The Sudwala Caves

Together with the other volunteers Jan Ekkert, Jan Evers and Simon Evers, the three soccer trainers from the “Yes”-project Sascha, Silvia and Annke, and Sifiso a South African scout and good friend of Jan Evers and the other three trainers, we went into the oldest known caves of the world. On our very own Journey to the Center of the Earth we had to wade through waist-deep water with a ducked back, squeeze ourselves through small openings, endure a continual strength-exhausting climb going up and down and adopting a completely new definition of being dirty. The crystal chamber at the end of our journey was my personal highlight and our deepest achieved position that evening. For nearly half an hour we turned out any kind of light and kept our mouth shut, which gave Jan Ekkert the opportunity to take a nap in the dark depths of the Sudwala Caves. Back again at the surface of the earth both Jans and my humble self took a shower.

BP Camp

On my very first weekend, after five days of being exposed to an enormous amount of information and impressions, each of the five scout districts here in Mpumalanga had their annual BP Camp. It is basically a weekend, from Friday to Sunday, for scouts where they go camping, do activities and talk about Lord Baden-Powell the Founder of the World Scout Movement. At first Jan Evers and I went to the Nkomazi district where we spend the night in a tent. The camp was surrounded by a barbed wire fence and within that camping ground the bathroom facilities and a pool were surrounded by walls with broken glass on top, which is quite bizarre when you are first confronted with so many walls and fences that are there only for you to feel safe. The next day we went to the East district for a short visit and it was there, where I saw the biggest bamboo “tree” in my life. The third district on our way was Nsikazi at a place called Eco Link (www.ecolink.co.za), where I met a really interesting old Lady. Sue Hart the founder Eco Link. She lived here in Mpumalanga during the apartheid time and fought the apartheid regime from the beginning. Back in the days she gave black people a place to live and proper education and over the years she was collecting poems from students, teachers and friends and the collection of all those poems she called “Cries of the Heart”. At the end of my meeting with Sue she gave Muzi (a Rover, scouts aged between 16-25yrs), Julia and Lucy (two scout leaders) and me a copy of that book and more books on environment and planting. After that I met up with Muzi, who is going to Germany at the end of this month for a three months promoting trip and we played soccer 5 on 5 and of course the team I was on won. The last district was Iyamazane, where 300 scouts camped at a dam that was closed down just for the scouts. This whole weekend I had a whole lot of fun.

Farewell party Jan and Simon Evers

Finally, on my second Tuesday in South Africa the big farewell party of Jan Evers, who was living here as a volunteer for six months and his brother Simon Evers, who somehow became a volunteer during his vacation, was opened by a big banquet (on the right Dudley, in front the youngest son of Elvis and in the back Muzi). But before this toothsome meal I gave guitar lessons to Gracious, the daughter of Nikki who has by the way an amazing singing voice and Jan Ekkert my fellow volunteer. So now with Lucky I already have three potential guitar students to whom I can pass on my extraordinary guitar skills ;). After the meal we listened to speeches from Jörg, the assistant chairman of Nangu Thina who lived here for eight years already and started off as an volunteer as well, from Nikki, my “concerning mother” and at the same time omniscient boss and from Elvis the Provincial Chairman of SASA. At the end both were presented with an official scarf of the province Mpumalanga and a knot made of springbok, which you cannot purchase anywhere you have to earn it. (On the pictures you can see Charlie (bagpie), short blond hair Jan Evers, short brown hair + glasses Simon Evers, behind the grill Jörg)

Kruger Park night drive

Three days after our arrival in South Africa we already went to the Kruger National Park. A park ranger took us on a night drive. With an average speed of about 12 mph (20 km/h) we started our tour in a jeep with extension at daylight. On our way through green highlands, over the Crocodile River and past big water holes we saw a bright variety of animals. Sadly we did not see all of the “Big Five” but the black rhinoceros and the African elephant crossed our way multiple times. Luckily there is still a lot of time to get the chance to see lions, leopards and cape buffalos. Further animals we saw where impalas, zebras, greater kudus, the head of an hippopotamus, rabbits, dung beetles and at night we saw one owl every 600-1200ft (200-400m) in the middle of the street. They stood there because the street gave off heat which was retained in the tarred road. By the way the frogs are running around everywhere in and around our house.

The story of Thomas Gisela Schneider

Now as promised you will hear the story of Thomas Gisela Scheider. On the first morning after our arrival we were introduced to Thomas from Cape Town, a very friendly black South African from the Cape region. Right from the start he said if we ever have the chance to come down to Cape Town we should give him a visit. After almost half an hour of adjusting the early morning hour, which we desperately needed after this terrible jetlag we had, Nikki called us for our weekly meeting. The Monday meeting is basically for reflexion and to discuss the upcoming events. By the way I take care of the coordination of the Street Soccer Project, where Rovers, scouts in the age of 18-25, get taught to be trainers and then each one of them is going to be the trainer of one of the 14 scout soccer teams at eight players a team. Over the year the will have soccer training combined with workshops on moral values, environment and HIV. Now back to Nikki, during our meeting we somehow said “well Thomas said…” and Nikki looked really disoriented and asked us if we meant Simon the brother of Jan (Evers). Thereupon and absolutely confused she asked Jan (Evers) “Who is this Thomas?” and out of the corridor Lucky said “Hello! I am Thomas.” Lucky is one of our five fieldworkers and helps us out almost every day in the office. A fieldworker takes care of one scout district. That means there are five districts in Mpumalanga and those cover only a slight part of Mpumalanga. A bigger coverage is very difficult because of the long distances. Lucky has a really distinct humor as you might have noticed and he can be really convincing. He actually got Jan (Ekkert) to eat a chicken bone, because it is a custom here in South Africa.

First impressions

After a journey affected by very long waiting periods and invigorated by solid "English Breakfast" Jan and I finally arrived in South Africa. From that moment on we sucked up every impression that hit our eyes. Here are our top 10.

Number ONE, when a very neat, young man dressed in organge receives you at the terminal exit and is very kind and wants to help you, do not believe that he does that because he's just a nice person, he actually works on a mutual basis. In the case Jan Ekkert it was 20€ for leading him to the baggage room. It was a special price for a friend, but rather the extrem.

Number TWO, if you look closer at the landscape you'd think it could be anywhere, in Europe or the United States. Which mainly happens to be so because of the rainy season that you have here over the summer. The grass, flowers, leaves and buds sprout, thrive, grow and bloom. They even grow large fields of needle beams here which lets it almost look like the Black Forest in Germany.

Number THREE, the weather is very warm (100m behind our house is a swimming pool :). The sun shines every day with an average temperature of 77°F, +/- 10°F. From time to time we have thunderstorms coming up quickly. Most of the times they start at about 5 in the afternoon or at 2 in the moring. Because of lightning strokes all electronic devices must be taken of the power. Warm kindly nights are included and sometimes there are even fog banks.

Number FOUR, summerlike temperatures are even over the winter a normal thing. The average temperature is 70°C as long as the sun shines. At night it can get very cold. The green of the leaves fades and everything adopts a more red brown ish color.

Number FIVE, you can feel the different influences of the Netherlands, England and of the U.S. in many ways here. Whether you look at the language, writing system, infrastructure, scenic or cultural characteristics.

Number SIX, the road network looks very familliar to the U.S. standard, even though it has it's own little differences. Here you drive on the left side of the road, the speed is measured in Km/h and the traffic signs do look more like European ones but still have their own unique touch. You have intersections with 3 or 4 way stop signs, which makes the rule left goes before right or as it is usually said in Europe because you drive there on the right side right goes before left.

Number SEVEN, for security reasons we have a barbed wire fence surrounding the property, a big gate and motion detectors at the fence, outside and inside the houses. If you arm the alarm you can hear a loud "peeeep" and when you disarm it it goes "peeeep peeeep" just like the sound of a car security system, but much louder.


Number EIGHT, if you are ever going to meet Thomas from Cape Town, be prepared he will pull your leg right from the beginning. But more of that later.

Number NINE, everything that was not imported is normally much cheaper than in Germany and most likly in the United States as well. Yesterday we ate out and I paid 100 Rand for two big delicious LM chicken with honey mustard sauce, potatoes, divers vegetables and a Coke (R13 ≈ $1.3) . And that was actually already a little bit more expensive than normal.

Number TEN, punctuality as you are used to, like arriving in time, is here much more complicated for several reasons. Some people do not own a private car and even the caps are to expensive to drive more often, because of the long distances. A lot of people actually go by foot. Even on the highways. And that is why most of the times you say "oh its African time" to another person when somebody does not arrive in time at the arranged meeting place.

Pheeew!

Finally nothing seems to be left in my way. My passport combined with the little Visa entry arrived today, all important seminars are done and I passed my driving test last week. The little plastic card (my driver's license) seems to be the only thing left which hopefully gets here by next week. Yes there was a little formal thing ... the notorious entry 01 on my driver's license. Basically it indicates that I need to drive with glasses. The thing that happend to me now is that my driver's license did not say so but silly me was taking the test with glasses on. So now I just have to wait (again) to get it. And yes I really need glasses there is no way around it.

And now, so you will know what kind of things you do on an Experiment e.V. seminar I do proudly present the award winning team of the "Schnitzeljagt Awards 2009" in the category "Schnitzeljäger of the Universe" here are Conny, Eva, Tobi, Simon, Sebo and Mara with their absolute fantastic rap which has great potential of becoming the new "Weltwärts" jingle. Spot up.