Day 6: school visits

Wednesday

Today we were split into 2 groups (3 young people and one adult) to visit 2 schools for the morning. Hannah, Tom, Holly and Ros visited the primary school of which Mike (one of our hosts) is the Head. When they arrived they were welcomed by the staff after making the mistake of taking out a camera in the playground and nearly causing a riot as children from all around clamoured to get in shot!! We then attended 2 assemblies, one for older children and one for reception and years 1-4. We were all introduced to the children who chanted in chorus ‘Hello ….., we love you’. It was a wonderful moment. Ros then did a short talk to the older children and Tom to the younger about why we were there and where we are from. We were then assigned a class each, as we supposed to shadow the teacher for the next few hours. In fact, in all but Hannah’s case we found that the teacher was present for only a small proportion of the lessons and so during the other periods, we were thrown in at the deep end and ended up taking the lessons!! These lessons took a variety of forms depending on the age of the children, from discussions about England and debates about politics, to English lessons, Setswana lessons (the children teaching us, not the other way round!!) and Ros even ended up teaching maths!

The other group visited a local senior school in Ikageng. When they arrived they were introduced to all the teachers. They then spoke to a year 10 class about school life and general life for young people in Britain. The young people found this discussion very enlightening but also disturbing as it highlighted some of the incredible challenges faced by learners growing up and going to school in South Africa and the impact this has on their education. This was followed by a nice game of cricket with the pupils in the sunshine. Following this our young people were able to chat to the only 2 white teachers in the school. This was a very enlightening conversation about how they perceived they were treated by other teachers, the difference between schools in Ikageng and the more wealthy schools in the local town Potchefstroom and how the school coped with very limited teaching resources. Meanwhile, Helen sat in on an English class with learners of around 14-15. The teacher and the pupils were all hugely enthusiastic and lively, and Helen was impressed by the levels of engagement and English language abilities.

In the afternoon we were excited to set off in the mini-bus for Pilanesburg, a 3-hour drive, where we would be visiting the game reserve the next day. We spent the evening and the night at a lodge outside the gates, which felt luxurious, with dinner taken on the verandah with stunning views of the sun setting over a huge plain.

Day 5 Museum visits continued

Tuesday

We were taken today to Soweto and Johannesburg to visit two amazing museums. This was a real eye-opener for all of us. The first museum was in the heart of Soweto – and just visiting this iconic township was an incredible experience. This was the Hector Pieterson memorial museum, in the heart of where the Soweto riots began in 1976. Hector Pieterson was a 13-year-old boy who was shot dead in the riots by security forces, and a picture of whose body, next to his distraught sister and carried by a friend, became one of the symbolic images of apartheid. His murder led to the international pressure which ultimately would help to bring down apartheid. The museum was an archive of the Soweto riots – how they began and developed, and their after-effects. We were all moved at the end of the visit to see a small garden where tablets were laid out, each with the name of one of the young people who were killed in the uprisings. We were also struck to see Hector’s sister, who now works at the museum, leading a tour party as we were leaving.

We travelled via Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu’s former homes in Soweto, into Johannesburg to visit the Apartheid Museum, a more general museum on the whole story of Apartheid. We also saw an exhibition about the life of Mandela here. The entrance to the museum hit home the message about life under apartheid: our entry tickets randomly allocated us as “white” or “non-white”, and we had separate entrances to the museums, with either a spacious ramp or a narrow steep staircase into the main part of the museum.

All of the group were heavily affected by the story of Apartheid as told in the museum, through explanations, exhibits, photos and films. The museum was cleverly designed with bars, chains and metal, heavily symbolic of the restrictions of the apartheid age. Ros, Pete and Helen could remember some of the footage from the 1980s, and we were also accompanied by Dean Edward, Peter, Wilhemina and Manana, four of our South African friends, who found the experience deeply moving because of their own memories of living through apartheid. Later in the evening, after dinner in a small house in one of the poorer areas of Ikageng, we sat outside and listened to Peter and other of our friends’ memories of apartheid and discussion of how things had – or had not – changed in the years since. To be sharing a meal in the heart of a black township, after what we had learned today, we felt to be a deep privilege, as we sat under the stars together (being eaten by mosquitos).

Day 5: Museum visits

We'll post more detail as soon as we get a chance.  But yesterday, Tuesday, we spent at the Hector Pieterson Museum in Soweto and the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg. 

It was disturbing, in a good way.  In the evening, we ate out in the courtyard of some members of the Cathedral congregation, in a simple township dwelling.  It was beautiful.

Day 4: Mucking in

Monday

Today we were all picked up from our homes by a member of the Cathedral congregation and gathered at the Cathedral to meet up with the members of the Youth Group. This was our hottest day so far at 37˚.

We set off for our destination which was the small, very remote settlement of Matlwang, north-west of Ikageng. Here we met with a group of local people at a breeze block church with a corrugated iron roof which had been built this year and which replaced a much smaller corrugated iron structure. The church regularly gets a congregation of at least 100 and has a visit from a priest once a quarter as an outpost of the Cathedral. The church has no floor, this being simply packed earth and grass.

As we arrived we could see a large pile of ‘cement’ which was being mixed by hand by some local people from dirt, cow dung and water. We and the members of the youth group quickly became involved in a range of activities such as carrying water, sourcing dirt by destroying termite mounds with a pick-axe, mixing the ‘cement’ and some even getting very dirty and smelly laying the cement on the floor by hand. Rather like making mud pies!

This activity resulted as you can imagine in lots of fun and the quote of the day from Tom “Ed, please can you stop flicking your poo at me!!” Several young people also had the opportunity to have a tour of the area, including visiting a local house made of corrugated iron.

We also decided this was probably the most remote place in which to photograph the front cover of the Lichfield Mercury.  We hope they might publish it when we get home. 

This afternoon we came back to the beautiful home of Peter who is a senior member of the Cathedral community and diocese. We were excited to find a pool and spent the afternoon relaxing and swimming.

We are due to be picked up at 6pm to go for dinner with a member of the congregation in Klerksdorp ………

Day 3: Church Family Day

Sunday

We were up early on Sunday morning and driven Ventersdorp/Tshing in four cars at varying speeds.

The service lasted 3.5 hours with a whole hour dedicated to the collection it was a truly amazing and uplifting experience of dancing, praying and singing. During the service three languages were spoken, Setswana, Afrikaans and English. The service included people of all ages including a little girl of about 7 who read the first lesson. The service was “high church” but it was very informal with many choirs who were sometimes competing for the floor.

 

After a few concerns about what we should wear to the service and expectations of a highly formal dress code we in fact all wore our Visit T-shirts and were warmly welcomed.

We were then enlightened by the “family day” which followed the service which involved many happy family and friendship groups who were barbequing (known as a ‘Braii’), eating, drinking and partying well into the evening. After enjoying a Braii cooked for us by members of the Cathedral congregation, we left with our host families and returned home after a great day!

Day 2: Dubai to Ikageng

Saturday

When we arrived at the airport having endured 15 hours on a plane and 4 hours in Dubai airport we were greeted with an extremely warm welcome from the Dean, Sithole, and four young people from the youth group including, Kentse, Miles, Serame and Boitumelo.

We were then ferried to our final destination (passing Soweto, some amazing scenery and wildlife), of the Cathedral of the Resurrection, Ikageng, after 27 long hours of travelling. We were welcomed by further members of the youth group and the Cathedral congregation with lunch after a beautiful and spontaneous rendition of the Grace by members of the Youth Group.

We were then taken to our respective accommodation and were welcomed into comfortable homes.

Day 1 Birmingham to Dubai

After meeting at Canon Pete’s at 11am we took the opportunity to practise our singing in preparation for a solo slot in the service we will be attending on Sunday morning. We made a very good job of Rejoice in the Lord Always, helped out by Robert, even if we do say so ourselves

The next excitement was the presentation of our Matlosane t-shirts which have been kindly organised by Tina Powell. They all looked fab and so we had to have a group photo

outside the Cathedral to show them off

The journey to the airport and check-in was uneventful and nobody got searched or arrested. We then settled down for a 7 hour flight to Dubai (from where we are currently blogging!). The flight was excellent with fantastic entertainment, loads of films, games, nice food and several screaming children (right behind Canon Pete and Ros!!). We arrived at Dubai at 1am local time and it is the most surreal place. Heaving with every nationality, lots of retail therapy for the extremely wealthy, gold and bling everywhere. We are making do with a coke and bottle of water but we suspect that Ed and Tom have discovered Dubai’s answer to Burger King

 

 STOP PRESS

Ed and Tom have just returned and in fact they found Macdonalds