Future plans

Departure is eminent from our dear Plettonian life: this Monday 26th of November, Thomas, Estelle and me will be taking off towards:
- first stop : the Wild Coast (26 till 28/11) , where some of the less touristy and most beautiful and secluded beaches are supposed to be (around Port St John probably).
- second stop: Drakenberg and Lesotho (29/11 till 2/12): the high mountains and the little kingdom I once spent some time teaching and horse riding.
- then through Durban and Swaziland (3 and 4/12) into Mozambique: over to the capital, Maputo 5 till 9/12), from where Estelle is flying back home on the 8th of December and where Tina, a friend of Thomas is arriving till the 18th of December.

Once Tina will have abandoned us, Thomas and me might try and buy a motorbike and head along the Mozambican coastline to the north, spending time wherever it suits us. Around Xmas, we would either head towards Malawi or straight into Harare, Zimbabwe. Anyway, the flight we booked (but have still not paid since Ethiopian Airlines doesn't make it that easy ;-) back to Brussels, Belgium is on the 1st of January 2008!

The rest of the future is still uncertain, though chances are we might be spending the next three years working for Volens in Harare, Zimbabwe, with the projects we visited. Keep your fingers crossed!

VZW dREAMCATCHER: presentation video

This is the promotional video that I helped Michiel make, presenting dREAMCATCHER's (Belgian NPO) involvement in Die Sterreweg, the day care center for children with special needs here in Plett, South Africa, where Thomas has been volunteering the past five months. If you want a brief reminder (in Dutch), go to my entry "what we are trying to do here", actually an excerpt taken from a letter to my grand parents.

Goodbyes are in the air

"I say hello, you say goodbye"...

There seems to be a smell of goodbyes in the air. Some of our fellow volunteers or people that shared parts of our lives left or are leaving. It always seems to become an emotional moment for me.

This Monday I was driving Jonas, another Belgian leaving, to the airport. He's leaving after having spend six weeks here, researching kwaito music in the Kwano township. We were listening to my iPod on the car's radio. In the spirit of the moment, I was flipping through my playlists, and put on the "goodbyes" one. There all songs that remind me of special People & Places, that I started some time ago, and have been adding special songs to ever since. As you can guess, it usually doesn't make me jump for joy ;-). And then I came to thinking:"how much does it say about my life really that actually have a specific playlist for goodbyes"?

Goodbyes are tough on me, and getting harder and harder. To me, it feels as if this past year and a half has been filled with temporary, but intens friendships, over so soon, often too soon. And somehow I feel like my friendships haven't gone as far as they could have. Mixed feelings really, also because of one particular incident.

These past two years, my life has continually changed every three to six months, which is a short period. Halfway through, you're already having to focus on what is next, to plan ahead. I started counting and noticed that, with our next trip to Zimbabwe and Zambia, and then going up to Cape Town to see a friend of mine, I have about two to three weeks left in Plett. Gone in the blink of an eye really. Now you see me, now you don't...

what is most frustrating about this blog?

Do you want to know what is getting the most frustrating about this blog? Not keeping it up to date, which in a way is fun, as much for yourself as it is for others. No, the worst i s having to keep things OUT of it! Let me explain: now, I have alsways tried to be as honest as possible in my stories, and be able to write about everything which touched me or made me sad, angry, happy, whatever. This usually involved other people (l'enfer,....). All fine so far, but now, since we are quite a number of volunteers, and all of our blogs are linked and checked and scrutinized by everyone, a lot of my stories would involve the others and things that are meant to be kept private or secret. And sometimes I would just wish that I could publish somebody's story, problems, cause writing them out would actually sort of clear it out in my head as well...
But that's the internet way nowadays, isn't it... You never know who might stumble upon it, and who they might know ;-)

weekend in Cape Town

Just a quick one to let the faithful followers know that I am in Cape Town for ten days. We got here last Thursday, in order to wave goodbye to Pieter who had his flight leaving from Cape Town on Tuesday. He traveled up first with Sander, and then Goedele, Thomas and me drove up in a rental. We stayed at a backpackers in the Center (long Street) and did tons during the first three days, actually 12 out of the 24 recommended highlights for Cape Town and the Garden Route, in an amazing three days:

1. Cape Point and Goede hoop (with even two whales)
2. Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden
3. the Cape Flats and townships: driving through them and vistint them with the Field Band project
4. Table Mountain cable way and walking up through the Botanical Gardens (2)
5. African cuisine: a change from Plett's limited offer: Marco's Africa restaurant and African Image, both worth a visit.
6. Cape Dutch architecture: the neighbourhood of Bo-Kaap and Muizenberg with the oldest colonial house of South Africa (where Agatha Christie learned how to surf ;-)
7. Boulders Beach, the one of only two existing places where you can see the jack-ass penguins (official name : African penguins)
8. the wine tasting along the Stellenbosch wineries
9. Robben Island where Nelson Mandela had been incarcerated

Since we still had time to spare, these are some of the others things we did, and recommend:
- artist Imma Stern museum
- National SA Art gallery
- the Company's Garden and the cute squirrels there
- Lion's head
- The District Six museum
- going out to Bronx and other fun places
- meeting up with Kate (our first Couch Surfing experience), and Ian and Magda (our most recent CS experience)

- the ballet with a Queen musical (not that great though)
- going out to a striptease joint and getting two cm nipples pushed in our faces
- Sunday morning church

I am staying till this weekend 13th and 14th of Oct. and see the field band projects here, maybe stay in the township around Stellenbosch to meet up on Saturday with Sacha who's coming for a week of holidays from Congo.

Next, maybe plans to go to Zimbabwe?

Video Born in Africa

De promotie video van Born In Africa waar ik ook aan heb meegewerkt.

Pieter's leaving, long live Pieter!

PLETTONIAN TIMES

To the tune of "Hard times" (The Scabs)

We shared us a Plett time
It has been so fine
There's no I'm leaving
cause you will still shine.

The things you've been doing
The things that you've said
The road to Plett
where we all met.
___________
They promised us sunshine
They promised us a thousand whales
Instead of the hard times
Pieter came and took our hearts away.

We shared some good times, Pieter
We lied and we killed
We shared some great times, Pieter
We ran, squashed and hiked...

________

Our reasons for coming

Don't know what to say

Maybe it's Belgium
Having its way.

You know that we love you.

but that's easy to say

It'd make us proud of you

If you would've stayed.

________

We were silly believing

Your stay would last

Cause sooner or later

You'd be in the past.

We'll often wonder

How the things would be

if you would have found

that famous pantshee.

________

We look at Kranshoek

Watch the school kids grow

Life was so easy

in Belgians House.

There was only Flashbacks, Nothando and Kwano

Now just goodbyes, and time to go...

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

A day at Die Sterreweg

This morning, the caregivers from die Sterreweg went on training, so me and some other volunteered to help out to look after the children there. Though I had passed by the center before, and helped out with like the construction of the sand pit, it was my first day spending time with the kids where Thomas, Goedele and Sander spend all of their time.

It was actually more intense than I had expected. When we went walking with them, and Jonas passed me the child he had been holding, I was looking into the eyes of Bongiswa, a girl looking 3 years old but is actually 9... She was brought to the center only a couple of weeks ago, extremely undernourished and apparently she's just started opening her eyes... I wish I could say something deep, like I saw infinity in her eyes, or wisdom, hell, even happiness, but truth is, I couldn't see anything. I couldn't even make her react or look into a direction I was pointing at. It is funny how it is small things or events that I feel most confronted with the work done to try and... do something. There was nothing great or splendid at the fact of holding her, and you do wonder how many more Bongiswa there are out there, but your admiration for the people working to improve all this does go up a notch...

Did you know, there are 500 million disabled people in the world - one tenth of the human race. Eighty per cent of disabled people live in developing countries. One third of them are children. Everywhere, disabled people are the poorest of the poor. Access to buildings, information, independence, opportunity, choice and control over their lives are denied.
At least half of all impairments could be prevented or cured. 300, 000 children are still impaired by polio every year. 1 million a year are disabled because of malnutrition. 20 million blind people could have sight restored by cataract operations. There are some countries in the world where 90 per cent of disabled children won't survive beyond the age of 20 and 90 per cent of those with intellectual impairments won't survive beyond the age of five. The World Health Organisation estimates that 98 per cent of disabled people in developing countries are totally neglected.

In South Africa, every day, 52 people die from violence but for every death, three people acquire permanent impairments. One in three women can expect to be raped. One in four children has been abused, for which disabled women and children are particularly vulnerable. Fifty per cent of disabled children have never been to school...

Jo'burg: the second field visit

Last weekend was our second field band visit: to Jo'burg, where the National Gathering and Competition would take place off all of the field bands in South Africa (25 in total). I must admit I wasn't looking forward to going to Jo'burg, with the reputation it has and the robbery that took place there last time I was there. This happened 5 years ago, in 2002, when I had stayed in South Africa for three months or so and arrived in Jo'burg as well. Obviously ignoring all advice and heeds of warning, I was walking the streets, and trying to get to Park station to take a train to Pretoria. Everybody had told me not to got downtown, but I just had to try and see for myself, didn't I? So, 50m away from the railway station, in a street black with market stands and street vendors, a guy walked up to me and asked for money. When I refuse, he pulled out a knife and suddenly four people were all around me and grab me. Felt like a hundred hands were going through all my pockets. I remained sort of paralysed, out of good sens (don't want to give the impression I am going to make a run for it or reach for a weapon) and out of fear. I just looked about, eyes pleading for help I suppose, but people were just looking on, without lifting a finger (perfectly understandable of course). Anyway, they wanted to take away the money belt that I am wearing, and since they couldn't find the buckle, the first guy was trying to get the knife underneath it to cut it and winded up hurting me of course. Just a scratch, but enough to get me startled and out of paralysation. "I'll get it, I'll get it", I shouted, and slowly undid the buckle. The minute it came loose, they all shot away and disappeared in all directions, leaving me standing there.
It is funny, I just wanted to explain very briefly what had happened, but details just seem to keep coming back. I can even still smell them. Maybe because it was the first time I ever got threatened... Sadly enough, since I have had more than my fair share of being mugged or held at gunpoint (thanks Haiti and the DR) but that one made me feel insecure for a long time, maybe because it happened in the middle of a busy street... Anyway, you can understand I felt a bit stressed going back, but also thought it might be good to face old demons. Reactions from other South Africans didn't help. Jo'burg seems to inspire images of violence, Gangsta's Paradise, drugs and poverty.

But on to the weekend itself. I arrived by myself on the Thursday (the two others from Plett coming the day after), and got into the Ritz Backpackers, where my first image was the telephone I had cried on when calling my dad five years ago. Coincidentally, my backpackers was the same one I had stayed in all that time ago. I had to get straight out to a southern part of Jo'burg for the celebration of 10 years of the National Field Band Foundation and the launching of a cd, and for once didn't even bother to check whether I could get there by public transportation, but asked for a cab to come and pick me up. Turned out to be the right choice to get there in time (though it still took over an hour to drive through the rain) but a rather pricey one: 200R (20€). It was quite fancy and I felt a bit uncomfortable, not knowing anybody until I decided to fuck it and just mingle. Met a couple of nice people, many Norwegians who were there (they support the FBF), Marleen, a woman who sits in the board of directors for the Cape Town Field Band, and Nicky, who did the feasibility study ten years ago for the creation of the field band. She gently drove out of her way to drop me off at the hostel and I was quite exhausted, what with the hitch-hiking to the airport in George, the stress of arriving in Jo'burg, hurrying to get to the event, and the effort of chatting, so it was straight to bed for me.
The day after, I gathered up my courage, and decided to try the public transportation to get the Turffontein Racecourse where the "new" bands would be rehearsing. It took me straight past the spot where the mugging had happened, and I had to stand an uncomfortable half an hour to swop buses, but afterwards I did feel better. Got to the event, and loved the fact off being recognised and chatted to ;-) .The baby bands (as the new bands are called) were amazing and I was blown away by how quickly they had managed to make great performances. In five, six months time... Next were the individual and specific contests, with solo dancing and instruments playing per band, which allowed to focus on just one aspect of the bands (while you're always missing out on things if you see the entire performance, cause there is just too much going on).
The afternoon, we went with Nicky and the international supporters to the Constitutional court which used to be a prison under apartheid. Fascinating.

In the evening we managed to get invited to a fancy dinner at Bertie Lubner's place. Great food, all of the important players, and they have had the 16th best choir in the world performing! We took a moment of Rheta's time, the national coordinator of the Field band Foundation, who explained in a very straightforward way the setting up of a new field band. Turned out I (or we) had gotten it all wrong, cause we were focusing on trying to get the community involved, and set up the structure for the rehearsals, getting all the local stakeholders motivated. Rheta said we just needed to get the money together for the first year (about 1,2M R for buying the instruments and the salaries for the five hired people in charge) and then they would come in and do it all, take it from there. I felt a bit devastated cause it meant I didn't have much else to do. Fundraising was what needed to be focused on now, and that was Tony's department. I hardly see myself moving in his circle of Polo friends... But then I wondered where the empowerment was, the involvement of the community if we just play out the blue print that they use nationally. Of course it allows for less mistakes, but isn't each community entitled to making its own mistakes and learning from them. Seems to me like we have very little input or autonomy...

Saturday was the big day for the bands presentations, and all the senior bands showed the best of what they had. Heartwarming and I did feel a bit like the project was really worth it again. After kissing everybody goodbye, Tony and the Lubner clan gave us a ride back to the hostel and we decided to meet up later again for a jazz festival that was taking place down town, in a recently renovated area called Newtown. At the hostel we met James, a guy from Brooklyn who has just spent 7 years in Sierra Leone working with a bee-honey project. After supper in a local mall and efforts to try and see the Lion King (didn't come through though), we left for the Jazz Festival where a lot of West-African and Brazilian band were performing. It was amazing to spend a night out in Jo'burg Central and have it be so nice and secure.

Sunday morning we'd booked a bicycling tour through Soweto with Lebo Backpackers. Soweto is the main tourist attraction of Jo'burg and where I feared to spend a morning behind the glasses of a van looking at total misery, it turned out to be the complete opposite.


Friendly faces, children greeting us, hardly any pleas for money. Intense places such as where 600 students were shot by the police in 1976, the only street in the world with 2 Nobel Peace prize winner (Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela), a lot of innovative and original community projects... .

Then it was time for us to say goodbye to Jo'burg, after a weekend that had turned out far more pleasant than I thought but a bit disappointing for me personally on the Field band level, since I now doubt to be able to contribute much more in the near future.

Famous photograph of the Soweto riots
showing a student carrying the body of Hector Pieterson,
a 13 year old boy who was one of the first casualties.

Port Elizabeth: first field visit

Last weekend, four of us went to visit the Field bands in Port Elizabeth (PE), 4h driving away. It felt nice to finally be doing something int his project other than meetings and discussions. And it is also nice to get away for a weekend from Pretty Petit Plett. So we left on Friday morning, Kristien, Etienne, Shaun and me, in a rental, and met up for lunch with Marcellus (Regional Coordinator, stepping down) and Heidery (Band coordinator, stepping up to fill Marcellus' shoes) from the PE Field Band. So nice to hear from an existing and working field band how they go about it. I was surprised though how little of the budget they run themselves, only like 10% of it, the rest is run by the national field band foundation. But Marcellus is more like a passionate music man than a manager, so that might have explained it. He gave us a lot of tips and straightforward answers to our questions. They have two field bands, one in Zwide, a coloured township, and the other one in Bethelsdorp, where it is mostly blacks living. For the national competition in Jo'burg next week though, they mix both boands though and use the best members.

Next, we went to Zwide where we could assist the rehearsal of that band, which was simply wonderful. It seems to be so much fun for the kids, who are enjoying themselves immensely, and though it was far from being perfect, there sas such an energy and joy radiating that it was amazing. I mean, we are talking about kids from townships here, who have difficulty sitting still in schools and remaining discplined, while here they would be performing figures and such which requiered just that, a team spirit and working together, while smiling and making music at the same time. Heartwarming! We did a couple of interviews (well, I did, cause the others didn't want to interrupt the rehearsal), and then we left to get ready for the gala dinner.

Cause yes, Marcellus had invited us to partake in the launching dinner for the Northern Arts & Culture festival which was going to take place that weekend and in which the Field Band was active as well. So, very fancy, with famous artists and politicians, loads of speeches and food slow to arrive.
It always strikes me as funny funny how my work in developping countries allows me to move in such different circles, going in one afternoon from a township rehearsal, where poor kids are sewing their own uniforms with handouts, to the fanciest dinner in town that day, where everybody who was somebody was there.

Next day, Saturday, we went to the morning workshops that the field band was conducting during this festival, and tried ourselves to play on the steel drums, dance a little hip hop and misbehaved ourselves on the theme park that was meant for the kids ;-)

After that, back to Plett, where our own local jazz festival was awaiting for us...

conversatie

- Ik vraag me soms af hoeveel van mijn leven wordt bepaald door het verlangen dat anderen zoveel om mij zouden geven als ik om hen...
* Moet toch wel steeds teleurstellend zijn.
- Bah, misschien wel, maar 't is een keuze, en ik kan maar blijven proberen.
* Maar de andere kant is ook moeilijk.
- Wat bedoel je?
* Altijd het gevoel te hebben niet genoeg te kunnen teruggeven.
- Ja, daar had ik eigenlijk nooit echt bij stilgestaan. Wat is er moeilijker, veel geven aan anderen en de indruk hebben niet genoeg terugkrijgen, of de indruk hebben niet genoeg terug te geven en dus steeds anderen teleur te stellen?

Trouw- Marriage

Hoi hoi!

Zie dat ik misschien een kleine schokgolf teweeg heb gebracht met de blijde boodschap van onze trouw, en vooral het feit dat het niet op voorhand was aangekondigd geweest... Gewoon even deze email om uit te leggen waarom:
- Ten eerste waren we tot het gebeurd was, absoluut niet zeker dat het wel ging aanvaard worden (zuid afrikaanse administratie is niet zo efficient), en we hadden geen zin het aan te kondigen voordat we zeker waren dat het echt ging kunnen doorgaan. Zelfs de dag dat we hadden geprobeerd een afspraak te maken, zei de dame in kwestie dat ze van niets op de hoogte was....
- Ten tweede wouden we vermijden er iets te groots van te maken, of meer dan het was. Ja, het is een bevestiging dat we in een gezamelijke toekomst geloven, en dat we daarin investeren, maar het is geen grote trouw-trouw met beloftes voor tot de dood ons schiedt (we zijn tenslotte toch nog maar tien maanden samen). We willen het dus niet gelijkstellen aan de grote sprong maar meer aan een kleine stap naar een gezamelijke toekomst. Het hier in Zuid Afrika doen stelde ons in staat een papier te bekomen dat we kunnen gebruiken om samen te worden uitgezonden of later kinderen te adopteren (bv. in Zuid-Afrika), maar met een groot feest of plechtige ceremonie wachten we liever nog even.

Voel jullie dus zeker niet erbuiten geplaatst of aan de kant gezet, als het het groots ding was geweest zouden we het zeker hebben meegedeeld en jullie op voorhand gewaarschuwd of uitgenodigd hebben... Het blijft voor het moment een trouw die enkel hier erkend is en niet in Belgie, dus er veranderd praktisch voor ns niets, hoop dat dat voor jullie ook zo is ;-)

Hartelijke groetjes.

Oups, il me semble que j'ai provoqué un petit raz de maré avec l'annonce de notre marriage.... Ou surtout, avec le non avertissement au préalable de notre marriage. Juste pour vous expliquer pourquoi ceci, ce petit post.

- En effet, on l'avait pas annoncé avant, pour la bonne et simple raison que jusqu'à ce que c'était fait, on n'était pas du tout sûr qu'on allait pouvoir l'obtenir. L'administration de l'Afrique du Sud laisse encore à désirer point de vue efficacité et certitudes à des questions. Ainsi, qu'on ne voulait pas l'annoncer que ca allait avoir lieu la semaine prochaine, et puis devoir répondre que finalement, non, pas possible car on manquait tel papier ou tel autorisation.... Même l'après-midi qu'on s'est présenté, ca a été tout juste car la dame qui devait effectuer la cérémonie, n'avait rien entendu du rdv fixé par téléphone.
- Deuxièmement, on ne voit pas ce marriage comme "le grand saut", mais comm un petit pas en avant vers un avenir en commun, sinon, clair, on vous aurait averti et impliqué, et surtout invité! Pour le moment, c'est une question pratique pour pouvoir être envoyé comme couple, et on doit le faire reconnaître en Belgique avant que cela a quelque force que ce soit. D'ailleurs, vu les implications bureaucratiques que cela donnerait, on le fera en belle et due forme à ce moment là, avec j'espère votre participation! Donc, regardez ce marriage comme nous le faisons actuellement: de la confiance pour un futur ensemble et des projets en commun, mais juste un pas, pas un saut ;-) Et puis, c'est aussi agréable de pouvoir se dire "époux", et de faire tout cela sans tracas ou tralala... Mais du moment que c'est le grand saut, on le fêtera dignement, et ensemble, promis!!!

When you meet someone who can cook and do housework--don't hesitate a minute--marry him.

Great news, everybody! We are a married couple!

Got over the first shock? Now let us explain this to you. South Africa is one of the 14 countries in the world, which allows same sex couples to get married or to sign for a civil partnership. Although we have been together for only a short period, we feel like we are going to walk side by side for a long time. So, in the first place, this marriage celebrates our relationship. Then, there are the practical reasons.
Adoption: at some point in the future, we both very much would like to have kids, and one of the ways to achieve this would be through adoption. Belgian adoption laws are pretty strict and couples need to prove certain things like the duration of their relationship. The paper we have now is a perfect proof of this, and the earlier we get it, the more time the paper will cover.
Development workers contracts: because we both want to continue working abroad, a marriage paper will make it easier to go live in other countries together. Future employers may want proof that we're indeed a "stable" couple before arranging the paperwork for both of us.

But so far, the marriage is only valid in South Africa, at least until we feel like having it homologated in Belgium. There are no changes in our civil status, no common residency obligations, no legal implications whatsoever. Which is why we see it more like an adventure than "the big thing" ;-)

So, after a lot of hassle (date, phone calls, inquiries, ...), we went to the South African Home Affairs office in George - Wednesday 19 September - with our roommates: Eugene and Goedele, our best (wo)men and Sander, serving as our "bruidsjongen/petit page". The appointment Bruno had set apparently didn't got through to the right person. She almost didn't want to perform the ceremony. But our charms worked and we got her to do it anyway.

Back in Plett, the gang fixed us a little party moment in Flashbacks, our regular "let's-have-a-drink-place", with cakes and balloons and one of our favourite slows, "als dat gebeurt" (Ingeborg) on the speakers, after which Bruno and I went for a romantic dinner.

Whale watching

After nearly three months, we finally managed to Do It: we went whale watching! And it was quite spectacular: we saw about a dozen of them, and one on an average weighs 50 tons, so that would make 600 tons of whale flesh that we spotted! Currently, it is the mating season so Love was in the water ;-)
The Southern Right whale is between 11 to 18 metres long (our guide mentioned one that was 20m long) and its colour is grey. As an adult, it can weigh between 25 and 66 tons. It can swim about 5km per hour. You might think a whale could swallow a chair but reputedly it can't even swallow an orange. Good thing for Jonas, a Belgian student accompanying us on the trip.
As you can see from the pictures, they have got wart like things on their back. The warts never change and make different patterns from each other which make them recognizable. This whale's common name is the Southern Right whale because it lives in the southern hemisphere and at the time was the right whale to kill. Why? Because it was a slow swimmer and it had so much blubber it seldom sank. They are found along South Africa's coastline. They travel 2000 km from the Southern Ocean to the Antarctic for the rest of the year. They come and have their babies in South African coastal waters in spring and in 3 months they go back. The length of pregnancy is 6 months to a year. 4500 Southern Right whales live in the southern hemisphere, 270 of these have been found between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. 1500 of these whales come to this coastline. For pix and video, got to Thomas post or youtube

7 days of my Plettonian life: (7) Thursday 13th

Last day of this blogging experiment.
Since I spend so much time at our apartment, thought I would give you some pix of where we live. But first of all, the first thing we see in the morning, the view from our window on PLett's Bay and the Tsitsikamma mountains on the horizon, not to forget the Bowling Field just in front (not bowling as we know it, but more similar to petanque played by in white or blue dressed elderly people).

Next is our living room: spacious and with lots of light:

Just a sample of how our roommates live, Sander and Eugene's room:


And then finally, our room and little love nest:

Quote of the day: "Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus" - We do nothing, but we do it well;-)

7 days of my Plettonian life: (6) Wednesday 12th

Not too much motivation today to write, and not that much to tell either.
Got up in the morning and started by finishing the paperwork I still had left for the Field Band project from yesterday. That meant typing the minutes of the meeting (paying attention not to step on anybodies toes), drafting a letter that different officials like the mayor, municipality manager and such would sign confirming their support to the projects. Then I had the pleasant task to phone to the guy from the Field band in Port Elizabeth (the one we cancelled last minute with last week) but turned out to be fine. He actually preferred us coming next weekend, when they will be finished rehearsing for the national gathering in Jo'burg, have a gala dinner where they'll perform and the Saturday we'd assist in a festival of Arts&Culture where they do workshops. All sounds rather cool. On the visit to Jo'burg front however, news wasn't as good. Talked the the coordinator of the National Field band and I tried pushing her to just let us stay with the field bands, as to mingle and absorb as much as possible. She however said that with 1500 children there, of which 500 are from rural areas that have no experience using toilets, she wouldn't recommend it. Pushing it a little bit, cause I really think it would have been fun and the best way to have behind the scene glimpses, she politely insisted on us staying elsewhere. Organising was already hectic, and she claimed not to be able to deal with any additional people in the two big halls. Which would mean that we'll have to look for accommodation, rent a car and all that. Well, let's see what Tony thinks about all the extra expenses that would mean... Then surprise surprise, I received an email from my niece, Hanne, who is also studying law and wants to work abroad for a couple of months as well, doing volunteer work or something, and wanted some advice. Though it is always hard to give advice by email I feel, I still sort of tried to make the most out of it and sent her a couple of useful links.


I should have worked on my book after that, but must admit I got too distracted by the book I am currently reading (not that it is that special, but it doesn't take that much to keep me away from slaving away at my book ;-). The one I am currenlty reading is "Until I find you" by John Irving, not his best, but not his worst either. Seems that it has 117 characters, all named and to me, it seems like they are all flesh and blood and all have role to play. It is so nice to have time to read again, and devour books from the local library. I estimate I must have taken out like 30 books already.Other volunteers (amongst which Thomas seem to be lacking that time ;-).

Next, I helped Eugene, our roommate, with an application form so that he would be able to attend a leadership building course for two months in New York. It would be the first time that he would leave the country and is very eager to go. He's not very used to filling out such forms and making the necessary blahblah to impress that kind of people so I agreed to help him, which took quite some time. Next, when Thomas & Co got home, Sander and Goedele went off to play squash, and Thomas and me went to the Beacon Island, a luxurious hotel/ressort here in Plett where we sometimes sneak into (not that their security is very tight) to enjoy the gym, jaccuzi and sauna. Afterwards we went to a Chinese restaurant we had never tried before, and had a quick (though spicy) dinner there. Back home, though it was only 9h30, everybody seemed to have turned in for the night (allthough we had talked about watching some DVD tonight), so, we'll just follow their example ;-)

7 days of my Plettonian life : (5) Tuesday 11th

Réveil à 7h avec les autres comme d'hab, puis cette fois-ci tout le monde part travailler, sauf moi, donc je traîne un peu au lit.

Puis, j'ai une réunion à 10h avec les autres concernant le field band-projet, et bien sur, la moitié me téléphone dix minutes avant pour voir si ça tient toujours, malgré le fait que je les ai téléphoné hier pour confirmer (sans rappel le jour antérieur, personne serait venue, j'en suis sûr). Par contre, il n'y a personne de la municipalité, ce qui rend une engueulade difficile (pour le sacré lapin posé la semaine passée). Par contre, cela nous permet au moins d'en discuter avec un peu plus de franchise. C'est compliqué avec la municipalité, car avec tous les problèmes qu'ils ont actuellement, disons que certains sont plutôt controversés, et leur implication n'est pas très constante. On décide qu'il est quand même important de garder la municipalité impliquée, car il est nécessaire de disposer d'un soutien politique pour que ce projet fonctionne, et puisque nous voulons qu'ils nous subventionnent par la suite. Donc, mieux vaut ne pas trop heurter les susceptibilités sur les gaffes antérieures et continuer mais ne plus laisser dépendre les activités de leur soutien logistique. Ainsi on évitera des surprises de dernières minutes...

Autre point de discussion: l'implication de nouvelles personnes dans l'équipe. Tony préfère avancer avec des petitd comitéd que nous avons composé actuellement, mais dont il n'y a personne qui est vraiment qualifié pour devenir coordinateur/trice. Moi, je préfère plutôt intégrer d'autres motivés, histoire de ne pas devoir faire tout tout seul comme c'est actuellement le cas, mais également pour déjà pouvoir évaluer les talents organisationnels des candidats. Finalement, on fait un compromis (à la belge), pour les activités qui coûtent beaucoup, on le garde petit comité, pour les activités moins couteuses, on élargit. Compréhensible, étant donné que c'est Tony qui avance de sa poche actuellement.

A la fin de la réunion, j'en profite pour m'offrir des pies du Pie Shop, goût poulet aigre-doux, une vrai délice. Retour à l'appart, pour travailler le compte rendu de la réunion et préparer une lettre que nous voulons soumettre aux autorités locales pour officialiser leur soutien au projet. Mais je me lasse un peu avec toute la chaleur, car bien que c'est le printemps ici seulement depuis 10 jours, aujourd'hui il fait 33°.

Donc, au retour des autres volontaires, dont Thomas et Goedele qui veulent faire une réunion dans notre chambre pour travailler un texte, je me casse à la piscine, rejoint par Sander. Eh oui, notre complexe dispose d'une petite piscine. Ca a l'air peut-être décadent, mais faut admettre que depuis notre arrivé, je n'ai passé qu'une fois 20 secondes dedans, tellement qu'il faisait frais auparavant. Mais aujourd'hui, trop belle une occasion pour laisser mon superbe short arc-en-ciel dans l'armoire.

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Le mardi est devenu une soirée ciné traditionnelle pour nous les volontaires, car moitié prix (13Rand = 1,5€). Que deux salles, une proposant un film plutôt commercial, et l'autre un film soi-disant du circuit artistique. Pas des masses de choix donc mais cela nous change de nos petits écrans ordi pour regarder des trucs (plus de télé à l'appart, ce qui n'est pas plus mal). Ce soir, le choix entre Black Snake Moan avec Samuel Jackson et License to Wed avec Robin Williams. Choix vite fait car le trailer de Robin Williams avait l'air nulle à chier. Bref, pas mémorable, le Black Snake Moan, mais ça change les idées...

Et voilà, à dix heures, retour à l'appart, et vite ce blog pour le 5ème jour consécutif, cette fois-ci en français pour nos petits amis (et ça tombe bien car je suppose que certains trucs de la réunion auraient pu être délicats à poster en anglais). Ca passe quand même vite, sept jours de blogging, mais honnêtement tant mieux, car ça devient un peu lassant... Peut-être qu'avec plus de commentaires de votre part, je serai plus motivé ;-)

Par contre, je le trouve très amusant de comparer mes entrées avec celles de Thomas et de voir les différences et les ressemblances... .

7 days of my Plettonian life: (4) Monday 10th

It's hard to keep a blog everyday, cause I don't feel like I'm doing something interesting every day. But hey, but showing everyday life and not just the exciting bits is the goal of this experiment, right?
Let's see, as usual, I woke up with the Die Sterreweg people, around 7am, with a lot of energy which I usually use to make Thomas coffee (unfortunately not breakfast, I should work on that). Once the three of them leave, it is quiet time for me. Today that consisted of writing half a page of my book (actually, writing one page and a half and then erasing two thirds of it). I have been wondering if I should post some of it on this blog, but have decided against it for now, since too many of the characters still don't have their definite name yet and I just call them colours (Reservoir Dog style). Exceptionally, today the apartment was still rather busy. Eugene didn't go to work since he hardly slept at all and didn't feel like he was up for work, and Sander came back around 10am cause he hadn't been able to sleep either (having received multiple beestings yesterday which are troubling him). So, more company, but not much interaction.
Workwise, I called M Putco to confirm the meeting we're having tomorrow with them so that we can express our disappointment with how little municipality is taking the field band project seriously. Turns out that he has to appear in court, so we'll just meet with the different other interested parties, including some newly recruted people that I spoke to last week. We'll have to decide on who is going to go to Jo'burg at the end of this month though, when the national competition of all 25 field bands is going to take place. It would be a great event, and super to meet all the players involved.
When Thomas and Goedele got back at 2pm, we ate the lunch I'd made for the working people (this time it hadn't taken too much of an effort, just meat loaf, potatoes and defrosted spinach-fetta), but they expressed their usual thanks to coming home to a meal. Funny taking on the role of the houseman. I redecorated our room with the tissues that we have, very african style and with Boudha's, since we'd moved them to the living room for the party last Saturday and thought we'd rearrange it (pix'll follow soon).
Thomas and me played a game of chess to kill time in the afternoon, which I have been getting back into. We've been playing chess a lot lately here in the house, since Belinda's neighbours lend as a set, and it is so nice to get back into the strategical thinking of it. At 8pm, we went to play squash, with from the Belgian House: Nienke (as a spectator), freshly released from hospital today, Pieter and Eric, and from our house Goedele and Sander. Always nice to get back active and sporty, especially since last week we didn't do much. I sort of twisted my ankle though but I'm sure it'll be fine.
Afterwards, Colleen, a collegue from Milady who lives just around the corner from our place, invited us for drinks, but only Pieter and me were motivated to go. I was glad to finally get a chance to talk a bit to him walking there. Sometimes the entire group atmosphere in these group activities are getting to me, and I feel as if we're just trying to fill space and time with superficial chatting. I miss the intensity of previous volunteer experiences, where we would chat spontaniously, sometimes all through the night about whatever.
Anyway, at Colleen's, short night, some domino, cigarettes and whine and then we called it a night. Thomas went off to have drinks with some other people at Nothando's backpacker, and I am posting this blog waiting for him to get home. It is nice to sometimes have a night each on our own side, but it'll be even nicer to afterwards crawl under the covers with him for the night...
Sweet dreams to you all!

7 days of my Plettonian life: (3) Sunday 9th

Sunday started off with the unavoidable after-party cleaning, and then off to the hospital in George (1h away), to check up on dear Nienke,
our latest Dutch (but 1/4 of Belgian blood :-) volunteer who had problems with a blood cloth in her leg after the flight. After an initial diagnosis that was quite scary (having to stay for like two weeks in the hospital), swelling has diminished considerably and she might be back tomorrow. Sucks to have just arrived like that and after four days already having to stay in the hospital. But the moral seemed to be improving with the hope of being released soon, and with the company of chatty roommates (commenting on the numerous male volunteers visiting).
Next we picked up Eugene from the airport, our fifth roommate and the only remaining local. He had been absent for three weeks, first on a life skill training and then for health reasons in Cape Town.
To finish off the weekend, a braai (bbq) was planned at the Belgian house, but it turned into a quiet evening supper. Everybody seemed pretty exhausted from the weekend though, so glad that the week is coming again to rest ;-)

7 days of my Plettonian life : (2) Saturday 8th

Late morning rising, and then we went to get a breath of fresh air in Nature's Valley, for a walk on the beach.
And, grande premiere, we saw a whale for the very first time in two and a half months time we've been here. Maybe I should need to elaborate a little bit on this, try Googling Plettenberg Bay, and you'll notice that the prime tourist attraction are the whales, here in abundance during the winter. So, from far and near, people come to go whale watching, see them jump, mate and deliver baby whales. We've been on whale alert since day one, walking on the beach, staring at the sea, staring at the sand, staring at the whale, and never spotting any! You wouldn't say that it is a needle in a haystack, would you?! Though to find any other animal that should be easier to spot, I would have thought! And everyone seems to have seen one just last week, yesterday, or "just five minutes ago, shame, you just missed'em!" We have come to believe this whole whaling is just a myth, created to keep Belgian volunteers waiting and hoping, a devious way to ensure that we stay longer, and longer, and longer... Some even never leave... So, last Saturday, we finally Saw One! Though I must admit, I'd rather state that we caught glimpse of something black that was blowing water in the air... But, as long as there is hope, there is life here in Plett...

Saturday night, big night for us!
Milady, a Xhosa friend of ours, just turned 21, big thing here in SA, and we graciously let our apartment serve as a venue for her birthday party. Hard to sum it up in a couple of words. Speeches (she nominated me MC for the evening), gifts, lots of booze, lots of Xhosa music, talks about politics, random people, and lots of ass shaking in either stylish free dancing or elaborately orchestrated group dances.
Most of the guests were more your up-town kind of people, with a distinct family feeling to some ;-), till a bunch of Kwano's residents showed up.
Randomness that terminated when Goedele's camera went mysteriously lost as well as some of Milady's birthday gifts (including a pair of furry slippers I can't really picture in Kwano's surroundings :-). Sudden disappearing acts would have made Houdini blush. Shame for the loss of the camera and some of the pictures that would have otherwise illustrated this post, but these things happen... Take the bad with the good and all that.