St Catherine's School Expedition South Africa 2009

News from the St. Catherine's School expedition will be posted on this page as and when it is received.

We are expecting about four messages over the duration of the trip.

Tues 14 July:
Nelly Gillard called this after noon at 1415.
He reported that all was well and the Group were at Lindani.

The journey was uneventful aside from Nelly himself being held up for 16mins at passport control due to computer freezing and getting his passport stuck; quite funny as the girls had all gone through and were watching this pantomime.

Deon Goosen, the Professional Hunter met the group at Vaalwater. Tonight they will have a talk on snakes later to be
followed by night navigation by stars.

Tomorrow an ornithologist from a local nature reserve will talk to the group about birds.
The Group also did their shopping at Vaalvater, so they have something to cook this evening. Enroute from Johannesburg the Group saw ostrich and gazelle (unspecified!) en route.

The next scheduled conversation is on Friday morning.

Friday 17 July:
The Group are about to leave Lindani for the Telekishi Project. The weather has been fine, but frosty at night.

The Environmental Awareness Course was very successful with
Deon Goosen teaching the Group about the bush.

One of the most interesting aspects was bush food which was scavenged from the bush and then cooked on a braai at night.

They also enjoyed the game drives and tracking. They found the spoor of a leopard, but did not see the leopard itself.

The lecturer on birds was considered to be quite controversial and stimulated a lively debate

Nelly will be calling in tomorrow morning to report on their first night at Telekishi, we shall post on the web as soon as we can.

Saturday 18 July:
Nellys first remarks this morning when he called were you would not recognise the place, referring to the Telekishi Project accommodation. If parents can recall the presentations where they were shown a photograph of a pile of rubble in the bush, or even at the later presentations, the women builders and thatchers at work then the site has completely changed!

There are hot showers (pity!), bunkhouse style accommodation, duvets, smart sinks and a self catering kitchen. The Expedition are the first guests to stay in the accommodation, and of course there will be some hiccoughs over its initial use, indeed the patterned cow dung floors in some places were not quite dry; but overall the girls are very impressed.

The Expedition was met by Malasela, who has been our contact from the start, and there was a traditional welcoming dance accompanied by a band (drums, bent pipes, etc all played with typical enthusiasm). The Girls responded with a rendition of I like the daffodils, another first for the Telekishi Project!

Yesterday the Group went to Lenkwane Primary School and met the Headmistress and her Deputy Head to discuss the programme for our Group, this was followed by a village tour and then supper

Supper could be described as interesting as the girls mastered the idiosyncrasies of cooking in Africa; generator run cookers (but the generator was off), only gas rings, nowhere to keep the food hot, cooking correct portions at the same time We are sure that necessity will drive culinary improvement!

TODAY, Saturday:
Jean has taken some girls shopping with local women, Nelly is meeting Rupert Baber to discuss the plan for the week and then Malasela will take the complete group on a walk around the area of their camp. From experience we know this to be interesting and stimulating. On Sunday the Group will meet the community, perhaps even hold an Indaba (meeting, where plans are formulated in an unique African style). Looking ahead to Monday the Group will work in the school and its garden, where there have already been preparations made for the groups arrival.

Monday 20 July:
It is cold in the mornings before the sun gets up!

Saturdays walk took in rock paintings and a visit to Mashebi, a community project nearby. The Group had a good walk and then returned to Telekishi.

Sunday saw the start of work on clearing the site of the garden at Telekishi; there were a number of blisters and a few scratches to cope with last night.

Today the Group are at Lenkwane Primary School, sorting the plans for the week.

Cooking is interesting! There is often a language break down, resulting in an interesting order of courses; pap is not popular and is often served at the end of the meal when every one is full. Yesterday the Group and the local ladies purchased 10 live chickens, 5 of which were eaten, the others will be eaten later in the week. The most popular cooking tool is the 3 legged pot that rests on a fires embers.

Morale is high.

Thursday 23 July
The work continues at Telekishi Project; clearing the undergrowth (cuts, scratches!), in order to develop the garden. At the school the garden is coming on and the Group have painted the kitchen green, dug seed beds and planted 40 trees. There is so much to do!

The Group is also helping at the Pre-school, putting up fences, playing with children and sorting books. The school is almost derelict, so we shall not spend too much time here as it would dissipate the effort.

Some notes/quotes from the girls:

We are all in bed by 8PM. (!)

The minibus has served as a safari vehicle, viewing platform and cross-country truck.

When teaching the Primary school Year 2s, the students were asked to write a simple story; one girl wrote The visitors from England are here and I am bored. ..

There was a netball match between the Group and Year 7s, the Group won by 17 15.. That says something for the netball capability of Lenkwane Primary school.

Harriett is very popular with the young children and is often buried by them when she leaves each day and has to be extracted by Jean A.

Monday 27 July:
The Project work was completed with a little ceremony and the Group headed back to Lindani on Saturday afternoon.

A very early start (4AM) on Sunday for the game drive where the Group saw lion, white rhino, Blesbok, Klipspringer and many other plains game species. Some of the Group then went riding at Horizon where they saw giraffe at very close quarters.

Today, Monday, is a quiet day with a cream tea at Rupert Babers house and then some shopping and a final party.

Tomorrow, aside from cleaning up is a travelling day, the flight is due to arrive at LHR T1 at 0655 on Wed 29 July; normally it takes 30 45 minutes from landing to reaching the arrival hall.

Wednesday 29 July:
Michael and Heather (HM) met the group at LHR early this morning. They all arrived safely and initial feed back was excellent.

We hope to add a gallery of expedition photos when we get them so check out the website in a week or so.