We are Benjamin Wertlen and Benjamin Wilhelm, the new volunteers from the German government-supported “weltwaerts”-program. Both of us are going to do voluntary work at Awarenet for a year. We will also be assisting the staff in various tasks and taking care of online communication including for instance uploads on the Awarenet facebook account and helping learners with the OLICO maths program. In the following we are going to give a little insight about our first week in Makhanda and at the Joza Youth Hub.
After we arrived in Makhanda we got a tour around town including a visit at the 1820 National Settlers Monument and the downtown area with the most important shops. We also visited several schools where the local Awarenet robotics tutors led several robotics lessons showing not only the learners but also us how coding works. Additionally, Awarenet maths instructors taught learners math using the OLICO maths program. In addition to that, we got to see a meeting as a part of the SD card project. Throughout the week, we got isiXhosa lessons at the Joza Youth Hub from other employees and to witness some of the vibe in South Africa we also watched the Rugby game between the Springboks and the All-Blacks at the local favorite pub “Rat & Parrot”.
We went to two Imicimbi, which are Xhosa rituals in which one communicates with one’s ancestors. There we also got to try the traditional Xhosa beer “Mqombothi” which had quite a unique taste. Both of us had never tried something like it before and attending the rituals was an experience we will never forget. Furthermore, we got a tour through the Joza township where we took many pictures, some people even asking that we take pictures of them.
But a place like Awarenet isn’t all work, because we went for instance on a hike around Mountain Drive or to a board games evening at Rhodes University. To finish off the week, we went to Gqeberha to attend the farewell party of two volunteers of Masifunde, a partner organization of Awarenet, where we got to try fantastic South African braai specialties. Additionally, we got a safety introduction in Gqeberha preparing us for emergencies.
Both of us had an amazing week and it was lots of fun.