All good things must come to an end

Sitting in the Cape Town airport.... How is this trip over already? It has gone by so fast! Now that everything is packed and I have left my friends, kids at school, and brother.... all I want to do if fast forward this journey and get home! 

I am thrilled that I was able to spend the last night in the hostel with my friend Naomi. It would have been a very lonely sad night without her. Instead of being cooped up in our hostel, we decided to go on a date night and went out for a glass of wine and sushi. We reminisced on the past month and shared many good laughs. 

Yesterday was a sad day, full of lots of goodbyes. Ryan was able to spend most of the day with us. It was very sweet of him to stay in Cape Town and hang out with Naomi and me. Of course we found a couple more last items to take home and strolled the waterfront, taking in the picturesque scenery. It felt like a postcard that I happen to be walking through. 

.... I And then all the goodbyes hit me! In the end I have to be grateful that I have so many people that I have shared this experience with that make it such a sad goodbye. After going to Barcelona for a semester and spending the last 4/5 weeks traveling I can confidently say that the people that travel together develop a special bond and relationship that is difficult to describe. Going around and experiencing a new culture together, getting lost together, and sharing the ups and downs of a journey like this together is an amazing bond. 

I feel very lucky to have had this opportunity. I really feel like I have taken advantage of my time here and made an impact. Now time to take what I have learned about myself and about the world and use it to make a difference. 

Cape Town

Moved out of Muizenberg this afternoon. It was certainly bitter sweet. I have become quite connected to this small quaint suburb of Cape Town. We took the train into Cape Town and then started a long walking journey to our hostel for the next two dates. (Slightly underestimated the distance to this hostel) There are several people leaving in the next couple of days that also finished volunteering on Friday so it has been convenient for us to get a hostel together. (Ryan also came and is spending the night in the hostel for the first night to send me off and hang out in Cape Town) In the afternoon we did some market shopping and exploring Cape Town. 

Dinner reservations were made for a famous restaurant called Mama Africa. It is an authentic African meal with love music, a wonderful atmosphere and friendly staff. We also had many other volunteers come in from Muizenberg to meet up with us, in total we had nearly 20 people in our reservation. It was tons of fun! I enjoyed it so much! The food was pretty good! Lots of exotic meats and curry. Overall, it was a nice dinner until the bill came. Imagine dividing up a bill between 20 people. (Separate checks is not something that they do here) Eeeeeek 

Later in the evening we went out on Long Street. This is a famous street that has a lot of fun pubs, restaurants, and clubs. It was a great time because we had so many volunteers! 

*sorry I do not have any pictures from the evening part of the day because I was very strongly advised not to bring my iPhone out! 

Sunrise

Today I started one of my last days with a sunrise hike up Muizenberg. Beautiful start to the day! Then a big breakfast at my favorite cafe called Slow Life.

Don't be sad it's over be happy it happened

One of the best days I have had in South Africa. Started with a wonderful day at school. My students were so spunky and adorable. Because it is the last day of the term the kids were allowed to dress in any type of clothes! They were so cute and expressive! One cutie Chavarno was wearing electric yellow pants and a lime green tshirt. (Totally did not match...but it was just so him) 

We had the treats I made, played games and ran around outside. The day ended with incredibly sad goodbyes. All the kids swarmed me and gave me cute cards. My heart melted! My hardest goodbye was to my sweet kindergartener Hayden. I can not express how amazing this little girl is. She is absolutely one of a kind and has the sweetest personality to match her smile. She knew all week that today was my last day. She kept on telling me how much she doesn't want Friday to come. Finally when the time came to say goodbye she was hugging me so tight. She gave me a kiss on the check and left her lips pressed against my check for I am serious 4 minutes straight. She wouldn't let go. It brought a tear to my eye. It was emotional.  

The day continued with a staff meeting after the kids left. The principal again gave a heart felt speech. They gave me a mug with a picture of the school on it and the school tie.

Following the staff meeting several teachers and school staff  (maybe 20 people in total) went to a beautiful forest with nice grill out and picnic areas. All the staff gathered, brought there own drinks and a huge spread of food and had lot of meat to throw on the grill! 

The teachers are some of the nicest most welcoming people I have ever been around. They are so sweet and willing to help as much as they can. I had an amazing time. It was fun to get to know the teachers at a more personal level. Teachers were singing, drinking, dancing, eating... Everyone was so happy and kind to us volunteers! 

A few more kid pics! 

Sad sad good bye! 

The other volunteer is Sarah. And of course our kindergarteners attached to the hip. 

Mobeem! Anther sad goodbye. He dressed so cute today and apologized that my last day he didn't wear any super hero outfit. 

I let Ryan have one pic with Hayden! That js all he gets though! 

The BBQ! So fun! 

Dancing teachers! 

Craft Day!

Did a craft with the kids today! Brought all these supplies and they were sooo excited! I printed a goofy class picture and we made "picture frames." Here are a couple pics! 

Getting ready for the last day

This evenings adventure has been baking in the metric system! Quite fun! I am in shock that tomorrow is my last day at school. It is so sad! I decided to make some goodies for the kids and for the teachers that have been so welcoming to me the past month! I set out for the grocery store and made a ton of cookies and dessert bars for everyone! I know it is not much but it will be a nice treat before they leave for a 3 week break from school. I also wrote some cards thanking individuals for making my experience so memorable.

It had been inspiring to be surrounded by other volunteers in the house. If I have the opportunity to do another trip like this I would make an effort to do fundraising before the trip to help the students! Some volunteers have helped out in amazing ways. For example one volunteer raised enough money to buy over 60 uniforms for students whose parents can not afford them or they have grown out of their current uniform. Another volunteer has raised money to allow the class to go on a field trip. From what I heard this was a huge success. They went to Cape Town  to a children's museum and went to a park in the afternoon. Of course many volunteers provide supplies for the students and school. So many ways to give back! 

A volunteer at my house organized something called #lunchbag. This is something that is coming to some bigger cities that have a homeless population. A group of people come together and buy sandwich making ingredients. So my housemate Anastasia organized this so all volunteers could be involved. Each of the volunteer houses had a sandwich making party. We had everything from basic ham and cheese, pp&j, to full out veggie sandwiches. All of the volunteers together made over 500 hundred sandwiches. It was incredible! A couple people were able to pack these sandwiches up and deliver them to homeless people in the township areas where our schools are located. It was an amazing experience. 

Still in shock that I head home in only a couple days. This has been such a wonderful journey that has been extremely rewarding in many ways. 

Use Your Very Best Handwriting!

Today I was alone again with the kids. I have one funny story that happened. So one of my activities that I planned was to make cards for my teacher congratulating her for her new baby boy. I brought in colored construction paper and some other supplies for them to use. By the time I got all the supplies passed out, I wrote a couple of ideas of what to write on the chalk board. For example, "Congratulations," "Good Luck," "Have a great holiday break!" Also on the board I also wrote "Use your very best hand writing!" 

I thought the activity was going really well! The kids were engaged and loving it. After I asked the students to show me their cards! They were so thankful to have the supplies! Told me thank you several times!  They lined up and one by one were so excited to present their hard work. The first 4 cards I looked at had written on the front "Congratulations, Good Luck, Have a Great Holiday Break and Use Your Very Best Handwriting." 

I couldn't help but laugh. They are so trained to copy everything on the board! It was adorable! I

Another cute pic with Hayden! Do not want to leave her!

My crazy class