sweating at 40 degrees!

Hi guys!

This time I actually managed to find a netcafe in Worcester..! They have a "coloured" cafe and one for the whites (did anyone say apartheid was over? well, someone should tell the people here..!) which is (of course!) more expensive. So we decided to go to the coloured cafe, it doesn't have air con but it'll do.

My weekend in Cape Town was absolutely great, after Doreen and I had finished all the emails, blog posts, guestbook entries, etc we went for a walk around town and then to Waterfront, where we met Sharon and Collins, two friends of Doreen from Kenya who are studying in CT at the time. They have been living in a hostel for a year now and cool enough, we stayed the night at "their place". After a quick lunch we caught a minibus taxi (what a weird invention..and I'm sure it only works here in afrika! It's a van with a taxi driver but every foreigner will be advised not to use it. Because the drivers sometimes don't have a drivers license - and even if they do, they drive like satan's chasing them! They cram as many people as possible in there, no worries if they don't have a seat and they just won't go anywhere if the car isn't totally packed. Then you have to yell at the driver where you want tp be dropped off and hope that he heard you or is simply in a good mood to stop.) but al of a sudden the taxi stopped, the driver started yelling at us, raising hell and we all sisn't have a clue about what was going on. well, we just got out, payed him (of course! the minibus taxis are run by the mafia and you don't wanna mess with those guys!) and walked for about two hours to the beach. when we finally got there we had some nice fresh fruit and a laugh at all the tourists around. all white, by the way, Sharon was the only black person there. she said blacks don't normally go to the beach. dunno why. funny though, she stayed in the shade all the time, said she didn't want to go too dark...!
So after chilling at the beach, we managed to get a minibus taxi which took us (all the way!) back to Sharon's place, we went out for some cheap but very delicious thai food and got ready to go out.
That was so much fun. It felt great to do something "normal" again, after a week of seeing (and living) within destruction and poverty. And because we were with Sharon and Collins, we got into all the black bars which had great music and no tourists!
Because Doreen and I had been up since three in the morning we were ready to go home at only four o'clock so we headed back to the hostel, fell fast asleep and on Sunday we went for a nice breakfast at the mall where Sharon works, headed to some park to chill and took the train back to Worcester.

When we came back to the kibbutz, there was a really weird vibe going on, the girls (Kate/Sarah/Angie) looked very tired and the boys were quite aggressive. So we asked what had happened and appearantly some had gotten into fights, the girls had organised a BBQ, hoping the boys would help with the preparations....well, they didn't. they played socker, came when the food was ready, bitched that it hadn't been enough (they hasn't paid a dime for it- it was some of our food!) and fucked off. No thanks, no washing plates, no nothing.
well, that's the boys. they're totally in a"receiving mode", they get loads of free stuff and they just don't see why they should help with anything. I felt sorry for the girls cos they seemed to be really disappointed but on the other hand I don't see why they keep paying for the boys 24/7, they are buying them stuff constantly and I don't see why. Yes, they are poor and their kives have bben quite rough at times but they alos don't know the value of a lot of things. For them, acamera is a camera, aphone is a phone and they don't care if it breakes. there is so much stuff lying around in the kibbutz that I find it hard to do fundraising if the things they get is not taken care of.

So that was the weekend and it was great to get out of the kibbutz. One thing I have to get used to is that the boys are always around and they always want something, whether it's food, money or simply entertainment. And after a week at the kibbutz I was staring at the tall buildings, the clean streets (paved!!!) and shopping malls in the city! I had already adapted to the township style..! So yeah, I felt like I had recharged my batteries.

So on monday we met with Sheanette, the head coordinator of the kibbutz to finally discuss some of the projects. Doreen is doing dome painting at the school, two volunteers need to be at the creche every day (we're switching every hour to survive the kids' energy...), we cleaned out the reception area which was supposed to be painted this arvo but (no surprise- this is africa) we didn't get any paint yet so we'll just have to wait for that before we do anything. Then I have taken over the so-called library, a dirty little room with books and dirt everywhere. they were all mixed, afrikaans and english, no categories, the floor covered with books, the shelves broken.... and since the girls have started to read with the boys (some of them will go back to school in a week)I have decided that the library needs a system so people can actually use it. Lots of hard work, still a lot to do but I'll show you all some pictures once I'm finished....

Then I was working at the creche which is getting better and better, things are getting more organised. I was in the babies' room the other day, carrying quite a chubby thing around and when I eventually got tired of it, I wanted to sit him down so he could walk and play with the other kids. So I put him down, he was standing up and he's quite tall so I let go of his hands and said something like "go on, play with the others."
well, he didn't go anywhere. As soon as I let go of him, he fell in the sand, face first. He looked a bit funny like this and I first thought he might be disabled or something. So i picked him back up and saw everyone just laughing at me. that poor thing was quite chubby but still a baby so way too young to be able to walk...I just didn't have a clue, man! I had just thought he would have been older...stupid, not-walking baby..! :)

Oh, guys, I've gotta go, the girls are ready and we still have to go and get some groceries....and in a hickstown like this, shops close at 5 pm!!!

so healthwise, I am a bit sick, means I have actually managed to catch a cold at 40 degress heat! I think I got it at the hostel in CT though, cos some other guys there weren't feeling too well....anyways, no biggie, really. The heat is worse than anything, I'm trying to drink loads, taking salt tablets, calcium....still feel knocked out at noon when we're having hot winds... but then, I should stop whinging cos I'll stay here over the weekend, all the girls are either off to Stellenbosch or Cape Town so I have almost 48 hours by myself and I'm definitely spending some of that at a pool!