This week I thought I would document my appreciation for
brilliant people I have met and chatted to in the last couple of months. It is so true that stressful and difficult moments show you who you can depend on, am so fortunate to
have incredible friends and family to share life with. Being the organised
person I am, I thought I would categorise and celebrate some of the big positives in
my trip.
Family:
I have never appreciated my family’s love and care for me to the same extent as I have here.
Before this the longest I had been away from home was a month, my last trip to Africa, I missed home and valued their encouragement but didn’t depend on them the way I have had to here.
Working in juvenile prisons is not easy, I doubt this will come as a surprise to anyone, but I have needed to be reminded of this regularly.
Hearing violence and murder talked about in such a casual way, seeing the way prison staff treat the young people and then finding the energy to go back and do it all again has been a challenge I couldn’t have done without them.
Getting into work and seeing happy messages or calling home on whatsapp and hearing hard truths mixed in with funny stories about their weeks have kept me sane.
I have never appreciated my family’s love and care for me to the same extent as I have here.
Before this the longest I had been away from home was a month, my last trip to Africa, I missed home and valued their encouragement but didn’t depend on them the way I have had to here.
Working in juvenile prisons is not easy, I doubt this will come as a surprise to anyone, but I have needed to be reminded of this regularly.
Hearing violence and murder talked about in such a casual way, seeing the way prison staff treat the young people and then finding the energy to go back and do it all again has been a challenge I couldn’t have done without them.
Getting into work and seeing happy messages or calling home on whatsapp and hearing hard truths mixed in with funny stories about their weeks have kept me sane.
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| Can't wait to be reunited with these two and take family photos at the Waterfront. |
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| Missing Mia SO much, looking forward to being taught how to ice skate properly when I get back! |
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| Also missing Mum and Dad, will definitely need to take more photos on this holiday - looking through the ones we have together, doesn't leave much choice! This was taken on the day of my Leavers Ball. |
Friends:
Don’t even know where to start. Grateful doesn’t feel like a big enough word to talk about my love for the amazing friends I have been able to pour out my confusion, doubts and joy to.
I have been told that my photos on Facebook make it look like I am having a sunny experience in Cape Town. And this is true, my weekends are filled with beautiful trips around the city, to the waterfront and to many fab food markets. But I am unable to take and share photos of the prisons or my meetings with clients that make up my working week. There have been moments of joy and laughter here don’t get me wrong, but I have had to adjust my aspirations to the reality of how slow change moves here - this has been a horrible thing to do. Almost every week I have caught up with at least one friend from home. This has allowed me to both offload and listen to friend’s stresses and upcoming challenges and jump up and down for each other’s successes. Thank you to absolutely everyone who has taken the time to chat with me, Kara, Charis, Victoria, Harleen, Mary, Family, Joanna, Fiona and Katie lots of love and big hugs to you!
Don’t even know where to start. Grateful doesn’t feel like a big enough word to talk about my love for the amazing friends I have been able to pour out my confusion, doubts and joy to.
I have been told that my photos on Facebook make it look like I am having a sunny experience in Cape Town. And this is true, my weekends are filled with beautiful trips around the city, to the waterfront and to many fab food markets. But I am unable to take and share photos of the prisons or my meetings with clients that make up my working week. There have been moments of joy and laughter here don’t get me wrong, but I have had to adjust my aspirations to the reality of how slow change moves here - this has been a horrible thing to do. Almost every week I have caught up with at least one friend from home. This has allowed me to both offload and listen to friend’s stresses and upcoming challenges and jump up and down for each other’s successes. Thank you to absolutely everyone who has taken the time to chat with me, Kara, Charis, Victoria, Harleen, Mary, Family, Joanna, Fiona and Katie lots of love and big hugs to you!
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| Can't wait to start planning to meet up with these lovely ladies (Harleen and Mary) for drinks! Thank you for listening to me rant over Facebook, thinking of you as you go back into exam season! |
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| Really enjoyed getting to know Leah (from the USA) for the last few weeks as she has been a brilliant part of the Social Justice Team. Look forward to keeping up with your travels from now until June! |
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| These are the incredible people (Cheri from China and Sophie from Manchester) I live with, they put up with me taking about ginger beer and hot cross bun ice cream on a daily basis! |
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| Julia is a wonderful person I met at Heathfield Baptist Church, she has taken on the role of tour guide and taken me to fabulous places in Cape Town. This was taken on my last day off, we ate the best calamari and chips before this was taken. Thank you so much for making me feel part of your family here! |
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| Last week we went to Nordhook food market to watch the sun go down, it was beautiful! This is a group photo with Cheri, Sophie, Leah (from Switzerland), Becky (from Australia) and Danielle (from the Netherlands) all of these guys working in the Human Rights Office, some legal and some Social Justice. |
Church:
I am aware I dedicated a whole post to church and my experiences here. But it still deserves a place here. It has been such a relief to build strong relationships with fellow Christians here, I knew that having friendships outside of work would be really important for my mental health.
Knowing that volunteers would come and go as their time working on the project finished, I was eager to make friends with people who wouldn’t be going anywhere – Capetownians! I have been blessed with a great church at the bottom of my road, getting to know the families there well has been invaluable. Being able to send out prayer requests, get invited over for amazing food and shown round the city has been the best. Thank you so much for taking me in.
I am aware I dedicated a whole post to church and my experiences here. But it still deserves a place here. It has been such a relief to build strong relationships with fellow Christians here, I knew that having friendships outside of work would be really important for my mental health.
Knowing that volunteers would come and go as their time working on the project finished, I was eager to make friends with people who wouldn’t be going anywhere – Capetownians! I have been blessed with a great church at the bottom of my road, getting to know the families there well has been invaluable. Being able to send out prayer requests, get invited over for amazing food and shown round the city has been the best. Thank you so much for taking me in.
Also to my church families at home, thank you for keeping in
touch and caring about both the good and difficult parts of my trip. Being able
to send out my blog posts to my home group at Knowle and post on the Olton Hub
has been a great way to feel part of life in the UK. To everyone who has sent
me an email or commented on one of my posts somewhere, thank you for letting me
know what you think. Love hearing from people, whether it is something specific
I said that they were interested in or chatting about how their week has been
going, it always makes my day brighter.
I know God is big and far bigger than countries borders, but
to walk into a church and meet with the same God when I am so far away from
home still astounds me. I have both come to church feeling stressed, worn out
and on the edge of tears and come energised and full of praise. Knowing that I
can be me, in this space and honest about where I am at has made church a really
special place in the chaos of my trip.
Music:
When I am writing up a blog post, journal entry or file note
at work I listen to music. Being able to turn up Coldplay, Rend Collective and
Adele amongst others in these situations have been so helpful.
Here are some of my go to songs:
Here are some of my go to songs:
Vida la Vida –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmb7YIKqLeM
Hello Hurricane –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtg24Pgi3_s
Water under the bridge –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL2wdBLDYaA
Remind me who I am –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSIVjjY8Ou8
More than conquerors -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p8_4NbrcKA
Time off:
Never before have I worked for so long without a break, I know get why adults find bank holidays so exciting! It feels very grown up to plan what I am going to do with friends on long weekends, when before they have always been part of half terms or a two week Easter holiday. In South Africa I have enjoyed 3 public holidays so far, Human Rights Day, Good Friday and Family Day (Easter Monday) and have 2 more – Freedom Day (This Thursday) and Workers Day (Next Monday). I have also used one of my five days off to spend the day with Julia at Kalk Bay.
Never before have I worked for so long without a break, I know get why adults find bank holidays so exciting! It feels very grown up to plan what I am going to do with friends on long weekends, when before they have always been part of half terms or a two week Easter holiday. In South Africa I have enjoyed 3 public holidays so far, Human Rights Day, Good Friday and Family Day (Easter Monday) and have 2 more – Freedom Day (This Thursday) and Workers Day (Next Monday). I have also used one of my five days off to spend the day with Julia at Kalk Bay.
Notebooks:
I couldn’t do this post without mentioning my love of notebooks. Have so far resisted the urge to buy a notebook, but aim to leave Cape Town with at least one to add to my collection.
Obviously I have always loved notebooking, escaping my head and documenting my thoughts is absolutely necessary for me to make sense of my life. I have needed to do this even more here, getting to grip with new people, a new city, new culture and new work was overwhelming so I turned to my notebook. Having discussions with the young people in prison has been fascinating and challenging, so I turned to my notebook. Visiting different churches and hearing a range of talks has been hard to keep track of, so I turned to my notebook.
I couldn’t do this post without mentioning my love of notebooks. Have so far resisted the urge to buy a notebook, but aim to leave Cape Town with at least one to add to my collection.
Obviously I have always loved notebooking, escaping my head and documenting my thoughts is absolutely necessary for me to make sense of my life. I have needed to do this even more here, getting to grip with new people, a new city, new culture and new work was overwhelming so I turned to my notebook. Having discussions with the young people in prison has been fascinating and challenging, so I turned to my notebook. Visiting different churches and hearing a range of talks has been hard to keep track of, so I turned to my notebook.
Being here I have recorded every day in my journal (shout
out to Martha for buying this great notebook for my 18th birthday
specifically for my gap year trip, THANK YOU!) and I use my general notebook to
document all the church services, home group meetings, museum trips and the 40
acts challenge in (shout out to Dad for buying this for me for my trip to South
Africa last time, not knowing that I had already selected that one before this
was added to my collection).
Looking forward to reading back through both of these when I
am home, when I want to process everything fully. Hope that my doing my scrapbook
with all my photos from here will also help me appreciate just how momentous
this trip has been and how much I have learnt along the way. I am certainly not
aware of this now.
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| On Saturday I went from a food market to a book shop to a coffee shop to drink ginger beer and note book, it was glorious! |
Prayer Requests:
- That Tom will really enjoy the second half of his time in
Port Elizabeth, making friends and chilling with animals. He has now been in
South Africa a month and has five weeks left.
- Not to count down to my family coming too much! I am SO
excited to see them, hug them and show them around Cape Town but don’t want
this to dominate my last 5 weeks here in a negative way. Want to absorb the
last few weeks of my trip just as much as I have did for the first month.
- For all my uni friends studying for their first year
exams, may they balance productivity and rest perfectly!
Thank you for making it to the end of my thirteenth blog post, hope you have a fun filled week.
PS. I am now on the 4th series of West Wing, President Bartlett has just got re-elected, yay!
Thank you for making it to the end of my thirteenth blog post, hope you have a fun filled week.
PS. I am now on the 4th series of West Wing, President Bartlett has just got re-elected, yay!
Shout-outs worthy of an academy award and a great play-list! Thanks! x
ReplyDeleteI wish I could hand out awards, a grateful post card might have to do! Glad you approve, hope you guys are all well! x
DeleteI know I am biased, but I do love your blogs. So glad you're part of 'us'; so proud of who you are and your approach to notebooks (oh, and the other stuff you're doing. Atticus would be too!). Dad x
ReplyDelete