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As the Summer sun finally shone down on England, I (along with 12 others) boarded a plane to South Africa, which is currently in the depths of its Winter. Now if you don't believe it could possibly be THAT cold in an African country, you'd be wrong. I now understand why there are penguins inhabiting the place. It's ffff-freezing. Anyway, here we are, in our Big Brother style house, in the small town of Fish Hoek - a 45 min train journey from Cape Town.
As suspected, I'm the oldest of our Love TEFL group....by a decade. Not that I'm bothered (clearly). But there are several of us from Yorkshire, so I'm not in the minority there! In fact, one of the girls in the group even remarked that she'd never been surrounded by so many northerners before (poor thing!). Speaking of minorities, after a day out in Cape Town today, we caught a train back and realised we were the only white faces in a full carriage. Nobody was particularly put out by that fact, including us, but it was interesting to experience something plenty of black and Asian people experience in parts of Britiain every day.
So, South Africa... A country mired in a rather uncomfortable history, to say the least. It's obviously nothing like it was before the abolition of Apartheid, but there are still clear divisions between the people who live here. On the way from the airport to the house where I'm staying, I saw sprawling township after sprawling township - ramshackle huts made of corrugated iron and various bits of wood. I've not yet seen the areas that are predominantly inhabited by white people, although I suspect the area where I'm staying is very close to one such place; scattered across the mountains opposite (which, pleasingly, make up some of Table Mountain National Park!) are some enormous houses that are, weirdly, not unlike Swiss chalets.
We'll see a township close up on Monday (28th July), as part of our Love TEFL internship. It might be Eid, unless it falls on Tuesday, and with many people here being Muslim, there may well be a very festive atmosphere, but even so, I doubt it'll be particularly glamorous... The township is called Masuphelele and it's where lots of the children we'll be working with live.
We met the children themselves yesterday (Friday), when we were put in our respective classrooms. I'll be assisting a very charismatic teacher called Miss Dees, who's in charge of 42 ten year olds - no wonder she embraced me with such enthusiasm when I entered the room! I only spent an hour with the class that day, but if the children's sneaky glances at me and the big smiles that broke out when our eyes met are anything to go by, I may well find myself becoming rather attached to them...
Aside from being given a taste of what our day-to-day lives will consist of over the next two months, we've been exploring the area. Starting with a trip to the local Spar (which is infinitely more interesting than a British one, with such items as beef biltong on sale!), we've since ventured to the next village, Kalk Bay (a quirky little place full of art and craft shops, seafood restaurants, and cosy bars), and today, Cape Town. Even the murky grey sky couldn't dull such a city, a point proven when we strayed into the Bo-Kaap district, where brightly coloured houses like something out of a Tim Burton film line the main road.
And that, I think, sums up this corner of the Rainbow Nation; despite its sinister history - one section of society's disgraceful disregard for the lives of another - the light in its heart hasn't been exstinguished. Admittedly, nor has it been ignited to the proportions one would like it to have been. But the people here seem to hold on to the ideals and qualities of the man who led the revolution - encapsulated by the children in Miss Dees' class, who've written the words Forgiveness, Respect, Hope, Tolerance, Democracy, Equality, Patience ad Gratitude around a picture of Nelson Mandela.
So as I sit here huddled in my duvet, in the cold, rather shabby house I'm sharing with a dozen people whose ages remind me that I've left behind all the trappings of a thirty-something life for a year spent away from all the people I love, I think of those words and pluck out one that's particularly relevant to my current situation: gratitude.
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Nick Lawrence Evocative first entry Katy. Looking forward to reading many more. At 8pm it's a balmy 25 degrees in Arthur's room. No duvets here!