Volunteering

During CIEE orientation, we were all shown a few options as places where we could volunteer throughout the semester. I ended up choosing a high school called LEAP, which focuses on math and science. I chose this place to volunteer because the school seemed to be very flexible with what we wanted to do. I was also interested in working with high school aged kids, and this was the only volunteering location with this age group. There are four Leap schools, and I volunteer at Leap one, which actually also shares the same building with Leap two. However, they are two different schools and for the most part are separated (they are separated based on where the kids live). There are also two other Leap schools located in Johannesburg. I began going to Leap two weeks ago, but things were not really sorted out until now.

The first week I went on Wednesday and Thursday. All of the volunteers went so we just got the hang of the school and what was going on.  On Thursday afternoons, Leap lets kids do a variety of different cultural activities such as choir, dancing, art, drumming, and so on. It was then that I figured out that I was interested in mentoring a group of girls for the semester. So, I changed my schedule so that I would go on Tuesday instead of Thursdays.

The next week the president of the school, Bones, took us to Langa. All of the kids that go to Leap one live in Langa, which is the oldest township in Cape Town. Bones actually lives in Langa with his family so he first took us to his house, then we walked around for a bit. The tour was really interesting because there was such a wide variety of houses there – it went from complete shack with no running water to two story large homes. One interesting part of Langa were these certain houses, which were a government project that failed because the rent ended up being too expensive so people could not afford to live there. Everyone in Langa was really friendly and all of the little kids ran up to us and just wanted to be hugged… They were so cute, I wanted to stay and play with them longer. Bones talked to us a lot about Apartheid and how the forced removals from District 6 led to the massive overcrowding in Langa. Also, he told showed us how a lot of the houses now have gates around them. This is interesting because those gates didn’t exist during Apartheid. Gates are popular now, Bones said, because after Apartheid the use of drugs (he referenced crystal meth) became way more popular so they have become more necessary to protect from brake-ins. He also said that gates also show peoples statuses, such that those people with more money pay to have gates put around their houses. After walking around for a bit we got back in his car and he drove us around more before we left. We passed a lot of people grilling meat, one popular delicacy is lambs head! I honestly could not believe that, a whole head was just plopped on the grill! Supposedly the cheek is good, I think I’m going to have to try that before I leave..

This week at Leap I went to their community meeting and we also began mentor groups. Students put on the community meeting on Tuesdays. This gives them the opportunity to bring up any important issues within the school or in general. The meeting began with everyone singing a song. Then, the students put on a skit about having respect for your parents and for your elders in general. After this, there was time for an open discussion about the topic. There was definitely some awkward silence, but after awhile people started speaking up and saying what they thought. It was interesting to hear everyone’s differing opinions on the topic. After this it was time for announcements and the most interesting thing happened. This one boy, who I guess can speak English very well, stood up and made an announcement in Xhosa. (Xhosa if their native language, and it’s the one that has clicks, there are actually 16 different ones – it’s SO cool!!!) Anyway, an American teacher asked the boy if he could please say his announcement in English because not everyone speaks Xhosa. However, the kid kept talking in Xhosa. So the teacher then told the boy that he could not make his announcement if he didn’t speak in English, so the boy sat down. Then, not even a few minutes later, the boy stood up again and started speaking in Xhosa again – such a blatant display of disrespect. I just found it really ironic that there was just a skit and open discussion on how important it is to respect people, when just a few minutes later one of the boys disrespected a teacher like that. Anyway the rest of the afternoon and then the next day, today, I mentored a group of girls. They are either grade 10 or 11, and are all really nice. I will continue meeting with them throughout the semester and hopefully we will get to become pretty good friends. I’m sure I will have more to say about them as the semester goes on but we are just in the initial stages. If anyone has any good ice breaking games, feel free to leave a comment!

Overall, Leap is going really well and I really like it there. I am excited to see what will happen as time goes on..