We've only gone and done it!!!

Well what can i say. These past two week have been truly amazing. Don't get me wrong i have missed home but there is no feeling or words that can describe what the team have achieved over the past two weeks.

I am so proud of every single person that has given their all to this experience. The service users have worked really hard throughout the last two weeks, but i can honestly say that i am emotionally, physically and mentally exhausted and i feel that Sam, Matt and Budgie feel the same.

I just want to thank everyone who has followed the blog and shown and interest in our time in South Africa and we can not wait to share our stories, pictures and experiences with you all.

I can not describe what this experience has meant to us all, we have made a lot of friends, been exposed to the extremes; from the poverty and desperation of street children to driving through smoke filled roads due to the burning of sugar cane, and from Princess dancing with joy in her new home and the Principal singing our praises for completing our mission this week, to the hundreds of orphans and reality of deprivation, HIV, and poverty housing.

The successes we have made in this short time has only gone to highlight how much more needs to be done. Many people we have met here long for a better life, and it is up to those who can, and those who can afford to continue, one house at a time, the effort we, NCHA, Habitat and those others determined to eradicate poverty housing forever have already made.

WELL DONE ALL!!!! xx

The story of today (my birthday)

hello this is natalie speaking from the heart.....
so today began with the final day, we had to finish the 3 rooms which we managed successfully, as well as that massive accomplishment we had an afternoon barbecue and watched a cow being slaughtered and butchered in a traditional zulu ceremonial ritual in preparation for the pastor's marriage. I was treated to a happy birthday song from the local children which was absolutely great, there faces really made my day as they were smiling and singing to me...it has to be the best happy birthday song ever sung to me...after that we played football with the team at the centre which was a challenge but a good laugh at the same time. When the food was ready we sat and had our last meal in Africa together, and after that i was surprised with a birthday cake which topped my day up, the cake was lovely and i really appreciate the amount of effort everyone went to to make my birthday a great day, thank you every one, lots of love nat.

On behalf of the team (ash, nat,emma,tash, dan, tom, josh, ant and my self) for the opportunity that NCHA & BFBL have given us. We would also like to thank all are sponsors cause if it wasn't for them we don't think we would have been able to get as far as we did. The team would also like to thank all are team leaders (MAT, ALEX,SAM) if it wasn't for the team leader i think we wouldn't of stuck out the tasks set forth.and a very big thank u to Amon (HFH) and one final thank you to the African Exposure team (Gavin, Bob, Alfie and Carl) so thank you to everyone that gave us this experience and opportunity to do what we have been given. THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!!

i would like to take the time to thank NCHA and BFBL for the oppertunity that they have given me. It has made me realy think about a few things in life and it has given me a realy good feeling knowing that we have given a women called princess and her family a new home and redecortrating a school has realy put things into perpective for me. i am going to have to admit it but if it wasnt for NCHA and BFBL they wouldnt of given me this oppertunity and given me the idea of comeing back and doing training to join HFH and continue what i have started so from me i would like to give a big thank you to Nottingham community houseing and build for better lives for given me the final puck thanks.

Final thoughts

Well....what can you say. Truly amazing. Thank you to everyone involved in the steering group, those that donated, those that fundraised to make this trip possible - have just read Matts blog, and to be honest I can only repeat what he has said.
Matt has referenced the Service Users - may I take this opportunity to thank Matt and Alex for being simply wonderful and doing exactly what it said in the job description written some 10 months ago. Every support worker is special, but these 2 have a little cherry on top.
Also Shaun - my god can this guy graft - from the second we arrived on site, to the last out of the classroom today with brush in hand.
We have hundreds of photo's - will upload them all when we return.
Liz - you would love these classrooms - no interactive whiteboards - back to basic chalk and board.
Hollie - your right - I have not shaved - will wear the expedition beard on Monday - advanced apologies to Karen S for looking scruffy (more than usual)
David E - Sorry - may need more than one de-brief meeting - or at very least a full day.
Design Dept - What happends in Africa stays in Africa - Budgie was a 2 week nickname....Nah - go on ask him - then when he tells you what it meant - ask me for the truth.
Mother - thank you for all the commments - all wonderful - will get down soon.
Battery going - too many other people to mention - not enough time.

Job Done! The Ultimate Work Experience

JOB DONE!!!! Final day - Build for Better Lives, Mission Accomplished...

An amazing day today, I won't bang on about the day too much, I'll leave that to the rest of the team. I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank everyone involved, NCHA, Habitat, Sam, Amon, Carl, Alex H, Budgie, Pearl, Steve W, Gavin, Bob, Alfie, but especially our team of young people, who have gone well beyond our expectations and broke their backs to get the job done. I can't tell you how proud we are of them, it's always a gamble choosing a team of people you don't know, but they've all been absolutely brilliant, and have grown and developed so much in their own individual ways - it's just been an absolute pleasure to work alongside each and every one of them, and this experience has provided the opportunity to prove that they're perfectly able to achieve amazing things simply by giving them the chance, the trust, the freedom and responsibility to take the ball and run with it. Flying home tomorrow, see you all soon, lotsalove, Matt.

Day 2 Shongweni Primary

Day two at Songweni school - the whole team have grafted solidly today to get as much done on the three classrooms as humanly possible - compare this photo to the one yesterday - and we've done 3 of these rooms in two days, the third is nearly ready for the last coat of red, but there's plenty more to do. Doors need repairing and glossing, Budgie is doing a stirling job single handedly sorting out the partitioning walls up in the eaves, blackboards need painting, windows and frames need desperate attention, and we're hoping that we can leave the children with a bright and colourful mural to remember us by, so our last days work tomorrow will need a massive final push if we're to go out on a high. We've been treated to a few more examples of local cuisine today, Carl pulled over to the side of the road on the way to the village and grabbed us a stick of sugar cane, which the local kids munch on all day long like they're chewing on marshmellow - honestly, I nearly lost what teeth I have left just trying to get through it. Tasty though. For lunch we had a local Indian speciality, 'Bunny Chow' (Durban and the surrounding areas has the highest Indian/Asian population in the whole of the country), which is basically a hot curry served inside a hollowed out half-loaf of bread. Which was a challenge in the scorching hot mid-winter weather, halfway through a good days work, still most of us managed some of it, and Anthony managed his usual two (!)

The team are dog-tired, but determined to get the job done, and make sure we go out on a high, having achieved what we set out to do, and even more - we've all learned so much, and we've all stuck together and achieved much more than we'd hoped. We might not get a chance to enter another blog tomorrow - the plan is to finish the job on the school, and celebrate Nat's birthday at a local Shongweni community centre, so we'll be unlikely to find any wifi spots! Hopefully we'll get chance to drop you all a quick line before we fly. Thanks to all who've been following us, it's been good to receive your comments each night. One more final push tomorrow. Job's a good 'un.

Shongweni Primary School

We headed to the Shongweni primary school today to complete stage 2 of our epic adventure. Shaun (Budgie) has been to Shongweni before and with fellow NCHA staff members completed several houses very near to the school. Shongweni village is central to the wider area of Shongweni, which itself is named after the enormous table top mountain(not to be confused with the table top mountain in Cape Town) which dominates the breathtaking landscape (confusingly, the mountain is also called Shongweni).
We arrived on site and were met by Gavin, our host affiliate rep, and the school principle. The principle thanked us for our time and explained that the school had 1098 students with 28 staff members, and the majority of his 'learners' were from single parent families or are orphans, as the estimated rate of HIV/AIDS is 70% in the local area.
Our initial job was to clear the desks and chairs from the classrooms - all the chairs seem almost dollhouse like, and almost all were broken. We then discovered these classrooms were for Grade 1 and 2 - 7 year old to 9 year olds.
Only when the furniture was out did we realise the room was covered in dust - nothing like we have seen before - inches and inches of thick dust and cobwebs that took the entire team wearing face masks literally hours to shift with brooms, mops and sponges (I'm convinced I'll be coughing up bits of Shongweni school for the next 6 months).
The furniture, blackboards and bookshelfs are all makeshift items - no interactive whiteboards and laser pens in this school - (whilst moving a box a blackboard rubber fell out - last time I saw one of them it was being hurled at my forehead)
The dust was never fully removed - in Britain it would have taken a team of specialists - costing hundreds and hundreds of pounds without doubt. We did however remove enough dust to reveal - white and green walls - first painted in 1940 and never touched again until today.
We scraped the walls to remove the flakes of old paint - delicate enough as you felt the walls may crumble.
Eventually we managed to add a lick of paint to the walls - a white base paint throughout - just this one lick of paint transformmed the classrooms making them brighter and considerably cleaner - almost immeadiately you could concentrate more on the job in hand - which made you realise this task will brighten up the room and allow the children to concentrate on their lessons and provide them with a place that they will actually enjoy being in.
Given that this is day 1 of 3 on this particular task - every effort from here on in will add to this, hopefully by the end of day 4 we shall have additional pictures and murals on the walls - actually of course we will - have you seen this team...!
We have completed the base paint in rooms 1 and 2 and have made a start on the clean up operation of room three. Tomorrow we shall paint the walls terracotta and cream - we shall also gloss the window frames which will make such a wonderful difference.
Adjacent to the three classroooms we'd been working on throughout the day, stands a small stone church overlooking the valley, and the team were treated to a impromptu choir practice by some of the local community, and we took the opportunity to take in the scenery whilst listening to the beautiful music.
The enthusiasm of the whole team was on a par with that of the very first day of last week's build, the two days off had definatley recharged the batteries, and we all it felt good to get back into our work clothes and get stuck in on another project. The whole team sends their love and best wishes to all at home. More tomorrow.

Umthombo

We arrived at Umthombo (Durban) following our journey down from St Lucia.

Umthombo is a charity based solely on donations to provide a safe and secure place for young street people aged 7 to 20. The services that they provide vary from given a child a roof over the head for the night to family mediation. The way they do this is similar to our organisation via support staff and external agencies but staff are there 24/7.

Our host SiyaBonga is residential at the base 7 days a week working 1pm - 9am - but as he is residential will also be available to assist children coming to the door in the early hours needing accommodation and sometimes medical assistance.

During the 2010 world cup, many street children were put into state cars by order of authority and forcefully removed from the area - sometimes up to 3 hours away in remote and unknown places - this was simply to ensure tourists did not witness or observe what was perceived to be an ugly stain on the face of the 'New Durban'. Some children were beaten and forced to walk back from where they were abandoned to the safe haven at Umthombo having walked in excess of 100 miles. Children were returning with extreme injuries to their feet and required urgent medical attention. SiyaBonga was imprisoned himself for attempting to defend and support the children.

Outreach workers receive no state funds at all, they go out into the community and often seek out the children - state social workers are only involved if the re-integration with the children's family fails. this means that SiyaBonga is renowned throughout the city as being a sole source of safety and protection.

A member of staff will sleep in the room ( Room being 14 X 3 high bunk beds squeezed into a small concrete dormitory - looked almost like an old garage - just one surfing poster hanged throughout this grey shell of a room.

Glue sniffing is dominant throughout the street children community - not for the suspected high that may well have been the case in early 80's western world - but simply to relive the feeling of hunger and despair of daily life in the streets. Umthombo offers support and a lifeline to those experiencing an addiction to glue and other substances that are readily available.

A vast majority of the children will have suffered abuse - including rape - staff members sleep in the large dorms in order to protect the children from further abuse from other children. The support that is offered is developing skills and interests including music, football and surfing - Art and Music is clearly and integral part of the support - this is clearly observed throughout the project. Rehabilitation is crucial to the success of developing a new life with purpose and meaning. One young man we met is now training to be a scuba diving instructor

Today has clearly moved all of the team - one of our group has already considered emptying their suitcase and donating all their clothing.

This picture clearly shows the sleeping arrangements - the same amount of beds are mirrored across the room and also a staff members sleeps in this room.

The smell of urine is overpowering - this however is not through bed wetting as we think - but through fear......

We have a funny feeling if any of the service users on this trip are present in the office when another service users complains about HWCS accommodation - eyebrows may be raised.

Sunday - Imfoluzi Game Reserve

Early start this morning; the whole team were woken at 4.30am and bundled bleary-eyed but excited into two open backed safari trucks for an hours drive to the Imfoluzi Game Reserve. Carl had warned us that the drive up there would be cold, and our drivers provided us with blankets for the journey, but we didn't realise how cold a South African winter can get in the hours before dawn - it was absolutely freezing (no brass monkeys here though, apparently) but the sunrise was an incredible and welcome sight. We arrived at the wilderness reserve and set off in search of what's generally referred to as the 'big five' - lion, rhino, buffalo, elephant & leopard. It wasn't long before we spotted Impala and Zebra, and then encountered our first White Rhino, such an unbelievable sight, considering their scarcity - our driver Musa explained that white rhino are being bred on the reserve, and that there are now over a thousand - however, this number are scattered across 96,000 hectares of reserve, so for us to spot them was amazing. We then spotted a giraffe in the distance moving through the trees, and before long stumbled across three lions basking in the sun at the edge of the riverbank below us - they were a fair distance away, but were easily visible, particularly through binoculars. Within a few more minutes we were treated to a full herd of female wildebeest with two males fighting to become the dominant male over the herd. The two males locked horns as fought for some time, which was really dramatic, and resulted in one finally giving in and being resolutely chased off by the other. Alex spotted circling vultures which we followed in the hope of more lions, but as our vehicle was restricted to dirt tracks, there was obviously quite a lot of ground we couldn't cover. After several more sightings of enormous white rhino, impala and zebra, we stopped for a barbecue lunch and basked in the sun ourselves, before setting off again to find what was rumoured to be a herd of 26 elephants. Before long, it was time to leave, with no elephants spotted, and on the road to the gate, Alex screamed in my ear that she'd spotted another Giraffe cresting a hill to our left which was amazing, and we left the reserve having not 'bagged' our elephant, and within 200 meters Alex screamed again 'EEEELEPHANT!!!!!!!' The driver slammed on his brakes and turned off his engine to let us watch a beautiful African elephant while it completely demolished a tree for it's afternoon snack (Musa informed us that an average elephant has to eat at least 300kg of vegetation a day). Just amazing!

It's been a long day today, everyone is really tired, so it's going to be an early night for all - we're being treated to a chip shop supper and a camp fire, but I can't see any of us lasting much past 8 o'clock. Heading back to Durban in the morning, more tomorrow.