ah da's adventures: Leaving a (semi) permanent mark in South Africa

One of the outreach programs that Maita’s church (also Kanya’s church) GodFirst supports is installing pre-schools (The Philile) in the disadvantaged areas of the city, also known as informal housing areas or sometimes the “slums”. Last Saturday, Maita has invited me to volunteer with them in the morning and go “paint” the pre-school.

I thought it would be very cool to do some volunteer work and that hanging out with Maita is always fun, so why not. When she said “painting a pre-school”, the image that I had in my head was that we’d be using paint rollers with single colour paints to paint the interior of a room in a building. This image was in fact very different than what awaits me at the site.

The area where we were going to is called “ Diepsloot” which was a short 20 -30 mins drive from Maita and Reagans. Maita, Reagans and I drove up together because it is apparently unsafe for a lone female to drive into the informal housing areas. To give a bit of context, let me describe these areas a bit more. They are generally areas where the population is very poor. There is no electricity to the area and they likely don’t exist on maps either. People live in shacks and improvised housing. (It’s actually quite consistent, I think based on tv/internet/media , with other poor areas of the world where “slums”exist.) It’s actually quite depressing to see people living like this first hand.

We drove through the area and into this fenced off area where there are big shipping containers that have been turned into what we call “portables” in Canada with a playground that was being built. These portables have been painted white and had windows and doors installed on them. I didn’t have a chance to go inside but we know that like the rest of this area these portables are also without electricity supplies.

Shipping container painted white and with window and door installations

Another team building the playground area

Our mission of the day was to decorate/paint the outside of the containers. When we got there, one of the coordinators, I believe, had all the black paint and brushes organized for us. She even provided us with sketches of what we can copy/attempt to reproduce on the shipping containers. The scenes that we were to draw were mainly of animals, mountains, ponds, lakes and trees. She even assigned us specific areas of the shipping containers that we need to draw on and provided us with ladders and warnings that the black paint will not wash off on clothings.

I was assigned to a container that faces inwards into the playground area. The hardest parts about drawing on the containers are getting the right proportions and to overcome the fear of messing up. I started by using less paint and drawing in lighter strokes, and then drawing more firmly when I got a bit more confident. It was also important to take frequent breaks to step back and look at it to make sure it looks good from far away. The other challenging part was trying to balance on a ladder on the uneven ground. It was a good thing that there were quite a few volunteers so I was able to solicit some help with ladder minding while I was drawing a bit higher.

I managed to reacquaint with my artistic abilities and not only able to copy some of the distributed sketches but also to free hand some new animal drawings. In the end, I was able to draw 2 elephants, 1 lion, 1 monkey, 4 bunnies, 1 ostrich and 1 giraffe. There were also some trees, logs, grass and flowers that I’ve drawn. Others have also done well, there was a very cute cow behind a fence, a beautifully drawn peacock, a nice looking hen, a pair of cute lions, a few leopards, butterflies, a crocodile peeking out of a pond, a lily pad in a pond and a happy scene of a family playing in a flower field and much more. Everyone did very well and I’m sure the kids will love them once it’s all coloured in.

Me and Maita in front of my elephants, bunny, lion and monkey

To the left of the above picture, I had drawn a ostrich, giraffe and an additional bunny

Notably, I had quite the experience while drawing the cute lion on the crate. While I was drawing the lion, I had a group of maybe 8 kids all gathered and sat down around me and just watched me paint. I wasn’t sure if it was because my lion was awesome, or was it the shade or just that I was asian. But whatever it was, I wished someone else had my camera and captured it. It was quite a touching moment and knowing that our efforts were going towards bettering their learning environment was quite rewarding.

I think all of the painters wish that they can be there when the kids come in on Monday morning to find that their new classrooms have been painted and decorated. Even though the drawings are black and white and only with outlines, I’m sure they would be thrilled to see it.

Maita and her leopard

Reagans and his crocodile

My shipping container buddy, Janine drawing two lions with two kids watching her

Others hard at work, cute hen!

Yvonne and her beautiful lady drawing

I was sketching out the giraffe

volunteers taking a break

The group plans to reconvene in early November to colour in the drawings. Unfortunately, I will be out of town then and will not be able to paint my drawings in. But I am sure that the volunteers who will paint it in will do a great job and the kids will love it. I have requested for pictures to be taken so that I can see the finished product that I was a part of. Knowing that I had contributed to something so tangible in this one spot in south africa is quite an interesting feeling. I sincerely hope that the kids will enjoy my contribution to the decoration of their school!

Other finished products - a cute scene of a family in a flower field

Cow, peacock and hen

leopard, bunnies, butterflies and lilypad in a pond! (crown in a mountain ;))

my work! I can't wait to see it all coloured in

Rachel taking pictures of the kids who came to observe our work

These are the kids who will be going to this pre-school

:D i hope they like it!

The day then ended with my first braai experience at Maita and Reagans. Maita’s and Regans’s house is quite beautiful. It was a two story with high ceilings and a cute little garden area in the front where we braaied. They convinced me to try this pina colado cooler and because it was delicious and we wanted to demonstrate to Reagans that some asians turn red after they drink, I went for it.

we bought some of these for braaiing

Interesting to see the xmas tree, when it's still so warm outside.. I'm not used to this at all!

a banana bread that looked like a mountain

Maita and Reagans's front yard/garden with a large braai in the corner

They have such a cute place :)

these were surprisingly good

And these are addictive and better than cheetos

This cooler was delicious! (and cheap R64 for 6 -> <$10CAD for 6) and Reagans' south africa cap

But the combination of an early morning and the alcohol meant that I was to then spent most of the afternoon napping on the blanket outside and enjoying the sun. I must say it was a lovely and relaxing experience. Everyone brought some meat and one of their friends Honu manned the grill. Maita made two delicious salads and we had rolls and corns to go with the braai meat. We had a chat about the Canadian barbeque (grilling of burgers and sausages on the grill) and the HK style bbq (everyone takes a fork and grill their own meat sitting around to socialize). The commonality between all three is that the grill and use of charcoals/gas makes meat taste a lot better. Kanya, Avon and little Kayla also came to the Braai. We had a great time eating and chatting. The highlight of the evening was definitely when we reminesce about our painting session in the morning and assessed everyone’s artistic ability =) (crown in the mountain ;))