Guns and Masks…and School?!

Home Page: Willmore Adventures in South Africa

If someone had mentioned guns and masks and schools in the same sentence six months ago, the assumption would have been that it was probably an incident in America, and never to do with safety. But here in South Africa it’s actually government policy to have just that. Temperature taken on arrival at school, and masks to be worn at all times. With a temperature gun held to your head however, it’s difficult not to break out into a sweat! Here’s our update from the Southern Hemisphere…

School rules during Covid...

Schools returned in June, which was a heartily celebrated affair in the Willmore household. Who would have thought that the aforementioned mask wearing and temperature checks, along with social distancing and washing hands all day long would be a more inviting prospect than remaining home with parents? Or was it that those parents painted a rosy picture of seeing friends again at school, to regain some sort of balance and control in the house once more…

Elowen on the first day back at school.

Amelie having her temperature taken.

Day 1 complete.

Joel returned to his school in July on a part time basis. The class was split, with the two groups alternating days. He too has had to wear his little mask and adhere to all the protocols put in place (whilst making sand cakes or singing merrily with friends).

Joel's first day back at school.

The Steiner school welcome back.

Both schools have had cases of Covid 19 in staff and pupils as schools have been up and running in the peak of the crisis. Joel’s school chose to shut whilst the girls’ school deep cleaned the specific classrooms and stayed open. The drills are so slick now that we can transition between going to school and working online at the drop of a hat. We received a text one morning saying that the girls’ school would be online that day due to transport strikes in the area, and 30 minutes later, the kitchen was transformed into a studio, and Elowen was learning a dance routine with her teacher over Microsoft Teams. Twenty first Century life in South Africa when you can afford the fast lane.

Elowen in her online dance lesson.

The school where I teach reading and writing, Riversands Primary School, in the township of Diepsloot, has not had such a straightforward transition. With children crammed into classrooms and desks spilling out of doors, complying with regulations has made it impossible for all children to return. Students in the most important grades have spread out into more than their allocated classrooms leaving lower grades without a place to learn, and therefore without school. The classroom where I and several other volunteers teach, is currently being used for grade 7, so our grade 2s are going without… It’s a real tragedy and the gulf between the haves and the have nots continues to grow…

Many people have lost their jobs in South Africa due to Covid 19 and so unemployment has soared. For Tari, my friend who runs the Buttercup 2 Preschool in the township of Cosmo City, this has meant that not only was she forced to close during lockdown, but that the hardship continues, as people no longer require childcare, as they themselves have no work. And so, whilst she is open for business, currently only 4 children from 15 have returned. With a team of school and church friends in the UK helping me, we are continuing to support Tari as she offers a special place for those at the start of their education in Cosmo City, and 4 precious children are at least receiving that care.

Tari at the preschool entrance.

Meeting up in Cosmo, in preparation of the preschool opening.

As soon as parks and open spaces became legal to visit in South Africa in July, we raced to the countryside. Having visited a few at the beginning of the year with a rather unconvinced Elowen, we thought we would return for a much-needed change of scenery. Remembering the luscious greenery, flowing rivers, bird hides and much more, we excitedly set off for the Modderfontein Nature Reserve. As we approached however, (along with the rest of Johannesburg it turned out), the area wasn’t looking as attractive as we remembered it to be. We started our walk as Laurence explained that the lack of rain in winter in Johannesburg, means that controlled fires are used to burn the dry land to prevent any wildfires from spreading without warning. I must admit, rather than escaping a pandemic, I felt like I was walking through nature's version of one. Either that or we had been transported into Michael Jackson’s Earth Song video, which is a song that I of course proceeding to wail at the top of my voice as we walked along, much to Laurence’s displeasure. A aa aaaa…you’re welcome to join in with me, ha ha! It was so lovely to get out though and a real breath of fresh air. 

At the burnt to a crisp Modderfontein Nature Reserve.

Around about the time I broke out into Earth Song!

With Amelie, having a rest at Modderfontein.

As we come to the end of August, and the end of a bitterly cold winter, I hope that spring is a bit kinder to South Africa. I hope that the numbers of those with the virus continue to drop having surged in July; that schools be available for all students young and old; that work opportunities open up so that Tari sees more little ones returning to preschool; and that nature and us humans can flourish in harmony, as we find a new normal. One can wish…

We have been somewhat green-eyed as we’ve watched Europe open up and enjoy the summer, but we know that challenges still lie ahead up there. Good luck for those with a transition back to school soon, and lots of love to those still isolating or feeling the effects of Covid.

Jess x

Next post: Pinkies and Penguins

Previous post: Alcohol is Banned...?

A few extra photos from the last two months...

An outdoor meet after 5 months of not seeing Laurence's siblings.

Dragging the kids away from Minecraft to donate
to a feeding program run from a local church.

The absolute irony of a wall of toilet rolls
denying the sale of alcohol during the pandemic.

A toast to alcohol being back on sale in mid August.

Alcohol is Banned...?

Home Page: Willmore Adventures in South Africa

Apart from Bill Gates and many scientists around the world, who would have predicted a worldwide pandemic in 2020…? In South Africa, we watched on as China suffered, thinking that, with the close trading ties between China and South Africa, we would be next. We then watched Europe struggle to contain the virus, and still we waited. But then, as the half term skiers returned from Europe in early March, the inevitable happened, and South Africa announced its first case of Covid-19. By the 18^th of March schools were closed, and by the 26^th of March the country was in lockdown. This meant that everyone had to stay at home, only to leave for medical supplies and food (unless you were a key worker); there was to be no movement across provincial borders, and no movement into or out of South Africa, national borders were (and still are) closed. It has been one of the strictest lockdowns in the world and it has also included the banning of alcohol and cigarette sales (cue the choking/spitting out of coffee in shock at this last restriction!).

So, with friends in the townships of Cosmo City and Diepsloot, in Johannesburg, I have had a glimpse into how lockdown has affected many people living in South Africa.

Tari, my lovely friend who runs the Buttercup 2 Preschool in Cosmo City, was visiting her daughters in Zimbabwe, one of whom she had not seen for a year, when the closure of schools was announced. She quickly came back to South Africa to deal with her preschool closure, keeping on a few children of key workers. In fear of the virus and the government, local residents near the preschool saw these children being dropped off and protested (which in SA is called a toyi toyi) outside her house. Buttercup 2 was forced to completely shut its doors. Like so much of South African business, the preschool is informal, and Tari was and still is, unable to claim any compensation. The government immediately began handing out food parcels in the townships, but this hasn’t helped much when Tari has had to pay rent; pay the helper at the preschool; and pay for her own children and elderly mother in Zimbabwe. We hope that July sees a relaxation of the lockdown rules to allow preschools to start again, and for Tari to get up and running once more.

Me and Tari during the Buttercup 2 Preschool build.
From the post, "When building a wall is a good thing"

Tari and the children at Buttercup 2 Preschool,
before lockdown.

Playing in the new outside play area at
Buttercup 2, before lockdown...

Nelson, who was our handyman during the Buttercup 2 play area build back in August last year, was also forced to stop his building work without any means of compensation. Like Tari, he too is originally from Zimbabwe, and relies on informal work because he is unable to find a job despite his truck driver qualifications. He rents a little room built behind a government-built house in Cosmo City, where he stays with his wife and two boys, aged five and one.

Nelson lives behind this house on the right.

Nelson at the preschool build in 2019.

Our dear friend Shepherd, who I wrote about in my last post, “Shepherd’s Dream of Chickens”, made it home from Diepsloot to his rural home in Limpopo Province just before lockdown was implemented. There he spent ten weeks with his five children, and reared chickens, which is a new business venture of his. Shepherd’s usual gardening work in the city is regular so he was paid during lockdown. He was therefore able to enjoy his time at home despite government food parcels not arriving in the rural areas by the time he returned to Diepsloot for work, in June.

Shepherd back in Jo'burg after lockdown in Limpopo 

The government, like elsewhere, has had a very hard job of doing what it thinks is best for South Africa. The early and extreme lockdown meant that the virus almost completely stopped spreading and our rate of infection curve was well and truly flattened. With no alcohol on sale, the numbers admitted to A and E dropped dramatically and hospitals were quite empty. We chatted last week with our friend Yvette, who we went skiing with last year, and as a doctor she was able to tell us that lockdown gave hospitals time to establish Covid-19 protocols in advance of cases arriving, and it gave them time to order PPE from China, which took two months to arrive. After lockdown was relaxed and people started to present with symptoms, Yvette’s hospital was able to successfully isolate people who tested positive for the virus, and successfully track and trace the virus, and quarantine those who had been in contact with it. As it stands today on the 1^st of July, South Africa has had 2657 Covid-19 related deaths, during what has been a bitter winter.

So there has been an incredible economic sacrifice by the people living in South Africa but some real successes too. And where the government has not been able to help, charities and churches have stepped in. We are very much in the thick of it as I write, and hope that by spring we might start seeing a reduction in cases. We will see…

It appears so easy and indulgent when compared to what our friends have faced, but finally, what have the Willmore’s been doing in lockdown? Joe Wicks workouts of course! And plenty of online quizzes and online church, with family and friends. The girls were thrown straight into online schooling, which I found very stressful and quickly learnt I shouldn’t be in the room for, (for fear of shouting when their microphones were on…!), and Joel has had some creative activities sent home from his Waldorf school. Laurence has managed to employ four people in lockdown, still having never met two of them, and his team is working out extremely well. We have had some secret alcohol drops as Laurence’s mum kindly shared her wine with us once ours had run out, and our first day of being allowed out in Lonehill after seven weeks in isolation was described as being like a Christmas Day. And with duty and satisfaction, (and help from our friend Mary in the UK), we have also taken on the role of looking after our dear friends Tari, Nelson, and Shepherd, who have suffered so terribly during this pandemic and will continue to do so until we all get back on our feet as a country. If ever there was a place to see how the pandemic has dis-proportionally affected people, it is here in South Africa. Once again, we are reminded of how lucky we are.

Thick as thieves during lockdown.

As I’m sure, for everyone, it has been an emotional roller-coaster with the pandemic and lockdown. 2020 will truly go down in history. I hope we get through it one way or another, and are able to help, or be helped, along the way. Our little family unit should be back in the UK at the moment, which is really sad, but we’ll get home at some point, and it will be all the sweeter when it finally happens.

Please keep South Africa in your thoughts as the virus continues to spread here.

Lots of love to you all, Jess x

Next post: Guns and Masks...and School?!

Previous post: Shepherd's Dream of Chickens

Here are some photos from our Willmore Lockdown...

Painting rocks and rock hunts.

PE with Joe, fancy dress Friday!

Another PE with Joe, fancy dress friday...

A weekend PE with Joe, with Laurence

Sunday quizzes with the Moloney's.

Elowen in the lounge class for Grade 3

Amelie in the kitchen class for Grade 4

Joel and his home Waldorf Schooling

Our Christmas Day walk of freedom!

Camping in the garden before it got too cold.

The girls...

More camping fun...

Some baking, their (and my) first time
at making meringues...

Elowen's school project to make a mask

Elowen's homemade mask!

Laurence's 40th Birthday!

Elowen's 8th Birthday.

An 8th birthday party for 3...

And just one last picture of the trio.

Shepherd’s Dream of Chickens

Home Page: Willmore Adventures in South Africa

Greetings from Coronavirus Lockdown in South Africa!

Despite all the uncertainty sweeping the world in 2020 so far, it is rather serendipitous that I have a great story to tell. One of success and hope for the future. It involves our gardener, and dear friend, Shepherd, who we have had the privilege of getting to know over the last 18 months. Back in March 2019, I wrote about our blossoming friendship in the blog entitled, ‘Life in the Bushveld with the Cows and the Crocs’, which would be worth a read now, to put this blog in better context. It was around the time of writing however, that Shepherd’s wife, Rebecca, was diagnosed with cancer. Rebecca sadly passed away, at the age of 46, in July 2019, leaving behind 5 children, the youngest of whom is 11 years old. We tried as best we could to support Shepherd through this tragedy, where he also had to contend with a loss of income due to his absence from work, and had the worry of placing his eldest daughter, Pretty, in her mid-twenties, in charge of the rest of the children, whilst he continued to work in the city to support the family financially. Soon after he lost Rebecca, Shepherd was at our side as we too suffered the loss of Laurence’s dad, also to cancer, later in the year. So, understandably, our once light-hearted lunchtime chats that we so often shared, turned to something deeper, our families and our hopes and dreams for the future.

One of our many, many lunches with Shepherd.

In October, it was during one of these conversations that we stumbled across an idea that was to send us on an exciting new adventure. In amongst the sadness we were all feeling, a plan began to emerge, and little did we know that this plan would come to fruition in the middle of a global pandemic.

Since meeting Shepherd, I’ve often wondered how to help him, knowing that we would leave South Africa one day, and I’ve always felt sad that he has spent so many years living apart from his family, returning home only once or twice a year to be with them. So, when Shepherd talked to me about his life with Rebecca, and mentioned that they had had a life long ambition to set up and run a chicken farm at their home in Limpopo Province, but had never been able to save any money to realise their dream, I felt that we could help. Our hearts began to lighten as we discussed the possibility of combining some financial support with Shepherd’s discipline, determination and his dream, and that we would together be able to establish Shepherd and Rebecca’s Chicken Farm, offering chicken to his local community in the bush-veld.

On sharing our plan with Laurence’s mom, Lynn, she was able to offer us some help too. Lynn knew some chicken farmers, Dewet and Esme, a Christian couple who donated 10% of their chickens to charity, one of these being Lynn’s, a soup kitchen for the homeless. So, whilst Shepherd went away to cost up the build of a chicken coop, Lynn set up a meeting with Dewet. Shepherd, Lynn, Dewet and I met up to discuss the plan. Dewet talked us through the set up and maintenance of a chicken farm, from the structure and cleanliness of the coop, to recording the weather every day, and from the temperature of the heat lamps, to the size of the chicken feeders. No stone was left unturned and for this we will be forever grateful. With this knowledge and photos sent through from Esme, Dewet's wife, I was able to write up a guide for Shepherd and his family to follow when he next returned home at Christmas.

On our way to a meeting with Dewet the chicken farmer.

Dewet, Shepherd, Lynn and me at the meeting.

The December holidays arrived, and Shepherd, armed with his instruction booklet and funds raised by Laurence and my lovely Queen Anne’s School friends, headed home with a huge but exciting build to complete, which I hope diluted the pain of arriving home for the first time to the absence of his wonderful wife, Rebecca.

As the photos came through to us back in Johannesburg, we followed eagerly, and by the time the holidays were over, the chicken coop was complete.

The start of the chicken coop build
 on Shepherd's property in Limpopo Province. 

The frame goes up.

On goes the roof.

The start of the walls.

Community hands at work
as the wire fence is added.

More walls going up.

Shepherd and his two youngest sons,
mixing cement.

The finished chicken coop.

Shepherd returned to Johannesburg, to start his working year as usual, whilst his eldest son took over the management of the chicken farm. Kingsley, who is in his early 20s has always struggled at school having left without any qualifications and no prospect of a job. So, the ability to learn this trade, and have the farm as a job, has given Kingsley a sense of purpose, which Shepherd is so relieved about. At the end of February, Kingsley, with help from Shepherd’s friend, Weekend, was able to buy 100, 2-day old chicks from a supplier, and reared them at home following Dewet’s instructions.

The first batch of little chicks.

The new chicks in the coop.

Growing quickly.

When South Africa went into lockdown in March, after the coronavirus arrived from Italy, Shepherd took the opportunity to go home to Limpopo. Using a local radio station and word of mouth, the news spread that Shepherd and Rebecca’s Chicken Farm was open for business. They sold 70 chickens leading up to Easter, and the remaining ones just after. We celebrated over the phone with Shepherd the following day. The sheer delight in Shepherd’s voice carried through the phone. He had successfully completed one cycle with the chickens and was on the first step of the ladder in running a business. Moving home was now a possibility, with the rest of his life to be with his family, and a business to pass on to his children. One that could potentially expand too.

Kingsley with the fully grown chickens.

Kingsley cleaning out the coop after
the last chickens were sold. With his
 dad Shepherd and youngest brother Rikundele.

Shepherd and a new round of chicks.

So, it’s been an incredible 7 months since our chance conversation back in October. Shepherd’s life has changed immeasurably, as has ours too. Through both our family tragedies in 2019 we were reminded that we were not in control in this world. But through our friendship, our experiences together, and the happiness we have been able to bring to each other, we have also discovered hope for the future. Even when our worlds were turned upside down, something good still emerged from the fire. And as a global community, it feels the same now. There is this same realisation that we are not in control and that we are all experiencing loss in our lives to varying degrees. So, I hope Shepherd’s story offers a glimmer of hope for the future, that something good will come from this pandemic, maybe even from an unlikely moment like ours, a simple conversation over lunch.

From our home in South Africa, to yours in another part of the world, we send all our love, and hope that you find some peace during these uncertain times.

Jess xxx

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