Halfway Home and All the Way to South Africa

We’ve arrived! After what seemed like days of travel, we have made it to Amanzimtoti, South Africa! We had to navigate cabs trains and cars with our 12 pieces of luggage, but everything and everyone is accounted for and we’re here!

We’re all still a little bit exhausted, because we hardly slept at all on our 10 hour flight from London to Johannesburg. I’m always so overwhelmed on long flights with airplane food and in-flight entertainment and the option of sleep… British Airways also had a fabulous selection of music and I listened to 3 full albums of Arctic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs, Fleet Foxes. Atta be, British Airways. We had to take a smaller plane from Jo-burg to Durban and then some our friends working at the Seed of Hope came to pick us up and take us to our apartment right on the beach! The drive from Durban to Amanzimtoti was amazing! I’ve discovered that there are so many different kind of beautiful in the world. There is the kind of beautiful that you can see in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, or from the Buffalo Jump at Camp Harmattan, or of the inside of an old cathedral, or of canals and windows with flower boxes… But the kind of beautiful here is different; there are so many trees and plants that I’ve never seen before that cover the ground making the main colour of the land green! There are small hills everywhere and the texture of the land is amazing. And then there is the Indian Ocean and the white sand beaches that surround it that are so beautiful! Our friends say that we’ve got some 30 degree days coming our way soon, so we’ll definitely enjoy our beach lots!

After getting somewhat settled in our apartment, Dad, Lauren, Adam and I wandered down to the beach to dip our feet in the third ocean we’ve visited this year! Pacific during New Years in Hawaii, Atlantic in New York and Oostende, and Indian here in Amanzimtoti (we’re a little bit spoiled)

So I guess for those of you that don’t really know, our purpose for being here in S.A. is to get involved with the day to day operations of the Seed of Hope Community Development which does a lot of amazing things for children and youth in the community of Bhekulwandle. You can check out the website at: http://theseedofhope.org

I honestly have no idea what to expect out of these next couple of months here, and I’m completely out of my element, which excites me a lot. I’ve traded in my leather jacket and boots for flip-flops and shorts, and I’m basically just going to go with the flow and hopefully broaden my mind even further. My days of shopping and cafes are behind me, which surprisingly doesn’t upset me much, because I know I’ll be back in Europe as soon as I get the chance. I think that we were all ready to move on and explore somewhere new again, and I can’t wait to see what amazing adventures come our way in these next two months!

xo