SOUTH AFRICA
Bairdstravel would like to intruduce to you a group of 10 adventurers who travelled all the way south from Scotland to the wonderful country of South Africa . The young volunteers job was to setup a computerlab for under-privileged children. They also help teach the kids new skills.
The team at St. James' School, Port Elizabeth [15/10/2008]
Throughout the trip Iain Mc Guiness filmed the whole adventure . The photographs on this webpage are owned and taken by Ian .
Ian is Creative Director of a TV and video production company.
Also owns Clydewalking tours of Clydebank .
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The Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a 2,798 kilometres (1,739 mi) coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe; to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland; while Lesotho is an independent country wholly surrounded by South African territory. South Africa is known for a diversity in cultures and languages. Eleven official languages are recognised in the constitution. Two of these languages are of European origin: Afrikaans, a language which originated mainly from Dutch that is spoken by the majority of white and Coloured South Africans, and South African English. Though English has a large role in public and commercial life, it is nevertheless only the fifth most-spoken home language.
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MANDELA AND BEYOND
Here is their trip of a lifetime in the words of Iain.
It's early evening on Monday, 06 October, and I'm on a BA flight from Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth with Tina from the Mandela and Beyond project.
In the past twenty-four hours, I've been on a total of three different planes; one from Glasgow to Dubai, another from Dubai to Jo'burg, and now this one. That's about seventeen hours worth of flying. No problem, because I like flying.
However, the rest of the team travelled to Jo'burg last Friday morning. The less said about why I didn't too, the better!
Anyway, I'll let them tell you what they did at the weekend...
So, we arrived in Jo'burg at around ten o'clock. We had already booked accommodation at a local hostel in advance, so we were picked up from the airport by their driver, and whisked over there at a frightening speed (much to Tina's horror)!
Checking in was quite a hassle, because some other residents had to be moved around to accommodate the size of our ten-strong group.
On Saturday, the hostel owner arranged a trip for us around the large Soweto township. Although we didn't venture very far in, we saw some extreme poverty. The 'houses' were more like two-room shacks, made of corrugated iron, and any other materials that could be scavenged together. Water was provided to fifty or more people from single taps in the streets. It was all a bit of a culture shock.
Some of the team; a tavern, Port Elizabeth (10/10/2008)
In the evening, we went to a restaurant in the city centre called Moya's. It played a sophisticated brand of South African music. The food was fantastic -- even Riccardo couldn't complain! We had seafood platters and salads for starters. The rest of the menu was quite varied, and the traditional Gauteng-style braised beef steak was very good.
Afterwards, back at the hostel, some of us played guitar and chilled out.
The next day, we went on a safari at the Peelensburg National Park. Unfortunately, we were in a minibus which quickly became quite hot and stuffy. However, we did see hippopotamuses, giraffes and monkeys, and other native species.
Leeanne with a lion cub; a safari park near Port Elizabeth (11/10/2008)
Overall, although bustling and fast-paced, Jo'burg was a very interesting place to visit.
During the whole month of October 2008, four young people from West Dunbartonshire will go to South Africa, with their mentors, to develop a computer laboratory and tutor pupils at St. James' School in Port Elizabeth.
They are part of West Dunbartonshire Council for Voluntary Services' Mandela and Beyond project, which consists of a group of eight volunteers (four from West Dunbartonshire and four from the Borders), all aged between sixteen and twenty-five.
Iain McGuinness, 24, is an artist, film-maker and graphic designer, and a volunteer with the project
PLEASE GO TO DAY 2 ON THE LEFT content here