Ending thoughts...

   I'm sitting here on my last night in Cape Town, watching the sunset from the balcony of the hostel that a couple of us are staying in tonight (we had to be out of our house by today), and I can't help but to reflect on a number of things. I've only lived abroad once before, but in that 3 month period that I resided in Geneva, Switzerland I was never ready to go home, the day I actually left the city I felt my heart breaking and still feel the pangs of sadness when I see certain photos, talk to people who I lived with there, or listen to one of the many songs I had on repeat during that fall of 2009. Living in Cape Town was different, I'm not sure if it was because I'm at a different point in my life, or going home to a different place in the United States, but a few weeks ago I felt ready to head home. It definitely could be that in the last 15 years I have always gone home to Oregon for part of the summer, and this year I'm not...it could be that my excitement of getting back to New York was just overwhelming...I'm not sure. It was really strange to recognize the adventure I was having but to also be okay with it coming to an end. Fast forward to the present, when I have to actually leave South Africa tomorrow and there's that heart break happening again.

   There are so many incredible things about South Africa, so many adventures I've had here, things I've learned and seen for the first time. It is absolutely without a doubt the most beautiful place I've ever been to. It also has without a doubt the biggest wealth-poverty gap I've ever seen, but those who suffer from the immense poverty are also some of the most resilient people I've ever known. I had the opportunity to not only experience the city of Cape Town, which is incredibly rich of culture and diversity but I was lucky enough to road trip along the coast and see parts of the country that I had never even heard about. In the past two months I've learned a lot about humanity and I owe that to South Africa. I can only hope that I'm leaving the country having made a small positive impact on the people, whether that be through the friendships I made, conversations I had or the work I did at my internship.

   As I sit here trying to eloquently put my emotions into words (which I'm having trouble doing if you haven't noticed already...) I feel like the best way to sum up my feelings on this beautiful country is to recount perhaps my most cherished night of the past two months. Colleen, Brennan and I stopped to get a bite to eat at a local restaurant in our neighborhood and haphazardly decided to drive up to Signal Hill. Signal Hill is the hill at the base of Lion's head and has an incredible view of the entire city. We drove up the winding road in the pitch dark, parked the car and stared at the beauty of the city lighting up before our eyes. While the city below was quite chilly, for some reason up on the hill we felt warm so we decided to lay down in the grass next to each other staring up at the stars. Suddenly a bright shooting star crossed the sky, all of us had seen it so naturally we held hands and made a wish. In that moment I felt the world was perfect. I didn't want to be anywhere other than holding Brennan and Colleen's hands, staring at the stars on a hill overlooking Cape Town. I can't explain in words the immense peace that rushed over me, which was only disturbed by rustling of nearby bushes which we assumed to be baboons, naturally we took off running and got back into the car.

   The rest of the night was spent enjoying things that maybe only we could really enjoy, like watching Brennan laugh so hard that her drink came out of her nose or screaming 'WYNBERG' out the window of the car gaining adoration from locals who couldn't believe it was three white girls in a Chico yelling like the mini-van taxis do, or laughing so hard that all of us were in tears and nearly piddling.

   While I'll miss the mountains and the sea, I'm reminded that it's not the place that you go that makes your experience, it's the people you spend those experiences with that make it truly worthwhile. Cape Town, South Africa is a lovely town and would be great to visit, but without the group of these women by my side it wouldn't have touched me as deeply as it did. I leave feeling inspired by the work each of them did in their time here, motivated by their interests and intellect, moved by their passion, sore from all of the belly aching laughter and forever engrained with the memories of a wonderful two months spent with a group of remarkable women in the beautiful and complex country of South Africa.