Back in Argentina
I´m back in Argentina! The first thing that hit me on coming out of the airport was the stifling heat... I´m not complaining as I realise that the team that went to England have come back pale and pasty while we are all either burnt or brown, but I don´t know if I´ve ever been so hot in my life as right now... Mosquitos are also out in full force, I have lost count of how many bites on my leg. I just say that so that all of you who are freezing cold right now feel better!
The last week in South Africa was great. We got to go to the beach on our day off and swam in the sea and enjoyed the waves for hours.
We worked quite a lot with a church that had a feeding programme for homeless people in our last week, and visited a ´shelter´ one day which was horrific. As soon as you entered you were blasted by the smell of urine and drugs, and it was incredibly sad to talk to people and hear their stories. There were kids of 10 years old who were sniffing glue and the living conditions were just horrible. It is encouraging to hear that the church we were with have stories of many people they´ve been able to help but we were all pretty shocked by the whole experience.
Despite apartheid being officially over, we were still surprised by the extent of segregation between black and white, although it is obviously much better than it once was. There is also a massive divide between rich and poor - in our time there we were in Estates with houses unlike anything I've ever seen - huge and beautiful - as well as in squatter camps.
I've also never been in a place where your average person on the street speaks at least 3 languages (English, Afrikaans and Sotho or Zulu, for example), and it is not uncommon to meet people who speak 6 or more languages. As a result I didn't pick up too much more than the greetings in Sotho, Zulu and Afrikaans, because it was too confusing! I'm still a bit confused between languages because yesterday when someone in town spoke to me in Spanish I was so confused, staring at her and wondering why on earth she was speaking in Spanish, before I remembered that I was in Argentina!
We finish the DTS on Friday this week, and during the week I'll be deciding on the next step, so will post up the decision as soon as it's made! It is really nice to be back here and to see the rest of the students... another team have just arrived and no we are only awaiting 3 more.
Hasta luego!
The last week in South Africa was great. We got to go to the beach on our day off and swam in the sea and enjoyed the waves for hours.
We worked quite a lot with a church that had a feeding programme for homeless people in our last week, and visited a ´shelter´ one day which was horrific. As soon as you entered you were blasted by the smell of urine and drugs, and it was incredibly sad to talk to people and hear their stories. There were kids of 10 years old who were sniffing glue and the living conditions were just horrible. It is encouraging to hear that the church we were with have stories of many people they´ve been able to help but we were all pretty shocked by the whole experience.
Despite apartheid being officially over, we were still surprised by the extent of segregation between black and white, although it is obviously much better than it once was. There is also a massive divide between rich and poor - in our time there we were in Estates with houses unlike anything I've ever seen - huge and beautiful - as well as in squatter camps.
I've also never been in a place where your average person on the street speaks at least 3 languages (English, Afrikaans and Sotho or Zulu, for example), and it is not uncommon to meet people who speak 6 or more languages. As a result I didn't pick up too much more than the greetings in Sotho, Zulu and Afrikaans, because it was too confusing! I'm still a bit confused between languages because yesterday when someone in town spoke to me in Spanish I was so confused, staring at her and wondering why on earth she was speaking in Spanish, before I remembered that I was in Argentina!
We finish the DTS on Friday this week, and during the week I'll be deciding on the next step, so will post up the decision as soon as it's made! It is really nice to be back here and to see the rest of the students... another team have just arrived and no we are only awaiting 3 more.
Hasta luego!
posted by Karen Tigar @ 12:58 AM
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