TEACHER! TEACHER! TEACHER!

It was tuesday morning when myself and the other volunteers at the nceduluntu nursery in Nomzamo township had our first day. I think I speak for all of us when I say that we had no idea that the loudest sound we could hear throughout that street was the cheerful chanting of "TEACHER TEACHER TEACHER!!" comming from a large number of Xhosa children between the ages of 2 - 5.

From a great start it could only get better:
This children were so enthused by us and enjoyed comming to nursery. They were full of charisma and very cheeky - one of the boys I taught managed to say "alright mate?" in a Liverpool accent!

Mornings began by teaching basic maths - counting, adding, recognising quantities, followed by literacy - reading a story or trying to get them to copy letters. After this they had snack time with a physical session afterwards followed by creative time. The group I taught spent most of their time cutting as many pieces of paper as the could into as many pieces as they could!

It was startling to notice how independent some of these kids were. At 4 years old some of them were walking home all on their own - sometimes looking after a younger sibling.

Two weeks later I was in the local orphanage. The children here were equally cheeky and loved playing hide and seek. Lessons were slighlt different as classes were smaller and they were more exposed to english which enabled us to give them one on one lessons each day. Again though, during creative time they just wanted to cut as much paper as physically possible!

One of the difficulties that I faced was that I had arrived without the necessary visa - to be specific, I needed a tourist visa and a volunteer endorsement - the latter of which I did not obtain when comming through immigration. Because of this, I had to resolve this at the home office in Cape Town which mean that I eneded up missing half a day's work. This could have proved to be a decisive factor in ruining my experience - at one point I was told by someone in this home office that I would need to go back to Johannesberg airport immigration to get the propper endorsement! Thankfully, the GVI member of staff who accompanied me was able to sort this issue out efficiently and proffesionaly, and the necessary stamp and documentation was given to me within the space of a couple of hours. A potential disaster had become a minor inconvinience thanks to the help of the GVI staff.

I think this issue highlighted the proffesionalism and thoughtfulness of GVI. Before I left for South Africa my parents had warned/ nagged me about the dangers of arriving in an unfamiliar country with a company that I had only know via a google search. and some of the issues I ought to be aware of. GVI gave us a full briefing on safety, conduct and expectations whilst on the project and provided us with plenty of fun and everlasting memories.

I thoroughly recomend this experiences and am very jelous of anyone going soon!