Emily L learning through conversations

It’s starting to really scare me how fast time has been moving here. How is it March already?! I feel like I just arrived in Cape Town and then I blinked and we’re almost half way through the program. Just the though of returning home and not being in this beautiful place anymore makes my heart sick. I have officially fallen in love with South Africa and everything about it.

This past weekend was spent on a beautiful olive farm about an hour from where we stay. The purpose of the weekend was to learn all about human rights, a topic I very, VERY rarely put any time or effort into prior to arriving. I came into the weekend with no expectations, mainly because we weren’t too informed on what exactly we’d be doing. I’m not going to lie, part of me wasn’t psyched about it. It seemed kind of boring. As the weekend progressed, though, I found myself start to be revealed to the real struggles of people who are deprived of basic human rights. I met people my age from all different countries in Africa like Kenya, Zambia, and other South Africans. The perspective these people offered me really helped to get me thinking about how I can try making a change in my own community. By the time the weekend ended, I was grateful for the experience. It’s amazing what we can learn just through conversation and working with a group of strangers!