Laura T so incredibly thankful for this experience

So I lied in my last post, I didn’t realize we all had to write one more blog post. Oops! So this is officially the last post I will write in South Africa.

We leave in three days. Three days. That is so little time.  It doesn’t seem real to me. I feel like this has been my life for so long now, going to internship in Khayelitsha, going to class, exploring Cape Town and South Africa. It feels like home here now. Returning to the US is going to feel so different. It doesn’t seem real that on Monday I will be waking up in Maine instead of in Cape Town, that I won’t be going into Khayelitsha and that I won’t see everyone at my internship. I am going to miss this place and the people here so much.

This Sunday, I did the 3 Peak Challenge, hiking Devils Peak, Table Mountain, and Lion’s Head all in one day. This was the perfect way to spend my last weekend in Cape Town. Hiking alone for ten hours gave me so much time to think and reflect about my time here and how I feel about leaving. It was so relaxing and peaceful to be alone on these mountains and to look out at the amazing city of Cape Town and the vast ocean. Sitting on Lion’s Head I got pretty emotional. The sun was beginning to get low over the water and the reflection was so beautiful. I was the only one up there (a rare occurrence), and as I gazed out over the ocean I realized that out there somewhere, 8000 miles away, was the US, and realized that by that time next week I would be home. I actually almost started crying.  I don’t know how to describe all the feelings and emotions I had and how special it was, and I am so happy that I had this experience, and that I had it just to myself.

           

The emotional roller coaster continued with our internship thank you dinner on Tuesday. It was a great night, full of speeches and thank yous, delicious food and great music. It was a lot of fun, but also bittersweet, as it began to hit me even more how soon we are all leaving. I don’t know when I will see all these people again and that is so sad to think about. Wednesday, my last day at the Social Justice Coalition, was even sadder as I said goodbye to everyone I have worked with for the past three and a half months.

           

I am so fortunate to have been able to come to Cape Town and so incredibly thankful for this experience. I wish it wasn’t ending so soon, that it could last a little longer. I miss home and everyone there, but I think I am going to miss Cape Town more than I ever missed the US while I was here; I knew I’d always go home to Maine, but I don’t know when I’ll be able to come back to South Africa, although I know I will, someday.