Orphanage in Soweto, Safari and Shopping
Day 6, March 21st, Thursday
Yesterday we went to the Orphanage in Soweto, one of the poorest districts of Johannesburg, just to see the kids, bring them some stuff for fun and for school and play with them. There were 60 children from age 3 months to 22 years but on average from 3 to 16yo. They did an amazing program and I was still shocked how black kids can sing 2 lines of music at once without any wrong tone or dance like Gods. I think it is in their blood from when they are born - so natural and beautiful.
The rest of the time we played with them and one 10 -month old just got stuck on my hands;) but it is such a nice feeling ;) also, he did not cry for an hour and was kinda not moving a lot - so easy for me to handle…but still, I felt kind of sadness in their eyes and did not feel good about the fact that we are not parents that went there for the main purpose - to adopt. According to School Director, 100% of girls under 6 are getting adopted and approx. 45% of boys under 6. after that their chances to be adopted are close to zero as most of the couple can’t have kids and are looking for a small child. Anyway, the games were fun and tired and happy we went back to our place - I was signing with the driver from the close village and somebody was sleeping in the back of the car with her mouth open;) but this is nice tiredness, really.
Day 7, March 22d, Friday
Today we just went to work and I spent like 3 hours talking to the Director of Pre-School Forum about the educational programs they have for kids from 1-6 and what are the constraints of implementing this in all of the PEN 24 kindergartens and also how they fund it. All this info is needed for the business plan that we suppose to write. In the evening we had a red wine testing session and just started to dance (Nosa = Nosa in Portuguese, some belly dancing like in Jordan, Indian Bollywood style and Japan crazy jumps;).
Day 8, March 23d, Saturday
Today I can call a safari day - right from 7:30 in the morning (Gosh, I thought I would sleep a little bit more on the weekend;) we went to the Rhino-Lion Park where my highlight of the day was to get to touch and play with small cubs of Siberian tiger, Lion, Cerval (wild cat with the black spots), and Chita. Chita was a bit angry with me and turned around on me with its claws but I jump fast enough to overcome the tension between us;)
In the nature all the animals seems more relaxed, we saw w lions hidden in the bushes, antelope gnu, heartbeast, springbok, blessbok, ostrich, buffalo, wild dogs and many others. But still I felt like in a big zoo where there is no cages, but the road and the cars created the sense of reality to it.
Second stop was the cave with the Cradle of Humankind - it was like 2m years ago when the first Australopetecus Africanus (God, if I spell it right;) was living here and his scull was found in the 20th century in the cave - so he was running and just fell from 40 meters into this cave - this is how he was found. 229 steps down into the darkness (hi, claustrophobia and asthma) and we are in the middle of nowhere under the Earth. There were people with good sense of humor I guess who made a wedding in this place - I guess just to see that some guests would not actually show up and save the wedding costs;)
After we went from the Cave, the thunderstorm with the lightning started - second rain in Africa since we came;) yeah!! The smell of fresh rain and the bushes around I would not exchange now for the constant freezing rain of London…..
In the evening we just went to the fancy restaurant called Kream in the rich part of Pretoria and I felt like I am back home in center of Moscow or in Mayfair in London - nicely dressed people, white linen tablecloths, crystal clean glasses....this is all just overrated except for the food - tried Crocodile Carpaccio and ostrich stake (the one that crossed our car road when we were driving that day I guess;). I felt dizzy all the way and then clever me - figured out that I got a sun stroke as I was not wearing hat in +33 the whole day. So, turned around in wet cold towels, I finally went to sleep;)
Day 9, March 24th, Sunday
I can call it a day of shopping malls (we finally went to 2 of them) but NO SHOPPING. Except for the T-shirt that I got for like 20 dollars more of the message on the front that I really like: “YOU NEED TO KNOW: It is time to feel free and do the RIGHT things for the WRONG reasons. Because you are free as a wind.~” - I could not agree more. This evolved the discussion about if you all do the right things in life and just wait for the moment of truth to come and do what you really want to do in life. In this sense, this Corporate Service Corps experience is a life-changer for me.
I also went to get my hair done by a girl from Ghana (the equatorial country in West Coast of Africa) -so, when I told how nice and hot it is here for me she was like - nono, it is cold. Ghana is warm;) and smiled. I imagined her in Moscow with -18 and snow now and felt she is still not in a bad place so far judging by the weather;)
Interesting thing - I saw the scar on her cheek and asked if it was from the iron - she said - “no, it is from our tribe back home”. So, when there are little kids the tribe just cuts with the razor the marks on their cheeks and each tribe has its own mark. Thanks God my Russian “tribe” left me alone…
She also told that she has a daughter of 6 yo and 5 smaller sisters with the father back in Ghana, her mother died 5 years ago, and she has no husband. So, she went to earn money here and sent it home - which is 7000 km away….Africa is big I thought after that story…and poor. I put the shopping check right beside my bed where I spent a big amount of money for just one thing to wear - to just remind me that there are people who want to eat but hungry and this is there monthly, if not yearly salary.
Yesterday we went to the Orphanage in Soweto, one of the poorest districts of Johannesburg, just to see the kids, bring them some stuff for fun and for school and play with them. There were 60 children from age 3 months to 22 years but on average from 3 to 16yo. They did an amazing program and I was still shocked how black kids can sing 2 lines of music at once without any wrong tone or dance like Gods. I think it is in their blood from when they are born - so natural and beautiful.
The rest of the time we played with them and one 10 -month old just got stuck on my hands;) but it is such a nice feeling ;) also, he did not cry for an hour and was kinda not moving a lot - so easy for me to handle…but still, I felt kind of sadness in their eyes and did not feel good about the fact that we are not parents that went there for the main purpose - to adopt. According to School Director, 100% of girls under 6 are getting adopted and approx. 45% of boys under 6. after that their chances to be adopted are close to zero as most of the couple can’t have kids and are looking for a small child. Anyway, the games were fun and tired and happy we went back to our place - I was signing with the driver from the close village and somebody was sleeping in the back of the car with her mouth open;) but this is nice tiredness, really.
Day 7, March 22d, Friday
Today we just went to work and I spent like 3 hours talking to the Director of Pre-School Forum about the educational programs they have for kids from 1-6 and what are the constraints of implementing this in all of the PEN 24 kindergartens and also how they fund it. All this info is needed for the business plan that we suppose to write. In the evening we had a red wine testing session and just started to dance (Nosa = Nosa in Portuguese, some belly dancing like in Jordan, Indian Bollywood style and Japan crazy jumps;).
Day 8, March 23d, Saturday
Today I can call a safari day - right from 7:30 in the morning (Gosh, I thought I would sleep a little bit more on the weekend;) we went to the Rhino-Lion Park where my highlight of the day was to get to touch and play with small cubs of Siberian tiger, Lion, Cerval (wild cat with the black spots), and Chita. Chita was a bit angry with me and turned around on me with its claws but I jump fast enough to overcome the tension between us;)
In the nature all the animals seems more relaxed, we saw w lions hidden in the bushes, antelope gnu, heartbeast, springbok, blessbok, ostrich, buffalo, wild dogs and many others. But still I felt like in a big zoo where there is no cages, but the road and the cars created the sense of reality to it.
Second stop was the cave with the Cradle of Humankind - it was like 2m years ago when the first Australopetecus Africanus (God, if I spell it right;) was living here and his scull was found in the 20th century in the cave - so he was running and just fell from 40 meters into this cave - this is how he was found. 229 steps down into the darkness (hi, claustrophobia and asthma) and we are in the middle of nowhere under the Earth. There were people with good sense of humor I guess who made a wedding in this place - I guess just to see that some guests would not actually show up and save the wedding costs;)
After we went from the Cave, the thunderstorm with the lightning started - second rain in Africa since we came;) yeah!! The smell of fresh rain and the bushes around I would not exchange now for the constant freezing rain of London…..
In the evening we just went to the fancy restaurant called Kream in the rich part of Pretoria and I felt like I am back home in center of Moscow or in Mayfair in London - nicely dressed people, white linen tablecloths, crystal clean glasses....this is all just overrated except for the food - tried Crocodile Carpaccio and ostrich stake (the one that crossed our car road when we were driving that day I guess;). I felt dizzy all the way and then clever me - figured out that I got a sun stroke as I was not wearing hat in +33 the whole day. So, turned around in wet cold towels, I finally went to sleep;)
Day 9, March 24th, Sunday
I can call it a day of shopping malls (we finally went to 2 of them) but NO SHOPPING. Except for the T-shirt that I got for like 20 dollars more of the message on the front that I really like: “YOU NEED TO KNOW: It is time to feel free and do the RIGHT things for the WRONG reasons. Because you are free as a wind.~” - I could not agree more. This evolved the discussion about if you all do the right things in life and just wait for the moment of truth to come and do what you really want to do in life. In this sense, this Corporate Service Corps experience is a life-changer for me.
I also went to get my hair done by a girl from Ghana (the equatorial country in West Coast of Africa) -so, when I told how nice and hot it is here for me she was like - nono, it is cold. Ghana is warm;) and smiled. I imagined her in Moscow with -18 and snow now and felt she is still not in a bad place so far judging by the weather;)
Interesting thing - I saw the scar on her cheek and asked if it was from the iron - she said - “no, it is from our tribe back home”. So, when there are little kids the tribe just cuts with the razor the marks on their cheeks and each tribe has its own mark. Thanks God my Russian “tribe” left me alone…
She also told that she has a daughter of 6 yo and 5 smaller sisters with the father back in Ghana, her mother died 5 years ago, and she has no husband. So, she went to earn money here and sent it home - which is 7000 km away….Africa is big I thought after that story…and poor. I put the shopping check right beside my bed where I spent a big amount of money for just one thing to wear - to just remind me that there are people who want to eat but hungry and this is there monthly, if not yearly salary.