The front of Atlantic Point, the hostel where I spent my first night in Africa
The breakfast room in the hostel
The bedroom where I stayed. There were four sets of bunk beds
The kitchen in the house I'll be staying at for the next month
The living room, complete with my fellow volunteers!
Spending
last night and this morning at Atlantic Point was really nice. By the time I’d
finished yesterday’s blog post, I was so tired that going to sleep was
incredibly easy. People told me that this time change wouldn’t be too hard to
get used to, and they were right. It really makes sense, since last night here
felt like mid afternoon to my body, but it felt like a mid afternoon where I’d
had no sleep the previous night, so sleeping was really easy. It seemed like I
was the only American at Atlantic Point; I think most of the other guests were
European, since I heard a lot of French, German, and Dutch spoken around me. I
can now scratch “sharing a bedroom with seven other people I just met” off my
bucket list!
I’m writing
this post from the couch in the front living room of the house that I’ll be
living in for the next month. I can actually see the Atlantic Ocean from the
front porch of this house, and it already feels like home. This living area has
four couches set up in a square, with a coffee table in the middle, and a TV
off to the side. There’s also a fireplace along the sidewall, and a very well
equipped kitchen at the back of this big front room. Shortly after arriving,
the volunteers all took the project bus over to a nearby supermarket, to buy some
food for dinner. The project provides breakfast and lunch for us, so we only
have to worry about dinner, and the volunteers often cook on a communal basis,
making it pretty cheap. Of the four of us here, three just arrived today, while
one girl has already been here for about a month. She said she’s staying a
total of three months, so she seems to already know the ropes really well. She
said she’d cook tonight, so we should get supplies for some of the following
nights, and we’d take turns cooking.
So, of the
three other volunteers that I’ve met staying here so far, here’s what I know:
Ryan, who also stayed at Atlantic Point last night, is from the UK. He’s 23
years old and staying two weeks. Alina is the volunteer that’s already been
here for a month. She’s 21 years old and is also from the UK. Aurelie’s staying
here three weeks. She’s 25 years old and is from Belgium. I also met some of
the crew that I’ll be working with. One of the men greeted us by saying “welcome
home”, which was nice, then took us around the garage where our supplies are
stored and explained some of that. He sounded like he was from South Africa,
and said that he’s been working with the project for eleven years. The crew
members I met didn’t all say where they were from, but from listening to them
talk, I can tell that I’m the only American here. One thing that’s happened
several times to me in the last two days is people have asked me where I’m
from, and I’ve replied the US. I’ve never before in my life said that, and it
feels weird. I’ve also been paying a lot of attention to the different accents
I’ve heard here. The South African accent is a bit hard to understand at first,
but once you get used to it, it actually sounds really nice. I’m also starting
to learn and get used to the other customs of this country, such as driving on
the left side of the street, the driver’s seat in cars being on the opposite
side, using Celsius to tell the temperature, and using the metric system to
measure length and weight.
Due to the
weather right now (it’s currently about 60 degrees and cloudy), it’ll probably
be two or three days before we go out on the boat. It’s expected to rain
tomorrow. I’ve heard that tomorrow we’ll meet the volunteer coordinator and get
an official introduction to the project, then later in the day the crew will
take us to a restaurant out in town.
That’s
pretty much all the new information I have today. This is a beautiful place,
and I can’t wait to learn and explore more tomorrow! This post’s food for
thought: “To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest
sensations in the world.”-Freya Stark
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