Villanova University’s Volunteer Trip to Baphumelele
31 December 2007 - 11 January 2008
2 Way Travel once again hosted a group of 20 students
from Villanova University in Philadelphia, USA. The group
came to Cape Town for 2 and a half weeks and spent the
majority of their time volunteering at Baphumelele. On
our first day at Baphumelele (New Year’s Eve!), we had
a rich and informative orientation workshop with the
assistance of Pheliso, Nomthetho, Vuyelwa, Ethilina & Nosipho
who spoke about their experiences of different issues,
such as growing up in Apartheid, HIV/AIDS and poverty
– aspects of daily life in Khayelitsha and South Africa.
The carers in turn also got to ask the Americans some
questions about life in the States. It was a truly meaningful
experience for everyone involved!
After
a scrumptious lunch cooked by Nokhaya, the group got
started on giving Clemens House a bit of a facelift.
Throughout their stay, the group divided their time between
working with the kids and painting and fixing up Clemens
House. The big boy’s rooms and bathrooms downstairs are
now a funky lime green, while some of the other rooms
got a refreshing coat of yellow. We has some fun manoeuvring
to get to the upper reaches of the big room but this
resourceful group of volunteers found creative ways to
get into all the corners. Apart from painting, we even
got to contend with some nasty plumbing problems due
to blocked drainpipes but fortunately we were able to
get someone in to fix that before too many children were
affected by the spills.
The
holiday programme started in earnest on the 2nd of January
after the group had conquered Table Mountain on the 1st.
The theme of the holiday programme was ‘Traditional Xhosa
Games and Activities’. We started with the younger children
(6-9 year olds) and we set some rules for our time together
and what an excellent job the children did with these!
We
worked in two groups each taking turns at the different
activities. The first morning saw the green group getting
their hands dirty and making clays pots, while the yellow
group was taught some traditional Xhosa dances by Nomthetho
before the Americans added some fun new dances and games
as well. The following day saw the groups learning some
Xhosa dramas, while Lebo and Ethilina worked some magic
in the kitchen as they taught us all how to make umkupa
(steam bread) and ijinja beer (ginger beer) – it was
so good that the Villanova group went home that evening
and made their own steam bread!!
On
Friday the 4th of January, we took this same group of children
to Monkey Town in Somerset West. After having a quick snack,
which included some good monkey food of peanuts and raisins,
the children got to run off some energy in the playground
before we went on a tour of the sanctuary. The three day
old piglets were a big attraction but the presence of their
mother ensured that the children didn’t get too close!
Many monkey faces were pull as we got to learn the differences
between monkeys and baboons, humans and chimpanzees, and
many more interesting facts. After our tour, we all enjoyed
a scrumptious lunch and some more time in the playground.
It was then time to head back to the bus for the drive
home where most of the children (big and small) fell fast
asleep!
Saturday saw us starting with the older children (10-21
year olds). After setting some rules, the different groups
moved between making musical instruments (jembe’s, rainmakers
and tambourines) and drama.
The
volunteers then had 2 days off where they spent a night
in Tambo Village, ate at the famous Mzoli’s Restaurant
in Gugulethu & visited Robben Island. When we returned
on Tuesday we came with a big bus to take all the kids
(6-21 year olds) to Strandfontein Beach where we played
some traditional games like puca and uzichanele as
well as a number of other fun games that the Villanova
students taught the children. Unfortunately it was
incredibly windy, which made it difficult to coordinate
the games but it stopped no-one. We even got a chance
to go swim in the tidal pool before lunch! When we
got back to Baphumelele, the children had a bit of
a break
before joining us in the creche for Charlotte’s Web
on the big screen – a brilliant way to end a fun day.
Wednesday
saw the older children continuing with the different
activities. They too got to make steam bread and ginger
beer, while Xolani did an amazing job of teaching everyone
some traditional Xhosa dances. Thursday was another outing
day, this time to the Scratch Patch in Simonstown followed
by a swim at Fish Hoek beach. Everyone had loads of fun
discovering a range of beautiful gemstones and trying
to work out the names of their discoveries.
Our
final day was filled with a mixture of feelings as each
group spent time practicing their different dances and
songs that they were to perform at the farewell concert.
2 Way Travel had arranged for Nokhaya to cook us all
(children, carers and volunteers) a special lunch which
we all got to enjoy in the Clemens House dining room.
The concert was probably the highlight of our time there
and the perfect way to end a meaningful and fun-filled
two weeks. We even had Mama Rosie join us and she even
shed a few tears at some of the incredible performances
of her children!
Thank you to everyone who made these 2 weeks so successful,
we couldn’t have done it without all the carers as well
as Katie and Mama Rosie. 2 Way Travel looks forward to
returning with many more groups of volunteers in the
future!
