I have finally returned after a month long trip including travels to South Africa, Lesotho, Switzerland, Spain, Ireland, Netherlands, and London! Wow. To say the least I am exhausted. Each place was so unique and different to me considering I have never been to Europe or Africa before. To make it easiest, I am going to summarize my experience by place. Buckle your seat belts, here we go!
Lesotho, Africa- This was the primary reason for my travels. We stayed at an Orphanage for 3 weeks. Its called Beautiful Gate Orphanage and it is absolutely amazing. Here is there website if you are interested in checking it out (http://www.beautifulgate.org/BGLesotho/about.html) We lived here and got to know the staff and the children. You know the saying, "It takes a village to raise a child." Well, it's true. These kids are all either HIV/AIDS infected or affected, or abandoned. There were countless stories of children being left as trash, literally thrown away in a dumpster or left in a field, or abandoned in the hospital. There were also children whose parents died from HIV/AIDS. Despite this completely overwhelmingly sad story, these children have been given a second chance. Beautiful Gate offers a family atmosphere, and they immediately welcomed us into that. We were able to hold and play with the kids every day which was so special. Some of these kids are brilliant, and I would love having them run up to me and ask to be held. They love being hugged and kissed.
Our main objective was to create a change project after spending our time interviewing the staff at Beautiful Gate, and the surrounding community. We determined that while financial need was the greatest need they had, we wanted to throw a party to celebrate the staff and the hard work that they do everyday to care for these children. There is a staff of 40 workers for the maintenance, social services, health care, office staff, and the house mothers. All work to care for the kids. We saw a few adoptions when we were there (coolest thing ever!) Anyway, I got side tracked! So, we threw them a party to know that they were appreciated, even if they don't have enough money to get paid on time every week these people still show up and dedicate themselves to these children. We had a Braai, which is what we would know as a BBQ.We cooked for the staff, and gave them some warm socks since they are going into their winter months.
It was a full house! The staff was so appreciative, and it was really the least we could do. Our last step in our project was to present our findings and our change project to Beautiful Gate owners, and management team. Our professor even invited the US ambassador of Lesotho to come and listen to our presentation, to which surprisingly she showed up for. It was a great way to wrap up our stay at Beautiful Gate. Before we left South Africa, we went on a safari and then ended the night with a dinner at Carnivore! They serve you meat on large skewers, and I even ate crocodile meat!
A big THANK YOU to everyone that supported me on this trip!
So after the big Africa trip, I made plans with two friends of mine to travel throughout Europe. Here is what we did.....Keep in mind, we went to 4 different countries in 7 days!
London, England- What didn't we do? We went to Big Ben, The Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, The Eye...Everything! We also saw The Phantom of The Opera, which was so amazing. We rode on the underground everywhere we went, and had a blast. It was a great way to start our Europe trip.
Dublin, Ireland- This was my favorite place that we went to. It was so beautiful and very lively. We went to the Guinness Factory and had a free sample, to which I found out that I don't like beer very much. We also ate lunch at a pub and saw the Irish men in their kilts! The second day we went to coast and saw the most beautiful green hills and the water. The people were so dang friendly in Dublin!
Barcelona, Spain- This trip was a whirlwind that involved A LOT of walking. We went up and down La Rambla street and ate dinner on that strip. It includes many stores and restaurants and isn't too far from the beach. I couldn't bring my camera this day considering theft is a big problem in Barcelona. We saw many famous buildings, and got lost a few too many times. It was a bummer we didn't have more time to do more sightseeing, because I think we missed a lot. The weather was beautiful and the sun didn't go down until 10PM!
Amsterdam, Netherlands- We arrived in Amsterdam so exhausted from Barcelona. However, Allie arranged for us to stay with a family friend, so we were picked up from the airport and we went a boat ride! It was such a nice break from trains, and planes. We had a tour of the city she lived in and ate a wonderful dinner. The woman we stayed with was named Anke, and she was so much fun. She was probably the youngest 63 year old I've ever met. We went into the city the next day, and went to the Anne Frank house. We were able to tour exactly where Anne Frank lived while she was hiding out for 2 years. It was very chilling to be in the same place that many of us read about at a young age. After that we went to do more sightseeing and eating! I should mention that EVERYONE rides bikes here. I will include a picture of the bike parking garage. We went on another boat tour which was nice and after a full day we were so hungry. I ate a full pizza!
We then spent the night in Amsterdam, flew back to London for one last day- and the hopped on a plane back to the US!
Whew! I'm impressed if you are still reading, but there it is!
Glad to be home and stationary,
Taylor
