Site 2: South Africa: Stellenbosch Work Projects

During our time in Stellenbosch we did service work in the local township Kayamandi. We were split up into 6 groups and each group was assigned a local organization to work with. Each organization gave us suggestions as to how we could most benefit the community and once each group had a project in mine, we set out to plan how to achieve this goal. we had 3 days to complete our projects and a day to plan what supplies we needed. We were all given the task of budgeting out what supplies we could buy with the ZAR 1800 we were given. This showed us how frustrating and difficult it can be to make these people's dream become a reality, but ultimately how gratifying the work was.

Each group was given a local guide, which gave us the chance to really connect with people from this community. Working with the guides was a great opportunity to learn more about their lives as we worked side by side with them.

The projects that were completed varied from painting a creche or fixing a bathroom and soccer stadium to building a library at the local high school from scratch and rebuilding a guard house. it was an amazing experience to see first hand how we influenced the community and how, in return, they influenced our lives.

Written by: Jessica and Kaitlyn