Fanfare of trumpets. We have now been here for 6 MONTHS. Have you missed us? Spencer and Manda who?
STOP PRESS. NEWSFLASH - Manda has tick bite fever. See you in 5 minutes once you've googled it. Not nice eh and of course the bite which is a red blemish about an inch across with a black middle is right on Manda's backside. Too much information I hear you cry.She will survive.
Before we get a bit serious some oooh aaah pictures taken by Manda. As we were at the other end of the world we looked for somewhere near and lo and behold Madagascar is just across the water (well 3 1/2 hours flying)
A few Lemurs later plus car,train, canoeing and hiking and we had a great holiday
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| Mum. Look at those strange creatures walking on the ground ( Ring tailed Lemur) |
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| Look into my eyes. You feel sleepy |
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| Edward Milnes Sifaka - picture taken whilst perched on a very steep hill hanging on for dear life to a tree |
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| A resting Boa Constrictor - very warm and cuddly |
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| Karma Karma Karma Karma Karma Karma Chameleon you come and go, you come and go oh oh oh |
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| Just one of Manda's many portrait shots. I love them ,hope you do too |
We are sitting here dripping as today it was 30C and very humid. We now have 2 months of this. Of course I expect absolutely zero sympathy from anyone reading this as I assume most of you are suffering cold wet and miserable weather. So no shorts and T shirt then!!!
So far I have shied away from the extremes of life where our work is. But this week a few things brought it into sharp relief.
At the health academy where we are based we have counsellors who see the youth with HIV. This is a tough job and they do all they can to alleviate difficult situations including children being made homeless and and at risk of domestic violence.
Firstly one of the counsellors has started coaching 3 Whizzkids boys football teams under 13,15 and 17. To sum up a very long story the under 17 team entered a tournament and scraped some donations together including from us staff and managed to get to Johannesburg by train (12 hours) after the coach driver was too drunk to drive and were docked 3 points for turning up late for the first match. They barely had money for accommodation and ran out of food. Despite this they got through 3 more games , and may well have won the whole tournament but with no food it became impossible so they sadly had to come back.
The second situation though was scary. Two of the counsellors went out to do a home visit in which they check the status of the youth in their living accommodation. They found the two children and took them in the car to the house they were supposed to be staying. They were told to wait whilst the guardian finished playing cards!! Suddenly 2 people were coming towards them with pans of boiling water at which point they ran for their lives and despite one spraining his ankle they escaped. It could have been very nasty as one of the people was clearly high on drugs.Older men take advantage of young women and girls hence the horrendous incidence of HIV - 47% of women in the area are HIV positive.
This is the reality of life in a township. It will take many years to change not just the inequalities in this wealthy country but also people's attitudes. For many men drinking in the shebeens (bars) is their only outlet and women have to put up with daily abuse.
So what are we doing? Well the charity runs the Health Academy in the grounds of Edendale hospital and specializes in treating HIV youth as well as couselling them. Our aim is to attract youth by providing outlets for their energies eg homework club,choir, art club etc plus our biggest draw - a football pitch that is now being rebuilt together with the FIFA Football for Hope centre of which more later. We also run life skills classes at schools using football as an analogy. We will start running our mixed gender leagues when our new pitch appears. It is all about respect mainly the boys and men having respect for the girls and ladies.
A very brief science lesson that we have learned. South Africa provides free anti retro viral drugs (ARVs) which these days if adhered to can prolong life considerably . It is the adherence which is the problem with the youth. Adherence classes are given and something as simple as a watch so drugs can be taken on time can help enormously.
I will be doing some maths and accountancy tutoring but my main job is keeping the finances in order. We work with some big organisations like FIFA,Oxfam, GIZ ( a German government initiative) and the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project all who have different reporting periods and all with different reporting requirements. The big job though is to take on someone local to do the job and mentor them till we leave.
Manda is running a project funded by Sony and FIFA and works with about ten youth. The aim is to help them document their lives,improve their English,ICT skills and to use a camera. I hope to show you some of the pictures depicting their surroundings and the life they lead when they are ready.
She is also responsible for the new database being developed that will really help with monitoring and evaluation. If we can't measure our effectiveness we won't get funding and of course we need to know that what we are doing works.
We will soon be involved as facilitators for groups on a Saturday morning to meet to discuss their problems together. Currently Africa is also it appears going backwards with regards to gay rights ,see the latest news on Nigeria and Uganda. A local group for LGBT youth is being formed to help that community and we will be working with the team to support the group.
Our admin is still in Durban but of course we should now be permanently based at Edendale which would make life so much better being at the heart of things. In October we were supposed to move in to our squeaky new building funded by Sepp Blatter and those wonderful people at FIFA as part of the legacy from the 2010 World Cup but March is now a more realistic date. Yes I know it has been 4 years but (through gritted teeth) this is FIFA , sorry this is South Africa, and we will now almost certainly be the last of 20 FFH centres to be built. Basically FIFA were happy to get SA to spend millions on pointless new football stadiums and then got the cheapest builders to build their little legacy projects. Ah that feels good finally getting it off my chest.
Basically the workers work infrequently assuming they get paid and are not on strike, and then once they get paid they get drunk and don't work. The health and safety is non existent. Safety helmets are used to carry water in. The roof which is finally on is not as originally planned . It is a flat roof not pitched. The manufacturer decided to use a plan from a totally different building and was surprised when the architect advised that the building would collapse if they tried to fit it!!! Unbelievable.
The building itself will not be complete as FIFA have reached their spending limit. This is most obvious as half the building is a room two storeys high - for no good reason. One day I guess we will raise funds for a mezzanine floor. Until then we will need a very long pole to open the windows built at the top.
Latest news is that we may now not get in till May. Will we get to see it finished ?
OKAY - END OF RANT
As for life outside work give us a few days and we will find some game to view. On our last trip we almost literally bumped into an elephant who then gave us a lovely show with a mud bath.
We then stopped for a drink which we would normally have had outside but the guide wanted to show us a small hide next to a water hole. In we trooped and 30 seconds later a male lion suddenly walked past, about 20 feet away. "LION" I shouted and the guide had the presence of mind to check we were all actually inside.
Certainly gets the adrenalin flowing. We then rushed out to the jeep and followed him till he flopped down to rest and called for a female
CUE FOR GRATUITOUS ANIMAL PICTURE - but not an elephant or lion.
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| Hey look I can walk on two feet too!!!! |
We have just been away with Naomi and Jon who arrived from Blighty. A whistle stop tour of KZN (where I did finally swim in the ocean) with the weather not being very kind to us but we had a great time and it was lovely to see them. Next up Trevor and Petrina and hot on their tails Anne and Mike.
We hope a few more of you can come and see us. If not then its the Skype guided tour of the cottage, East and West wings.
In Durban we try to go the theatre when possible. Recently I did a review of cultural life in Durban for the Wanstead Players so here it is for those who may be interested. If not then we wish you all well and promise to blog again in this Century.
Durban isn’t Cape Town or Johannesburg. Stating the obvious admittedly but whilst the others have a vibrant arts scene Durbanites are seen as lazy and one spot of rain and they stay in.You have to dig for nuggets and avoid the supper shows that they seem to enjoy for some strange reason.
So far we have been to a few interesting events:
The last night of the Proms Durban style. Not a play but at the Durban Playhouse which houses 3 different theatres from large to 100 seat studio. I did get some strange looks draped in my Leyton Orient England flag belting out Land of Hope and Glory and bouncing up and down
A play about modern life in South Africa through music and short sketches by the Playhouse youth group. Sadly only 8 people in the audience and it seemed really good except it was all in Zulu so we didn’t understand a word. Whoops
A play about one of the first female Asian doctors in South Africa. We were the only non Asian faces in the audience. We were surprised to find them serving a whole buffet of samosas and other goodies. Of course we had just had dinner at home. The play was very interesting and well acted by an amateur group.
A comedian doing a one man show. Very funny if you know a bit about Durban and South Africa which we now do. I laughed out loud especially at the tour operator sketch for oldies which promises a guaranteed mugging experience right outside the steps of the hotel and an ambulance in 15 minutes.
If you have read the blog you will have seen about our night at the KZN Youth Choir carol concert.
This week though is Musho, a festival for one and two handed plays including a man who balances stones (apparently an Edinburgh festival hit!!). The website has photos and reviews.
Too wet to stand outside and watch stone balancing so first night we saw a very funny two hander , one woman playing 3 parts as parents of a playgroup organise a nativity play and the other is pregnant and sings songs using nursery rhyme tunes but with some funny and sometimes rude lyrics. Highly entertaining hour
Second night and 2 plays. The first about a family going camping at the seaside - poor Afrikaaners The son sets up the camp and then it is revealed his family are all dead. Long story so won’t boer you (couldn’t resist the pun!!) It proves that you need someone to take a critical look at a script and edit it down and that comedy is I believe the hardest thing to do well. Also you need to be hard when directing to stop the actor gabbling and not projecting. Okay you get the message, it was poor.
The second play, a one hander about a south African girl of Greek origin and her travails in dealing with her mother and getting a boyfriend was much better. A tad long , so again a bit of judicious editing would have helped, but the actress played many parts and I have no idea what her real accent is, she was that good. A real tour de force.
Finally Saturday night and two more plays. The first called The Shoe Man about a man growing up in a township and not being able to afford school fees so trying to get enough money by shoe shining. It is amazing that in SA the poorest have to pay a fee to go to school. Even though some of it was in Zulu it didn’t matter. A one man show of warmth and energy and an audience that whooped and hollered. You don’t get that at the KMT!
The second event , not really a play was supposedly about God but we all wondered what was going on. Basically a mime performance that was physical and acrobatic and very clever using a back screen , spotlight, large ring and a white sheet. You had to be there as they say.
The cost was £3 per play. Excellent value. As a post script I was told the boy in the seaside play got stage fright as it was his debut so he spent much time shooing imaginary seagulls off a Christmas tree whilst the prompt gave him his lines. That explained the performance.
Only one amateur group in Durban and too far away so as Arnie used to say “I’ll be back”
