Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something.

Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something - Henry David Thoreau  

Welcome to St. Lucia. Here the volunteer house was a place they rented, which was used for tourist accommodations before AI took it over. We were still 4 to a room, but we had our own bathroom and an area to keep some food with a kettle and microwave. Joy! Alana ( from Canada )and Sofie ( from Norway ) were the volunteer coordinators and they alternated staying at the house with us as they both had boyfriends and homes out in St. Lucia. One side of the 'complex' was given over to the rooms while the main area of the home on the right was a kitchen with livingroom and an area used to store items needed for the project. Outside was a nice gated yard with a pool (to cold to use it though. Most homes in St. Lucia were well fenced and gated as it lies on an estuary and the Hippos tended to forage through the town in the evenings. When walking back and forth into town it was best to go in groups and makes lots of noise. We would fend for ourselves for breakfast but lunch and dinner were served by Musmsi. Nokwethembe was our local medical leader and Chella was our community leader. There were 10 of of us volunteers and all, except me of course, were under 20 years.

Lord forbid, there were 23 students coming the week I was leaving! What would I have done then?!

St. Lucia is a quaint little village, which has two supermarkets, a dozen restaurants, two fuel stations, several fishing tackle shops, a hairdresser, a variety of curio shops and sellers, a popular fruit and craft market, a post office and even a library. I was told some disturbing history which was, the area was the last hold out to the end of apartheid and it still seems very divided. You do not often see any blacks within the town. Most of the white population speak with heavy Afrikaans accents and some I met still have the attitude. It was fortunate that in 1999 the area was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site called isiMangaliso Wetlands Park and that is helping to bring about changes, albeit slowly it seems.

Some districts surrounding St Lucia are ranked as amongst the most deprived districts in South Africa. The population of KwaZulu-Natal has been devastated by the effects of poverty and the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Main Street

Where the volunteers liked to hang out

just one of the cool trees on the main drag
 

The project works in the 2 communities outside town where all the non whites live - Khula and Ezwenlicha. Each is a separate entity onto itself.

Pictures taken while on the homecare projects were frowned upon, but occasionally we were allowed especially while at the clinics or schools.

The first afternoon community project I went on to was to help set up a library outside the Induna's' (the chief's) office in Senzokuhle. A previous volunteer from the US had donated and shipped over this container filled with books, shelves and other paraphernalia which locals in her home town had donated. They've used the container as the library itself and set up the inside with all the books. It was such a wonderful idea.

 Although the container was not fully finished (we still need to organize some of the books, move around some of the shelves and sort some of the multiple copies of adult novels), it was decided to have a handful of the learners from Khula participate in the very first Reading Club.
Some of the oldest children were chosen for that afternoon at Senzokuhle, and we ended up with eight boys taking the walk over to the Induna's' office.

Before anyone entered the container, I gave everyone a speech about the magic of books, and how they can take a reader to far-away places and teach them many things. Most importantly, I discussed with the boys how they need to respect the books in the library so that others can have magical experiences, too. As a result, the boys were very careful and gentle with the contents of the library - something they hope to foster with later groups.

Ranging from grades eight to five, two learners were paired with each of the volunteers and picked books off the shelves. For the most part the boys wanted to learn about the world, and picked non-fiction books from one section of the library. They tried to out do each other showing their reading skills.

Another afternoon was spent at one of the schools teaching about oral hygiene, proper brushing techniques and handing out toothbrushes donated by Cool Aid here in Victoria. The green bits showing up on the teeth in the picture is suppose to be plaque (no one said we were great artists), and in the other picture the young fellow is showing how to brush away the plaque. Fun time was had by all.