Manuel'a last week

My last week in Cape Town was total last minute unplanned things. I had created a schedule for everything that I wanted to do but the schedule was definitely not followed. My last week consisted of finishing all of my final papers, getting all my last minute shopping done, finishing my activist project, going shark cage diving and just enjoying Cape Town.

My activist project was a project that I did with Val, Ava, Tina and Kiya. The project was redecorating a room in the shelter in which I interned at so that the older girls could have their own space. The shelter has 16 kids in the downstairs and upstairs house which means the older girls are constantly surrounded by the younger ones. We painted the rooms according to the girls’ request and we fundraised a lot of money from home in order to buy the paint and furniture for the room. On Saturday one of the volunteers and one of the girls from the shelter came to the house to pick up the carpet and a gift basket that we had made for all the girls with hair stuff, make up, crayons, markers etc.

I also went shark cage diving with Cassie, Val and Tina. This was something that I never even thought of doing and then that week I decided why not? It was such a beautiful day to go. When we got to seal Island the crew got all the stuff ready to attract the sharks. They tied big fish to a string so that it can go in the water, they threw a seal shape float and they made noise in the water with a bucket. It took like 20 minutes for us to see the first shark. It was amazing how close we were to the sharks and how big they were. I knew they were big but being that close to them was crazy. Tina and I were the fourth pair to go into the cage, when we got into the cage we were in it for 15 minutes and then they told us to get out. I was really bummed because I did not think were going to get to see sharks in the cage because we had been waiting a good hour. But then all of a sudden all you hear is shark get in the cage so Tina and I got in and as soon as we are in there is the shark. I was able to see the shark eat the fish when it jumped its head out of the water and then I got to see it under water, which was so COOL!!

This last week also consisted of a lot of eating out enjoying Cape Town’s restaurants especially since I had no groceries. Most of us met up on Long Street so that we could all celebrate our last night in the city and I must say it was one of my favorite nights.