Our adventure began before Christmas break when Martha and I were looking for internships and study abroad opportunities for the coming summer. Martha stumbled across the website for a volunteer abroad program called Cross Cultural Solutions, a program that offers a wide variety of volunteer opportunities around the world. After telling me about this program it seemed to fit with what I was looking for in a summer abroad experience. It combined volunteering with the culture emersion for each of the different countries that CCS is linked with. We discussed the program together and briefly told our parents about the idea. They seemed to think that it was a plausible idea, so began the preparation for the reveal night, including a home cooked meal by us (food usually softens the parents) well thought out plans and preparation with consideration for the what country we would like to travel to with pros and cons list, pricing list which were all organized in a power point presentation with photo shopped pictures of Martha and I on a horseback safari. Once the parents had agreed to our plans we started to plan the details of the trip, train rides, safari, dates flights all of the so called important things. The mothers booked flights and train tickets and hotel reservations.
School ended and thus Martha and I started our rigorous task of packing and preparations for our trip. It was necessary for us to ride as much as possible to practice for the horseback safari, we did all except the practice run which would have included letting Polar and Moe loose in the ring and allowing us to watch Martha’s dogs while we were on our horses. Since we never got to this level I hope all of our riding lessons will be sufficient for the safari.
Typhoid shots hurt!!! Enough said…
Packing became another issue, you see it is really hard to pack for winter when its 95 degrees outside. Also when you are only allowed to take a suit case that weighs 50lbs for 7 weeks in the winter it becomes difficult! Plus you have your five lbs supply of emergency medicine complementary of my mother which includes everything type of medicine under the sun literally staying under the weight limit is really hard. However despite this traumatic hurdle, Martha and I were both able to successful pack our backs which both are under the weight limit.
Now after five and a half months of planning, at least three family dinners , a folder of all our necessary information and Google Earthing every destination we are ready to make our journey to South Africa for 7 weeks! Most people would dread a 17 hour plane ride but I have a feeling that Martha and I are going to have a blast!!! I fear that it will be the people around us that will be wishing that they were not sitting next to two squirmy, loud and hyper college students, but o well hope they have their sleeping meds.
So today we leave for SA and will be back in 7 weeks email us and we will update you all on our experiences and adventures at least twice a week depending on our internet situations. We begin our adventure by going on a horse back safari so come Monday morning while y’all are still asleep we will be riding with the zebras and giraffes before you even get out of your cozy beds.
Lastly we would like to thank our parents for allowing us to have this opportunity to go to SA thanks love you all.
Love,
Martha and Mary Emily
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