Drop everything and go to South Africa?
South Africa has been at the very top of my travel wish list for a very long time–but it’s one of those places that seems incredibly foreign (and to some extent, out of reach) simply because of its geographical distance.
When my mom was 16, she was selected as a Rotary Club foreign exchange student. When they asked where she wanted to go, she said anywhere; she was placed in a program in Durban, South Africa. Just a few weeks before she was slated to leave, apartheid riots broke out across the country–making it unsafe for a young American girl to travel there. Instead, they decided to send her to a tiny town in France–even though she had studied German, not French. She flourished: she became fluent in French, so much so that she became a high school French teacher and a serious Francophile. That said: I’ve always wondered how different her life (and by extension, mine) would have been if she had ended up in South Africa instead of France.
I remember being completely enthralled by a tourism commercial for South Africa several years ago: it showed such an incredible diversity of landscapes, cultures, adventures. I was blown away by just how beautiful everything was, and I couldn’t believe that it was all present in just one country: namely, that the country was South Africa.
When I studied in France when I was 18, I befriended a Norwegian girl who did her undergraduate studies in Capetown and then worked for a while in Johannesburg. I loved hearing her stories then, and I’ve since enjoyed seeing her photos pop up on Facebook.
And when I moved to Australia, my mom gave me the best-selling book in Australia: and I laughed as soon as I started reading The Power of One, because it was set in South Africa. It didn’t prepare me for life at all Down Under, but it kept South Africa fresh in my mind. Side note: If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it: it’s definitely one of the best books I’ve ever read.
Two weeks ago, I came into the office and was greeted by an email with the subject line Drop everything and go to South Africa? The contents did not disappoint: it was an invitation to meet the people of South Africa and travel in the footsteps of Nelson Mandela–on very short notice.
And so, because of all of the above reasons and because I didn’t give myself enough time to think about saying no because YOLO: I’m off to South Africa for two weeks! Right this very minute!
I’ll be posting regularly on Instagram for #MeetSouthAfrica and Snapchatting just for fun, with a few sporadic blog posts thrown in until November 17. I’m so incredibly thrilled for this opportunity, and I can’t wait to share it with all of you!
