Allie discovering similarities among differences

Allie receives her Africa Unite Human Rights Training Certificate

It’s unbelievable that we have already been here over seven weeks. Previous to my departure, people continually asked me if my upcoming experience felt real yet and my answer was always that it wouldn’t feel real until I was in Cape Town. Well now here I am feeling at home in this city 10,000 miles away from where I grew up, living my day to day life with incredible experiences every day and it still doesn’t feel real. Being in Cape Town may just always feel like a vivid dream that I will always want to fall into a deep sleep to get back to. I continually look around at my surrounds and I am unable to believe that this is real life.

Staying at Goedgedacht Olive Farm for Human Rights weekend was no exception. Not only was it breathtakingly gorgeous, but also meeting people from countries I may never have an opportunity to meet otherwise was unforgettable. Never in my life would I have guessed I would be spending a weekend with people from 5 different countries, among us 10 different languages and some hilarious cultural differences. I was especially struck my how quickly the people from African countries treated us as if we were all old best friends of theirs. I will never cease to be taken aback by kindness and warmth found in South Africa from the people who live here, and evidently from all over the continent the same attitude applies.

 

Ava, Allie & Manuela with two new friends

One of my favorite parts of the weekend was when we had an extended discussion of our opinions on abortion and the death penalty. I was especially interested because they are such hot topics for debate in the U.S. but every argument that was made this past weekend was some formation of an argument that I have heard before. This may sound like it was therefore pointless, but it was fascinating to me that topics such as these could be so universally debated. Two people from across the world with completely different backgrounds could have the exact same opinion on matters of abortion, while a different type of debate could have such a huge culture divide. I love experiencing different cultures and differing opinions, but it was refreshing to have a discussion that was so universal.