Day 1-2
I arrived at heathrow airport at 1 oclock and was ready to head off on my adventure! I said goodbye to my family [+ Zoe Shanta and Jane -but they count as family] which was really sad and then was ready to go! We travelled for aroun 24 hours, first with a flight to Paris, then a second flight to Johanessburg which was over 10 hours and then took the final flight to Pietermaritzburg [PMB]. Everything went really smoothly [so thank you for all your good thoughts and prayers!]. The flight to PMB was on this mini plane with around 30 seats so it was really strange/worrying...but we arrived at Project Gateway all safe and sound!
The rest of the day was spent meeting the people who live and work on site, having a tour of some of the projects and making ourselves feel at home [in the converted prison!] Im living in a cell block which although i say converted still very strongly ressembles a prison with bars still on windows etc!
We ended the day going to the church at the back of where we live and listening to some speaker however after having only around 2 hours sleep the previous night it was very hard to stay focused!
I slept pretty well last night as i was so tired and begun my day with a shower...this was an 'interesting' experience... They are part of a shower block with see-through curtains, so me and the girls seemed to bond in a 'whole new level'...and it was fun trying to judge the erratic water temperature!
We then went on a big food shop and that was where the culture shock really sunk in. The nandos was only half the size, the body shop full of white people and it was hard to decide whether to choose heinz tomatoe sause in a glass or squeeze bottle... [it was very similar to the witgift center..with the magic numbers playing in the background] The prices though are awesome and you can go to the cinema for about 60p!
We then had the rest of the day full of talks about culture and the history of South Africa. This was pretty intence, although the people who were teaching us have been through so much that it was really interesting to listen to! The setting of where we are staying really emphasises the history of the contry and makes the horror of apatarthide [sp] even more real. One exciting thing is that we are staying where Ghandi once was held!
All in all its been awesome being here and everyone is so welcoming and friendly, we have an 8 day orientation to decide what projects we are going to be part of so at the moment we are just setteling in.
Miss all you guys loads!
lots of love xx
The rest of the day was spent meeting the people who live and work on site, having a tour of some of the projects and making ourselves feel at home [in the converted prison!] Im living in a cell block which although i say converted still very strongly ressembles a prison with bars still on windows etc!
We ended the day going to the church at the back of where we live and listening to some speaker however after having only around 2 hours sleep the previous night it was very hard to stay focused!
I slept pretty well last night as i was so tired and begun my day with a shower...this was an 'interesting' experience... They are part of a shower block with see-through curtains, so me and the girls seemed to bond in a 'whole new level'...and it was fun trying to judge the erratic water temperature!
We then went on a big food shop and that was where the culture shock really sunk in. The nandos was only half the size, the body shop full of white people and it was hard to decide whether to choose heinz tomatoe sause in a glass or squeeze bottle... [it was very similar to the witgift center..with the magic numbers playing in the background] The prices though are awesome and you can go to the cinema for about 60p!
We then had the rest of the day full of talks about culture and the history of South Africa. This was pretty intence, although the people who were teaching us have been through so much that it was really interesting to listen to! The setting of where we are staying really emphasises the history of the contry and makes the horror of apatarthide [sp] even more real. One exciting thing is that we are staying where Ghandi once was held!
All in all its been awesome being here and everyone is so welcoming and friendly, we have an 8 day orientation to decide what projects we are going to be part of so at the moment we are just setteling in.
Miss all you guys loads!
lots of love xx
posted by Jessica at 1:22 PM
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