Last week, we finally embarked on something we’ve been
hearing about since before we left Connecticut- excursion! We spent the first
half in Johannesburg, and we managed to fit a lot of activities into just four
days. We visited a bunch of museums, toured a number of historical sites and
saw the play “Curl Up and Dye”. As enriching as all these activities were, my
favorite part of Joburg was definitely our day at the Boys and Girls Club of Soweto. We arrived in the morning and split up into small groups to work on a
number of different projects; some people were clearing out a soccer field,
some were gardening, and some were building a mosaic table. I was supposed to
be on food duty, but since there were literally too many cooks in the kitchen I
ended up just playing with the kids around the club. It was so much fun- they
were so sweet, and they were thrilled to hang out with us. They even put on a
dance performance for us at the end of the day, which was fantastic. It was so
great to have a chance to get to know the kids, and I know we were all sad to
leave at the end of the day.
For the
second part of our trip, we got back on the bus for the long drive from Joburg
to Kruger National Park. Personally, I’ve been looking forward to this since
the beginning of the trip; I’ve been watching Discovery Channel specials on
African wildlife for my whole life, and now I finally got the chance to go on a
real safari! It was even more than I could have hoped for. Minutes after
driving into the Park our bus was surrounded by a herd of elephants, and over
the next two days we saw even more elephants, giraffes, antelope, warthogs,
rhino, and even a few lions. It was absolutely incredible, and I hope I make it
back to Kruger some day.
As much fun
as we had in Kruger, I was relieved to return to Cape Town. Even though we were
only gone for a week, I found myself missing everything about our lives in Cape
Town. I missed the familiar rhythm of life at Loch Road; I missed the colorful
people and places around the city; I even missed always being able to see the
mountain- the horizon looked so empty without it! So even though I learned a
lot about South Africa’s history and nature over the course of the past week, I
think the most significant thing I’ll take away from excursion is how much I
love my life here in Cape Town, and how hard it is going to be to leave.
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