together for another place to stay, because Ushaka is not very close to the OVSA’s office and it’s not that safe for me to travel from there every day. We eventually went to have a look at a place called Tekweni Backpackers. This is where Ben works. Ben is a real ‘cutie’ as Marlijn calls him. I won’t be uploading any photos of Ben yet, because you girls might ask for his number! Tomorrow I will be moving to Ben (!), because eThekwini is really much safer and easier to travel to and from.  I will be sharing an apartment with a girl from England. 

My colleagues are incredibly friendly and they were very happy to see me! I didn’t do very much today, as I am still getting to know the organisation; they showed me what they have done so far in terms of social media and fundraising – in particular how they receive most of their donations. It’s hard to see that such a beautiful organisation like OVSA receiving so little money. On the other hand, I researched a bit on the internet and it’s unbelievable how many charities are active in South Africa. I am willing to work and think hard about ways to best help this organisation and I might need your help to manage that! I will keep you posted!

This week is the Easter Holiday, so I will probably visit one of the OneVoice South Africa (OVSA) schools next week. I also haven’t taken lots of pictures, and I’m sorry for that. They’re on their way! 

For now, thank you for reading! I miss you guys!

Welcome to Africa!

 Tuesday, 04/17/2012

Hello everybody!

Welcome to my blogger profile! Hope you’re all doing well!

As you may know, I will be working for OneVoice South Africa as an online marketing intern for 5 months. I’m here for 2 weeks now and I’ve enjoyed every bit of it! I have another weblog but that one is in Dutch so here is the English version for all my international friends;) I will make sure to keep this weblog updated and I will upload the English versions of my previous posts. First I will give you some information about OneVoice South Africa and the activities that I will be doing for this organization. 

OneVoice South Africa (OVSA) is a vibrant and unique non-governmental organisation, which uses innovative and creative ways of actively engaging with young people on HIV and AIDS, and TB prevention. The programme is appealing to young people because it provides them with a platform to discuss and address HIV, AIDS and TB, sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender and human rights issues.

Mission

To promote meaningful participation of young people in making informed decisions about health and lifestyle, including sexual reproductive health within our communities; as well as expand target audience knowledge on TB and TB/HIV co-infection, and promote early detection.

Vision

A safe and creative environment where young people are part of the collective voice to develop positive lifestyles to develop positive lifestyles in the HIV and TB response.

My main jobs will be to create and update the possibilities for the website and social media (Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn, GivenGain) and create a marketing plan. It will be an important and difficult thing to find new sponsors and donators so it is a real challenge for me. I really hope to find a way to increase and develop the online fundraising tools and I might need your help some day!

Thank you for reading! My first African experiences will follow!

For more information about OneVoice click OneVoice South Africa website