The first weekend of this beautiful journey was nothing short of unbelievable. The Human Rights Organization encourages us to open our eyes and embrace this great world in need that we all share- taking part in the same mission that brought us together from all around the world. Although there are great needs in the world we work in, there is also incredible culture to experience.

All the colors of this beautiful rainbow nation 🙂

It was amazing to come in and immediately bond with my three other roommates: Tom and Abbey, both from England; and Kristin, from Chicago. The first night we were all together we spent at the Market Barn in the nearby town of Muizenberg— a place known for its lively atmosphere. The Market Barn in Muizenberg is basically just a big Friday night venue where locals set up fresh foods and bring handmade crafts for sale. The atmosphere was unbelievably alive and meshed well with any newcomer. The building buzzed with conversations in Afrikaans, English, and Xhosa— a local language spoken with the clicking of the tongue, as well as spoken words. There, we met up with some other volunteers and started the process of acquainting ourselves with each other, as well as the market life in South Africa. Being with everyone, experiencing the culture, taking part in this great journey alongside others with similar aspirations, it was hard to mistake the feeling of being exactly where I’m meant to be.

South African rice and sausage at the market in Muizenberg

Saturday we all pitched in for a minibus and road to the Biscuit Marketplace in the city center. Unlike the market barn, where everything was contained within the same building, this place was a whole new experience. Set outside near the waterfront in Cape Town, the Biscuit Marketplace is a mix of East Nashville nuance with the indescribable vibrancy of the South African people. The buildings were all connected by brick walkways, which followed just below string lamps that covered the place in multicolored lights. In between the eating area and the crafts was a massive brick courtyard, strewn with vendors and musicians alike. The joy of this place was a sparked with a culmination of live music, locally grown food prepared fresh, organic smoothie stands, handmade crafts and leather bags hanging from locally sourced copper hooks, craft beers, and a beautiful mess of people from all around this living rainbow nation.

The crafts courtyard at the Biscuit Market

Incredible vocals of the band at the Biscuit Market

Sad to see this trip come to an end, but I’m excited for what is to come!

1 month, 11 countries, train rides, passport stamps, and unforgettable memories were sealed in my mind as the backpacking trip through Europe came to a close. I arrived back in the United States with expectancy in my heart, ready to embrace my upcoming journey in South Africa. With every moment of anticipation comes a slight feeling of anxiety— trying to open my heart to a whole new world, yet not forgetting where I come from, and what makes me who I am.

The time has finally come— the time where what was once a beautiful idea in my mind transitions into reality. What an amazing and yet terrifying place to be. Being a student ended with graduation, and being a baseball player ended with the final loss of our season. Two elements that categorized my childhood, defined my life, and shaped me as a person ended in just three short weeks. So many of the dreams, visions, goals, and pictures that I once had as a kid looking to the future were contained within the boundaries of school and baseball. Where would they take me? How beautifully heartbreaking it is to love a game and the school you play for- the sacrifice, the sweat, and the tears. Those are the things that flurry through my mind over and over reminding me that an old chapter has closed and a beautiful new one is being written. Although the memories and the relationships will last much longer than the joy of victory or pang of defeat, it’s always hard to move forward from two things that contain so much of who you are.

Life is changing for me; once you graduate college, you find that out. The passage of time is a strange and crazy thing. It can make you feel magnificently heartbroken and incredibly giddy all at the same time. It causes you to re-evaluate who you are and what you want to give your life to— what direction you want to walk in.

In my first blog entry I wrote about the beginning of my month long trip to Europe. Before taking off on a backpacking trip through Europe, people usually caution you on the signs: “don’t look like a tourist,” “Europeans don’t like Americans,” “you can’t speak their language,” and on and on the list goes. One of the beautiful things I realized while I was there is that no matter the signs, more often than not, people are just people— everyone particularly individual and beautifully unique, yet all participating in this great dance of life together. I saw people running to help revive a bohemian man who passed out in the train station in Munich. I was able to sleep on a train from Zurich to Copenhagen because a Somalian woman offered me her purse to lay my head down. Several times Italian drivers pulled over to offer us a ride while we were walking from one town to another. I saw a group of strangers come together to carry a woman in a wheelchair up an escalator in Vienna. I was there to witness and experience random acts of kindness that occur all around the world every day. Although we do not all speak the same language, have the same skin color, or share the same culture, we all take part in this great dance of humanity— one human helping another.

Leaving for Cape Town brings up all the fear and trembling that comes from embarking on a journey to something unknown and somewhere so far away. All the “goodbyes,” “miss you’s,” and “love you’s” make it hard to go, yet I know where my passions are taking me, and the pursuit of those passions is something I seek to honor as much as all the people I will miss and those places of familiarity I am leaving behind. For all the times we say goodbye to a place, we also greet another. With anticipation in my mind, and passion in my heart, I say hello to South Africa 🙂

The Crew sets off for Europe!

I just woke up. It’s 3:51 in the morning in Copenhagen, Denmark. The streets are bustling with a combination of loud partiers trying to soak up the last moments of a great night and hard working locals preparing for a long work day. I’m laying on a mattress at the Generator Hostel right on the outskirts of the city center. Bright sunlight and noise from outside drift through the window and settle in for the long haul. Because of how far north Copenhagen is situated on the globe, the sun doesn’t take long after midnight to reveal itself again. The man assigned to the bed across from me just walked in. He was asleep and snoring loudly at 8 pm, and he was still going by the time we went to sleep around midnight. Who knows what time he got up to go out again only to return just now. Just doing his own thing, I guess– middle-aged, clad in tight black leather pants that struggle to meet his waistline, and a penchant for coughing up phlegm and passing gas– a memorable roommate to start off this month long backpacking tour of Europe.
You never know what kind of people you’re going to bunk next to, or where you might wind up when you’re abroad. All you can really do is commit to enjoying the ride.
After a month and a half of working as a framer and a farm hand, followed by cashing in paychecks and a lifetime savings of cash and coins, my two travel-mates and I finally took off for the long anticipated, “once in a lifetime” post-grad, month long European backpacking trip. Armed with our cameras and travel packs stuffed to the brim, 11 countries by train in twenty eight days should give us the experience we’ve been hoping for.
I’m happy to have this opportunity to experience a world across the vast ocean yet again. My heart longs to know. I want to know of other worlds, other customs and cultures, other buildings and languages, but most of all, the people who make these other ways of life so beautiful. Like the man in the bed across the room from me- yeah, I’m still trying to decide whether I should laugh or fear for my life with his guttural Hagrid grunts and bear-like heaves, but just because he’s different in his habits doesn’t make him not worth knowing or understanding. I’m thankful for the opportunity to see this part of the world with friends before another, bigger journey begins for me in South Africa.
So many moments and experiences in life prepare us for greater moments to come. Ever since I was blessed enough to receive the Lumos award, moments seem more pivotal in the preparation of my project there with the Law and Human Rights Department in Cape Town. I think my experience there will break me. Not broken in a way that I can’t be put back together, but rather broken in a way that we can only know through seeing worlds other than our own, taking part in lives that we couldn’t imagine, and bearing pain that we have no remedy for. The kind of breaking that leaves you with a scar, but looking back at it brings back memories not of the pain you still feel, but the beauty of healing that those moments of scarring brought into your life.
I hope that through my experiences in South Africa, and all the moments leading up to it, my heart and mind will learn and grow and break and heal and grow stronger. I am surrendering to all the moments between now and the end of my stay in Cape Town; I embrace all that is to come.