Gap Year Experiences

A hot week at Gozololo

Saturday 21 February 2009

Greetings from a sweltering day in Durban. It is 32 degrees already and its not even mid-day. The humidity is also incredibly high which makes it seem at least 40. Basically its hot. I'm sitting writing this in the shade of a palm tree with Carrie and Lucy in the pool below me. All in all life isn't too bad in Durban. We have been here for a little over a week now and it has been a good week. Our days have been spent at Gozololo children's shelter just outside the city and afternoons have been a mix of swimming, the beach and gateway shopping centre where the girls have been taking advantage of the sales. We also managed to fit in a 20/20 cricket match which ended with an unbelievable 6 off the last ball to see the home side, the Dolphins draw the game.

Gozololo is a truly remarkable place. Meaning "stay a while" or halfway-house, it began just over 10 years ago in its founder, Miriam's kitchen. She realised the need for a place that young children from the surrounding areas could spend time in, off the streets and in a safe environment. It has now grown to 3 centres, taking care of more than 300 kids up to the age of 6. Most of the children are either orphans or have a single parent and come from very impoverished areas. Gozololo provides a place where they can spend their days, with other children and teachers taking care of them. The amazing thing to see is how happy all these kids are. Spending a while there is a real privilege and its great to see it growing bigger every time I visit.

Our week consisted of a lot of DIY activities. The first task was painting and putting in shelves in the new tuck shop. This was followed by varnishing the playground jungle gym and repainting the playground fencing. The girls were seriously impressive with their DIY skills, putting everything into into the drilling and painting. Lucy's painting skills were unbelievable with her attention to detail second to none. We also spent a morning visiting a brand new centre where the building has just been finished and the kids are starting to arrive.

On Friday morning we popped in for a sad farewell to all the kids. I think everyone found it hard to let go of some of the kids but its was a great week and it had to end at some point. Last night saw us back at Joe Cools for a few chilled drinks and this evening we are going down to Kings Park rugby stadium to watch the home side, the Sharks play their opening home super14 game of the season. It should be a great evening as the Sharks always put on a good show. Tomorrow morning its 30 minutes down the coast to Umkomaas where we will spend the week diving Aliwal Shoal, voted one of the top ten dive spots in the world.
Cheers
Vince