Hands Orientation

On Monday me and the other 7 people on my intake (3 Canadians, 2 Australians, 1 American and 1 other Brit) started our 5 week long Hands at Work Orientation. We started by going into the community and learning about how Hands works and how they set up their structures across Africa. I really enjoyed this and felt like I had a good knowledge of the Hands at Work system; from there we went to a community in Clau Clau called Siyathuthuka where Hands helps support a Community Based Organisation (a CBO). I have visited this CBO a few times; the last time was in July/August 2012. It was really encouraging to see all the changes that have happened in just 6 months. From massive changes like the construction of a 6 roomed house (where in August 6 people lived in one room and one bed) to small, but equally encouraging, changes like having stainless steel bowls and spoons at the CBO (where before the children had to bring whatever bowls they owned).

On Tuesday we visited a community in Bush Buck Ridge called Welverdiend. Here I and a small group of volunteers joined a care worker on her routine home visits, after visiting some families in eye-opening situations we were walking to the next home when it started to drizzle, so we walked on and then the drizzle turned to rain, so we sheltered under a tree. Then after fifteen minutes the rain turned into a fully grown African downpour. The dirt roads started growing their own little streams and gullies and we ran to a nearby child-headed-household. I’ve been in many child-headed-households and other homes in the communities I’ve visited but never in weather like that; the holes in the tin roof dripped water into bowls and rain trickled down the walls and under the doors. The metal roof was so loud in the rain that I couldn’t hear people talking feet from me. As I looked out of one of the broken windows it really made me think about how it would feel to spend a rainy night in one of the thousands of houses just like this one. At first I thought it would be exiting but then I thought about having to do it night after night for the whole of the rainy season … and then the cold nights of the dry season … and then again the next year for a whole lifetime. I had a lot to think about that night and I’m sure I’ll be thinking about it for many nights to come.