My Gap Year in South Africa

(Table mountain)

(15/1/2015)- I have just arrived my South Africa were I will be doing community service. I must say I am shocked by the culture of this place. The clothes, food, scenarios, are really different, and I was not expecting that. Even do I am very excited of being here, I miss my home. My family, my friends, my neighborhood, is important to me, and it was not easy to just let go of them for an entire year.  It can be said that I am a bit homesick.  However I can not wait to start my volunteer work, as it is one of the most fulfilling activities y have ever done. As I said before, I am impressed by this country; the second I was out of the airport y could see the table-mountain, one of south Africa´s main attraction. It did not take long, once we were out of the city, to see the landscapes with the animals for which South Africa is famous. Nonetheless, I was even more shocked by the contrast of white and black people together in a peaceful way.

(24/6/2015)- I was invited by Fred, a friend I made here, to go in a excursion with him and two other people for three days. Each day we got to know a new place. Our first stop was the cango caves. This was one of the best experiences I have ever had in my life. 

(Cango caves)

The cango caves are natural caves which are of the size of a football field which are connected between each other by some extremely narrow passages. We needed to crawl in order to get to the next one. The interiors of this caves are full of different shapes, which were created naturally be erotion. I must say I got a bit claustrophobic in some moments, but with my friends help I was able to overcome it. On the second day we went to the ostrich farm. Here we were given an awesome talk about ostriches which was really good. But nothing could be compared to the feeling of riding an ostrich. Even do I fell rather quickly, it was extremely fun. Moreover we were allowed to feed them. I even put food in my mouth and they eat it. 

(Ostrich Farm)

Out third stop was a safari. I felt in cloud nine. I really could not believe my eyes when I saw the animals. The only place were I had seen this animal was in T.V, and now I was sitting in a car right next to them. I was a little freighted when the lion started sprinting toward us. We were lucky he stopped. The highlight of the day was when we saw to elephants fighting for an unknown reason. I had never imaged that elephants fought each other, but I must said it is something really entertaining to watch. It was a pity that one of them got really harmed, and we had to go back to the gate to call for the rest of the people working there, so they could watch after the elephant. At the end of the excursion I could not thing about anything else than this two elephants fighting.

(Safari)

(13/11/2015)- With the year almost over I can only think of the lots of experiences I am taking home. My volunteer work consisted on helping the poor kids in Africa to provide them the necessary things to survive or have a better life style. It was nice helping people, and the best of it is that I got to know an extraordinary culture. The people there were very welcoming. They were always providing help and very talkative. I was even invited to one of the local people reunion in were they celebrate every month. Even do they were poor the made a great effort to provide food to celebrate and dance all night. I will always carry with me a necklace made by one of the local children, made out of some plants from the area, which smell fantastic by the way, and a figure sculpture in wood (it has a meaning for the natives). As I said the food is quite different, I tasted flavors I had never tasted on my life, and ate meats from animals y had never heard before. However it was delicious. 

PLACES VISITED (google maps)