Week 12... Goodbye's Are Never Fun To Do

Oh my gosh.. This is it.. My last week in South Africa and my last week with these darling little kids.. Like seriously how can you not love these precious little faces.

Luckily Mom and Grandma were able to join me this last week to help the transition of going home go a bit smoother. And of course they wanted to see this beautiful country. I mean who wouldn't? Lucky for them I brought them along to do some volunteering. I'm pretty sure they fell in love with the kids too. Along with them from the states came 3 suitcases filled with toys and 35 mattress covers for the kids. Talk about crazy excitement right? Here are some pictures from that:

Saying goodbye to these kids was so much harder than I ever could have imagined. Before I came to South Africa people told me..."oh that's going to be so hard getting close to those kids and then just having to leave them" but I never really believed them because I thought "well I'll just go into it with the mind set of knowing that I will have to leave them in the end, then it'll be easy". I could not have been more wrong. Saying goodbye was so hard. There couldn't have been anything that could have prevented me from becoming so attached to these little sweethearts. Each and every day I grew closer and closer to them and saying goodbye that final day was rough. I was bawling, my Mom and Grandma were bawling, Kelsey was bawling. Everyone was bawling. I think what stung the most was that the kids didn't even understand that I was saying goodbye for good. Nor would they understand the next day where I had gone. My biggest fear is that they will think that I just up and abandoned them, or that the teachers will tell them that I just don't care. I know they will probably forget me because they are so young, but I will never forget them. These little ones have left imprints on my heart that are there forever. They have changed the way I see the world. Although I know that me volunteering really did help these kids, I think they helped me more than I could have ever helped them. I know I will forever miss Brait's hugs, Courage's big smiles and Trevor's tackles. Each one of them played a special part in my 3 months in South Africa, I just wish I could take them home with me. 

I DID IT!!!

On Thursday I conquered the Worlds Highest Bungee Jump off of the Bloukran Bridge in South Africa.

It was by far the most insane thing I've ever done and I don't regret a single minute of it.
The whole process went a bit like this:

Step One: Decide your going to Bungee... Pay and Get Weighed. There's no lying about your weight cause you definitely want to get the right bungy cord to ensure you don't plummet to your death.

Step Two: Walk across the scariest bridge ever that only had a wire see through bottom that allowed you to look straight down into the gorge you would be jumping into. At this point I wasn't nervous yet, I just couldn't wait to get on the solid cement platform.

Step Three: Get your feet all tied up. Ankle wraps on for support and a special knot that gets tighter as your weight pulls you down. There's no way you could ever slip out of this. A techno version of the song "Someone like You" was playing which was fantastic because I just kept singing along and I didn't really have time to think about what was happening. I do remember looking at the guy and saying "Is that gonna hold me" his response was "I sure hope so"

Step Four: BUNGEEE!!! I knew that if I didn't go by myself that they would push me and I knew that if they pushed me I wouldn't have a very pretty jump. So I told myself "Kamryn when you hear "3..2..1..Bungee" Your going to jump off that bridge" and sure enough I did! I don't remember making the decision to do it, it just happened and it was followed by the most incredible feeling ever.

 I mean your litterally falling through the air.... It's amazing

Step Five: Keep Falling... A very very long ways....

Step Six: Get rescued at last... It didn't feel like I was hanging there for very long but after watching the video I've realized I was upside down for quite awhile. It's no wonder it felt like my head was going to explode with blood. ahaha

Step 7: Picture at the top to prove you've made it Safe and Sound.

I must say the whole experience was incredible! That feeling of free falling is so liberating and can't be beat. Not to mention the view was incredible. I wish I would have done it again right away. I guess I'm just going to have to do travel the world looking for more bridges to bungee off of. Everyone should do this at least once!!

Week 11

Wow it seems like I've been getting a little bit behind on my blog... There's a few reasons attributing to this. For starters it seems as if my lap top charger has decided that it's life is no longer worth living because it's passed on and although I tried to conserve the battery life of my lap top it also has died. Second I've been moving around alot and haven't had a lot of time to sit down and blog about whats been going on in my life.
Week 11 was just fantastic though. Despite it having a lot of lasts. It was my last full week with the kids, and although that really mad me sad, I made a point to take advantage of every moment with the kids. Meaning instead of offering to cut the fruit I instead played with the kids while Teacher Leoni cut the fruit. I also made a point to get each and every one of those little ones in my arms and give them lots of hugs and kisses. I'd be lying if I said I didn't tear up at least 4 times this week. haha.
We are still learning about our families and the kids are all getting excited about my Mom and Grandma coming next week!! I know they will just adore the kids and the kids are gonna love them too. This week we've focused alot on animal families and how some animals mate for life and some don't. I enjoyed telling them about elephants and how they are a herd forever and how the mama elephant is the matriarch and that what she decides the whole herd does. I then informed them that they have to listen to their mama's too! Only time will tell if that little bit of information sticks with them.

This week I also did a bit of a personal project with the kids. Personal meaning it was for my benefit only, though I think the kids were quite fascinated by the whole thing. Since I've finally come to the conclusion that taking home a child is going to be an impossible task I decided that I needed to do something that would allow me to take home a bit of each of them. I had been toying around with different ideas for several weeks, and only after seeing what a few other volunteers did, did I really realize what I wanted to do. I decided that on a piece of canvas I would do the footprints and handprints of each of my kids and then when I got home I would paint on the outline of Africa around the footprints and handprints. It went alot smoother than I thought it would and overall I am quite pleased with the project!
Well I can't even believe I only have one more week in South Africa. This experience has been absolutely surreal and something I'll never regret!

Muizenberg Mountain

This last Wednesday Brooke, Molly, Sarah and I took a about five of the kids from Christian David's Primary School and we hiked Muizenberg Mountain. This isn't a super high mountain by any means, but it does give you a beautiful view of the town of Muizenberg and the ocean. The greatest thing was that none of the kids had every done it before even though they live just down the road from it. We did it with them after school and we all meet at checkers where each of us volunteers bought the kids a dinner. We wanted to make sure they were fully energized before the trek up the mountain. After buying them dinner we stopped in Muizenberg Park to let them eat and then off we went. The hike wasn't terrible, however there was no path to follow what's so ever. Okay I'll be honest I thought I was going to die a few times.. but with the encouraging words, okay yelling, from Brooke and Anastasia I finally made it up the mountain. Hey rock climbing might not be my thing.
Here's some pictures:

Week 10

Wow I can’t believe that Week 10 has already come and gone… which means I only have two weeks left…. L Where has the time even gone? Week 10 definitely had some really exciting things going on though. For starters our theme for the next few weeks at childcare is The Family.. It’s been pretty cute talk to talk about families with the kids and see their reactions to the teachers magically having pictures of them and their families (moms and dads sent these in last week). It was also really fun for me because during circle time we went around the circle and talked about each kids family. It gave me the opportunity to learn a little bit more about the home life of these little ones. One thing about South Africa is that the people here, particularly the individuals from the township don’t want “outsiders” to know about the bad or harsh things that happen. So sometimes I will ask the teachers if this child or that child gets fed at home, or if they have a dad in the picture and they will just look at me and say they don’t know and it’s so obvious that they are lying. So learning about who has siblings, grandmas, moms, dads, grandpas etc. was really fun for me. We also talked about animals and their families. The kids colored a picture of a family, and then a baboon family.

                Remember a few weeks ago when I said my kids were really starting to get vocal and talk a lot more? Well this week I discovered that not only can they communicate their needs pretty well they can also insult/threaten each other and ME if they choose. Not gonna lie it’s pretty funny to hear and I have a hard time disciplining them… Some of their insults consist of things like “POU POU FACE” “I’M GONNA CUT YOU” (while holding up a pretend pair of scissors with their fingers) and flipping the middle finger. That last one we take a bit more seriously.. I typically say “HEY! PUT THAT AWAY” but if a teacher catches them doing it then they hear “I’M GONNA CUT YOUR FINGER OFF THEN TAKE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL  TO GET A SHOT. THEN YOUR GOING TO CRY AND WHEN YOU CRY I’M GOING TO SEND YOU TO TEACHER MARY’S ROOM WHERE THE BABIES GO.” Ha ha the best thing is that threats like that, which are completely ridiculous are the only ones that really work.

                As many of you already know I have a bit of a weird right pinky toe.. it’s just a bit on the lazy side and likes to rest of my fourth toe.. although a few of the kids have noticed this in the past, this week they’ve all become completely obsessed with it.. tackling my foot at any given moment, pulling at it and a few of them even trying to bit it off. This puts me into a really stressed situation because as many of you also know I HATE feet and people touching my feet.

                As for other things that happened this week.. I moved houses, but I already wrote a blog post about that. The good news is that I’m absolutely loving living in my new house. There’s a few things that I think could be improved upon such as the shower situation and the fact that we could really use some mirrors… I literally haven’t looked at myself in days. Scary much? YES! But overall being in town and living with all of my friends is fantastic!!

And just for kicks and giggles here are some pictures from this last week! ENJOY!

1...2....3... Bungy

This Ladies and Gentlemen is Bloukrans Bridge. 

It’s located in between Mossel Bay and Port Elizabeth on the Garden Route in South Africa. If your brave enough you can Bungy Jump off of this bridge, which just so happens to be the HIGHEST bridge bungy jump in the WORLD.

It’s 216M of PURE ADRENALIN.

I intend to bungy myself off of this bridge in about 1 ½ weeks.

I CANNOT WAIT.

The Big Move

IT’S MOVING DAY!!

As of 2 days ago I have a new house! Now I live right in the town of Muizenberg, with all of the volunteers! Now Kelsey, Jack, Mallory and I are not the weird volunteers that no one knows about because we live so far away. It’s definitely going to be a lot different not living in House 75 aka the “comfortable” house anymore. I’ve kind of formulated a Pros and Cons list that I think I’m going to share.

PROS:

• Living with all of my friends is gonna be THE BEST.
• Not having to walk 30 minutes into town whenever I need something.
• Not having to put my hand in the toilet tank every time I need to flush the toilet.
• Being in the house where the food is cooked. Well all know how important food is!

CONS:

• Living in a house with 20 plus people may or may not get a bit overwhelming and loud.
• Cold Showers…. I may come home a little bit or a lot dirty people.
• No closets.. nothing like living out of a suitcase for a month :-)
• NO Mirrors. That’s right not a single mirror in the entire house.. Say hello to waded up hair and mascara only.

Overall though I think this change is going to be quite good for me.

Let the fun begin!!

Here are some pictures of my new living sit-u-a-tion.

 My corner of the Orphanage

 The Orphange: 1 Room, 10 Beds

 The living room, eating room, back up my roommate is snoring room. haha

 El Kitchon

 The bathroom :-)