An early sunrise wakes up some members of the team!

An early sunrise wakes up some members of the team!  The first day’s assignment is waiting at the ‘Childrens’ Embassy’.

We started with a friendly and productive meeting scheduled with the local Munsieville councillors who unfortunately were not able to attend but kindly sent their representatives.

Following this we taken by Daphne Van to visit ‘Mama Gloria’ (Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s sister who has lived is born and lived her whole life in Munsieville).  The visit was very enjoyable and Arif (got lucky) as Mama Gloria requested that he measure her blood pressure!

During the afternoon, we spent some time at the Childrens’ Embassy where we were party to a meeting that was going on between some of the youth volunteers who were discussing the upcoming Tshepo festival.  We were very impressed when we heard ‘Mighty Joe’ say ‘listening is not a talent, listening is a skill’.

Later that afternoon, we were taken on a tour of the surrounding areas of Mshengeville, where the whole population live in shacks. It was very poignant and emotive as we walked around and saw peoples’ living conditions. However, there hope when we were shown a ‘better’ hut that was built recently to replace a family’s  shack which burnt down a few months ago, following an arson attack. It was good to see how the community can pull together and help each other.

Today, we started assignments properly. The Safety team were accompanying the trained local Home Safety Volunteers to train the shack households about the most important paraffin hazards (and how to avoid them). The team were very impressed at the Volunteers’ skills in communicating, understanding the issue, getting the message across and engaging the families.

The Health team visited the Munsieville Primary Health care clinic for the first time and were welcomed. The day was spent talking to key staff members and sitting in clinics to better understand the issues that they are currently dealing with.

On a lighter note, something that made us laugh a lot, was that Robert (Manson) was mistaken for being a Mexican! Due no doubt due to his flamboyant moustache and ability to arch his eyebrow!

La nota graciosa  del dia, que nos hizo reir bastante, está relacionada con el extravagante bigote y la forma de arquer las cejas de Robert (Manson), algunos adolescentes de la comunidad pensaron que era mejicano.

Veronica & Arif J