Well I've finally arrived in Africa!! Pretty crazy! Surprisingly enough, the traveling wasn't all that bad. I was really lucky because I was somehow able to sleep the majority of the time. What ended up to be a 10 hour layover in New York got a little boring, but other than that sleep helped the time pass by. I met up with 6 other volunteers from my program in New York and we all had seats around each other on the 18 hour flight. They were jealous I was able to sleep so much :) Three of these girls are my exact age and the other 3 are older women, and all from the east coast. I am the only one from the west it seems. When I tell people I'm from Utah, I get the awkward "Oooohh...." and then a change of subject. Haha. Flying into Cape Town was so beautiful! You could see Table Mountain and Bay of Good Hope and all of the city. I look forward to getting to explore what Cape Town has to offer while I am here!
The airport was really easy to understand and navigate through; especially with 6 of us to help each other. We easily found our driver, Wonga, and he was so friendly and happy to see us. I'm happy I won't be having to drive here, because everything is backwards and we all know how well I drive when things are normal even...no bueno. As we drove the 15 minutes from the airport to the house, Wonga acted like our tour guide and pointed out everything we should notice. We passed several townships (places the poorest of the poor live) and it was shocking. It was just beatin down shack after shack lined up. Hundreds of them. As I saw the cute little black children running around them in their bare feet and playing on chunks of cement, it really got to me. I can't wait to start my placement and get to serve in these townships. We start Tuesday!
The airport was really easy to understand and navigate through; especially with 6 of us to help each other. We easily found our driver, Wonga, and he was so friendly and happy to see us. I'm happy I won't be having to drive here, because everything is backwards and we all know how well I drive when things are normal even...no bueno. As we drove the 15 minutes from the airport to the house, Wonga acted like our tour guide and pointed out everything we should notice. We passed several townships (places the poorest of the poor live) and it was shocking. It was just beatin down shack after shack lined up. Hundreds of them. As I saw the cute little black children running around them in their bare feet and playing on chunks of cement, it really got to me. I can't wait to start my placement and get to serve in these townships. We start Tuesday!
Table Mountain through the hazy sky. Driving to the house from the airport.
The staff here are the house are so friendly and so helpful. We got a brief tour of the house, our room assignments, then the cooks had dinner prepared for us; stir fry! It was really yummy. All of the volunteers in the house either got here this morning or when I did, so we just started talking and getting to know each other during dinner. We are all girls so far (I think two boys are due to come in later tonight) and everyone seems very anxious to explore the country. It should be an adventure!
The staff here are the house are so friendly and so helpful. We got a brief tour of the house, our room assignments, then the cooks had dinner prepared for us; stir fry! It was really yummy. All of the volunteers in the house either got here this morning or when I did, so we just started talking and getting to know each other during dinner. We are all girls so far (I think two boys are due to come in later tonight) and everyone seems very anxious to explore the country. It should be an adventure!
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