The Final Reflexion

While I'm writing this final post, I always take a look at some post cards I took with me and sticked on the wall above my desk. On my favorite one you can see all of Cape Town: Table Mountain, Lions Head, Camps Bay, the Waterfront, Sea Point, Muizenberg and also the Cape Flats. I can connect all this gorgeous places with wonderful memories and could tell you a story for every single one. For me it is incredible how many experiences you can gain within two months.

It was the right choice to spend my language stay in this beautiful city. Now, as I've been back in Switzerland for some weeks, I realize what I gained out of this trip. I learned a lot about different cultures in this cosmopolitan city. Furthermore, I really enjoyed that I split my language stay into two parts: school and volunteering work. It was good to have a language teacher who forced you to speak a clear English and corrected initial errors. The environment of an international language school had a positive effect on the motivation to learn Englisch. On the other hand, I got a deep insight in the struggles of South Africa.  I experienced the huge gap between rich and poor in my everyday life. If I hadn't done the volunteering work, I wouldn't have had the chance to see that.
Overall, my expectations were more than fulfilled. The food as well as the people were great. I only expected that I could play more soccer with the kids in the project, but it wasn't a bad experience to see the administrational work behind the organization, too.
When I have to mention two events, which surprised me most, then I would tell you about two main aspects of the country: The landscape and the hospitality. During the first month I had a lot of time to travel around Cape Town and see various sights. I'm impressed how fast the landscape change from mountains to flat areas, all surrounded by the sea. The most special and also surprising event for me was the last evening with the project. The family of Mario, the founder of GCU, prepared a "brai", what means barbecue in Africans, only to see me off. I could feel how lovely and kind they are, living the biblical principle of "Love your neighbor as you love yourself".
But I also experienced the other side of the country, because not everyone has this friendly thinking. As an example serves a situation I had to go through once when I went to some clubs with colleagues from the language school. We were followed by a man, how started talking to me and wanted to grab my wallet. Fortunately, we could shake him off.
One aspect which surprised me too, were the still visible impacts of Apartheid. I learned a lot about the history of the country thanks to my host-mum, how taught me a lot while we were having great discussions. As she runs her own business as a landscaper, she knows a lot about the mentality of the workers. The main point I got was that they are never as structured and reliable as Swiss people. Also my boss during the volunteering work admired how structured and precisely I am. But sometimes I had to stop sticking at my principles, otherwise our work would never have been compatible.
Finally, I want to give some advises to students who will still go to their language stays: First of all, enjoy every single minute there, because you will miss it for sure. I can also recommend to do some volunteering work, I made most of my life experiences during that time. You have also to be very open-minded, it is incredible what different kind of people you will meet. Summarizing all this statements in one sentence, enjoy your time and use every opportunity, then you will come back as a changed person!

When you have to pay for education....

When I went to primary school years ago, I couldn't decide to which one I would like to go. In Switzerland it is the task of the department to divide the pupils into the various primary schools, in most of the cases only concerning  geographical reasons. As I am working with GCU (see my recent entry) at various primary schools in Heideveld, a township of Cape Town, I was wondering about the school system of South Africa. The demographical differences between the different schools is strange. I was surprised by the strong differences between the schools, so I asked some locals about this issue.
They explained me that the reason for this huge differences is the quality of the education. The better a school is, the more have the parents to pay for it. Consequently, not all parents can afford it to send their children to the best possible primary school in their area. The quality differs in the variety of the education: As an example, most of the kids in Heideveld have neither physical education nor music classes. Also the qualifications of the teachers differs from school to school. For this reason GCU provides physical education and other activities like playing chess at the primary schools and helps the pupils to be more focused on their education!

Changing the Perspective

When I was waiting for the driver to bring me to the Great Commision United, in short terms GCU, on the first day of my volunteer work, I thought about what could be waiting out there in the townships. I neither knew what kind of work I would have to do nor the name of the township I would be working. But I was really looking forward to see another aspect of South Africa than the Table Mountain or the Waterfront.

So we drove to a primary school in Heideveld, a township area on the Cape Flats, less than 20kms from Cape Town city centre. Swathes of families were resettled here in the 1960s after the apartheid government forcibly removed them from District Six, an area much nearer to the city and to public amenities. During the first days, Mario gave me an insight into various parts of his community development project. I assisted the coaches with the other volunteer, a nice French guy called Mohammed, to play soccer and other games with the kids. During the breaks we became a highlight of the kids, this thirty minutes were one of the more exhausting moments in Cape Town ;)

But GCU is not only busy with physical education during the mornings at diverse schools, there are also soccer teams training in the afternoons. For a wider education, they do not only train soccer during the whole week, they are also practicing boxing, rope skipping and chess on Mondays. With all these programs GCU wants to limit the dropouts from schools and gives the children a future with a new-gained hope.
I'm really looking forward to the three remaining weeks with GCU and I'll write soon about further experiences with these powerful kids! If you are interested in more detailed information about what exactly GCU is, please visit our homepage below the following link and like us on Facebook!

• Homepage of GCU
• GCU on Facebook

The Big Gap between Rich and Poor

Economists use the so-called gini coefficient to measure the gap between rich and poor. This tool allows us to compare the wealth distribution of all the countries of the world. South Africa has the worst value of all of them. This huge gap is also visible in Cape Town: Langa, a township of Cape Town, is not more than 10 km away from the Waterfront, the cosmopolitan centre with many shops and restaurants.

This experiences inspired my to write story about a beggar in Cape Town who's life changed dramatically after he had met a person with a great heart. The writing was triggered by my teacher, who gave us the task to write a story including some words we built before during a game of Scrabble. Although the story is free-invented, I hope it will become true one day, maybe here in Cape Town.

The Beggar Called John            

Once again I was sitting around, looking for some food. As the trash had got removed the day before, I could only get food by begging. My stomach rumbled, the last meal I had was long ago. Luckily, I was still alive and the rain had stopped, so the temperatures increased and made the begging more convenient. But this could change very quickly here in Cape Town. Cape Town, what a lovely city it used to be, before I got poorer and poorer. Let me briefly tell you, how I got stuck in this situation.

I had been married to the most beautiful woman in the world; me, John, and her Catherin, were so lucky. But after a car accident, she died in the hospital. I had big troubles afterwards, it was like a vicious circle. First I received the instant dismissal, consequently I wasn’t able anymore to pay the bills. Finally, I landed up on the street.

During the five last years nothing had changed, so I got up once more and walked to place where I perhaps could succeed. I passed a storehouse of a builder, some joist sticks out of the fences. The noise of a deep mumbling of a car reached my ears, the driver of the storehouse wasn’t used to changing gear. After I had passed the storehouse, I sat down, with my butt on the ground. I placed my can with the cold tea right next to me and started to look for people who had more money than me. I wished I could reheat my tea, but my lighter unfortunately was empty. Hence, my only hope was to get some money to buy a new one.

That moment, I realised that a girly man was approaching. I didn’t really like the gays, but I didn’t care about the money’s origin either. I bagged him to give me some money, but he ignored me and kept on starring at his cell-phone and texting his boyfriends. The same way it happened with an emo, a young guy thinking that he has the swag. Then passed a beautiful looking young girl, with a thinness, which suggested to have been on many diets. It was the usual behaviour from most of the pedestrians: Ignoring me and keep on walking.

But that day, one person completely changed my life. A man, who was the same age as me, walked towards me with a bright smile on his face. I hadn’t seen many people with that attitude so far. A lot of them are so stressed, but this guy wasn’t only a teeny bit stressed. He stopped towards me and started chatting with me. That was one of the biggest pleasures which I had during this challenging time. He just made my day!

But instead of stopping the conversation and leaving me alone, he asked me if I was hungry. I answered him: “Yeah, I am!” In that moment, my life started to change. He invited me for lunch! It was just unbelievable. We went to the next restaurant, he placed his keys on the table and asked me what meal I would prefer. Shy as I am, I mentioned that I hadn’t eaten meat for ages. So he ordered a beef-burger for me. When the waiter asked him which size he’d prefer, he answered “the biggest on you have”. I had never enjoyed a meal like that one ever before.

Afterwards, I went out of the restaurant, absolutely thankful, and was filled with a never-known joy. This was the beginning of my way out of poverty and life as a homeless beggar. I could break out from the vicious circle pulling me deeper and deeper. With the new-gained motivation I was able to double my daily income. I could afford new cloths and I applied for a job in the factory of the man who invited me for lunch that day. Finally, I am now able to live a normal life, being a shining example of what a kind action to a poor man can trigger.

Rugby - a Sport Uniting a Nation!

When I was walking through the Waterfront for the first time, I made an interesting discovery. At the center of this touristic area with many shops and restaurants, there was pillar with a countdown: "5 days left until the Rugby World Cup 2015 starts!" As I knew hardly anything about rugby when I arrived here,  I had to ask my host mum about this rude sport. The first lesson she taught me was the following definition:

"Soccer is a gentleman's game played by hooligans. On the other hand, rugby is a hooligan's game played by gentlemen"

Furthermore, she told me much about the history and the impact of this gripping sport. Exactly 20 years ago, the Rugby World Cup had taken place here in South Africa. Four years after the abolition of apartheid, Nelson Mandela inspired the whole nation when he pulled over a shirt of the "Springboks", the national rugby team of South Africa. For the first time, a national feeling was created, black and white united by the Springboks. My host mum told me that everyone went crazy as the Springboks won the final against the "All Blacks" from New Zealand 15-12 in extra-time.
After I heard this story, it was clear to me that I'm going to watch a game of the Springboks in one of the several bars in the city center. The more local people, the better.
Finally, after I'd bought a Springbok-shirt, I went to a pub watching the game. The disappointment was huge after they lost against Japan, some locals we meet there disappeared right after it was finished. So we were looking forward to the next match against Samoa. The performance improved a lot and I celebrated the victory of "our" Springboks with some South Africans:

It was a great experience to explore how a sport can unite a so many different cultures. So let's keep our fingers crossed for the Springboks!
Ps: For everyone how wants to know more about the history of South Africa and the Springboks, I warmly recommend the film "Invictus"!

Discovering the Beautiful Nature!

This weekend, I spent many hours in the car, discovering the amazing landscape of the region around Cape Town. On Saturday morning, I got up very early for driving to the Inverdoorn Game Reserve together with two German friends which I met at school. After three hours, we arrived in the middle of nowhere in the game reserve. During the journey, we had used many opportunities for taking a shot of the breath-taking landscape.

On the safari, we saw many different animals like elephants, lions, cheetahs, zebras, giraffes or springboks. It was awesome being so close to this animals, absolutely not the same feeling as when they are behind a glass as they are in a zoo. Although it was very windy we could enjoy our safari very much. As I've not received the pictures of the animals yet, I'll put them online later ;)
On Sunday, we drove along the coast to Hermanus, a mecca for whale-watching, because it is the season of the whales coming close to the coast. The reason for this are the calfs, they have to grew up in a safe area unlike the high sea. Hence, we had the enjoyment seeing whales right after we had arrived there. Unfortunately, they didn't show any intentions to jump, so we saw only their back or sometimes also a fin. Nevertheless, it was a great experience, also due to the beautiful view we had while we were driving around the False Bay from Hermanus back to Cape Town.

Finally, we finished off the great weekend with a Mojito and dinner in a Cuban restaurant called "Cape to Cuba". So here is the final word, used by the South Africans in nearly every situation: Cheers!

We Got Our Cake and Ate It!

Only one more day is left until I'll have absolved the first school week here in Cape Town. I really like my class, it is a mixture of diverse cultures. The six other classmates are coming from Gabon, Angola, Spain, Brazil and Germany. Generally, school is very different compared to the one in Switzerland. I've class from 9:00 in the morning to 12:40, what creates many opportunities to visit the city, having great discussions with the new friends and doing a lot of sports. As an example, yesterday, we went on the table mountain...but let's start at the beginning of the story:
After school, I had lunch together with Florian in a good restaurant. Afterwards, we decided to go for a drink to Waterfront, the most touristic area here in cape town. While we were enjoying our Mojito, suddenly another friend wrote that we could go up to the Table Mountain - by cable car. As Florian has already been there, we decided that we have to walk up, otherwise there wouldn't be enough action for us. So we started our journey, which was quiet exhausting due to the extreme steepness:

Unfortunately, it got very foggy on the top of the mountain and we had to fight against a cold wind falling down from the top. But in the end we succeeded and arrived on the top...and got this view:

Hence, we were looking for another reward, so we decided to take an Irish Coffee. But right at the moment when we wanted to enter the restaurant, the sky cleared up and we had a beautiful view for a short moment. Thanks to our fast reaction, feeling like Japanese tourists, I could take a shot:

So I can conclude this post with a final idiom: we got our cake and ate it!