Global Poverty Monitor

On the aeroplane I had a window seat near the back. The flight was only an hour long, but we were served breakfast anyway. Even though I was already full I had scrambled eggs and a hash brown, yoghurt and orange juice. The flight was really short and smooth. When we landed I went straight to baggage claim and only had a wait a little while for my suitcase. I went through into the lounge and there were about four different people holding up signs. One was for the YMCA, then I found a guy with a sign for ‘Go Explore Community Volunteers’. My name was on his list (spelt wrong) so I waited there with him for the others. There were 8 of us altogether, and we put us and all of our stuff in a little van then started driving. After about half an hour we ended up at a wildlife program, where one girl was dropped off. We then drove for maybe another half hour and went to the Go Explore office. We were there only a few minutes, just met the program leader and picked up one other girl, then were back in the van. A few minutes later we arrived at the Lodge. The landscape and gardens are really nice, and it reminds me quite a bit of the Ubezi Tiger Lounge in Tete.

We took all of our stuff and gathered in the entrance, where we were given a glass of juice and then shown to our rooms. I was first, and the only one from the group to be put in Room 1. Its got two rooms with two bunks in each, so I put my stuff on one of the lower bunks then had a look around. The bathroom is pretty basic, and has only a bath and no shower. Soon another bus load of people arrived, and I had two roommates move in – Fleur and Kayleigh. They are both from Amsterdam and speak in what I assume to be Dutch. They can speak English but choose not to. The had come with a whole group of people, and wanted another of their friends to move in, so we did that, then they decided to move into the second of the two rooms, so we all moved our stuff in and I got stuck with a top bunk. I suppose I don’t mind but I’ve only ever slept in a bottom bunk before. The girls seem nice when they speak in English, which is only when they need to tell me something – the rest of the time I can’t understand anything they’re saying. Of the groups that I came from the airport with, most speak in German, so again I was out of the conversation. Its really strange – I just assumed that people would be speaking English or Afrikaans here. A lot of people in South Africa speak in Afrikaans, but all of the signs and notices in airports, shops, streets etc are all in English. So its really strange and hard to be living with a bunch of Europeans who wont speak English.

Today we just have to ‘relax and meet the other volunteers’, but we’ve been here for a couple of hours and its only just after 1pm. I have no idea what to do with the rest of today but I know it will be spent in silence, unless I can pick up a couple of extra languages really really quickly. Tomorrow we have orientation in the morning and then we’re going to visit the projects, so that will be good. Apparently on Wednesday we’re going to a talk about AIDS, and then we can start visiting the projects on Thursday. I hope that’s not all we’re doing on Wednesday otherwise I wont know what to do with myself. Also I’m not sure what happens on weekends, as I don’t think we visit the projects then.

Now it’s onwards and upwards to Sacramento, CA.