Swansong.

As I make yet another draft of this post, I am in Doha, Qatar. It's 2.30am in Cape Town, I think it's around 00.30am in England and it might be 3.30am here but I'm not entirely sure I know what time zone I'm in! I've left South Africa and I don't currently plan on returning as a volunteer. I know this is probably quite a surprise but let me reassure you, it wasn't a last minute decision. About 2 months ago, I wasn't working at all and I was getting very bored and slightly depressed as there didn't seem to be anything for me to do. I spoke to my manager and mum about it and decided to return to England in time for x-mas. I definitely feel this was the right thing to do and I have no regrets!

I have changed so much over my 2 years in South Africa, all for the better, and I think if I hadn't taken the gap year as well as going back I wouldn't be half the person I am now. The children's home gave me so many skills I can and will use in life - who else can say they worked in an environment where they had to manage 30 Germans as well as caring for 10-15 Afrikaans and Xhosa children?! I have met people who have inspired and taught me to do things with my life that I never would have even considered. I don't want this to become overly mushy because I'm already the crazy person that cries on the plane and I don't really want to be the person sobbing alone in the airport! But I cannot really put into words the gratitude I have for all the people that helped me get here and the amazing people I met along the way. I'm also pretty darned proud of myself for raising something like £10000.

My plan now is to set up drumming circles in England. I've been running one every other week with the younger children at the home which they've loved, I hope to be able to run circles in care homes, schools, homeless shelters and maybe even hospitals and prisons if I'm allowed! As soon as it's online, I'll post a link to the blog/website I make for the drumming and anyone interested can come along to any circles I run!

I want to thank everybody that helped me in anyway and all the hundreds of people I met along the way. This is beginning to get a bit cheesy so I'm going to leave it there. The pictures from my holiday are in the post below! :)

Damson.

Promised Pictures!

Our guide at Robben Island

Mandela's Garden, where he hid his manuscript before it was smuggled out.

Labourie wine farm in Paarl

Paarl mountain in the background

Mum at Thursday drumming

Baboons

Chapman's pass

Hout Bay market

The 'blind trail' at Kirstenbosch. It featured scented and textured plants with a rope to guide you round.

Braai-ing at Montague

In the Karoo (desert)

Cango Caves

A sign at one of the backpackers. It made me happy!

Our guide at Schotia with a leopard tortoise

Male white rhino

Goshawk at Addo

Our Cheetah friend

Rainbow at Chrisling lodge, over the mud huts

Mum on the river safari

Fish Eagle...with fish!

Two bull elephants

Testing what feels nice on his face!

Morning lion

Addo dawn drive

Vervet monkeys on the side of the road

Cheryl swimming in funky tannin filled river water at Teniqua

Teniqua treehouses. And my fantastic outfit!

Cheryl and Mum on Table Mountain

Me just off Table Mountain

She knows she's got the sale! (it was a beaded guinea fowl)

Veld fire on Lion's Head

Days 14 and 15

Day 14: Table Mountain.

Just hanging around above Camps Bay.

 Day 14 was spent on Table Mountain. We all made our separate ways to the top: me in the cable car, mum hiking and Cheryl rock climbing (and reaching the top to a group of rather surprised tourists as she pulled herself over the wrong side of the wall!). We then got to abseil down again which was nerve wrecking but an awful lot of fun. At one point we had to go from walking down the cliff face, to jumping off and dangling in mid air to lower ourselves the last bit, it was hard working out how to step off the overhang without accidentally smacking your face into the rock, but after that it was great!

The afternoon we just spent chilling because we'd been up since 5am and were tired. I went to go talk to Manan - the guy who runs the drumming on Long Market Street, Mum had a look round some of the shops on Long Street and Cheryl took a nap. In the evening, Cheryl met up with her climbing friends to say goodbye and me and Mum went to Mama Africa, then Durbanville because I have to take 2 full size djembe's home and won't have room for all my clothes, Mum and Cheryl are taking my patchwork coat, violin and as many jumpers as they can fit.

Day 15: Red Bus Tour

Coffee in bed!

Day 15 is the last day and we all had a lie in. Actually, that's not true...Cheryl was supposed to go climbing on Table Mountain again so she was up at 7am so I was too because we were sharing a room. However a Cape Doctor blew in (strong wind - I can't even think of wind of a similar strength in England) and her climb got called off. We both went up to Mum's room, had a coffee and decided what to do that day. We spent the morning on Long Street and Greenmarket Square getting souvenirs for them and went for a red bus tour in the afternoon. We walked along the promenade at sea point and had lunch at the waterfront, we wanted to go up signal hill for the view but there was a bush fire on Lions Head so we got evacuated off. Instead we came back to Durbanville to put all the photo's on my laptop as back up before Mum and Cheryl left for the airport. Overall it's been a fantastic holiday!

Lunch was had at the same place we had our first coffee, only this time you can't see Table Mountain for all the clouds!

Day 12 and 13.

Day 12: Teniqua

Part of our tree house.

 Day 12 starts with the morning sun on our tent but thankfully we didn't get up until 7/7.30am. The biggest spiders we've seen so far are about the size of a teabag and dead which isn't too bad, although we have seen smaller living ones. Once we'd had breakfast, we headed off to the weekly market in Sedgefield to get some veg for our braai tonight and some Christmas presents for mum and Cheryl to take home. Mum has been saying things like 'if you're going to make a living from djembe drumming, then you need to ave a certain 'look' that people will remember you by' so I have decided that 'look' shall be as colourful and quirky as I can make it! I already have the bowler hat from Hout Bay market (which I'm going to customise) and mum very kindly bought me a pair of flour-bag trousers and an african patchwork shirt at the market, hopefully I can make some more of my own when I get home.

This afternoon we went for a walk down to the river, but I'd been feeling quite shaky all day and had begun to feel dizzy, so mum and Cheryl continued to the river and I headed back to light the braai. I think I just haven't been drinking enough because it's been really hot recently so I'm going to pour myself a glass of rainwater!

Day 13: Teniqua to Cape Town.

There were 3 rain spiders in the bathroom last night...this coffee is needed!

Day 13 is another driving day. It's around 400km from Sedgefield to Cape Town so we planned to set off as early as possible (10am!) so as to get to Cape Town before dark. As we only stopped off for a quick sandwich break, we made it by about 4pm. We're staying at a hotel on Long Street called Daddy Long Legs and all of the rooms are designed by a different person and have unique themes. I room I was in was called 'You Are Here' and had various maps around the room as wallpaper. The ceiling had a huge map of Cape Town, and the other walls had the western cape, south africa, africa and the world. You also receive a free welcome drink so we had that, then went down long market street to the eastern food bazaar for supper and an early night!

Day 10 and 11

Day 10: Addo.

Mum: 'Damson, stop pulling faces.' Me: 'But I'm trying to eat my breakfast'

Today, day 10, started with a river safari! We got picked up in a jeep full of women on an work trip/holiday (?) and most of whom seemed to be from in or around Durbanville! We were driven down to the river and told to group into pairs for the boats, but, because there was an odd number, I got to ride with the guide. The other women seemed quite nice, but were only there because all the men were playing golf (I kid you not) and were quite loud and giggly which scared off all the birds me, mum and Cheryl were trying to spot. One pair of them had a complete inability to row in a straight line and had to get rescued from the reeds every 3 minutes so the guide suggested I swap with one of them as I've rowed before and had a vague notion of steering. I climbed to the back of my boat while one of the women climbed in the front and we were off again-this time in a straight line! Because the boat I was in had originally been the guide's boat, we had the cooler of drinks and as soon as the other woman realised this, she immediately pulled out a Savannah (cider) and cracked it open on the side of her oar and earned herself the nickname beery-hat. Although I didn't see many birds and I got the joy of sharing with beery-hat, the morning was quite nice, and Mum and Cheryl who were sharing a boat saw lots of kingfishers and even a water monitor (which Cheryl apparently mistook for a crocodile when it jumped out the water near her!).

After the river safari, we went straight into a park safari in Addo. This time we were  with a guide and not self driving, but after our luck the day before, I wasn't expecting to see much especially as the couple we were sharing the jeep with apparently hadn't seen anything at all that morning. We got to the picnic area for a braai lunch and got talking to the couple who were also English. The husband had been researching and planning this trip since February and had only used a rough guide book and trip advisor and happily told us that 'anyone that says you need to use anything else is wrong!' The wife merely said he needed to get a life! And on that, they earned themselves the nicknames Terry and June! Just to add to everything, after they had ensured their flights were cheaper than Mum and Cheryl's, they told us they only wanted to see an elephant cross the road ("you know, like you see on youtube") and maybe if they were lucky, a tiger. We began to wonder if they hadn't seen anything because they'd been looking for the biggest thing in the park and missing anything smaller, and not to mention they were on the wrong continent for tigers!

Anyway, we got back in the jeep, and with me, mum and Cheryl spotting things for everyone, Terry and June's afternoon seemed to perk up a little. Most of what we saw were really cool little birds such as bright yellow weavers, green glossy starlings and the occasional blue-y green malachite kingfisher. We saw a few kudu, several flightless dung beetles and even some distant elephants. I was beginning to wish we had either done another self-drive,  or just left it at our spectacular cheetah sighting when we turned a corner into a massive herd of elephants right next to the road! There were at least 20 or 30 of them from huge bulls, to tiny tiny calfs. We moved slightly forward when one of the biggest bulls suddenly charged at one of the smaller ones, if we had been self-driving we probably would have reversed straight out of there but the guide stayed put and although the bull grazed slowly past our vehicle, he never payed us too much attention more than the rare inquisitive look. We moved forward again a stopped near the matriarch of the group who was keeping an eye on one of the smallest calfs. Almost as soon as she noticed us, she came right over as if she was going to getly headbutt the jeep, but veered off last minute and simply ambled behind us to the other side of the road, with the calf trotting along behind. Terry and June got their youtube worthy moment and the 3 of us felt like the luckiest people alive!

Day 11: Driving to Teniqua.

What a morning coffee shot!

Day 11 started way to early for me at 5am when we got up as we'd decided to try our luck one last time and go to Addo for a dawn self-drive. We got to the park at around 5.45 as the gates said they opened at 5.30, however the guard on the gate told us that you could only self-drive from 7am. No matter, we charmed our way in! Again, I had low expectations - Addo is a humongous park (around 444 700 acres) and although they have more than 600 elephants, they only have 6 lions and 2 cheetah which only served to intensify our disbelief at our luck!

Almost as soon as we were through the gate,  we almost ran over a kudu as it sprang from the bush straight in front of our car. We continued on and saw some more spectacular birds and after 5 or 10 minutes or so, came across a safari jeep that had stopped to watch something. We pulled up behind it to see if we could see anything but nothing was obvious. All of a sudden, something caught my eye and after asking mum to reverse slightly so I could see better, I realised it was a mane. Lying in the bush, sunning its-self in the early morning warmth, barely visible from the road was a massive lion! I'm not even making this up. We watched it snooze for 10 minutes when something else moved near by and another lion sat up! It was the same two we'd seen by the cheetah and after listening to the (very noisy) guide from the jeep, we learnt they were cousins, 4.5 years old and had been together since they were 2. We drove on after they both stood up and wandered almost completely out of sight, into some shaded bush, and we didn't see much after that other than some zebra crossing the road (which we stopped for several 'zebra crossing' jokes and photos!). And we were back to the lodge in time for breakfast!

We had a 4-5 hour drive to our next accommodation, situated between Knysna and Sedgefield, a place called Teniqua Treetops. That's right, Cheryl booked us into a treehouse! Oh yeah! The way we drove to Teniqua took us over Bloukrans bridge, where I did my bungee nearly 2 years ago and I happily pointed it out to mum and Cheryl who immediately felt slightly ill :) We drove on to Tsitsikamma (yeesh I've been here a lot!) and it's national park where we stopped for a quick jaunt along the coast, then back in the car and onwards to Tenquia. There are 8 treehouses here, but they're so far away from each other that you might as well be alone in the forest, which is probably for the best as there aren't really any walls, even in the bathroom! The bedrooms are completely enclosed in canvas but are the only areas that are, the rest of the treehouse either has barriers to stop you falling off, and the bathroom has one semi-transparent wooden fence/wall so you have at least a sliver of privacy (although the other walls are completely open to the forest. The tap water is pumped up from the river, so it's almost coca-cola coloured because of all the tannins in the water from the fynbos. There is a separate tap for drinking water-it pipes rain water! The only downside, is that because there aren't really walls that keep things out, rain spiders and baboon spiders are frequent visitors apparently. Rain spiders only come in when it's about to rain (hence the name) but they're about the size of your hand. Baboon spiders are known elsewhere around the world as tarantulas. I will be sleeping well tonight! 

Days 7 and 8.

Day 7: Driving

Route 62, it isn't actually a sex shop, just a cafe/pub!

Day 7 has been a day of almost continuous driving as we have to get as close to Port Elizabeth (PE) as we can. We set off from Montague around 10am and headed to Oudtshoorn with the plan of stopping at an ostrich farm there and for coffee. In a bizarre twist on the day, had coffee at Ronnie's Sex shop instead! I should probably point out that it is a roadside cafe/pub on Route 62 that is very popular with tourists probably only because of the name, and I didn't go to a sex shop with my mum. We carried on to Oudtshoorn and decided last minute to go to the Cango Caves instead of the ostrich farm in the hope that it would be less touristy. It wasn't, but they split our tour into Germans and non-Germans so the group of maybe 30ish people ended up with only 6 of us in the English speaking group so it was almost a private tour! The caves were very impressive, especially the drum room: a chamber filled with solid but very resonant columns that our guide banged out some pretty good rhythms while singing the click song!

Because we spent an hour or so at the caves, the last few hours of driving were slightly stressful trying to get to our backpackers in Tsitsikamma before it was properly dark. We inhaled some dinner in Plettenberg Bay, and made it to the backpackers by around 9/9.30.

Day 8: Schotia.

Safari time!

Today (day 8) we spent 3 hours driving from Tsitsikamma to Schotia, a private game reserve. We're booked in for an afternoon/evening drive, dinner, night drive AND an early morning drive as we're camping IN the park! We met our guide Etienne who was just phenomenal - he could mimic so many of the animals perfectly and at one point he seemed to be conversing with a warthog!

As we drove into the gates of the park, we were immediately met by a gang of African Buffalo, one of South Africa's big 5 and apparently quite rare. We were off to a good start and after watching them for a while, we headed further into the park where we quickly ran upon a parade of 6 African Elephants (can you tell I was writing this with the game book in front of me?) another of the big 5, as well as plenty of impala, kudu, nyala, bosbok, springbok, blue gnu (hurhurhur), tsessebe, waterbuck, warthogs and several mongooses (I checked-as much as I want it to be mongeese, it isn't). We did see 2 lazy lions, but I think the highlight of the afternoon drive was seeing a male and female white rhino! We spoke to Etienne about rhino poaching as their horns are thought to cure many ailments and diseases. As of 2 December, 1077 rhinos had been killed for their horns which is nearly 1000 more than in 2008. Etienne and Schotia as a whole are apparently fighting to legalise the trading of rhino horns so that there would be some kind of control over it. You could breed rhino specifically for it, and if a trained vet takes the horn off, the rhino is perfectly fine (just missing it's horn) and the horn grows back, were as the way the poachers do it is to remove the whole nose. It would also flood the market and bring the price down and hopefully, people would realise it doesn't work and stop killing the poor animals.

The evening drive was fairly uneventful. We did see a porcupine, a genet and what our guide called an african kangaroo but is actually a spring hare. The hippos (one thing I REALLY wanted to see) didn't leave the water all night, so all we saw were their noses.

Sleeping in a tent seperated from the lions by only a meter (or 2) thick thorn fence was mildly terrifying, but ultimately great! It wasn't camping as much as glamping (they gave us fluffy white dressing gowns and white slippers - the gowns were fine but white slippers and mud seemed like an odd combination!) but it was still fun, and we didn't hear much other than the insects, wilderbeast and Cheryl's occasional squeak of terror when she had the only light strapped to her head and was getting bombarded by insects!

*BONUS DAY*

Day 9: Schotia and Addo.

We cheated with a rooibos tea as there wasn't any coffee.

Today, day 9, we had an early drive in which we saw giraffe (and got to get out of the jeep and walk close-ish to them) and zebra before heading back to the lapa for breakfast, then back to our car. We spent a few hours lazing around the pool of our new backpackers/hotel, near Addo Elephant Park, as it was just too hot to do anything else. We set off into Addo around 4.30pm for a quick self-drive as it closed at 7pm.

We did see a kill straight away, but it was a Goshawk and some unidentified rodent so not quite the intense excitement we were hoping for. We kept driving though, seeing plenty of various types of antelope and zebra. As we were crawling along, eyes peeled for any kind of movement in the bush, a car comping towards us waves us to a stop and say there's a Cheetah with it's kill maybe 300 yards ahead. We immediately raced off (really slowly so as not to miss it), straining to see anything. We drive a kilometre or so without seeing anything, we thought we might have missed it as the road was surrounded by quite high bush with animal trails leading through it, so we turned around and slowly, slowly drove back to where we'd talked to the other car. Still not seeing anything even remotely close to a cheetah, I was beginning to think he might have been messing with us for a joke, but, Mum and Cheryl still held hope so we turned around again and repeated the process of scanning the shrubbery. On our 3rd try, we hailed down another car that seemed to be in a rush and asked them if they knew anything. They told us their son was their in another car, so follow them, and sure enough they led us to a gaggle of cars! After a few frustrating minutes of not being able to see a thing, some other cars left and we nabbed one of the best seats in the house. Sure enough, right off the road, there was a cheetah - blood on it's jaws and paws, eating what we thought was an impala. It was incredible, it would eat some, then look around, eat again, then look around, occasionally it would sit or even stand up to re-arrange it's meal before resuming it's eating and watching routine. After watching the cheetah for about 20 minutes I noticed a jackal that was on the right side of the wind, so hadn't been noticed by the cheetah and was edging ever closer. In the end it seemed to decide it wasn't worth it, and moved further away again.

Maybe 10 minutes later, Mum suddenly got very excited and says 'Look, look, look: A LION!' and sure enough, crossing the road just in front of the first car in the line, a massive lion was wandering into the scene. As it was downwind to the cheetah, it was immediately noticed and the cheetah stopped eating to watch it however the lion simply lay down at the waterhole and seemingly fell asleep. The cheetah continued to eye it though and didn't start eating. A few minutes later, ANOTHER LION WALKS IN! Again, the cheetah immediately clocks it and is now turning it's head to always have an eye on at least one lion.

Imagine the cheetah in the middle of a clock, it's body is facing us, so let's say our car is at 12 o'clock (and we're the last in the line of cars). The Jackal is hovering at around 2 o'clock and the lions are at 5 and 7 o'clock. The cheetah kept looking at the 2 lions and very occasionally, at our car. Mum joked that we were at the apex of the triangle and how quickly could me and Cheryl get our windows up? For about 10 minutes we sat watching the cheetah, 2 lions and jackal without anything really happening. The lions seemed to be asleep, the jackal would occasionally move slightly closer and the cheetah was always watching the lions and not eating. Suddenly, without warning, the cheetah seemed to decide his meal wasn't worth his life, and took off. Straight towards our car. Silly really, because as mum predicted, we were his safest option out. So me and Cheryl are both panicking, have dropped our cameras and are desperately trying to get our wide open windows closed! The cheetah ran so close to us that, had I wanted to lose and arm, I could have stroked it's back as it ran past!

Cheryl has some beautiful pictures which is good because I don't  think I did it justice explaining!

Days 5 and 6

Day 5: Hout Bay.

Another cheat-y one of Cheryl's pictures with one of her climber friends in the background!

Day 5 has been a pretty chill day. We had breakfast in Simon's town before driving the scenic route to Hout Bay via Scarborough. The views were spectacular - really blue skies against massively rocky cliffs, we drove through Chapman's Pass which was unbelievably beautiful and part of the road is carved into the side of the cliff face!

When in Hout Bay we visited the harbour market and got some small things for my brothers and a bowler hat for myself as well as lots of lunch! We drove a different scenic route back to Cape Town with a quick stop at Llandudno for some gentle bouldering and a paddle in the toe-tingling cold water before going on to our backpackers in Observatory. Obs was a 'grey area' during the apartheid which meant all races could live together and although it is now more of a student-y area, there is still the most racial diversity here that I've seen round Cape Town.

Day 6: Kirstenbosch and Montague

The last of the cheating photos! This one with my Dad's x-mas cake.

Day 6 and today we meet back up with Cheryl. Me and Mum spent the morning at Kirstenbosch Botanical gardens (Mum was in heaven). A lot of the plants are very similar are similar or the same as ones in Cornwall and the layout compared to Cornish gardens was uncannily similar, it's easy to see why a lot of Cornish folk emigrated here. That and the tin mining!

We had lunch at the tea room before popping into Woolworths (the luxury!) to buy ingredients for a braai supper, an experience made slightly more stressfull because we didn't know what was already at the farm house where we were going to be spending the night: did we need charcoal or oil?! But once we'd got everything, we were off! The drive to Montague (where Cheryl's been rock climbing and where we're staying for a night) took about 3 hours and by a happy coincidence, the pair of us arrived just as Cheryl and the other climbers got back.

Once all-but-one of the climbers had left, me, Mum and Cheryl decided to try out the natural hot springs in the area. We were told a hotel had been built up around it but we could get a day pass to go in. We were all expecting something along the lines of a hot rock pool with a hotel in the background, instead we were met with several outdoor swimming pools of varying temperatures, presumably filled with the naturally hot water that had then been chlorinated. It was a little disappointing but apparently there's another one in the middle of nowhere an hour or two away so we might try that one tomorrow.

Once back at the camp site/guest house, we fired up the braai pit (with the wood they provided) and had a fantastic meal of veg kebabs (cooked without oil because we didn't buy any) followed by roasted peaches soaked in amaretto with raspberries and goats cheese on top, because my mum doesn't know how to slum things!

Days 3 and 4

Day 3: Durbanville.

At Sugar, my local cafe

Day 3, we're off to Durbanville and the home so I can show Mum and Cheryl where I've been living and working these last 2 years. I first took them into town to grab a coffee in the cafe I frequent and to try some biltong! We then headed back and I gave them a tour of the children's home as well as introducing them to my manager and two of the social workers I've worked with. We also had some one-on-one time with one of the younger girls who I've done a lot of work with.

I managed to persuade mum before she came out, to do something with the kids for music therapy so she showed them her ssssss-in-a-box and played some songs they knew on my violin before I took over and we did our usual routine.

In the evening I took mum and Cheryl to drumming which they loved-obviously! And I can finally say I'm better at something musical than my Mum!

Day 4: Simon's Town.

Because the morning coffee photo was Cheryl's thing, I wasn't actually here for this picture!

Day 4, this morning me and Mum split from Cheryl as she's going climbing in Montague for the weekend. The pair of us went to Simon's Town to see the penguins and some Dassies (also known as rock hyrax and are apparently related to the elephant) then on to Cape Point where we saw loads of baboons and an ostrich at this rate we won't need to go on safari. I've learnt that the Indian and Atlantic oceans don't actually meet at the Cape of Good Hope, but further down the coast at Cape Agulhas! As we were driving along we saw various warning signs at different points along out route and in this order: Warning: Penguins! Warning: Baboons! Warning: Leopard Frogs! and lastly, Warning: Golfers!

Having not eaten much all day, we headed to Kalky's for a fish and chip supper by the sea. I'm absolutely shattered now!

HOLIDAY! Days 1 and 2

I got back from my holiday with my mum and Cheryl yesterday and it was great fun! Instead of overwhelming you with the whole 2 weeks, I'm going to post 2 days at a time so in theory I'll be done this time next week. Cheryl had this project through out the holiday where she took a picture of her daily coffee every day and posted it to her facebook, although occasionally she didn't have coffee, or in the odd case, a bottled water photo was better than the coffee. So those pictures are going to go in front of each day. Because I don't have all the pictures yet, and because there are so many I'm going to hold off any other pictures until I've got the whole holiday up...sorry! But I promise to do a monster post of pictures :)

Day 1: Robben Island

At the V&A Waterfront

So day 1 of the holiday with my mum and Cheryl! Today we went to Robben Island which I'd never done before now. The boat ride there took about an hour and I saw loads of jelly fish, some white and some a fairly spectacular red, there were also lots of sea lions sunning themselves on the waves. Once we got to the island we were straight into buses and driven round the island, including the village where all the prison guards used to live (now occupied by museum staff) and the house sized cell Robert Sobukwe was confined to in solitary.

After the bus tour we were taken into the maximum security wing by an ex-political prisoner who showed us the communal cell where he was placed as well as the solitary cells (where Nelson Mandela was held). Although he did briefly tell us his story of how he came to be imprisoned, it felt like the whole tour was focused on getting to Mandela's cell when actually, the 3 of us would of much rather spent more time talking with the ex-political prisoner about his experiences directly.

The boat ride back was pretty choppy - lots of wave surfing! I quite enjoyed it but a lot of people around us were getting seasick so Mum and Cheryl went to stand closer by the door where there was some fresh air even if it occasionally was a bit wet, while I happily rocked about inside until we arrived in Cape Town.

When we were back in Durbanville we went straight to the house of one of the drumming ladies for a sound journey. I knew what to expect but Mum and Cheryl were quite apprehensive to begin with but thoroughly enjoyed it by the end.


Day 2: Stellenbosch

Labourie wine farm

 Day 2 and the plan is wine tasting and visiting Stellenbosch. We got to our first vineyard in Paarl about 11am only to discover they had accommodation - so we immediately checked in! We had our daily coffee and headed off to Stellenbosch town where we had a very quick (read: slightly rushed) wander around (Mum and Cheryl clocking a music house, and mum played a game of "spot-the-musician-and-guess-their-instrument" with herself) before a very filling lunch.

On the way back to Labourie (where we were staying) we stopped off at Fairview wine farm for a quick tasting of wine and cheese...which was followed by another tasting at Labourie where I decided I don't like brandy and although red and white wines taste different, 2 different white wines basically taste the same (if my mum reads this she'll cry!).

Dinner was SO GOOD! We ate at the vineyard although we were all so full from lunch, so dinner exhausted us and we all collapsed into bed when we were done!

School Leaver's Party.

This morning was the informal party for all the kids that have finished school and will be leaving the home next month (school years here run January to December). They had streamers running from the activity hall to the pool, and what one of the little boys called a jumping house (bouncy castle), as well as ice cream, candy floss, cool drink and suckers (lollipops). All the kids were so hyped up on sugar, it was great!

Children either have to leave the home when they turn 18, or when they finish school (depending which comes last). When a child turns 18, they can choose to leave the home even  if they haven't finished school but more often than not they stay, there is a boy here who is 20 (I think he's the oldest, he's only 4 days younger than me). When they leave, there's an informal party like we had today and a formal one where their volunteers are invited (if they have one) and they choose a child-care worker or social worker that lights a candle with them, they're also given a crate of things they might need that includes a duvet, pillow, iron and ironing board, cutlery, plates, cups and a kettle. At this ceremony there is also a gold plaque that goes on one of the bricks on the activity hall's wall. It has the child's name, the year they arrived at the home, and the year they left. If a child decides to go to university, the home has a system that helps them with funds and how to get accommodation. This year, one of the children has won an international competition that got her a scholarship to a Drama Conservatory in New York, so there's been a lot of fuss over her!

And now, I'm off to make some musical instruments with the little ones, plastic bottles filled with rice and what-not! I'll try and post pictures :D

Violin

For those of you who don't actually know me or my family, I come from a very musical household. Both my parents are professional classical musicians, my little brother plays the trumpet, my other little brother used to play flute and jazz piano! I've always sung, I think I started in my first choir when I was about 4 and I was in at least one choir every year from then until I left for South Africa (of course at that point, I picked up djembe drumming!). But I used to play violin as well. As far as I'm aware, I started having lessons when I was 3 and according to my very biased parents, I was quite good. However I was a very stubborn child, still am, and when I was 9 I gave up the violin in favour of the trombone (which only lasted a term...really I wanted to play the tuba). I remember it being quite a big deal, both of my brothers had already given up the violin in favour of other instruments even though I had been wanting to stop playing for quite some time. I think in the end, there was nothing my parents could do to persuade or bribe me with to continue.

Annoyingly, I have always kind of regretted that I didn't continue playing, I mean think how good I could be now! Not that I would ever admit it to my parents, they would take that as me saying they were right. 

About a week before I flew out, the three of us were having coffee somewhere and it was brought back up. My mum suggested I take it back up, practise simple folk songs while I was out here and play them to the kids.. I quite liked the idea, even if I knew it wasn't really possible to play the songs to the kids (they're quite grabby). The plan was that mum would find me a cheap violin from the stash she keeps under the piano for her pupils, and I could take it out with me, then if I didn't have room for it in my luggage to bring back, I could donate it to the home (I still have to get my djembe home). That plan changed when someone mentioned electric violins and I got all excited. I persuaded mum to buy me one on the agreement that I learn a different song for every pound it cost. (200 songs!). The electric violin I have is 'silent' so although you can hear it without headphones or speakers, it is considerably quieter.

I have a tendency to get wheeled out at events as the performing monkey. I'm not a huge fan of this, but I do it because it usually means I can call in a favour down the line! Before this week, I'd always been able to get away with singing at whichever events I was needed at, no biggie, I've been singing in front of people since I was 4, I don't particularly like doing it on my own, but I know I can. However this time, my manager made me play violin. There was no getting out of it. I have never been so nervous. I originally picked to slower pieces, but changed them when I realised that shaky hands made my bow wobble! I practised more in the last two weeks than I think I did for the last two months. Part of my nerves were because I hadn't played in front of anyone for more than 10 years, and then I was taught by probably some of the best teachers in Manchester, this time I was teaching myself. Of course you are always more critical of your self than others are and this wasn't helped by the fact that I was getting very frustrated that I couldn't make my songs sound as good as my parents (who have been playing all their lives and make a living out of it!). ANYWAY, I did it, the video I've uploaded is when I was practising (the lady talking is my manager) and although my fingers got a little bit drunk with nerves and didn't do what I wanted them to, the performance didn't go too badly. There were lots of mistakes and things I would have done better but aren't there always!

Enjoy :) 

The Sexy Scotsman Has Arrived!

So for a very long time, I have been waiting for what I've only known as a 'sexy Scotsman' to arrive by post. My old roomie, Jasmine, sent it just after she got home and emailed me to tell me to watch the post for a sexy scotsman. She wouldn't tell me what it was or anything else, I was just left in tormented anticipation (exacerbated by a month long (maybe longer) postal strike).

BUT IT FINALLY ARRIVED TODAY! I'll attach a picture, but for anyone who's internet is too slow for pictures (I feel your pain). It's a postcard with a man's body pictured from his stomach to his shins. He is wearing chain mail, various animal skins I think and a kilt. The kilt is pulled up to reveal his (naked obviously) butt cheek upon which is adorned a tattoo of St George's Dragon!

Waheeeyyyy!

Facilitation Course.

As promised, here is my post for the facilitation course that I did...with pictures!

It was held at a mental health clinic as most, if not all, the other people on the course were occupational therapists. This meant that a lot of the methods and tips we were given were geared specially towards using drumming in a therapeutic environment which was incredibly interesting!

First off, about the guy running the course. His name is Bevil and in my eyes he is a drumming god! I think he's been running circles for about 15 years and from the sound of it he has worked with every conceivable group of people. He's worked in hospitals of all kinds with patients suffering from burns to mental illnesses. He has worked in prisons - I think he said the maximum security types! He also does work with blind and deaf children (at different times) as well as autistic people. All of this experience gets channelled into the facilitation course!

On the first two days we focused on the 'lesson plan' of the circle if you want to call it that. It was how you start a circle, what you fill it with and where to put things like rhythms and solos (what order) as well as how to finish a circle. Bevil told us about the energy levels and how you control them. Drumming gets you buzzed. After a circle I usually feel incredibly relaxed but also kind of twitchy, my hands are still wanting to move and my body still wants music. When I used to sing in choirs I'd get something similar after a concert, it's like a music high! So Bevil was telling us about how to control that energy and to respect it. From a therapists point of view, he was saying if you have circle just before meal times and you have patients that have difficulty, or refuse to eat, if you end the session loud and fast, with a lot of energy, more often than not, all the patients will go off and eat wonderfully! Apparently there was a circle in America that kept getting a lot of trouble from the police, drummers would get repeatedly hassled on their way home, some of them even got arrested. It was all because the guy running the group didn't know how the energy levels were affecting the drummers, so when the left the venue, they were all full of energy, jittery and twitchy. The police, of course, are trained to pick up on that kind of energy and were just pulling members of the group up left right and centre, wanting to know what they'd taken! On the other hand, you can use gongs and bells and bring the energy levels right down at the end of a session and everybody leaves feeling far more relaxed (but still slightly buzzed!)

We also learnt how to signal what we wanted people to do. Especially if you have a large group, you can't really use your voice properly to communicate because the drums are so loud, so using hand signals is a given. There were about 13-15 people on the course so we were split into groups and got lots of practise running circles! Whenever we were shown something new, we had to go away in our groups and plan a circle, when we came back, we then had to run that circle for everyone else, from start to finish. It was a great confidence builder!

The third day was spent more away from the drums. Bevil wanted to show us that you don't actually need drums to run a circle so we were given a bag of scrap each and had to run a 5 minute session using only the scrap. Ribbed pipes, plastic bottles with rice in, boomwhackers. It was great fun! Bevil said: "if you were dropped in the desert with nothing, could you still teach a bunch of kids what you do?" which I think is a great phrase to live life by. We're so used to depending on gadgets or instruments to do what we do, but if you take them away, can you still make do?!

On the fourth and final day we had a surprise! Bevil took us into Woodstock and had us run a drum circle there at a community wellness fair. It was a big circle, but there wasn't enough time for all of us to take the lead so me, one of the volunteers and one of the therapists took the circle. It was mildly terrifying but so much fun! After we'd finished there we went onto Long Street and Green Market Square where we found that drums are much more expensive if you don't have a south african accent before moving onto longmarket street to join a circle that meets every week.

The whole group

Leading each other by the finger, with both pairs of eyes closed

Me leading a circle in Woodstock

Drumming on the kerb off Long Street

The drum stick I'm making...

...it's not finished yet though!