August

The last month has begun and every single muscle refuses to leave or at least to prepare for the long journey home. However, I and every single muscle of my body know that there is no way out. Well then, soon it will be for old long since and Cheerio. What I have experienced in these six months here in South Africa can not be replaced by anything imaginable. The friendships that have been made will last until I’m old and grey and because of age related dementia unable to recognize those who got hold of a place in my heart. If it was possible to start all over from day one, I would do everything the same just as I did before. I might take care that two or three slips never even happened, but in the main I would not change any of my decisions. Back in Germany I will try to make the dull everyday life, which most probably will catch up with me much sooner then I’d like to, more endurable with the help of all the beautiful memories, which I was allowed to collect. Even if it will be good for me to see old friends, family and surroundings of my childhood and adolescence, one part of me will be bound, for all time, to this wondrous country.

Sgd. Ndod’enkulu (The big man)

Gregor Piesche

Ulf, Kai, Sifiso, Jack, Gregor

Henry

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Good Hope & friends

In the month of July three of my oldest friends Kai Kaffka, Jack Voß and Ulf Wahner gave me a visit and I tried to show them everything that I’ve been exposed to as good and compressed as I could. I was as excited as anyone who hasn’t seen his best friends for a long time. The permanent smile in my face was even noticed by my fellow volunteers. As we toured around they got to know some of my South African friends and also, with some difficulties in the beginning, the local handshakes and high fives. They even learned some SiSwati in their limited amount of time. Yebo phela (yes of course). During our conjoint vacation we’ve seen the Blyde River Canyon, the Sabie waterfalls, the MacMac Pools, the Valley of Death, the Sudwala caves and the Kruger Park. But this one moment that has touched all of us in an instant of a second happened at the Good Hope center in Mataffin. Together with Sifiso, one of my South African friends who is volunteering at that center, we’ve donated 20 mini toy cars to children between the ages two and five. Half of the kids started playing around with the cars. Driving, shoving and crashing them. The other half got colored pens and paper and they started painting the most terrific pictures, which were handed over to us as an appreciation for our donation. After a while the kids started rolling the cars over to us and we rolled them back, until there was a line of five kids rolling cars without any order or timing, which made it quite impossible for any of us to handle. This must be the worst nightmare of any traffic analytic. The next thing that happened was little happy smiling kids all around us. Over, under, in front, behind, on the left and on the right. If you started taking one kid up in the air the next one was already in the line ready to take the chance of breathing the air of the big people. If the line was short you had to take the same kid up twice or thrice. My oh my, were some of them heavy. My other favorites were the footrace with a kid on each foot, an act of piracy were at least six kids captured either Kai or Ulf or even both plus one of them stole Ulf’s glasses and last but not least Jack holding two kids on each arm and if I remember it right even one or two on his back. What a day. I bet we’ll still remember this day for many years to come.

Nursery school in KaNyamazane

After dropping two carpets in one of the nursery schools in KaNyamazane, which we yet again got from the Emnotweni Hotel, Jan and I were granted another insight in everyday problems which occur in nearly every township. But at the same time we were shown a method of resolution. To compensate the problem of having too little money the school is producing and selling bead work in a variety of patterns and forms, whether you want a tie, a scarf or a key chain with the flag of South Africa. The possibilities are nearly limitless, although I have to ask myself if the tie is ever going to be sold. The profit is then spent on food, game and school material as well as on colorful designs and pictures, which are meant to pep up the dull grey walls. After we were led into the back rooms of the nursery school, we were shown the very latest source of income. To begin with the headmistress buys shredded pieces of bed linen in all sorts of patterns and in big quantities. These are then, according to pattern, sorted by full-time supported handicapped persons and seamed together forming high-quality pillows or new bed linen. The proceeds pay for the material, some goes into the nursery school and the rest is for the pillow producer him- or herself. I was really surprised when I, after seeing the enormous bags crammed with shredded pieces of bed linen, held the final pillow, which I must say looked just as new bought, in my own hands. Another special event I happened to be part of just occurred shortly before we left. When I, forearmed with a camera, began photographing the little children, which were put into blue and pink potato sacks, I suddenly became the center of a group of little punks eager for knowledge. Every picture I took had to be shown to everyone instantly and little hands covered me almost completely. Virtually cut off from the outer world I was asked what my name was. To top it all off I was asked that question in SiSwati, a language which I do not possess yet. But I got lucky and I was able to make contact with an interpreter and exchanged a couple of phrases with my new friends. To my regret, I was pulled out of this wondrous experience just as fast as I have been trundling into it, because we already had to leave. Wow, how exciting was that.

Fox’s adventure

Collen Logan, founder of the adventurous hiking experience Fox’s adventure, got his nickname Fox due to his foxy ideas and founded Fox’s adventure because of his love for hiking. His adventure, lasting over two days and divided in two phases, consists of a hiking part and a mountain biking part. The difficult part, the hiking, took place on the first day and it was not unusual that you found yourself bending down or on all fours. Some scratches and clingy plants had to be endured in order to see the breathtaking view over an untouched South African mountain range and into the longest valley of the world, which is here know by the name of the Valley of Death. In a time in which there was no existing cure for Malaria the name Valley of Death wasn’t just a name. During the summer month the valley is obsessed with mosquitos. By the way the longest operating gold mine, with over 100 years operating time, is located in the same valley right next to the hiking trail. The average operating time of an ordinary gold mine is usually between 35-45 years. Back then the gold was probably the only reason why somebody took on the dangerous journey into the Valley of Death. On our hiking trail we already past two mine entries. Arriving at our camping ground in the evening, Jan, Henry (our South African rapper friend), and I started to pitched up our tent right in front of the panoramic view over the Valley of Death and we began preparing our dinner. Noodles and Chakalaka. Surviving the ice cold mountain air night, we bestrode the mountain bikes and began our decent. On the way back Fox showed us a certain part of the old now completely overgrown hiking trail, which is called Piano Staircase. If you believe the legends, a piano was pulled up to the top of the mountain on request of the wife of a mine owner and the one hill which is called the Piano Staircase, is a small path going up in a zigzag course. Quite difficult I’d say. After arriving in the valley we were rewarded with blisters on our hands and with a Fox’s adventure badge, which you can get only once in your life and only on your first completion of the hiking trail.

Street Soccer Opening Tournament

Finally the big day came, this past Sunday. Our street soccer project Phumelela was officially opened with a big tournament for 200 young Scouts aged 11-14 years. On request of the GTZ (German Technical Co-operation, our sponsor of this year’s street soccer project) and on occasion of the Confederations Cup we put the whole tournament together, in only one month time. The first teams already arrived at 8 o’clock in the morning and after their team was registered at my desk they were provided with hot soup and bread. After registration all teams were presented with jerseys and base-caps from this year’s street soccer project. In the morning all teams rotated between different bases from Altus Sport, Green Feet and Karos & Kambro. The bases contained Talk Life (Bring the youth back to start talking again. Sharing problems and delights), Life Skills (Active games connected to problems of HIV/Aids), dance (Expression, body control and team development) and recycling (How can I produce a soccer ball with plastic bottles?). The GTZ team from Pretoria was especially surprised about the intellectual curiosity and the high organization capability of our young players, which was reflected in the form of good listeners and systematic rotations. The first games started around midday. Every game lasted 10 minutes, with four field players per team on the field and without a goal keeper, on a 25yrd x 15yrd field with a 3yrd goal. At the end of the day every team was rewarded with t-shirts and medals. The big winner of the day was the team of the two Rovers Thokozani Phangisa and Mbongeni Mokoena from Nkomazi, which entered the DJ stage with deafening noise from the Vuvuzelas (trumpet like team spirit creators) and a victory dance. With winning the tournament the team won, besides glory and envy from the other teams, a trip to Pretoria. Accompanied by their fieldworker Chris Mthembu the team spend four whole days in South Africa’s capital city. Their program consisted of further life skills activities, sightseeing tours, drama, art productions, Confederations Cup public viewing and a soccer tournament. Representing Mpumalanga the young team played against the winning teams of the provinces Gauteng, Eastern and Western Cape as well as against the winning teams from their neighboring African countries Mozambique, Botswana, Lesotho, Zambia, Ghana, Rwanda and Namibia. On the first day of the tournament they won every game fabulously and on the second day they merely lost against the team Africa United, which they’ve already beaten on the first day. In the end they obtained a bright third place.