I was going to start off this post by saying that we
did something different this weekend, but as soon as I started typing I realize
that this statement didn’t make any sense. How can there be a “different”
weekend when there’s really no such thing as a normal weekend in Cape Town? I
don’t think there’s been a single weekend that has passed without a single
remarkable thing happening. Even when we don’t plan anything, there’s just so
much stuff going on here that we end up in the most unexpected and amazing
places. We might start off your day just running errands or sitting around, and
could easily end up on the top of a mountain or the middle of a parade. And
that’s what I love about Cape Town- you can never quite predict what the city
has in store, but you can bet it will be incredible.
Anyways, back to this weekend. We travelled to
Goedgedacht, an olive farm in the countryside outside of Cape Town, and the
entire estate was sublimely beautiful. It was nestled between miles of rolling
fields and a mountain, and each building looked like it was straight out of an
Anthropologie catalog. It was the perfect venue for the weekend- everyone was
feeling happy, relaxed, and ready to talk about human rights. The workshops
were interesting, and I liked that we focused on issues surrounding refugees
and asylum seekers; I didn’t know much about what these terms meant, but it
seems like they’re relevant topics in South Africa. It was also great getting
to talk to the participants who were not from our group. My roommate was Jess,
who is from Johannesburg and studying at UCT, and my country for our model UN
exercise was made up of mostly Africans. I loved hearing their stories and what
they had to say, and it made the whole weekend worthwhile.
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| Allie getting to know other participants during ice breaker |
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| Allie at group presentation |
But as rewarding as the workshops and new
acquaintances were, the highlight of the weekend was probably Saturday night. A
bunch of people wanted to go stargazing after we finished class, so we all
gathered up blankets and set off up the mountain. After wandering around in the
moonlight for a while, we finally settled down in the middle of the path and
looked up at the sky. There is zero light pollution at Goedgedacht, and so the
sky was the clearest I’ve ever seen it. A nearly nearly full moon hovered above
the mountains, and the Milky Way arched across the sky from one horizon to the
other, occasionally being dotted by shooting stars. And as I sat there, looking
up with that sky, surrounded by these people who have become some of my closest
friends, all I could think about was that there was nowhere on Earth I would
rather be.
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| Allie receiving her certificate from Ntombi Mcoyi at conclusion of weekend |
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