Jenna has so much she wants to tell

“I have so much I want to tell you, and nowhere to begin.”

Since my last post, so much has happened. I want to tell you all about skydiving and how it was by far the greatest experience of my entire life. About how terrifying it was to sit on the side of the plane waiting for the professional with me to push us off but how thrilling and amazing the fall was. I want to tell you about the Firefighter Football Clubs’ soccer tournament and how much they appreciated the food that we got them with all the donations from fundraising. I want to tell you about our weeklong excursion to Johannesburg. About all the museums we went to about Apartheid, Nelson Mandela, Hector Peterson, and the Sharpeville massacre. About volunteering with the Boys and Girls Club and the cutest, most well behaved children I got to play with. I want to tell you about Kruger National Park and all the animals we got to see on our safaris. About the baboons we saw running through the area where we slept at night and the hilarious conversations we had while on our game drives.

Jenna with new friend at the Pimville Boys & Girls Club in Soweto

I want to tell you more about all these experiences. But we only have two more weeks left in South Africa so our past couple weekends have been jammed packed. Today is Monday (14 April) and I just got back from a weekend trip around Plettenberg Bay with 14 other of my UConn coeducators. And that’s what I want to tell you about now…

3:00 a.m. Friday we all woke up from our ‘naps’ and departed Rondebosch. To be honest, I’m not sure how long the drive was because I was in and out of sleep most of the trip but before we knew it we were at our first destination: the Congo Wildlife Range. Here we got to see animals like cheetahs, alligators, lions, hippos, etc. and I even got to interact with three-year-old cheetahs!! Next we had a guided tour through Congo Caves, which was actually really incredible and nothing like what I was expecting. It was interesting to see the different kinds of formations and see the traces left from people long long ago. Next we traveled to an ostrich farm which again, was nothing like I imagined it to be. By that time we were getting a little sleepy from all the traveling but this visit woke us all right up. After a brief information session about ostriches, we ventured outside to see them. I got to sit on one, which was definitely one of the weirdest things I’ve done, and five lucky volunteers got to ride them. Fun fact: riding an ostrich is not similar to riding a horse AT ALL. It’s more like bull riding ostrich style. The people riding them had to hold on tight as the ostrich took off and the only way to get off was to fall off. It made for a hilarious time and one of the best moments from the weekend. We ended the day at a Backpackers hostel. It was right on the beach and absolutely beautiful. Going into the trip I was not expecting anything like this. I didn’t expect to be eating a delicious meal on the beach or having a sing a long right by the ocean later that night. On one of the walls in the hostel, there was a quote that read “We are not African because we live in Africa, we are African b’cos Africa lives in us”. I absolutely love this saying because it holds so much truth with me. I’ve only been in South Africa for three months and I only have two more weeks but Africa has become such a huge part of who I am today. This experience, the people I’ve met and Africa as a whole will forever live in me.

Saturday proved to be yet another amazing day. We woke up and ate breakfast and still had some time before we needed to head out so a few of us walked down to the beach one last time. Sticking my feet in the water and staring out into the water made me feel so at ease and everything was just so peaceful I couldn’t help but smile. I didn’t want to leave but too soon we had to pack the car and leave for the first adventure of the day: the elephant park! Here I got to ride an elephant…I repeat: I GOT TO RIDE AN ELEPHANT!!! The elephant was surprising boney and while I want to say it was similar to riding a horse, I can’t really remember the last time I rode a horse so I’d possibly be lying if I said so. Anyway, it was awesome and something I really wanted to do while I was here since you can’t really do that in the United States J and later I was able to interact with more animals. We were able to feed some elephants, pet them, and take lots of pictures up close. Later we traveled to Bloukrans bridge which is one of the highest places in the world to bungee jump off of. Since I went skydiving a couple weeks earlier and I promised my parents I wouldn’t do anything else crazy while I was here I decided to sit this one out. BUT after watching people jump on video made me add bungee jumping off this particular bridge to my official bucket list. After everyone had the chance to jump, we headed off to our second hostel which was just as great as the first. We had a lovely braai (BBQ) dinner, there were delicious cocktails, and a big warm fire pit circled by comfy couches. Katrina, Lauren, and had a really good conversation that night reflecting on our time here in Cape Town and our lives back home in the States as well. It was one of those conversations I will never forget.

Sunday morning we had our last big adventure of the weekend: blackwater tubing! We all suited up in wetsuits, life jackets, and helmets and hit the road for the starting point. Because it hadn’t rained in the area for a while, the current was completely nonexistent in most of the areas we were so we had to paddle with our hands but it was still so cool and I’m glad we had the opportunity to try something new. For those of you reading, if you want a good laugh and to hear a funny story about my experience blackwater tubing, ask me to tell you when I’m home. For now, this story will remain me and those who were there J. After showering and changing into dry clothes, we hit the road back toward Cape Town. As odd as it sounds, it was one of my favorite parts about the trip. We were listening to the radio and every time a ‘throwback’ came on, we would get so excited and sing along so loud. Some featured songs: Party in the USA, Fireflies, Ridin’ Solo, etc. The radio connection started getting bad in one of the areas we were in so the man driving us put in a CD. We were all excited to see what kind of music it would be when all of a sudden plot twist –it was opera music and the volume was so loud that we could barely hear the person talking next to us. We all completely broke into laughter and couldn't stop until the CD started skipping and the radio was switched back on. Maybe it was one of those ‘you had to be there’ moments but I thought it was absolutely hilarious and will never forget that drive.

We listened to so many songs on the drive but two of them sum up my Cape Town experience and I didn’t realize until now. The first is “Best Day of My Life”. It came on and immediately Lauren said something like “this is the perfect song for this trip”. I listened to the lyrics closely and realized she was right. But instead of best day of my life, it has been the best three months of my life. The other song that came on that made me think of my time here was “Wake Me Up” by Avicii. The lyrics go “All this time I was finding myself, and I didn’t know I was lost.” My whole time in Cape Town has been a journey about finding myself. I didn’t realize that when I applied to study abroad and I didn’t realize it in the beginning of the trip. But our time here is coming to an end and there has been a lot of reflecting taking place. I think back to who I was the day we landed in Cape Town and now to the person I am today and I know that I have changed. I don’t think I’ll truly know the extent until I get home and try to adjust back into my life back in Connecticut but there’s something different about the way I think and I can feel it.