Apologies for the delay in getting a post up, it's been a pretty hectic few weeks settling into the community and getting to grips with the work we have been tasked with. So much has happened in the last month and I don't want to bore you all with every little detail. So I will start at the beginning with our introduction to South Africa and the training we completed.
After a long day/night traveling, 9 tired and sorry looking international volunteers were greeted by a beaming African sun and big smiles from the Restless Development staff in East London (Amatole District, Eastern Cape). It felt good for me to be back under the African sun once again and I was looking forward with excitement for the next 3 months.
The meal was a great night and all were in good spirits while new friendships were made and good food was eaten. The next day we set off for our training venue after taking care of some admin issues at the office (banks, sim cards etc.) Our training was held at a mountain retreat known as Forest Way, an idyllic spot, miles from urbanisation and run by a very friendly couple.
Over the next few days we took part in several training workshops to teach us how to deliver our non-formal education sessions. The workshops were based around 3 subjects - Career Guidance, IT Skills and Finance Management. Belinda and I were given some extra training on our role as leaders in supporting the other volunteers and setting up an ex-volunteer network (EVN). It felt good to finally get to know the details of the work we would be doing and we all enjoyed the group work and energetic style of training (including all the warmers/energisers which helped keep the motivation up over some very long days!). I will include some more details on the lessons we are facilitating in future posts.
Some of the highlights of the training week included a night out under the stars in the forest. We hiked in with our tents (a ground sheet and a tarp for a roof), sleeping bags and food. The hike took a bit longer than expected and we arrived at the campsite after dark. Not the best time to be setting up makeshift lean-to's but with a great bit of teamwork we soon had the sleeping arrangements sorted (although the site soon looked like the morning after Glastonbury with some very saggy tarps and guy ropes strung out all over the place)
Other highlights included an orientation challenge (with some suspect cheating, by a member of the RD staff none the less who turned up an hour after time was up claiming they got lost!) The challenge was won by Liam and Sevil by a country mile. This was followed by some abseiling, which provided more laughs.
There was a cake baking and shield making competition, where despite using our initiative (some would call it cheating, I say it was initiative) our group came second. On the whole the cakes were good but it was apparent that Asekho didn't like cake as she forced down each piece, Liam took the more obvious step of spitting his own cake out in disgust. 
On the last day we played some team-building exercises involving a blindfold, apple bobbing, obstacles, an egg and spoon and a flour/marshmallow mix - The RD staff could hardly control their laughter and some interesting photos were taken.
We were all sad to leave Forest Way on the last day but equally excited to be heading to our host communities and our roles as Volunteer Peer Educators (VPEs). Feeling fully trained and ready for anything we left our quiet little mountainside home and headed for the hustle and bustle of East London once again...
The next update will hopefully be soon and I'll let you all know about our host community and our work that is now in full swing. Until next time...
Josh
