I can’t believe that our time in South Africa has almost come to an end, and we have already started packing for our journey back home. It’s been an incredible three weeks, to say the least, and I’m so thankful that I got to be part of this amazing opportunity. The best part of my trip was definitely getting to know the nine other student athletes and becoming good friends in the process.
Our last week in South Africa was an eventful one. For the first three days of the week, we conducted a sports camp for the students in grade 6 of ACJ Primary school. I was paired up with Jaisel to conduct the shot put event. I had some experience throwing shot put since I had done it in high school and the rest was learned via YouTube tutorial videos. The other events were sprints, relays, hurdles and javelin.
Our other two days of work were comprised of finishing up our incomplete work at the orphanage. We completed out construction project for the water tanks and market stands. Anya and I were given the duty of creating the market stand boards. We started off by consulting Mama Lumka (founder of the orphanage) to find out what exactly she wanted. She was very clear and told us that she wanted the sign to say “Mama Lumka’s Market” and have pictures of vegetables on one board and clothes on the other. We followed these directions and painted the sign boards in a day and a half. They look great and will hopefully attract many customers!
We did have one off day this week, so we went on the Cape Point tour. It was absolutely fantastic and we got a bunch of great pictures at the top of the Cape of Good Hope hike. The tour was capped with a visit to the African penguins on the Simonstown beach. It is safe to say that I took over a hundred pictures that day.
Before signing off my last blog post I would like to thank everyone that made the ACE program possible. It was such a great experience getting to know and working in this wonderful country.