Chloe Merchant - Cape Town, South Africa 2011
I was lucky enough to be one of the students selected from Thomas Rotherham College, to take place on a life changing experience working with township children in Cape Town, South Africa.
Shortly after arriving in Cape Town we started our teacher training and even learnt basic Xhosa. It was a lot of fun trying to pronounce the words with all the different clicks they use, never mind trying to remember them! I feel it was a really rewarding experience, as while we were teaching we could say a few words to let the children know that while they were trying hard to learn our language we were trying to learn theirs too. Arriving at the school on the first day was emotional, to see children on their holidays waiting outside the gates for us to arrive so they could come in and learn made you see how eager they were to better their education. During one of my lessons we were talking to the children about England (as this was the theme of our class) and we sang our national anthem, and then asked them if they could sing theirs. After a few seconds one girl started to sing, then gradually all the others joined in. I am pretty sure it was the first time every hair on my body stood up. To sit there and listen to the kids sing so in tune and soulfully, and to listen carefully to the words of ‘striving for freedom’ was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.
For our weekend off GVI organised visits to Table Mountain, Robben Island and Langa Township which showed us the many different sides to South Africa. On the township tour we learnt about how people lived and worked. We met and spoke to people selling pieces of jewellery and art to make money for their families and we had a massive shock when we were told that 27 people lived in a house smaller than ours at home. This made me realise just how privileged we are. Robben Island was something I had greatly been looking forward to and we had a tour of the island from an ex-prisoner which gave the whole visit a bigger impact.
In the December before I travelled to South Africa I sadly lost my granddad, and while sorting through his possessions I found letters from his cousin’s daughter Dorothy, who had emigrated to South Africa over 30 years ago. After finding her on Genes reunited my mum managed to make contact with her, and found that she was living on a vineyard just 20 minutes from where we were staying! Dorothy said she would love to meet me and invited everyone in the group (24 of us!) for South African cuisine at her house, as well as a tour around her partner’s vineyard. This meant that the trip was not only a once in a lifetime experience to work with children in Africa, but for me it was a personally amazing experience, as I got to meet a member of my family that up to 7 months before the trip I had never even heard of. To meet her and see the resemblance of her to other members of my family made it a truly magical day for me.
Some of the children we worked with were from a nearby orphanage and the last afternoon we went to visit and meet the rest of the children living there. It was absolutely heart breaking to hear some of the stories these children had, but to see that they were still so happy, running around, playing, singing, it really put in to perspective how lucky we are, and how amazing it was that we had the chance to go and help others. This visit finished our time at the program perfectly, and I’m pretty sure every person walked away with tears in their eyes.
This trip was valuable to me in many ways, it helped me gain confidence, believe that if you really want to do something then there’s always a way, and realise that just a small bit of effort from one person can make a massive impact on other people’s lives. I have come away from this trip with the knowledge that if I am feeling down one thought of the children I taught, with the biggest grins on their faces, will always bring me back up, and I would love to carry on volunteering and I have decided to become a GVI ambassador so I can encourage others to do the same.
