Monday, 25.2.19

Today was finally the day and I was allowed to go to work. Steph and Paul left the house every morning around 8:30 am. In my opinion, a pretty cozy time to go to work. So this morning too. They told me, come on, we have to go to work! We drove to the city to the marketplace and got out. I thought we would stop there to drop off Steph at the office or to pick up something. However, they sat down and had a coffee. I like that! Rushing to work at half past 8 and then sitting down for another half an hour to drink coffee. After coffee, we headed to a children's home, but it looked closed, which is probably still a consequence of the unrest in the township. Therefore, we went to the 'House of Hope'. This was a kind of lunchroom where children from 1st grade to high school get food. This lunchroom was founded by a Swiss couple from Landquart. However, they only come here occasionally when they are on vacation in South Africa. But they finance it. Steph accompanied me to the kitchen, where 4 black women (all around 70) were already cooking. Then she briefly told them who I am (the women didn't know I was coming) and then left me alone. Maria, the boss, showed me where I could put my things and went back to the kitchen. After that, I walked around a bit and took photos. The lunchroom was very lovingly designed inside and out. It consists of a room with several long tables, a small kitchen, a small storage room, and an office. It also has a girls' and boys' bedroom, where children could stay overnight in case of emergencies. However, they have never needed these rooms. After looking at everything about three times, I went back to the kitchen and asked if I could help. They said no, go outside and take a break. A break from doing nothing? So I sat outside and watched the village life. The village looks rather poor. Some houses look sturdy and are made of concrete, but in between there are many houses made of corrugated iron or wood. One of the kitchen ladies (Abidih) told me that there are also many white people living here. But I haven't seen a single one and Paul confirmed later that practically only black people live here. While I was sitting outside, the daughter of one of the cooks came with her almost two-year-old son AJ. I went to him and talked to him. He started throwing his hat to me. At some point, I threw his hat back to him and he caught it immediately, we did this several times and you could quickly see how he became more and more confident in throwing and catching. The mother then told me that this was the first time he had caught something.
After my break from doing nothing, I went back inside. The cooks were all sitting at the tables. One was eating, Maria was knitting, and one was sleeping at the table. In between, one would occasionally get up to stir the rice pot. By the way, they started cooking rice with canned vegetables and meat at 8 o'clock in the morning. The children came at 1:30 pm. So I was sitting at the table with the four cooks and listened to them gossiping in Afrikaans. About an hour. I would occasionally go outside, read all the names on the sponsors' board, walk around the building, and stare into space.
Around 1 pm, we started portioning the food into small bowls and making it available for the children. Depending on which grade they are in, they get more or less food. There are about a hundred children who come for food every day. The first ones came at half past 1. They had to take off their backpacks outside first and then stand in a line one after the other, girls and boys separated. When everyone was standing nicely, they said a prayer and only then were they allowed in. The children are very disciplined! They all stood nicely in line to get food and thanked me when I gave them a bowl. You could tell that the children are very hungry. The portion was empty within a few minutes and there were no leftovers. After eating, I went outside and chatted with the children who were still waiting for their friends. The children were very fascinated by my camera and wanted to take one photo after another. They are very open and have no fear of contact. Unfortunately, they all had to go quickly. They only came for food and then went home. The children come in staggered until around 2:30 pm. After that, everything had to be washed and cleaned, and I was allowed to help. Everything was washed in the same sink. That means the first things became quite clean and with the last plates, the food only got smeared and didn't really come off anymore. But I think the children don't mind if the dishes are not completely clean. The bowls in which the food is served are old take-out containers that would otherwise be thrown away.
After work at around 3 pm, Paul picked me up again and we went home. Steph also finished work then, although the tourist office was actually supposed to be open until 7 pm. The timetables here are more of an approximate indication. We ended the day in the garden with a beer and then had dinner in front of the TV.