Don't Make Me Leave.....

Well, this is it - I’m sitting in complete denial at my gate in Cape Town Airport. I can’t believe 4 weeks have gone by so quickly, it feels like I just got here. As I’m typing this I can’t help but think back to when I wrote the final entry for my Spain blog; I remember wondering how I would explain my experiences to people back home and hoping the friendships I made and memories I created would last forever (they have so far!). While those same thoughts are creeping into my mind, I find myself almost at a loss for words – there’s no simple way to summarize the last 4 weeks of my life. As I’m sure you all have gathered I had some pretty crazy adventures, made some wonderful friends, and got to spend a majority of my time with children who melted my heart on a daily basis. The goal in any volunteer situation is to make an impact, which I certainly hope I did, but in a lot of ways I think they helped me more than I ever could have dreamed. This trip couldn’t have come at a better time; I finally feel like myself again, rejuvenated and ready to take on the next big phase in life. It was so incredible to put the insanity of the past year behind me and just devote all my energy to the children at the orphanage.

Yesterday I took some time out of the Fun Friday activities to get a handprint from each of the 7 kids which I plan on incorporating into a scrapbook when I get home, and then at the end of the day I spent a half hour sitting with the special needs children. At departure dinner I got 2 cd’s of slideshows (they won’t open on my laptop so I can’t upload any until I’m home) and both have some fantastic pictures of me with the children! I also finally made it to Table Mountain! Myself and 3 close friends hopped in a cab right after project yesterday and spent the afternoon in Cape Town at Table Mountain and walking through markets. We didn’t have time to hike, but the view from the top was beyond remarkable! There wasn’t a cloud in the sky so we could see everything – perfect last adventure!

I’m sure there’s more I could say, but it would probably just get repetitive reading “this was the most rewarding month of my life – the kids are adorable, I wish I could have kidnapped them – South Africa is amazing – blah blah blah” So now I’m off to grab some food before my flight then I plan on sleeping for all of the 11 hours considering I barely slept the last 4 weeks haha I’ll be home in 12 days! If anything exciting happens in the next week I’ll sign back on but otherwise thanks for following! I hope you’ve enjoyed my updates :)