Sara W's video of her time

Sara at Bo Kaap

I finally got a chance to finish my video of the best semester abroad in Cape Town.  You can check out highlights of my three and a half months in South Africa at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HC07IZtCpA

Claire will forever cherish the people & memories

I absolutely cannot believe that it has been just over month since I landed back in the United States. Although the very much-anticipated culture shock wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, I find myself thinking about and longing for Cape Town more often then not during the course of the day. Coming home, I knew that people were going to quickly dismiss my trip abroad, and that deemed to be both true and untrue in some cases. The people who I thought would care did care and some did brush it under the rug but I had to keep reminding myself that the trip was for me and no one needed to understand every detail of what happened.

The one main thing that I am still struggling with is not constantly being surrounded with things to do and new adventures to seek. Knowing that my job doesn’t start until the end of June, I often find myself struggling to keep busy. I do find comfort in reaching out to my fellow co-educators, connecting with them and seeing how they are doing with the transition- we are all in this together! What helps me with the transition is looking back at old pictures and reading old blogs, remembering the good times when happiness was endless and worries were minimal. I also find comfort in keeping in touch with the people I met in Cape Town.

    

Just last night, I saw on Facebook that one of the members of the senior Khayelitsha Firefighter team was shot and killed on the streets at the young age of 22. This hit me way harder than I thought it would. I was left speechless and in tears after reading the posts people made and after talking with Bongi. All of last night I was tossing and turning, just so restless with the idea of how someone so young and full of life could die so young, especially someone who was loved and known by people who personally impacted my time in Cape Town- nobody deserves that, it is so unfair. My thoughts and prayers are with the family of this young man.

    

I do believe that I will return to Cape Town soon. I am so thankful for the eye opening experiences that Cape Town gave me and I am definitely a changed person because of it. I will forever cherish the people and the memories made in my second home. There was nowhere else I would have rather been with my 16 other co-educators (and Ethan!)- these people who I now call my second family.

Erica keeping busy in order to keep the post Cape Town sadness at bay

It’s hard to believe that almost a month ago, my fellow co-educators and I departed Cape Town to return back to our homes in the United States. The past month has been a bit of a whirlwind for me- between adjusting to life back home, searching for summer internships, and reconnecting with friends, I feel like I haven’t had much time to sit down. The adjustment to life back in the states has been going significantly better than I expected, and I think this is because I’ve been keeping myself pretty busy. Before leaving Cape Town, I could already tell how much I’d miss it once I got home, and so I made a plan to try and stay busy during the summer to lift my spirits and prevent myself from getting down in the dumps about leaving South Africa. I think I’ve kept a good balance between reflecting on the memories I made in Cape Town, and going about my daily schedule. I undoubtedly feel sad about leaving South Africa, and I especially miss spending so much time with my co-educators, however; I feel completely satisfied with my time in Cape Town, and I really couldn’t have asked for a better experience. My feeling towards leaving South Africa and readjusting to live back in Connecticut fluctuate, and I definitely have my days when I feel sad about leaving, but lately I’ve just been feeling very grateful for getting the opportunity to live in such an incredible place for three and a half months.

In other news, I just found out that I got a summer internship at the Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence (woohoo!), which I’m ecstatic about! Although the internship is unpaid and I also have to work a part-time job, I’m incredibly excited to gain experience in the non-profit sector, and learn more about public policy (which is the focus of my internship). Also, in about a week I’ll be participating in “Feminist Camp” which is a weeklong program in New York City, where I’ll be attending meetings at various feminist organizations, networking with young activists, and learning more about feminist career paths. I’ve never gotten to stay over in NYC for an extended period of time, so I’m super excited for this opportunity!

That pretty much sums it up for me- throughout the rest of the summer I’m going to continue to keep busy in order to keep the post-Cape Town sadness (mostly) at bay, follow through with the goals I set for myself while we were still in Cape Town, and stay in close touch with everyone else from the program! J

Kaitlyn finds the word "weird"the only way to describe being back home

Weird is the only word I have to describe being home, at least right in the beginning. Everything felt so natural of course, since I have lived here all my life, but it was all so unreal at the same time. The last four months in Cape Town became my new reality so it’s odd being back in my typical reality that surrounds me in Westbrook, CT. A few days after being home, I drove up with two of my friends to the Bronx for a Yankees Game. We were stuck in some traffic close to/right over the NY border and there was an older man selling water bottles on the highway; he was walking through the traffic, yelling that there was water for sale, and going up to car windows to sell it. My two friends were in complete shock at this man, but it was something that seemed so natural to me, given the fact that that is the norm in Cape Town. This wasn’t necessarily good or bad, but it made me come to the realization that situations like this will continue to happen often and remind me of Cape Town. I know I’ll have the urge to talk all about it, but depending on who I am with and what the topic is, I know I need to hold back some of my thoughts and feelings. It is one thing I am really trying to focus on; however, I also have noticed how easy it is to keep my trip as a whole to myself because it was four months that no one else can understand and I’ve accepted that… I just thought it would be way more difficult to do so.

My friends have changed, but so have I. It was so so wonderful seeing some people, but also so tiring. I’ve accepted the fact that most people won’t want to hear about my trip, and I honestly prefer that; it’s something I want to keep inside me, something special and unique that I’m lucky to share with my co-educators. It was refreshing explaining more details to a few people who genuinely cared, but that was plenty for me. Even my dad on the way home from the airport was acknowledging the fact that it’s just an experience that no one else can ever understand (even with him visiting and seeing so much, he still knows he cannot understand it all); it is truly indescribable and that’s just what I say when someone asks me how my semester was. I find myself constantly looking through my pictures (definitely on a daily basis), just reminding myself of my life there and how I can bring a part of it back to my life at home. I miss living with all my co-educators and owe them a HUGE thank you. I learned so much from all 16 (& Ethan) about life itself through our daily conversations, internships, class, random stories, and using them as support since being home. I love that we’re all at UConn (we’ll miss ya Kat) and I’m so thankful this program was faculty-led and set up the way it was because it allowed me to meet these amazing people that have become some of my absolute best friends whom I never would’ve known otherwise.

Since being home, numerous people have told me how I radiate happiness and look as if I’m truly loving life (both now after returning home and in all my pictures while in Cape Town). It’s been reassuring to hear that because that shows me how much my outlook on life really has changed and been noticed. My time in Cape Town taught me to truly cherish every single moment and make a serious effort to take less things for granted. Even though being home is not something I was looking forward to, it’s comforting to know that even other people can recognize my contentment with life in general, something that wasn’t fully there before this semester. I’m just a happier person and it feels great. This summer has already been crazy busy for me between my CNA class, work, and seeing family and friends, so it’s helped to distract me a little. I second what Maddy said and would easily jump on a plane to go back if I had the option, but I know I’ll make it back some day (although that might not be for a while). Being home, I can feel how I’ve changed and all the knowledge I’ve gained. I learned more about myself than I thought I could and that’s already been helpful while being back at home. I control some situations better and have a more matured, aware view of them. I learned what the true definition of love feels like. I miss the kids at Maitland Cottage every single day, but I learned so much about my future career while interning there. Being home has allowed me to fully comprehend just how much I’ve personally grown and how amazing the last four months of my life have been. Knowing that so many people out there would never even be able to fathom doing some of the things that I have done, has pushed me farther than I thought I could go; I know it will continue to motivate me to be more active in my community. I’ve seen first-hand how one person can truly affect the behaviors of another person; I want to continue to see and do that… just as Kieth Rose says, I hope to “be all things for all people to reach some.” Thank you, Cape Town, for reviving my passion for life and for the most humbling, genuine, fun-filled adventure.

The entire crew of co-educators during their first week in Cape Town

 

Kaitlyn with one of her friends from Maitland Cottage

One of the little one's who stole Kaitlyn's heart

 

                  

Sunset over Table Mountain & Devil's Peak as seen from Loch Rd

Watching one final sunset over the Mother City

Maddy knows she will return to Cape Town one day

I’ve been home for exactly a week now and I must say it’s taken me the whole week to adjust back to life home in Connecticut. Coming home, I didn’t feel ready yet. I was excited to see friends and family but at the same time, I didn’t want to leave Cape Town. I didn’t want to act like I didn’t want to be home and offend any of my loved ones so I did my best to adjust back to normal life. That was the hardest part for me. Life in Cape Town was just so not normal. We were always doing something adventurous and exciting and I wasn’t ready for that to end. I came home and started working 2 days later. It was helpful forcing me to get used to the time change but at the same time I didn’t want to go back to average life knowing the only thing I had going on was work. I’ve planned some fun things I can now look forward to this summer that has made being home better. Now that I have been home a week, I’ve realized it’s been nice to be back but I would still jump back on a plane in a heartbeat to relive our study abroad experience. It’s also so nice having people back home with me that also lived through the experiences with me. I’ve talked to some of my other co-educators every day since being back and I’m so glad Cape Town brought us together and we now have each other as best friends back home as well.

A lot of things remind me of Cape Town whether they be similar or different from things at home. It been nice being able to drive again and not having to rely on other transportation. However, the other day I was driving through my town and it felt so weird that there was no one out walking around. I loved going to my internship and having hundreds of kids out walking to school in their uniforms. I also miss living with 17 other amazing people, my internship, always seeing Table Mountain everywhere you go, and other little things that make Cape Town what it is such as the mini bus taxis and people trying to sell you things at stop lights. I am now definitely more aware of things going on around me when it comes to race and gender and other social issues occurring. I am now interested and want to stay updated on the current events happening and am glad this is part of who I am now. It’s sad that our experience is over but I am so fortunate to have had such an amazing time that I will remember forever. I know I will return to Cape Town one day and also have the travel bug to visit other places and have my eyes opened to more and more things.