Kadri Aavik, a qualified English teacher, employed as a web editor in the Research and Development Centre of the National Library of Estonia, worked as a volunteer from July to November at the Esangweni Secondary School in Khayelitsha, one of the largest townships in South Africa, located about 35 km from Cape Town and inhabited by a few million people.

ASA, the organisation through which Kadri went to South Africa, is a German organisation co-ordinating a project called GLEN. The project involves NGOs from the seven new member states of the European Union who send volunteers to developing countries in Africa and Asia each year. Every project has 2 participants: one person from Germany and the other from a new member state. In Estonia, the projects are co-ordinated by the Estonian Roundtable for Development Co-operation (AKÜ) and Estonians had 3 projects in 2005, which took place in South Africa, Georgia and Tanzania. Kadri Aavik took part in the project ‘Internet for Township Kids'.

What did your volunteer work at the school involve?

Kadri Aavik: ‘Last year, there were 2 Europeans at the Esangweni school, sent by the same organisation, carrying out a project there. They were the ones who wrote the project proposal for this year. As quite some time had passed since their stay and several things had changed meanwhile, we carried out somewhat different tasks as written in the project description. Our local project partner was the vice principle of the school and he was co-ordinating our activities. Last year, the participants had set up 4 multimedia groups: webpage, photography, film and newsletter, which we continued.

We also had the task of instructing the teachers in the usage of a CD containing new teaching and learning methods, issued by the local education department. In addition, we dealt with all sorts of computer related problems.

The classes at school started at 8 am every day. We asked our project partner if we could come a bit later, otherwise our working hours would have been too long. So we started at 9 am. Since we lived in Cape Town, we had to drive about half an hour to school. We spent our mornings in the server room preparing for our classes in the afternoon and dealing with technical problems. Around 2.30 pm the school was over and then interested students came to the computer lab. Every day we were supervising one group with whom we worked until 5-6 pm.'

Did you visit any classes?

‘Since we were always very busy, we managed to visit only 2 classes. One was the 12th grade (it was actually the 11th grade) science class, which was very impressive compared to the chemistry and physics classes I had when I was in high school. The other was the 11 th grade history class where they learned WW II. The teacher asked us to speak about events in our home countries during that period. My tandem partner first spoke about the Nazi Germany, a not too pleasant task for a German. Then, I talked about the history of Estonia and emphasised some similarities between Estonian and South African history and problems concerning the ethnic groups. As an introduction, I asked the students if they knew where Estonia is located – no one could answer that. When I asked them on which continent it is, then the first guess was Asia.'

Did the students differ in any way from students in Estonia?

‘It is difficult to generalize, but I could say that when we started our work at the school, the students were rather shy with us, as we were strangers to them. We were the only white people at the school and their attitude towards us was respectful and they were perhaps a bit afraid of us in the beginning. But later on, they opened up more and had the courage to ask questions. What I liked very much was that the students really wanted to learn: they were extremely happy when they learned something new and some of them came and thanked us.

It was easier for us to teach some groups than others. As Tobi and I both have backgrounds related more to multimedia and computers, the easiest to teach for us and therefore what we enjoyed the most was the webpage group. However, we were also teaching other groups, such as the newsletter group, where we sometimes had to improvise a lot, since we had not specifically studied that field ourselves. In the photography group we sometimes offered numerous ideas of topics and activities what we could do with the students but when we asked their opinions about these, often we did not get an answer. But as time went on, the work with the students became smoother. As for the general impression of the school and the communication between the students, it did not differ significantly from that in Estonia. The students are similar everywhere.'

What were the most unexpected things for you in South Africa?

‘In a sense, it was a culture shock. On the first days after my arrival I just observed and tried to absorb everything I saw. In the beginning it was difficult to get used to the language of the locals. In Khayelitsha, people speak Xhosa as their mother tongue. Although everyone speaks English, their accent is strong and it takes some time to get used to.

When we arrived in South Africa, it was a school holiday. We used this time to settle in, we looked for accommodation and rented a car. By the time we first went to the school, we had already become more or less adjusted to the life in Cape Town. We worked in a township inhabited only by black people where whites should not go alone without a local to accompany them. Luckily nothing bad happened to us. We encountered contrasts everywhere – streets and roads in the township are well paved, yet the houses along the roads are often shacks. Cows and goats walk on the streets. It is surprising how the people who live in shacks without any water or sewage, are always well dressed and clean. Often, there is a tap in the yard with clean cold water, used by several households. The houses do have electricity though.

The Xhosa people in Khayelitsha have urbanised, yet at the same time many still follow ancient traditions, which originate from the Eastern Cape, from where the people have come to Cape Town in search of work. The usage of technology, such as computers and mobile phones co-exists with traditions and respect for ancestors. Growing old is nothing to be ashamed of, instead old people are respected. Traditional ceremonies are held, such as brewing and drinking African beer, which I also tasted. Also, the circumcision of boys is practiced, even if they do not go to the Eastern Cape to do that, it is done in huts erected in the neighbourhood especially for that purpose. Some people go to traditional healers for advice – traditional medicine and believing in dreams is quite common.

Often, spontaneous dance performances took place on the streets – once the music was put on, people started dancing. Soon, a crowd gathered and cheered.

People keep cows and goats in Khayelitsha. If there is an important event for the family, an animal is slaughtered right there. This was difficult for me to accept as I am a vegan and supporter of animal rights, but I respect their traditions.'

How did you spend your scarce free time?

‘When we arrived in South Africa, it was summer in Estonia and winter there, so in the beginning, when we woke up in the morning and came from the school in the evening, it was dark. We only went out by car or in a group – it was not recommended to walk on the streets alone. On the weekdays we were sometimes so tired that we went to bed early. Sometimes we went to some pubs nearby, but on the weekends we drove somewhere out of Cape Town to spend time in the nature. We went to the Cape of Good Hope several times, it's about a 1,5 hour drive from Cape Town. The nature is magnificent there with mountains and the sea surrounding the peninsula. Our longest trip was during the weekly school holiday in August. The area along the coast stretching from Cape Town to about 500 or 600 km east is very beautiful, it is known as the Garden Route. Although South Africa is generally dry and mountainous and without many forests and greenery, this area along the coast was very green and beautiful.

Although we had more travel plans in the beginning we could not carry them out as we didn't have enough free time and money to travel further.'

Many people associate apartheid and the Boer Wars with South Africa because this is what they learned at school. What are the relations between different ethnic groups now?

‘Not many white people go to the township where we worked. Therefore we got quite a lot of attention there. When we walked on the streets with our local friends, people followed us, especially the children and they wanted us to take photos of them. Many people came to talk to us and ask where we are from and what we are doing there. At school we had a close relationship with a teacher who often invited us to his place and thus we got to know his family as well. We did not have any close contact with white South Africans, we only talked to a few of them briefly.

South Africa is a very interesting country in the sense how different cultures interact and co-exist there. In addition to black and white, there are also the so-called ‘coloured' people. For example, our landlady was a coloured Muslim.

There are 11 official languages in South Africa. English is spoken by everyone as a language of communication, Afrikaans is the other major language spoken by the whites. In addition to the Xhosa people, with whom we had a close contact, there is another big ethnic group of blacks, the Zulu, who live closer to Johannesburg and Pretoria. The Zulu and Xhosa languages are so similar that the speakers understand each other's languages. It is widely known that there have been great tensions between the different ethnic groups of South Africa, but it seems that now, as it is more than 10 years since the end of apartheid, things are getting better. People are being increasingly tolerant towards each other. However, it is still hard for the black people – although they are free politically, they are not free economically and most are poor. More than half of the black population is unemployed. This has contributed to the growth of townships, such as Khayelitsha, where people have come from rural areas where there are even less opportunities for employment. Many go to work in Cape Town, women are often employed as domestic workers, mostly in rich white households. Nevertheless, there is an emerging black middle class, consisting of mainly teachers and government officials. They live relatively well and are able to afford cars and decent houses. At the moment, the system of the black economic empowerment has been established in South Africa, where blacks are preferred to whites in the job market, this making it extremely difficult for the whites to find work, due to which many of them are leaving the country.

Crime, drugs and HIV are major problems in South Africa. It was quite shocking to visit an HIV hospice where many children had HIV and were orphans. Yet I was pleased to see that they were well taken care of and none of these children looked sick or unhappy. Many awareness campaigns were held on the topics of AIDS and drugs, also they are trying to decrease unemployment. There was a church where a free training in household skills was organised for women, in order to increase their chances of being employed. While the initiative itself was good, it was a bit sad for me to see that the women were just taught cleaning and other household skills, as if they lacked potential for something better than being employed by the rich whites.'

South Africa is a very distant and unfamiliar place for Estonians. What has been the most bizarre question that you have been asked since your return about the life there?

‘In one interview to a radio station I was asked if the people with whom I had contact with in South Africa, are savages. I found that question very insulting. The Africans are people just like we here. I made very good friends there.'

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Photos:

•  The latecomers were not let in at once; they had to stay behind the school gates for hours. When the gates were finally opened, they rushed in. The school seems to be more like a privilege to the students in South Africa, they really want to go to school, as there is not much to do on the streets – instead, you could easily become involved in crime there.

•  In the 8 th grade the students choose 5 subjects, which they study until the end of high school and in which they take exams. Like here, the exams are of great importance, trial exams are held and students study hard, because admission to universities largely depends on the results. There are about 4-5 classes of each grade in high school, but only a few students who graduate are able to go to university each year as it is expensive and scholarships are not easily available.