LaSER trip to South Africa - 2009

LaSER South Africa 2009

After nearly a year of planning, training weekends, e-mails galore and sleepless nights, the day had arrived.  We were on our way to South Africa!!  After the compulsory group photos at Heathrow Airport and tearful goodbyes to parents, we went through passport control and the adventure started.

The first part was a 5 day stop over in Johannesburg where we stayed at the Gauteng Central Region Brownie House.  Very different from brownie houses in the UK - we were surrounded by a 6 foot electric fence and all windows and doors had to be locked at night.  We had been told that it was very cold at night but didn't realise how cold - the weekend before we arrived it was minus 5 degrees.  During the day however it was sunny and warm. 

During our time in Johannesburg we visited the Sterkfontein Caves which are in the Cradle of Mankind - so called as it is claimed that the oldest skeleton was found in the caves.  We also visited a Lion Park where the Chipperfield Circus lions were taken.  There is also an extensive breeding programme of white lions at this park.  One of the many "mountain top moments" we had was hot air ballooning. I think the girls will also say that getting up at 3.45 a.m. to do this was a "mountain top moment" was a  - this is the time they normally go to bed!!  One of the cultural activities was visiting the Apartheid Museum and spending a very interesting afternoon looking around the Nelson Mandela exhibition.  With four days with no retail therapy our last day in Johannesburg was spent visiting a local market that sold everything from rugby shirts to traditional African craft and then going to Nelson Mandela Square to have lunch and look round the designer shops - such a contrast!!!

The next stage of our adventure was to travel to Durban and then on to God's Golden Acre.  This was the main purpose of our trip and the girls were really looking forward to it but a bit apprehensive as we really didn't know what to expect.  On arrival we were shown to our rondavels.  We were in two rondavels - 10 of us in each.  These were typical round houses made of local materials with thatched roofs.  They were really comfortable and warm. 

Our first full day at God's Golden Acre and we were really dropped in the deep end!!  We gathered at Reception at 10.00 a.m. and were told that as the day was a Bank Holiday and the children were not at school, we would be doing activities with the children starting at 10.30 a.m.  The girls were fantastic and rose to the challenge exceptionally well not knowing how many would be in each group, ages etc.  Everything was a little haphazard as no-one seemed to have any information to give us so we made it up as we went along.   Craft, drama, parachute and singing games were all going on around and after lunch a great game of football ensued (girls against boys) and the swimming pool was open for everyone to jump in. 

The following days we split into four groups - two working in different pre-schools, one group working at Sankontshe Primary School and the other group helping with food drops around the local area.  During the time we were not at the schools we reorganised the library, cleaned some rooms, sorted clothes, painted windows and cleared the baseball pitch. 

Working at the pre-schools involved doing simple crafts, playing games, especially very simple repetitive singing games as most of the children could not speak English and we certainly could not speak Zulu!!   We had quite a shock when we visited the Primary School.  We were told that one of the teachers wanted to start Guiding there and could we do some activities with them.  Great, we thought - until the children started coming to the playground - the first day we had about 120 girls of all ages and the next day about 170 and this seemed to be the case for the rest of the time we were there.  Our girls were fantastic and coped with it all without turning a hair!!

The third week of every month God's Golden Acre was involved in food drops in the local area.  We helped load lorries with sacks of mealy meal, samp (unground corn) beans and some staples such as tea, cooking oil, sugar, salt, dried mince, soup and stock cubes.  The lorries were then driven to collection areas and both young and old came to collect their allocation with wheel barrows, carts and some of the older women carried the sacks on their heads (they had such lovely straight backs!!). 

Once everyone had finished for the day, the girls helped with homework and played with the younger children until dinner time.  We had to go and collect our meal from the kitchen and eat in the rondeval.  Once a week we were invited to eat with the children - this was the day when they had meat (chicken).  We all found the food extremely good, it was either chicken with a curry sauce, pasta or stirfry.   On one of the first evenings we were there Heather Reynolds (the founder of GGA) invited us to a concert and we were very privileged to have the "Zulu Warriors" choir sing for us.  Heather then laid down a challenge to us - to entertain them the following Friday.  Some of the older boys in the choir said they would help and teach us a Zulu hymn and also two Zulu dances.  So all of the following evenings we were at the theatre practicing like mad.  We could never have done it without the help of Funo and Sway.  Friday evening arrived and although I say it myself, we gave an amazing performance - everyone thought it was great.

During the middle weekend we were at GGA, we took time out and visited the Guides in Pietermaritzburg.  We stayed at the Brownie House and visited a large camp that was being held nearby.  The welcome we were given on arrival was fantastic - so much so that before we arrived the girls were all complaining about being tired and wanting to go to bed, then suddenly they had all the energy in the world and thoroughly enjoyed themselves doing activities and helping with camp cooking.  After dinner we had a riotous campfire and the girls performed their Zulu song and dances.  During this weekend we also took the opportunity of visiting Howick Falls, a waterfall which, when in full flood, was absolutely magnificent but we saw it in the dry season - still pretty spectacular.  We also had the opportunity of visiting the small town of Howick with some lovely traditional shops and stalls selling African craft. 

I had previously asked if GGA could arrange a safari for us during our second week and on arrival was told the Heather and her husband Patrick would be taking us on this.  We stayed at a Backpackers Lodge not far from Hluhluwee Game Reserve which was very comfortable.  One of the staff from GGA came with us as well as Heather's nephew Lionel, and did all the cooking - we were very spoilt here.  We started off the next day at 5.00 a.m. and drove into the game reserve - within one hour we had seen zebra, impala, vultures and a variety of birds.  During the day we saw elephants having a mud bath, giraffes, baboons and a lion just by the side of the road.  We were watching some zebra and suddenly a cheetah walked into the clearing, lay down and rolled around in the dry dust - it was amazing.  The next day we visited St Lucia and boarded a boat to see hippos and Nile crocodiles.  We had a picnic lunch on the beach with the Indian Ocean as a backdrop - what can be better than that!!!

For our last couple of days we went to Durban, did some sightseeing and shopping.  Once again we stayed in a Brownie House - had a beautiful garden and you would have thought you were in England until you saw the monkeys steeling the mangos.

Once again we were very privileged as Esme Richards, Chief Commissioner of South Africa came to see us off.

What a fantastic trip - we worked hard and played hard and saw many fantastic sights.  Really a trip of a lifetime.

Janet Woods