Tuesday is our last day at Net Vir Pret and therefore a day of goodbyes. We spend the morning teaching the bracelet making to Herman and talk about the past month with the rest of the staff. We exchange pictures that we made with pictures Angelo has made, and then go to town to arrange a last few things. We talk to Kati about continuing of the swimming lessons at Katidale, say goodbye to Anthony and go to Magpie to visit their workshop. We go back to the office to discuss a last few things and then so goodbye to the staff as we leave for the last swimming lessons. We enjoy our last time at the pool with the young volunteers, and afterwards swim a bit with Sylvia and Granny, who have both improved a lot (Sylvia has practiced the whole weekend and now manages on her own, and Granny is hardly scared of the pool anymore). In the evening we talk and say goodbye to Terry and Joan, and walk by Herman for a last goodbye as well. It feel unreal that we are going to leave Barrydale, almost like we are leaving from home again.
Wednesday morning we are picked up by a shuttle service between 9:30 and 11 AM. We just manage to be ready at 9:30, but the small bus does not show up until a little past eleven, so we spend some time talking to Joan who is working at her atelier, and thinking about our time in Barrydale. Looking back on it, it feels like we have been here forever, but it still feels as if it is too short.

Monday we go the the Net Vir Pret office, with in the back of our minds the thought that we are leaving on Wednesday again; the month has flown by. We work a bit at the office this morning and drop by at Derek’s place to help with some other computer problems. We hear from him that the little cat we found Friday did not survive the weekend. Derek’s new dog however is doing great and feels at home enough to guard the hallway and keep me cornered near the bathroom. We talk with Derek about the past month at Net Vir Pret and then go back to the office for lunch. After lunch we go to Magpie (the local art gallery that we wanted to visit all this time but had not) to admire the beautiful art made from recycle materials, and also talk a bit to Shane (he is vice-president of the Net Vir Pret board as well). Next, we go to Katidale for swimming lessons and tell Peden and Zana that they can continue the swimming lessons after we leave: their level of swimming is easily sufficient to teach the basics to others, and they seem to be enthusiastic and dedicated about the program. After the swimming lessons we go home to hang our swimming gear to dry and then go to back to the office, where the others have organized as our farewell party. The food is delicious and afterwards we play the most exhausting game of donkey ever. Completely stuffed we all go home again.

One of the chandeliers at Magpie gallery

Saturday we have a laidback morning and afternoon, in which we do some shopping and cleaning. That evening, we go to the Barrydale Hotel with Terry and Joan, from where we go to the Joubert-Tradouw wine farm for a concert. We are taken there in the back of a small lorry to prevent people from having to drive back after drinking. When we are driving over there we see that the police has set up a roadblock between the farm and Barrydale to do just the same thing. The Joubert-Tradouw wine farm is one of the biggest and most famous in the regions. Although they are most famous for their brandy, the wine is very nice as well. As we walk around at the concert (there are about sixty people) we feel how quickly we have become part of Barrydale: we see many familiar faces and spend our evening talking, listening to the music, and enjoying the beautiful scenery. As we are taken back to Barrydale we laugh over some of the older (clearly drunk) people in the back of the lorry making jokes and yelling things to the police at the roadblock.
Sunday we use our morning to update blogs and Facebook at Anthony’s internet café and then go for a swim at the dam. It is a beautiful and warm day, and this time it is very busy with children playing around in the water. We swim across the lake and back, and then start throwing around a tennis ball. Soon some of the children want to join the playing, and after a while we are throwing the ball around with a whole group. In the end, Maaike has a girl hanging onto her neck while she is swimming and walking around. After a few hours at the dam we are tired and go back home. In the evening we go to Anthony’s home and enjoy the company of him and his two dogs.

Maaike and some of the children at the Dam

Friday morning there is a small two month old kitten lying under the vines at the Net Vir Pret office: Herman found her in the middle of the road. She is not looking good, so we try to find out if there is something like an animal rescue service in the area. Luckily we hear from Derek, who is just passing by, that there is such a service and that they are actually going to bring him a new dog this afternoon. If we drop by with the kitten later on the day, we could hand her over, and also help him out with the computer. We spend some time trying to get the little kitten to drink or eat something, but we do not have much success. At half past one we go over to Derek, and manage to help him out with his computer. While Maaike stays with Derek to help him out some more, I go to the Barrydale Hotel to start with the swimming lessons for that day. Maaike joins me later: there is a new dog at Derek’s place (a very shy one who has been treated badly before), and the woman took the kitten with her, although she was quite worried about her. We continue working with the young volunteers and see how much they have learned since they started: at least some of them move around in the water freely and without any fear or worries. After the swimming lessons we go to Katidale for some more teaching, and afterwards go home to enjoy our weekend.

The little kitten

Thursday we go to the Weltevrede farm school late in the morning, where we teach grades 4, 5 and 6 to make the bracelets. The teacher tells them that they will be graded in the end so the children pay even better attention. Some them get it right away and have finished theirs before we leave. Back in the office we have lunch and then go to the pool at the hotel, which is available today. It is quite a bit bigger and deeper and seems to scare some of our swimmers, which makes it a good reality check for those who were getting too confident in the pool at Katidale. The better swimmers quickly recover from the initial shock and continue practicing. After the lessons we talk for a while with a Dutch couple staying at the hotel, and then go over to Katidale to teach swimming to Kati’s mother and the maid, which was part of the agreement we made with Kati for letting us use the pool. Kati’s mother (granny) is afraid of water, so getting her over her fear is our primary objective. The maid (Sylvia) has already been swimming with the volunteers and is progressing slowly but steadily.

Almost finished bracelet

Wednesday it is a bit sunnier again, so we cycle to the Net Vir Pret office without feeling cold. The Akkerboom farm school does not have time for us today, so instead we go to the school in Barrydale to make some bracelets. We pick one of the higher grades, since the classrooms are less crowded and hopefully the children are paying more attention. This time we explain the concept by splitting the group in two and showing them how we do it, which proves to work much better. By the time we leave most of them understand what they have to do. We go back to the office, where this afternoon we make bracelets with the young volunteers. In the evening, we go to Herman’s place to watch a movie.

Making bracelets at Net Vir Pret

Monday morning we go to the Net Vir Pret office again. The planning for this week is to make friendship bracelets with the children, which are made from colourful pieces of string and is something we have done in our primary school as well (it took us quite some evenings and the help of youtube to remember how this was done again). Because it is not very easy and takes quite some time to explain we decide to only do this with grades 4, 5 and 6 at the Vleiplaas farm school where we are going today. First of all we let the children choose three different colours, and then we try to explain them how it is done. This proves to be quite difficult; our drawings on the board do not seem to help them much. However, most children have a lot of fun working with it, and when we approach them individually some manage to get the right pattern. When we leave we first head for the Karoo Saloon, where according to Lyn they have constructed a swimming pool by themselves. There we learn that this has been done by John de Jager, who owns a construction in Barrydale right next to the shop. While Peter and Angelo are getting lunch from the shop we pop in and explain to him what we are looking for. He is enthusiastic and promises to work out some of the different options we have. One of the options involves the fibreglass shell of his own pool that he is looking to replace, and happens to be the exact size that we had in mind for the pool. With the good news we go back to the NVP office for lunch. Afterwards we go to the Katidale pool for our next swimming lessons. Both groups are doing a lot better and show good progress. During the last half hour dark clouds are packing over the Karoo, and as we get out of the pool it starts to rain heavily; it keeps doing so for the rest of the evening and night. At home we spend our time inside on baking a classical Dutch apple pie.

Rainstorms and double rainbow

On Saturday Maaikes throat feels so sore that we decide to call the doctor whom we visitied this Wednesday. He decides that we should come back today and makes an appointment for us at 11. Luckily we can borrow the bakkie (pick-up) from Terry and Joan and embark on our first driving adventure in South Africa. We remember to stay on the left side of the road and arrive without accidents and in time for the appointment in Swellendam. There we learn that the infection has spread from her eyes to her throat and she will need to take some antibiotics. Luckily they have everything at the pharmacy and we drive safely home with all the required medication.
The next day Maaike’s throat is feeling a bit better so we decide to continue our plans of going to Warmwaterberg, where they have pools with naturally heated mountain water. We go together with Herman, Angelo sadly cannot make it. The hottest pool is 42 degrees Celsius and is in our opinion too much to be in for longer than five minutes. Luckily we can ‘cool down’ in the 25 degree pool. We spend a lovely afternoon there and go home tired from all the swimming. In the evening we have a great dinner at Lyn (who is working on the Net Vir Pret website), together with Derek, Shane, and some other people from Barrydale.

Today we go to a farm school on the east side of Barrydale (Lemoenshoek). In our talk about the Netherlands, the children really have to laugh over the nickname ‘Kaaskop’ (cheesehead), which is sometimes used for Dutch people. When the lower grades also join we sing the ‘Vader Jacob’ song with them, but in the lyrics of the Dutch version we transform this into ‘Vader Kaaskop’ to the joy of a large group of the children. In the afternoon we have our second official swimming lessons. The first group is doing great, and the second group (although younger) has some great talents between them. Most of them get the hang of swimming pretty quickly.

Theoretical swimming lesson