Saturday 8 August 2009

Goodbye!

Hello everybody!

I (Andrea) just want to say that it been fantastic working with you all and I'm going to miss you all a lot!! I also had a very fun night tonight at both Robben Island and the braai party at the center.

Here is finally the recipe that a lot of the South African volunteers have been asking for several times!


Chokladbollar
(chocolate balls, a Swedish recipe)

Ingredients:
100 g butter
1 dl sugar
1 ordinary food spoon, vanilla sugar
3 spoons cocoa
3 dl oats
3 spoons cold
and strong coffee

Do like this: Melt the butter and let it pour for a short moment. Put sugar, cocoa, oats, coffee and the butter together. ocker. Put this is the refrigerator for around an hour. Form the mixture to balls and roll them into the coconut flings. Bon Appetite!

Anyone who wants to send me a e-mail is very welcome to do that! Exspecially you south African volunteers cause I want to know how the projekts is going! I'll miss you all!

Love Andrea


This projekt was mostly for the kids in the area.
I hope they will like the adventure playground!




Thursday 6 August 2009

Movie from the workcamp!



Here is a movie from when we worked at the garden on one of the schools in the area. It was a lot of fun! Hard effictive work and the children was really curios on us. I like the idea that when we paint or dig trenches in schools (not just the center) we come in touch with more people and hopefully engage them.

Today we went bowling! It was a lot of fun!

Kram
Andrea

The foodgarden




Hello! Here is just some pictures from the foodgarden we are doing. First we dig the trenches and put cardboard in the bottom and on the sides. Then we put compost, soil, water and so on in different steps. I've learned a lot about how you can do a garden in an other way than the Swedish way. It's very interesting. I hope the foodgarden will feed a lot of hungry stomaches :)

The time left in South Africa just getting shorter and shorter... I'll miss so many people here when I go back!
Bye for now, Andrea

Wednesday 5 August 2009

5august



Hi! It's Jasmin blogging. Today we have prepared for rain but it didn't really rain so we painted some of the poles in the playground and cleaned the sand for the bigger garden were there is going to be flowers and some veggies growing. I can't believe it will be over soon, it feels like we have a good life here now and Elida next to me just happened to refer to the multipurpose center as home.
We are less people then when we first started out the workcamp, but I think it reflects in a good way when it comes to the food we eat, because with less people we can have some fish and other niiice things.
I really like my hostfamily aswell, they are so nice!
Yesterday I was with the internationals / Tatjana, Elida and Sonia at Sonias hostfamily Sorayas home and we ate some food and talked about the diffences in our country, mostly the economy and the education. Tatjana couldn't believe that we get a certain amount money from our country when we study at university so I asked how much she gets and she was almost screaming GEET? Anyway, that was a nice time but now I haft to go, we are getting back to the workcamp.

Tuesday 4 August 2009

Elena again


Hello again,
after 2,5 weeks workcamp, I got a lot of impressions.
I loved the experience cause I had the possibility to learn a lot about the southafrican culture. Even when we digged really hard the internationals had some really interessting conversations and discussions with some of the community members.
We really had a lot of work and tried hard to go on with the project and we managed. It is such a good feeling to see that something is build up and helps Mothers Unite! I am so looking forward to hear how it is going in the future with all these children who are getting feed by our food garden and can play and go wild on the adventure playground!
Some of us even sorted out books for the upcoming library, I love the idea of the possibility to read and study with the books!
I really loved the experience I got here and wish Mothers Unite and the other Members which are involved the best and go on with your work! Hope your energy will never stop for that project!
Love, Elena

Monday 3 August 2009

Andrea blogging about the start of the last week!

Hi there!
It's Andrea writing.
It's Monday today and a new week have begun. Sadly (!!) it's our last week here! :( We had a meeting today with all the host families and everyone was so kind and really wanted us to have as fun as possible! We have filled this week with a lot of activities which I look forward to a lot! Just to mention some of them we are going clubbing to a club with two floors with different music on each floor, bowling and taking a ferry out to Robben island. But not only the free time is full of stuff to do. The work on the multipurpose center is also in full effectively! We are getting far on the adventure playground and the fruit garden. I look forward a lot to see how far we'll manage to get until the Mothers Unite work camp is over! And I also wish the work after I'm going home will go on great. I really hope that the cooperation between all the organisations will work out and that they can do an awesome work together to work for the best in the community! Wopah!

Yesterday we had the CULTURAL XPLOSION! I still get really glad thinking about it. Everyone was so un-shy (is that a word?) and happy! We had a local band singing and dancing and afterwards a lot of other people in the audience wanted to do a performance as well. I can't believe that people are so brave! I like the way everybody are so mixed in the age differences. There is children, adults and teens in a chaotic lovely mix :) I'll really miss the happiness here!

This trip is one of the most exciting and funniest thing I ever experienced!
I hope you guys in Sweden and whatever country get's really jealous cause you should really
be that ;) This is awesome!

Hej hopsan!
Andrea

Tony's first time blogging!


Hello It's Tony blogging! I'm one of the workcampleaders. I have been working on the Mothers Unite workcamp for the past two weeks now and I find it very challenging and fun! I enjoyed the outing to Cape Point a lot because of the beautiful wiew and great company of the international participants. It's interesting meeting people with diffrent cultures. A part from all the great outing the work is going on good. Today we started painting the adventure playground and some of the participants painted themself instead :) We managed to get some colours on the structure as well. I can't wait for the adventure playground to be finished! Bye for now, Tony

Workcamp Experience


Hello there I'm JANE JOSEPH a 28 year old and a mother of three.I live in a informal settlement for the last three years in CAPE TOWN.I have joined an organisation called HIGH HOPE FEEDING SCHEME and a HEALTH CLUB.In the last two weeks I have joined MOTHER’S UNITE to create an ADVENTURE PLAYGROUND and a FOOD GARDEN.We have one week left to this project and I think we gonna finish this.My workcamp leaders are CAROL,CHANTLE,SONJA,ELIDA.To be at the workcamp it’s a great experience.I had learned a lot about teamwork,friendship,trust,communication and leadership in such event.Today’s weather is a bit cold and its raining but we try to do our best we wont let it get us down.My SWEDEN and GERMAN friends are good to me and the other for me it was good to meet people from a other culture and countries.We all did same fum games together like singing and dancing.We also do yoga together in the morning after breakfast.We all sit together and have our food.We celebrate all things together.I will like to chat again very soon.

Cape Point excursion





Hello my name is ELIZABETH.It’s the first time I’m involved in something like this.I have learned so much at this workcamp.I do not belong to any organization at the moment.I would like this project to be a success because this project benefits the whole community.I would like more people to get involve in projects like this.My experience so far has been great and everybody has been wonderful!a

CULTURAL EXPLOSION

hey guys,

it's me Vigdis. I am going to tell you a little bit about the awesome time we had yesterday.

We, all the interantionals and the community wokers, met at our hall to get to know more about our different cultures. Everybody brought a dish, which is typical for his country. One of the South African guys prepared some curry, the Swedish guys bake an awesome chocolate cake and we, the Germans, made some Gluehwein - but these are only some examples, we had a lot more! I think after eating everybody was totally full!
We also had a programm, which includes some wonderfull songs and dance performances from the Community Workers, a funny game from the Swedish guys (Michelle looked afterwards like a polar bear =) ) and a German game called "Family Meyer in the zoo".

I think everybody had an awesome time! We danced togehter, laughed together and enjoyed ourselfs.
Thank you guys for this great day!

Greetings,
Vigdis

Hermanus !


Halloechen auch,
heute meldet sich mal die Tatjana zu Wort. Es ist Montag der 3.August und somit der Beginn unsere letzten Woche im Mothers Unite Workcamp und hinter uns liegen ein paar sehr schoene Tage. Am Freitag konnten wie zum ersten mal aufgrund von schlechtem Wetter nicht arbeiten. Diesen Tag haben wir stattdessen damit verbracht ueber die verschiedenen Organisationen zu sprechen, die es in der Community hier gibt, was eine wirklich gute Alternative (weil spannend und informativ) war.
Am Samstag sind wir nach Hermanus gefahren, ein kleines Kuestenstaedchen, 2 Fahrtstunden von hier weg. Allein die Landschaft auf dem Weg dorthin war extrem schoen und mir persoehnlich einige Fotos wert.
Hermanus ist auch als 'Walhauptstadt der Welt' bekannt und tatsaechlich hatten auch wir Glueck und bekamen mehrere Wale zu Gesicht.
Den Flohmarkt in Hermanus, auf den wir uns alle gefreut hatten, gab es leider, wegen Bauarbteiten, nur in einer abgespeckten Version. Nichtsdestotrotz sind wir Souvenierjaeger fuendig geworden.
Abgeschlossen haben wir diesen sehr coolen Tag mit einem Braai bei Aisha, der Hostmum von Elida.

Heute morgen gings dann zurueck an die Arbeit. Wir haben die Balken von unserem Adventure Playground mit Schmiergelpapier schoen glatt geschmiergelt und jetzt warten wir nur noch auf die Farbe um richtig loszulegen!


Alles klar meine Lieben,
das wars erstmal von meiner Seite.
Machts gut,
Gruesse
Tatjana

Cape Point excursion




Hi my name is Karen and its my first time blogging.I just want to tell you a bit about my experiences.I live in CAPE TOWN.I joined Mother’s Unite to make a difference in my community.A few friends of mine also joined this project their names are as follows,JANE,MARY,CHANTLE and RACHEL.My time here as a volunteer has been a great experience.I have been helping out at the food garden and the adventure playground.I really enjoy being apart of this project.Yesterday we had a excursion to CAPE POINT and BOULDERS. I enjoy working with all the volunteers.I have joined an organization called HIGH HOPE which has been feeding the community for the past eleven years.Our main aim is to work hand in hand with other organizations to make this project a success. It’s been nice blogging chat soon!

Cape Point excursion


Hey everyone it’s me again just want to tell you all about my wonderful day I had yesterday.We all went to Cape point.It was so exciting.All the volunteers had a blast .The view was amazing. I have never experienced anything like it before.I had a total body workout[laugh out loud].We all went to Boulders Beach afterwards.The internationals had a ball of a time,my experience about workcamp is still amazing .We had some rain today and could’nt do much but had a morning chattin about our organizations and what they do.So far its been great and exciting.Hope to chat soon bye!

Sunday 2 August 2009

Pictures from excursions and the workcamp!


Tjena!
It's Andrea blogging! :)
Here comes some diffrent pictures from some of the excursions we have done so far!

1. 7 of the 9 international volunteers on the top of Table Mountain. It was a exhausting but so funny and beatuiful climbing!

2. This is Tony and Sonia at Fishhook beach. We sat there all of us watching the sunset and talking. I liked that a lot just sitting and relax and be with everyone :)

3. We also went to Cape Point and it was awesome. We saw the two oceans (Indian ocean and Atlantic) meet in the "end" of Africa.
__________________________________________________________________
Here is some pictures from the multipurpose center! Many of the South African volunteers working on the workcamp is part of diffrent orginisations. These orginisations all work for the children and the community.

This workcamp is a start of something very big. Because all the orginisations going to start to cooperate. The multipurpose center is going to be a pre-school for children in the age 1-5 when they learn through games and pictures! And the fruitgarden is going to give food for those children. Together this cooperation will mean that more children can get contribution and get knowledge before school!





1. Here the children get food on one of the soupdays that Mothers Unite have for the children.

2. This is when we played with the children. It was a lot of fun!

I really love it here!
Hej hopp!

Andrea

Thursday 30 July 2009

Andrea and Siri blogging

One of the most capturing things about going on a workcamp is to hear about other people life histories. On a workcamp you really get close to the people living in the country. If you go on a vacation you mostly see the hotel and the beaches and not learn about the culture. When working as a volunteer you get to know yourself and turn into a more understanding person. With that we mean that meeting people with such a different and interesting wiew on life make you grow as a person.

Yesterday we were doing the potatogarden with Fatima. She is a that kind of person you want to hear everything about. She has a mysterious way of giving you small glimpses of her life and not keep talking about it. She told us that you should do what you really want in life and be strong if it's hard to hold on to your passion. Fatimas passion is to write and when she does that she is happy!

There is so many exciting stories that people here sharing to us. And as Fatima said; some day we will forget her name and face. But we will never forget these important things she shared with us.

And for us that is what a workcamp really is; sharing cultures with each other and explore yourself.

Vi ses! = see you! (in swedish)
Andrea and Siri


Fatima

carol's blog

Carol drilling the tires

Hi it's me Carol the South-African campleader. I am so greatful for this wonderful opportunity, to be part of sich a great experience to share talent, ideas, passions and friendships. The workcamp is realy progeing, and the adventure playground is nearly complete. The food garden is also taking shape we have been planting our vegetables(seedlings) and also our potato patches. It's been really great. Today was such a special day because all of the volunteers went out to Cape Point for an outing and also to see the penguins at Bolders. We had a wonderful time and the international volunteers really enjoyed the scenery and the baboons. I must say i am honoured to be part of this magnificent group.

Bye for now. Carol!

Wednesday 29 July 2009

margaret blogg

it is nice to do something for the community very tiring so far so good
hope the community will make use of all that is there for them
it will make me feel good to look back at all my hard work
i did enjoy the work camp

cynthia blogging

I THE WORK CAMP WAS A EXTREMELY A MOTIVATED LEARNING CLASS TO ME.
I WANT TO THANK MY CHIARPERSON FATIMA FOR MOTIVATING ME THIS CHANCE.

Mary blogging

Hey my name is Mary and i'm one of the volenteers at the workcamp.My experience so far has been Fantastic! It was great meeting all the international participants.Its great working with so many different people and learning about them. Alot of new friendships has blossemed over this past week and i think its awesome! I hope to be involve in more similar projects (and by the way its my first time blogging ha ha ha) Well its been nice blogging see ya!

chantle blogging

Hey guys im back.Our project is coming along splendidly and i cant wait for the end result.The volenteers are all really puttin an effort into this project.We just finished lunch now and i hope that we have enough energy for what lays ahead for the rest of the day.Workcamp has really been an experience for me so far and i hope to be apart of future projects.Good blogging chat again soon.

Monday 27 July 2009

Braai-party!

Hello everyone! Elida and Vigdis writing :-)

Last weekend we had a great time and we just want to tell you all about the party which we went to. We don't know the names of the people that we were invited to but we had a good time! Tony from Mothers Unite had to babysit us the whole evening to make sure we were fine, but he didn't mind!
The food was amazing. A buffe' of different kind of salads, chips and bread with scrambled eggs on it. And boerewors roll, beef-sausages..!
The couple who lived there had made a fire in the garden and we were all sitting around the fire enjoying ourselfs. In the house the music was playing loud with open doors but the neighbours didn't mind. In Sweden the so called "storningsjouren" would have come after an hour...!
We danced to the music in the house and the whole family were happily watching us and amazed by our style of dancing, which is very different apperantly to the local custom. (I don't know if that is an insult or a compliment...! hm hm!)
anyway.
We had a great time!
Now it's time to go back to work! We are still digging in the food garden :-)

Sunday 26 July 2009

Workcamp pictures from Saturday 25 July

This is Sunniva and Tony building on the adventure playground. We are building a house with climbingwalls on it and a swing. It's a lot of fun!
This is Siri also working on the adventure playground. We are going to have such big mucels when we get home after these three weeks!
Talking about muscels! Drilling together the tires is really hard work. On the picture to the left Jasmine and Gracie.
And this day we had all the children there. We played the Swedish game "Bjornen sover" with them :) It was really fun because they were so happy and playfull!
We also did some "clap games" that the kids use to play!

Table Mountain


This is a movie from the top of Table Mountain!

Today all the internationell volunteers, mrs Pattinson and Michelle met at nine a clock at the center. Because it's sunday people here go to church. They were singing and praying at the center. We went in to the center and watched. We thought it looked nice that they did something together and was so happy. After that we "tryckte ihop oss" in two cars and went to the Table Mountain! Wopah! We enjoyed the hike a lot but it was exhausting! The wiew from the top was really beautiful! You could see all over the city and sea.

In the evening we played domino with my hostfamily. It was really fun. Elize has skills in domino! :) They also showed me a picture on top of a puzzle box with a city and asked if it was Sweden because it said so on the box but it wasn't! It was a Switzerland flag in the picture and it didn't looked like Sweden. That was so funny that the company that did the puzzle got it all wrong!

This day was so nice like all days is here. We don't ever wanna go home :)
Goodnight= godnatt (in Swedish)
Andrea and Siri


Saturday 25 July 2009

carol's blog

Hi it's me again one of the camp leaders. I promise to come back to you and here i am. Yes! it's Saterday the last day of the first week of our workcamp. What an awesome week we had getting to know each other and sharing ideas, this week has been a very challaging week as all the foundations of all the projects has been done which was very hard work but i must say with everybody pulling up their sleeves and participating with much eager and enthusihiasm , has made it much easier.I'm really looking forward for next week because we can see progession.

so long for now!

gary blogging

Hi i'm Gary one of the volunteers. This week was a great experience for me on the workcamp. I really enjoy working in the veggie garden as that is my passion. I must say we are also fortunateto enjoy such nice meals, and a wonderful atmosphere. We are all working very hard on all the projects and it's going very well. I can;t wait for all the projects to be completed. I just know that it's going to look excellent.
bey for now!

gary blogging

Hi i'm Gary one of the volunteers. This week was a great experience for me on the workcamp. I really enjoy working in the veggie garden as that is my passion. I must say we are also fortunate to enjoy such nice meals and a wonderful atmosphere. We are all working very hard on all the projects

Friday 24 July 2009

chantle blogging

Hey guys my name is Chantle i'm a South African volenteerand i'm havin a ball of a timeIt's my first time on a workcamp.I loved meeting all the volenteers.Workcamp has been exciting right from the start.Im also a camp leader.An international participant named Elida is my fellow camp leader and she's from Sweden.This is a great experience for me and i can't wait to see the end result of our project.Hope to blog soon!

jane blogging

hi everyone my first day was very good but also tired we did alot for the first week.My camp learders are CHANTLE and ELIDA.We are happy to work togerther as one great team.My first day we dug trenches for a PLAYGROUND that we are putting up for the children.After supper last night we have same cultural exchange with each other an it was something good for me.Im from a organisation called HIGH HOPE FEEDING SCEME.

Thursday 23 July 2009

Workcamp pictures!

These are the tires for the adventure playground. There is a lot of planning and digging for the playground. And it's a lot of fun! :)
This is the two international volunteers with two of hill view children. From the left Andrea, Kimilla, Siri and Amy!
This is some of the South African volunteers! They are having a break from digging the fruit garden. From the left: Elizabeth, Rachell, Debbie, Mary and Friend!
Today we painted three classrooms at Zerilda Park Primary. We hope that all the pupils will like the colour green! On the picture it's Elizabeth.

carol's blog messsage

I'm Carol one the South-African Camp leaders. I'm so excited about the workcamp. It's an awesome experience with our community working together. And interacting with the international volunteers. We are having a great time exchanging cultural experiences. I must say that the project that we as organizations focused on , is realy becoming a dream come true . The veggie garden is progessing fast, as we are all pulling our weight and having great fun digging, trenses and shifting the sand. We can't wait to start planting our veggies. But first things first, The advanture playground is also coming together and starting to take shape. We can't wait to come back everyday to start the new day. We as the lavender hill/Hillview community volunteers can't wait for the completion of all the projects as we can just imagine how excited our children is going to be. I'll keep you updated but so long for now!

Siri and Andrea's first day!

We arrived one day later than we expected beacause the plane we were supposed to take from Munich in Germany were overbooked! So we had to stay at a hotel near the airport. Before we got a taxi to the hotel we were inlooked in the airport! All planes had left so it were all empty! We got helped by a very confused woman who usually worked at the airport in Frankfurt. So she didn't know why we were looked in the airport or where to go! We thought of the movie The Terminal with Tom Hanks. It's about a man who have no country and have to live at a airport!

But when we eventually arrived at the workcamp in Cape Town everyone was so happy and singed "Welcome to Cape town, let's see you smiling!" That was so fun! We love the people here they are really polite and caring! This day we been working at painting two classrooms at the school and digged on the fruit garden and playground.

It's very exciting being here and we enjoy working at the camp and staying with our families! Siri is living with Carol (who is one of the workcamp leader) and her kids Amy, Carmelita and Kimilla. And I (Andrea) is living with Lorraine and her 19 year old daughter Elize. And Jadin (2 years old) and his parents Annelize and Roderick.

While writing this I have five people helping me to spell and say what to write :) That's very amusing!

Kram=hug in swedish
Andrea and Siri

Jasmin blogging

Amy and Jasmin

Hello everyone, I am so sorry that my first blog post were in swedish I didn't think about this being international haha. Just use google translate if you wanna read it. Today, thursday was so fun because we started with the game Simon Says, Gerri who led the game is excellent at tricking people into failing at Simon Says! Today it is windy and cold and we were divided into smaller groups - my group went to the closest primary school and painted two classrooms in mint green. It was a lot of fun doing the first one. The houses we stay in are great, it is so cosy and it's really nice to have the opportunity to experience another way of living, like for example we don't have any running water in my family so when you wash your hair you boil some water and mix it with cold. Kinda funny! Looking forward to tomorrow night cus were going to church all of us for a family culture evening. Transport will be organised I think, at least for the ride home. And a great thing here is that I feel safe cus everybody is looking after us and walking with us if we are going to visit someone else's hostfamily.
We haft to go back to the centre now and work work work with the food garden.
Everything is lekker!
Bye for now!

Roslyn blogged on thursday



Hy My Name is Roslyn I live in Hill view 17 Sunflower road I volunteer at mothers unite I love playing Basketball I am 18 years of age. I really love this program i"ve learnt a lot of thing about planting get to know same German people. I would love to go to Germany.And see some german guys and speak same german.and i am having lots of fun with every one in the program.

Wednesday 22 July 2009

Mother's Unite Website

Congratulations on the Website. Really nice work going on. www.mothersunite.org.za

Tuesday 21 July 2009

nadia's 2nd day

Jadin and Nadia

hey guys i just wanna tell you guys how i enjoyed my 2 days on the workcamp it was very exciting and we girls did alot of hard work but it was fun. we worked on the playground for the children and also the food garden but everything well

Vigdis' second day

hey everybody!
because there are also some germans in the workcamp I will blog in german today ;-)

Heute war unser zweiter Tag im Workcamp. Ich hatte morgens Kuechendienst, was hiess, dass ich um 7.00Uhr im Camp sein musste. Viel zu frueh ;-) Die Arbeit in der Kueche macht aber super viel Spass, denn alle sind total nett. Ausserdem bekommen wir gezeigt wie man suedafrikanisches Essen zubereitet. Die wichtigste Zutat ist immer Zucker!! :-)

Die Arbeiten draussen am Spielplatz und im Gemuesegarten gehen super voran. Das schoene ist, dass wir alle Spass beim Arbeiten haben. Wir koennen uns austauschen und voneinander lernen. Heute am zweiten Tag ist es auch so, dass jeder weiss, was er zu tun hat...

Heute Mittag kommen das erste Mal die Kinder. Es sind um die 200. Sie kommen direkt nach der Schule um im Camp zu essen. Wir haben einen riesen Topf Suppe gekocht heute morgen. Hoffentlich reicht er fuer die hungrigen Kids ;-)
Wenn wir genug Zeit haben, werden wir mit den Kids spielen. Wir wollen sie in Gruppen einteilen, je nach Alter und verschiedenen Aktivitaeten durchfuehren. Mal sehen ob es klappt wie geplant, denn oft kommt es dann letzendlich ja doch anders....

Es ist schoen hier, wir haben eine Menge Spass und geniessen die Tage zusammen...

Liebe Gruesse,
Vigdis

Monday 20 July 2009

The beginning of an amazing journey

Hi, this is Michele - I am a member of Mothers Unite and am truly inspired after the first day of work in Seawinds, Lavender Hill. After planning for almost a year, the workcamp is actually here and everyone is so enthused and full of energy! Things have just come together in a way that we never imagined possible.

Yesterday the participants were welcomed with great excitement by their host families at the Seawinds Multi-purpose Centre and they seem to be settling in fairly well. We have been truly blessed with the good weather thus far, and hope it continues for the next few weeks.

Today we focused on 2 simulataneous workshops (i) measuring, pegging and levelling the area in preparation for the adventure playground (ii) measuring and pegging trenches as well as sifting subsoil in preparation for the food garden.


The other highlight of today was that we were greatly blessed by a woman at the Epping market who decided that she wanted to support our workcamp and sponsor a substantial amount of fruit and vegetables and another woman that decided she wanted to donate 5 large pots to assist with the workcamp kitchen - these donations, large or small always help so much.



What makes this workcamp so special is that it is such a diverse collaboration of different organisations and individuals working towards the same vision - i.e. a safe village for children and resource centre for the community. We have had a number of people commenting and asking: "Finally something is happening around the Multi-purpose centre" "How did all of this come about?" "It is so wonderful to see all these community members coming together with such positivity". I know this is the beginning of an amazing journey.

Carmelita's first day!

It was very tiring, yet very fun... We worked on making a food garden and I've never worked so hard in my entire life... I used a spade for the first time in my life, but luckily for me the people I worked with aren't lazy... We all help each other all the time... The experience is very inspiring because we are a whole lot of women do a man's job... well actually there is one man and he shows us the ropes so it's very nice...

Elenas first day

Hello everyone,
so today was my first day at the workcamp.
We started with the regestration so that we know who participate in this camp. Everyone got a id with the name on and a number, we need to bring that every day, so no strangers could enter the centre.
After that we had a nice breakfast where we could sit with local people and talk about differences in our culture.
Finally we devided the people into two groups. The one group is doing the garden for the food and the others including me are working on the playground. First we measured the whole place to know where we could start with the playground for the kids. As we get some containers which will be the kitchen and a library, we needed to know where we get the space to build our playground!
As a German I am really motivated to work and want to be active. But the problem is that we did not have work for everyone, so we needed to watch and that is not my kind of thing! They are all really relaxed and it takes a lot of time to get something done! I hope that will change!
The best thing was yesterday because the people are so nice and welcomed us with open arms!!!!!!!!! I loved it!
Hopefully we will work productive soon and go on, I really want to do something!
Regards, Elena

Friday 17 July 2009

Trekking and Southafrican party!

Hello!

This is Elida, one of the workcamp leaders writing!
Sonia and I arrived last monday evening to Cape Town and have been warmly welcomed to South Africa in all possible ways!
The team consists of so many wonderful and crazy people that I really appreciate! We've had a lot of meetings and they were all very constructive. I'm so impressed about how focused the organization is and the way they put their heart into what they are doing :-)
This week we've planned the adventure playground and the different objects that are gonna be built on it. The workcamp will start on monday and we're all very excited about it!!!

Today we had the day off from workcamp planning so we decided to go for a hike in the mountains! I was very excited about it but already at breakfast my overwhelmed feelings about the hike started to faint away gradually. The first topic at the table was namely muggers! Aparently namibian gangs operate in the mountains where they hide and wait until the tourists pass by... Michele had an electric gun that she was willing to loan us for the hike and just the thought that we might come into a situation where that thing might be needed was horrifying! Then we went on to decide how much money we were gonna bring to give to the people that might attack us. 200 rand...? would that be fine or was it too generous to the muggers? Michele clearly instructed us that 5 or 10 rand was good enough!
Sonia also decided to put in her smallest memory card in her camera, IN CASE it would get stolen by a mugger.
Fine then...the weather was wonderful. Our first sunny day since our arrival. Sonia was happy and Jasmine was in a good mood too. What could go wrong? But the potential horrors didn't stop yet! In the car up to the mountains Michele told us about all the different snakes that ALSO operates in the mountains. The really dangerous one is a kind of Cobra-snake which is yellow. But then there's also the Puffdaddy, the lazy and fat snake that you might step upon because it is too lazy to bother moving away from a sunny spot!
MMMMmm wonderful!
Michele left us at the beginning of the rout and we started walking.
No snakes and no muggers, luckily! But beautiful nature with a waterfall, and you could see down to the beach and the white sand next to it. Amazing!!!!

We've already got an idea about the southafrican way of living. Party party party! The second day we drank a lot of wine and sang kareoke until late! And since then the kareoke has been part of almost all evenings! Wicked! Last night we had a brei, a barbecue which Gerry and Michele organized at our house. A lot of relatives turned up and I was playing the swedish game "Fia med knuff" with the children! We were singing kareoke again (off course) and dancing a lot. They think I should start dancing ballet :-) I wonder why.. was it maybe because of the "rocking penquin with big boobs-move" that I did?!!! Gerry laughed so much when I did that one, I'll never forget that!
After that we did all the social evening games that we could think off and sang "sma grodorna sma grodorna" for the third time since we arrived..

Tomorrow we might do some surfing!!!! Cool, I've only tried that a few times before!
Apparently Cape Town has a lot of sharks. They have guards that sit in the mountains with spectaculars only looking out for sharks that move closer to the beach..! We'll see how we get along with the sharks tomorrow :-)
Earlier today when we went down to the harbour to buy fish for the brei, we saw seals in the water...they were huge and so close! I was so excited that I just screamed aloud!!!!
Cape Town with it's overwhelming nature, animals and people feels all like a part of a fantasy country that I dreamed about when I was a child! Seels...wow!!!

Now I'm going to bed (hopefully) not much time for sleeping here really!
Greetings from Elida

Thursday 16 July 2009

Kapstaden

Hej! Jag, Jasmin, har fatt aran att paborja denna blogg som kommer att uppdateras forhoppningsvis dagligen om vara dagar som volontarer i Lavender Hill. Man kan saga att det har ar dag 1 for min del da jag anlande imorse.
Onsdag natt var jag pavag till Arlanda Airport. Redan i Stockholm fick jag problem da jag inte kunde ta ut pengar fran mitt bankomatkort. Jag hade alltsa ingen mojlighet att betala for Expresstaget till Arlanda. I panik sa forsokte jag komma pa en plan. Om man ar sjutton, som jag tur nog rakar vara i tre manader till, sa far man aka gratis i sallskap med en vuxen. Cirka fyra manniskor skulle aka sa jag satte igang att fraga. En pratsam man i sina basta ar gick med pa det och sa tillochmed att han var min far till konduktoren. Han visade sig vara en matematik entuiast och efter timmar med prat om olika teorier i matte (pa universitetniva och forskarniva) sa fragade han om jag var matematik allergiker. Hursomhelst var det bara en anekdot.
Anekdot nummer tva skulle kunna fa vara att en viss Alexander Rybak kom spatserande pa den tomma flygplatsen och jag stirrade sa mycket att han halsade pa mig. Antagligen for att bryta den pinsamma stamningen.
Nummer tre var val att efter min mellanlandning i Amsterdam sa hamnade jag med tva kanadensare och aven om de var kanadensare sa bekraftade det lite smaroliga amerikanska fordomar typ som att dom alltid tilltalar en vid namn och riktigt langsamt.. Sa i tio timmar satt jag dar och fick lyssna pa "jaaaaaaasssmmin what dooo you thiiink aboout volleybooll.." eller "jaaaasmin do you know of mats lundin". Det var mysigt.
I Johannesburg sa kom mitt bagage pa rullbandet trots att det stod slutdestination Kapstaden pa dem. Men det gjorde ingenting for nar jag pratade med flygpersonalen cirka klockan 22.00 sa sa dem att det inte var sakert for mig att stanna pa flygplatsen tills mitt morgonflyg som var check in 04.30. Flygpersonalen kom fram med en annan tjej i min alder och sa att vi kunde hjalpa varann for bada var i samma situation. Hon visade sig vara 22ar och komma fran England.
Vi delade ett bed and breakfast for natten som kostade 240 rand vilket var billigt for att jamfora med hotellen i narheten.
Vi vilade pa rummet for ingen av oss kunde sova. Det var helt sinnessjukt kallt och vi lag med varma klader plus filtar. Jag akte tidigast darifran och onskade henne lycka till: hon skulle namligen campa runt i Kapstaden med en grupp av manniskor hon aldrig traffat forr.
Sista flygningen gick snabbt och allting gick valdigt smidigt eftersom jag flog inrikes. Nar jag kom ut till vaskrullbanden hade mina vaskor redan kommit och jag fick springa fram och hamta den. Sen gick jag ut till arrivals. Dar fanns en synlig skylt med mitt namn och jag fick for forsta gangen traffa Michelle.
Michelle visade sig vara varldens trevligaste med ett jatteharligt skratt. En lustig grej som skedde i bilen var att jag fragade om det var mycket hundar i lavender hill da jag ar livradd for hundar. Hon trodde da att jag var fortjust i hundar och svarade positivt att visst they are all over. Gulp.
Vi kom fram till huset som har en jattestor mur mot utsidan, precis som alla andra husen pa gatan, och en garagegrind. Men ingen vanlig dorr. Vi gick in genom garagegrinden for att sen komma fram till nasta grind for att kunna entra framsidan av tradgarden. Nar hon oppnat denna, lite mindre, grind sa var det nagra trappsteg upp till den riktiga dorren, aven den med en last grind framfor.
Alla forsiktigheter har kring sakerheten gor mig osaker maste jag erkanna. Men det har ar ju bara min forsta dag har sa jag kommer antagligen att kanna mig tryggare.
Elida och Sonia vaknade ungefar nar jag kom och gjorde lite grot. Vi bestamde oss for att ga till the mall vilket vi gjorde och Sonia inforskaffade tva fleesar. Vagen tillbaka blev knepig, Elidas lokalsinne var roligt, Sonias var logiskt och mitt var icke existerade da jag inte tankt pa hur vi gatt. Tillslut kom vi iallafall tillbaka efter att jag inhandlat ett afrikanskt simkort.
Hemma hos Gerry och Michelle at vi mackor pa altanen med solen pa besok.
Ett mote agde sen rum, jag ar ju lite tidig har pa workcampet men Elida och Sonia ar jattesnalla och jag fick vara med och traffa Carol. Hon var riktigt charmig och hade en stor och fin personlighet. Jag fick reda pa att det var hon som startat Mothers Unite och hade Soppkok fran sitt eget hem. Det hela har eskalerat fran cirka 50barn till 200barn. Sa behovet ar stort har. Jag onskar att jag kunde minnas alla fina ord Carol sa om manniskors rattigheter och sina personliga tankar men allt jag kan saga ar att hon har fantastiska varderingar.
Elida och Sonia tog en sovpaus for ett tag sen och jag gjorde ris med tonfisksallad till oss och Michelle och Gerry. Vi at och skrattade.
Nu sitter jag och skriver det har medan Elida och Sonia har mote tillsammans med Gerry, Michelle och Shaun som har erfarenhet inom bygge vilket verkligen ar behovligt da vi ska ha som huvudprojekt att bygga och fa klart en lekplats.
Jag hor att ett schema borjar arta sig, och vad jag vet nu ar att sakerhetsinstruktioner ska presenteras efter frukost pa Mandag och att pa Tisdag ska vi halsa och leka med alla barnen. Det ska bli spannande. Pa mandag kommer vi ocksa flytta till varsin familj i Lavender Hill och Michelle och Gerrys hem kommer fungera som en sakerhetsplats ifall nagon skulle bli sjuk eller behover lamna vardesaker.
Men just nu ser jag fram emot morgondagen da dom ska ha en fish bray (stavning?) och da ska vi grilla fisk, kyckling plus vegetariska alternativ. Sa vi hoppas pa fint vader. Som det var idag.

Jag tror det var allt for mig.
Hoppas ni far en liten uppfattning om hur allt ligger till!

Wednesday 1 July 2009

Welcome

Welcome to the blog of the Mothers Unite workcamp in Cape Town 2009.