Volunteer Work in Cape Town

Soup Kitchen

Once a week, we help out a lovely lady called Mary distributing soup and bread to the residents of the slum in Capricorn. The food for the soup kitchen is provided by Dreams to Reality, the NGO we paid to find our volunteer placement with children in Cape Town.

Soup Kitchen in Capricorn

Mary runs a small crèche, located on the back of her house in Capricorn. She has some volunteers helping her on a daily basis through DTR. She also volunteers to cook these huge pots of soup for her less fortunate neighbors, who are more than happy to queue up for a second or third cup of her delicious soup. My sister and I felt very happy to know that the money we paid to this organization is being spent in such a nice way, helping people in need.

Dine, Mary and Clau

Mother’s Unite

My sister and I found Mother’s Unite through our friend Nick, whom lives in Cape Town. This organization, located in Seawinds, next to the Lavender Hill township (another slum in Cape Town), started with one mother, who took disadvantaged children to her own house to give them a meal after school.

Mother's Unite

This year, Mother’s Unite will celebrate its 5^th year, catering for about 120 children and teenagers between 3 and 16 years old. There are seven mothers, who volunteer their time to help out the disadvantaged children in their community. These proud mothers do various tasks including cooking, teaching, helping out in the vegetable garden, assisting people with HIV etc.

Meal time, happy time!

After some negotiation with the council they finally got a block of land, where they could place their containers, which were also donated to them. Now, they have a playground for the young children and plenty of space for the children to enjoy Mac’s delicious meals. The mothers are very nice and also invited us to join them for lunch, which we happily accepted! Mother’s Unite was the first place we got to try local South African food, which was a big treat to us!

Lunch with Volunteer Mothers

The children come to Mother’s Unite after school, instead of staying on the street and getting into trouble. Here I am teaching children from grades 2 and 3 with Dine’s help. This is Mother’s Mac class and she’s more than happy to get some help from volunteers with her 32 students! We are teaching the children English although a lot of them really want to learn Portuguese and everything there is to know about our culture. J Dine and I really enjoy working there with the mothers and the children. They are all great!

Volunteering teaching Grades 2 and 3



Aid Teacher Dine :-)

Places visited in Cape Town

Chapman’s Peak Drive & Hout Bay

Chapman’s Peak and Hout Bay have to be one of the most stunning places I have visited in Cape Town so far. Although words or pictures cannot describe the vast beauty of these places, I’m posting some photos for you to check them out anyway.

Chapman's Peak Lookout

During our driving through Chapman’s Peak drive, we had a quick stop at a lookout to take these splendid pictures, which reflect the colossal mountains surrounding Hout Bay and its harbor. We spent some time in a nice restaurant, where we could enjoy the beautiful views of this place whilst watching a big seal swimming around the harbor. I’ve seen seals in most beaches we’ve visited in the Cape Peninsula. This shows that here is still a pristine place, although their population has been increasing rapidly with the big number of refugees coming from other less fortunate African countries.

Hout Bay

My sister and I were very lucky to have met some wonderful locals (friends of friends from Australia), who have been showing us around some of these beautiful places. Our newest friend Sheila, whom still speaks fondly of Hout Bay, after being here for the past 18 years, took us for a drive through the Imizamo Yethu township, which is a slum on the outskirts of Hout Bay.

Clau, Sheila and Dine

According to Sheila, this slum accommodates some twenty thousand refugees, who have made Hout Bay their home. Sheila said that the locals have been living peacefully with the newcomers and occasionally an odd thing happens here and there, usually with locals or tourists who were being careless. Although, the adults and children seemed to stare at us a bit, they all seemed friendly. Similarly to Brazil, there are tours taking tourists to visit this and other townships throughout South Africa.


Imizamo Yethu Township - Slum with a View

Scarborough Beach

Another beach we visited, with local friends Nick and Gav, was also pretty special. At Scarborough beach we had a glimpse at the Misty Mountains, which also accounted for some spectacular views. The driving along the coast to get to this beach was also stunning. We saw road signs on the way alerting the drives to the presence of baboons. As this wasn’t a sunny day, we didn’t have a chance to spot any of these monkeys, but I’m sure I’ll get a snapshot of them before I leave this place.

Misty

Mountains Apart from us ‘bloody tourists’, our friends and a few locals walking their dogs, the beach was pretty much empty, being engulfed by the misty coming from the mountains. We’ve experienced a few misty days since our arrival in Cape Town and it must be said that their dramatic look is just as beautiful as a sunny day.



Clau, Nick and Dine

After our trotting around, Nick and Gav took us to a charming old farm house for lunch. I didn’t know what to expect in Cape Town, apart from the beautiful beaches and mountains, but I’m delighted to say that their food is surprisingly good! I thought I wasn’t going to eat fish or seafood for the next 6 months, after Dine getting food poisoning during our trip to Peru after we had fish, but here it’s safe to eat fish. We had fresh local fish straight from Kalk Bay harbor and delicious seafood during a wine tour up in the mountains in Stellenbosh, Franshoek & Paarl, but this will be another story! J

Life in Cape Town, South Africa

Welcome to Trotting All Around!

Hi, my name is Claudiene Vilasboas. I’m originally from Brazil, São Paulo city, but have been living in Australia for the past eleven years. After requests from some friends, I decided to start this blog, so they can read about my 6 months journey trotting around South Africa, Kenya and India to volunteer with children and women. I apologise in advance for any spelling mistakes. Unfortunately, my good friend and sole proof-reader Elaine could not join me on this trip. J I hope you enjoy the reading and find the information on this blog useful. Feel free to email me with any questions that you may have.

First stop! Cape Town

Cape Town is the oldest city in South Africa and one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. The combination of coastline and huge mountains gives this city a wonderful and relaxed atmosphere. Although I heard from many locals that it can be a dangerous place for foreigners, especially in the evenings, and we should watch our back when walking on the streets or taking public transport like trains.

Fish Hoek Beach

I arrived in Cape Town on 1^st of July 2012, where I met with my sister Dine, whom came from Brazil to join me on this trip. It is winter here and the days are typically sunny, followed by cold mornings and evenings in addition to the rain. A rainy jacket is very useful in a place like this! Since my arrival, I have seen rainbows nearly everyday, as well as misty days, which are also very beautiful. 



Dine and Clau at Peck's Valley, in Muizenberg

Muizenberg Beach - the best surf in town

My sister and I will spend 6 weeks in Muizenberg, which we heard is one of the best beaches to go surfing in Cape Town. We go to the beach nearly every afternoon to watch the locals and the tourists surfing. I’m planning on taking some surfing lessons soon, even though everyone says that the water is icy cold. A large number of surfers wear wetsuits from head to toe. It’s a one piece suit with a kind of hat and shoes attached to it, if you can call them like that.

Muizenberg Beach

Volunteer Work in Capricorn Area

My volunteer placement in Cape Town was organised through a NGO called International Volunteer HQ (IVHQ). We have been volunteering in child care centers in the Capricorn slums for nearly two weeks. It has been a humbling and enjoyable experience for both my sister and I. The children we are working with range between 4 to 5 years old. We are working in the same class with very friendly teachers called Glennys and Florence. They get us involved in all class activities with the children, including drawing, play-dough, dancing and reading them stories, which they love! We also assist them with their food, toileting and play with them in the playground, during the class intervals.

The children in general seem to get pretty attached to the volunteers and vice-versa. Every morning when we arrive at the centre, they open the biggest smiles as soon as they see us. They love climbing on our laps to cover us with kisses and cuddles. The children’s happiness is contagious and most volunteers can’t stop the smile on their faces also, myself included! The same happens when we leave, with the difference that then the children are not all smiling but with sad faces instead.

Our Accommodation in Muizenberg

IVHQ also organized our accommodation in conjunction with a local NGO in Muizenberg called Dreams to Reality (DTR). We were initially based in a volunteer house with lots of other volunteers, which was pretty similar to a backpacker. We were not very happy with our accommodation and on the next day we asked if they could find us a new place, which they did. Now, we are staying with a host family, in a small house, on the back of their main house. The house is great, clean and in a quiet spot. We are very happy here! Sadly, we can’t use their lovely swimming pool because the water is freezing cold.

Accommodation in Muizenberg

The family has a lovely male jack russel dog called Jonty. We both enjoy his company very much! He comes to our house every day to greet us, to look for something to eat and to play with us. He’s a very clever dog!



Jonty

Train Ride in Cape Town

I heard from a number of locals that they will not catch the train in Cape Town, which they call Metro Rail, as most of them said that it is too risky. They drive their cars instead. As my sister and I don’t have a car here, we opted to catch the train, which is the cheapest way of public transport available. We hardly see any buses around town, apart from what they call mini-bus taxi, which is also a very cheap way of public transport (it’s a mini-van).

On the train, people can opt to buy 1^st or 3^rd class tickets. Initially, we were advised by some locals to ride only on 1^st class, which is the most expensive. After meeting up with a few more locals, we were told to ride only on 3^rd class, especially during off pick hours, as 1^st class wagons are usually empty during those hours and it could be potentially dangerous for us. By this they meant that bad things could happen to us, such as being robbed. We were also told not to walk on the streets or take the train after 6pm, which is already dark and to take a taxi instead.

The trains are usually dirty as most people throw their unwanted stuff on the floor, although there are rubbish bins everywhere in the train stations. In fact, I have never seen a city with some many public rubbish bins like here. They are everywhere!

On a positive note, there are condoms available in the train stations for any passenger to help themselves. They are free of cost, which I thought to be a first-class service! J