First weeks

First impression

The adventure is beginning from now on. Louisa and I arrived in Cape Town after an 11 hour flight. I immediately saw that South Africa was not what I expected it to be. It was so Western and the people were all very friendly. I knew that these were just first impressions, next weeks I will see a lot more of South Africa that I actually expected. South Africa has two sights. First of all it is one of the most popular cities to visit in the world, it has a beautiful nature, a lot of nice things to do and it is very interesting looking at my Minor international development. At the other hand the crime and poverty rate is very high. I prepared myself to see things that I haven’t seen before. These weeks I will experience the difference between man and woman emancipation, the distance between white and black people and the gap between poor and rich.

First working days

The first days we got time to discover the city to become a local in Cape Town. We got a temporally upgrade of our apartment which is located in the Waterfront. The Waterfront is seen as one the richer areas in Cape Town. It was amazing to start our first days here, but I also felt bad about it, because I realised that next weeks I was supposed to see the poor sight of Cape Town. These worlds are so different from each other and I should find a balance for myself to accept it.
After these few days of discovering the neighbourhood, it was time to get to work. I was very excited to start, but a little afraid of this new adventure too. We heard a lot of bad things about Khaylitsha, which is one of the most dangerous neighbourhoods in South Africa with 2,5 million inhabitants. Further on there was another problem.. We were not very accustomed at driving on the left side of the road. Louisa decided to meet this challenge and our mentor was driving with us in the car. She told us when we go to Khaylitsha we never should put the navigation, telephones or bag in sight. Also we never should stop in front of the stop signs and when someone walks towards the car we should drive on. Next to the road we saw a lot of shacks (where the poor people live). I never saw this before and I thought it was frightful to see, but this Township is the place where I am going to work next weeks. After a half hour drive we arrived at Baphumelele, where we got guided through the buildings. The organization exists out of a whole street with a school, bakery and children houses that are categorized by age and gender. Also we met the boss from Baphumelele, all the children and employees call her ‘Mama’. The first few days we got time to feel comfortable within the organisation and after that we made a schedule for the next weeks with concrete tasks. During the mornings we go to educare were we help the children with learning English, creative activities and sing songs in English or Xhosa. Also we play sports with the children at a big sport field near Baphumelele. The teachers asked us to join them and I was excited to go. There were two balls and around 60 kids. I decided to play soccer to hopefully motivate a few children. I ran away with one ball and just a few seconds later I heard some children yelling. When I looked behind me there were around 40 children running towards me. This was the first time in my life that I saw so many children running behind me to reach a ball. I knew that I motivated enough children so I gave the ball to one of the fastest children, now most of the children were running behind him and a few children decided that I was more interesting than the ball so they stopped and started talking to me. That was the moment that I recognised they had to fight for what they want, which is culture: ‘Survival of the fittest’. Even though I think playing sports with these kids make them smile and I think they enjoy it a lot.

Cultural differences

There are a lot of cultural differences that I experience. One of the most impressive one is that I recognise the strong differences between black and white. I can see it in the townships where children take my hand to look at the colour and say that it is beautiful. I see it in the shacks where only black people live. I can see it in the rich areas where the white people live and the black people are working for them. Me as a white person can’t go on the streets by myself, because it is not safe and I shouldn’t feel safe. The freedom that I experience in the Netherlands is gone. This cultural difference is linked to another cultural difference that I experience in Cape Town ‘Trust nobody!’. Being naïve could be dangerous in a city like Cape Town. Our coach told us that she trust nobody in South Africa except her husband. She said: ‘You shouldn’t even trust me!’, but actually she told us that while she was driving with us in the car, so that was the moment that I became even more alert and I will be more alert next weeks.