Fond farewells and new friends
You can find Habitat for Humanity of Omaha and our volunteers working right around the corner, but through our Global Village Mission Trips, we’re also working to build quality, affordable shelter around the world. We invite you to experience our recent Global Village trip to Cape Town, South Africa, through the eyes and adventures of volunteer and guest blogger Stephanie Dubinsky who concludes her travel chronicles in this blog post. Read Stephanie’s first post and second post in her Cape Town Global Village trip blog series.
It’s the last build day, so we prepared for devotions and playing with the neighborhood kids! We helped move bricks again and finished painting the other houses. We took lots of time to play with the kids before having a private dedication. The homeowners were emotional as they could really see their new homes in this stage. We gifted each a photo of our team so they could remember us and the love we put into the homes.
The kids were so excited to play! We had soccer balls, small bouncing balls, jump ropes, chalk and bubbles. We had so much fun playing and got great pictures!
We had the formal dedication for all of the homeowners who were having their homes built that week, then said goodbye. We returned to the hotel for showers before we went to Camps Bay for dinner. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset before some delicious pasta!
Day 9
We woke early to spend a day experiencing the cape! This time we traveled through Chapman’s Peak Drive around the eastern side of the cape. We stopped at Boulder’s Beach and got to see a colony of penguins! We drove down to Cape Point and hiked up to the lighthouse, back down to the meeting area, then over toward another point of the peninsula. You had to be careful in this area. Wild baboons live here, and if they think you have food in your bag, they will try to take it from you!
We were pleasantly exhausted and had just enough time for showers before heading back to the waterfront for our last team dinner. Back at the hotel, we said our goodbyes to those who were leaving early in the morning. The rest of us packed and got some sleep for another fun day in Stellenbosch!
Day 10
We packed up and headed back to Stellenbosch for a relaxing but busy final day filled with a bit more touring of local spots, including a market, before driving to the airport.
All in all, everyone got home safely, and our group continues to chat with each other. I am so thankful for this time with the team, and encourage anyone who is interested to participate in a Global Village trip with Habitat for Humanity of Omaha! It was easily the best decision I ever made to apply.
Blog edited for content and shared, along with photos, with permission of the author.