The placements are organised through another company that Plan My Gap Year work with called SASTS. The childcare placements are located near the volunteer house and in Cape Town itself. Me (Chloe Gilbart) and Harriet Carrington were based in Tafelburg Creche which was just on the edge of Cape Town with the beautiful views of Table Mountain in the background. The Creche had children from the ages of 6 months through to 5 years of age. Like nurseries in England, Tafelburg had 6 different classrooms and the children were put into classes by their age not their abilities. To get to placement we had to get a minibus taxi into Cape Town which roughly took 5-10 minutes and cost just R7, we then had to get the MyCiti bus which is new to Cape Town and works just like our bus networks in England but uses a card system and no money can be exchanged on the bus itself.
In my (Harriet Carrington), class, the teacher often asked me to think of an activity to do with the children for half an hour of everyday. The most popular activity I did was the song 'Going on a Bear Hunt', but it is a good idea to go with some games idea or songs that you can teach the children in case you get the opportunity to do this. Conversely, I got asked to do lots of display work for the wall, do not be surprised if you are asked to do something similar which doesn't always involve playing and helping in the classroom with the children. The daily routine in the crèche involved a morning activity which usually involved colouring or singing, then snack time. At 10:30am the children then played outside if it hadn't been raining before lunch at 11:45am. After lunch the children went to sleep altogether on mats at about 12:30pm which is when our day ended meaning we worked 8am-12:30pm Monday to Friday. The children were always very lively and loved meeting us new volunteers getting very excited when we arrived each day.
Us other three girls were based at a different creche called Pinocchio's which was situated just 5-10 minutes walking distance from the Volunteer house. It was a basic placement, fitting into their daily routine which was serving breakfast, leading the morning sessions (register, songs, prayers, reading from the bible), supervising the activities planned by the teachers, then serving dinner. Before meals the children will pray and after they are finished the children are given the responsibility to collect plates and are given to you to wash up. There are only two primary members dealing with the 50-60 children than attend this setting. The principal is sometimes in the office but may not be there all day, every day of the week. The two members of staff (Susan and Pamela) do everything they can to encourage you to plan and engage in activities with the children as they do not have enough staff to successfully carry out the arts and crafts activities frequently. The children love new people and have an interest in chart music. We had one singing Whistle - Flo Rida and one singing Timber - Pitbull & Kesha. They do take advantage of the fact we are volunteers and not their full time teachers so be aware of this. Try not to go in with a hangover as the children are very lively and constantly wanting to talk and play with you.
We stayed in the SASTS volunteer house based in Sea Point which was about 5-10 minute minibus taxi ride from Cape Town and around a 30 minute transfer from Cape Town International Airport. There were 5 bedrooms which all had a different amount of bunk beds within the rooms, the biggest sleeping 8 people. You may be placed in a room with a lot of people from different countries so be aware they may have different values and speak in their own language for comfort. However they will usually engage you in the conversations. There was one main bathroom which had 3 cubicle toilets and 4 cubicle showers. There was also a living room with plasma TV and DVD player, kitchen and a decking area for those who smoke. On the other side of the bathroom there is a door to a balcony where you can sunbathe given you have good weather.
Any plans the other volunteers may have are written on paper and stuck to the fridge. All you have to do is write your name if you want to go too.
The house provided bread, yoghurt, milk and cereal for breakfast, however you had to provide yourself with lunch. Dinner was included for you Monday to Friday in a café called 'Sofia's' which is a short 5 minute walk from the house, you must buy your own meals at the weekend however there was bread and cheese in the house throughout the weekend that you were able to have if you wanted it.
LOUNGE AND KICTHEN:
There are many different methods of transport including, MyCiti bus, minibus taxis, taxis and other buses that tend to only be used by the locals. The MyCiti buses ranged in prices the further the journey you made. It roughly worked out to however many km's were covered to R(Zar), for example, 5.2kms covered would equate to around R5.20. Minibus taxis were the preferred way of travelling as they are much quicker, cheaper and can stop in any location. Taxi's tend to be run on meter and can be quite expensive but when there is a number of you in the cab then it can work out very cheap. They will let you sit on peoples laps so in one cab we did fit 6 passengers at one time. The minibuses are the same. They will pile in as many people as they can fit into the minibus. This is a norm so don't be alarmed.
There is so much to do in Cape Town as the city is a very westernized area. Waterfront is a beautiful area that has many bars, restaurants, shopping malls and an aquarium all based around the Waterfront harbour. If you like your cocktails, there is a bar called Melanchinos and they have a happy hour 4-6 where all cocktails are half price, so you may aswell buy two. Also on Wednesdays is 1 rand shots from 10pm til midnight. This is roughly equivalent to 6p. This happens at a place called Concept and if you take your student card with you, you can get in for R20, everyone who doesn't has to pay R40 so its worth it trust us. Before this everyone goes for a 'Jam Jar' which is a cocktail in a huge Jam Jar. This is the best night to socialise as the whole volunteer house goes out. Even the hostel manager may come out if you persuade them.
There are many different trips you can take organised through HotSpots2c and you can get a discount booking when booked through SASTS and through this company you can do safaris and other things such as bungee jumping and great white shark cage diving. There are many other things to do within Cape Town such as the markets which sell authentic African style products such as woodwork, bead work and clothing. Table mountain is a must do thing with amazing views over the whole of Cape Town and Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. There are also sightseeing buses just like the red buses you get in London which go on amazing routes and are a great way to see a vast majority of Cape Town in a small time frame.
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Things to do, things not to do
Things To Do:
- Go on Safari! You can book this when you book your programme with PMGY, on the HotSpots2C website or even when you're out there. Just make sure you have enough money for lunch and meals too.
- See the sunset/sunrise from Lion's Head or Signal Hill. The view is gorgeous and you won't want to miss it. If you want the other volunteers to take you all you have to do is ask! They are friendly enough to invite you too.
- Go Shark Cage Diving. It costs around R1850 and there is a man making a DVD of the whole day for anyone who wants it, this is an extra R250 which make us decide to split the cost and then have a friend make copies for us.
Things Not To Do:
- Don't travel alone and be wary of the people around you. Not all of them are trying to help you as one of our girls found out the worst way. If anyone tells you to put your card back into the machine to cancel a transaction, DON'T. This is a serious matter and you will lose your bank card.
Myself (Chloe) and Harriet flew from London Gatwick to Dubai, then Dubai to Cape Town with roughly about 16/17 hours flight time all together. We booked our flights around January time with STA Travel and they cost around £670 return with Emirates. We were allowed 30kg luggage and it was made much easier for checking in if you checked in online 24 hours before the flight.
The other three girls flew from Birmingham International Airport to Cape Town with two stops; first in Paris then in Johannesburg. This cost £634 however the travel time was about 19 hours outbound and 22 hours return. We had e tickets so we printed them off and got our boarding passes at the airports.
It is worth booking early if you planning on going to South Africa to get a good deal. The flights seemed to get more expensive as we went through the process of booking.
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