Well it's been about a month now since I last posted, but we've just been SO busy! Since my last post, we finished up service sites and our time at African Enterprise. We left Pietermaritzburg and traveled for 5 days on the BEAUTIFUL Garden Route until we made it to Cape Town. We have now been spending the past two weeks here, where we have been able to explore this incredible city and even spend a week living with a family in a township. Now we have less than a week left of our semester, which is when most of the group goes home. I will be flying to Johannesburg with the group on the 2nd of May but after that me and a friend are staying there for 9 days before heading back to the states. I can't believe I'll be home in a few weeks now, this has all gone by so fast! It's going to be sad to leave this incredible country and to have to say goodbye to some amazing new friends, luckily I will see most of them again in September at school. Wow! All I can say is this experience has been life changing and hopefully I get the chance to explain to each of you how it has changed me. Once my time here is over, I'm sure I will have done a lot of reflecting and be able to put into words just how I have been impacted by this experience and hopefully share that on here. But until then, here are some pictures of what I've been up to these past weeks, plus an incredible video that was made for my service site. Enjoy!
I'm gonna miss all these precious children <3 I didn't know I could love so deeply in such a short amount of time but it truly was heart breaking to leave them!
This is the HIV support group we got to spend time with at RivLife. They are some of the strongest women I've ever met!
Our finished project in the Creche :-) We deep cleaned the whole building and made them a chalk board. It has been such a pleasure working with this amazing group of people! This picture was also taken on our last day at RivLife, which happened to be my birthday. Even though it was hard to leave this wonderful place and the people there, it was still the best birthday I've ever had!
After we all got back from service sites, we got to celebrate my 21st birthday properly with a toga party :-)
Here's a video made by one of the members of our team from our time at RivLife. It is an incredible video that truly captures our
experience there. It's well worth watching!
This was taken before our Final Dinner at African Enterprise. These lovely people have become absolutely incredible friends and I am so grateful to have them in my life now <3
This first picture is our RivLife team at our Final Dinner with Tendai and Nomvula. Tendai and Nomvula our some of the women we were able to work with and get to know at RivLife. On the left is a picture of me and Nomvula, she has been such an inspiration in my life. Nomvula is HIV positive, yet she hasn't let that stopped her from helping out in the community. She helps out at two support groups, runs a creche at her home, runs a soup kitchen to feed the hungry, volunteers her time at RivLife and continues to always smile and remain positive. It has brought me so much hope to know that there are people out there like her and I have been inspired by her to not let any struggle stop me from helping out others.
After leaving African Enterprise we had 5 days of traveling along South Africa's coastline until we got to Cape Town. It was definitely one of the best road trips I've ever been on :) Our second day of traveling happened to be Easter Sunday, so we all woke up early and went to a sunrise service on the beach before beginning our second day of traveling. Hope everyone had a Happy Easter!
On Sunday, we arrived in Port Elizabeth. This is a beautiful beach city and we were lucky to have time exploring it. That night we went out to dinner and celebrated my birthday with some mocktails (even though I turned 21, no cocktails because we can't drink while on our study abroad program). The mocktails were delicious though and it was great to go out and celebrate!
The next day we woke up early and traveled to the Bloukrans Bridge, where I got to Bungee Jump! This bridge is the world's highest bungee bridge being an insane 700 feet tall. So why wouldn't I jump off! It was such a thrilling experience and I was surprisingly more excited than scared. It definitely put a new meaning to the saying: "If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you?"
Later that day we arrived in George and got to enjoy a two night stay in the beautiful town. As soon as we got checked in that afternoon we went straight to the beach :) The beach was absolutely stunning and I couldn't believe places like this exist; I definitely want to return here someday!
While we were staying in George we got to go to the Cango Wildlife Ranch, where they raise endangered animals. When we were there we got the chance to pet a cheetah, so I did! It was pretty strange petting it; I almost felt like I was petting a dog that purred.
On Wednesday we finally arrived in Cape Town! We all checked in at the bed and breakfast that we have been staying at in Fish Hoek. Fish Hoek is a cute beach town just outside of the city of Cape Town and it is absolutely gorgeous. Plus it's pretty nice only living a block away from the beach and it's not so bad having to walk along the beach to get back from class. These pictures were taken on our way back from class. While in Cape Town we are finishing our History and Culture of South Africa class and have to go to class 3 days a week at a nearby Bible Institute.
This is my Host Family. I got to stay with them in the coloured township of Oceanview for a week. While in Cape Town we do home stays for a week as a part of our class and to better understand the culture. My family is an absolutely incredible family and I definitely felt at home while I was staying with them. I'm so excited to stay in contact with them and I'm so glad I had this experience.
Last week we got to hike to the top of Table Mountain. This mountain lies right next to the city of Cape Town and has recently been named one of the New Seven World Wonders. The hike to the top took about two hours and it was pretty intense but it was well worth it and after that I got to take the cable car down :)
Last week the president of Azusa Pacific University, Jon Wallace, came to visit us and see how the semester was running. It was great to spend time with him and get to know him in a smaller setting.
On Sunday we heard that Desmond Tutu would be speaking at a church in Cape Town, so 10 of us went to the service that day and got to hear him speak. The service was at a Dutch Reform Church that usually speaks Afrikaans, but we expected Desmond Tutu to speak in English since he isn't Afrikaans. I guess he learned the language though, because he said his whole sermon in Afrikaans. It was great to go to the service anyway though and experience a different type of church. Surprisingly there weren't that many people at the church so we all got the chance to go up and meet him afterwards. I got a hug from him and shook his hand, it was amazing to meet such a powerful person who has done so much good for our world.
Now we have a week left of the program and I have 16 days until I'm home. It's crazy how fast this experience has gone by. South Africa will always have a special place in my heart <3 Hope all is well! Take care and until next time!
God Bless,
Yvette
