Goodbye Africa!

SATURDAY-June 10th


This morning was a sad, special day. It was our last morning at Volunteer Southern Africa and it was Justyna's Birthday! For her Birthday we had our last predator tour around camp to say bye to all the animals till we see them again. We got to play with servals cats for the last time. Even though servals were still sleepy it was fun to play with them. 

 When we were busy with servals, we had a surprise visit by Gerald the giraffe who chased us into our jeep. We finished our tour and headed to breakfast. There Gerald was waiting for us again. He seemed to know it was Justyna's Birthday!

 After breakfast we did a quick detour to find the hippo that had been hiding from us all week. I didn't realize that they were so pink! After that nice surprise we drove back to the tents to pack our bags and clean up around the area we stayed. Once our trash bags were full we finished packing and said bye to our tents.

 Sam picked us up for the last time and took us to have a special lunch on the balcony. I (Justyna) had a special seat which was surrounded with balloons. The birthday party was a total surprise for me since I truly did not expect anything to happen. I was already lucky enough to spend my 17th birthday in South Africa! Everyone was so sweet and kind! I received two amazing and handmade presents. I received a t-shirt, which was signed with the birthday wishes and a handmade scrapbook about me and our Africa trip. I was very touched by everything that happened during that day. I was also incredibly surprised when Sam and Bernie brought me a fully vegan cake! I've never before had a vegan cake for my birthday. I definitely will never forget this day!

Once we finishing eating the birthday cake, we took a group picture of us in our Volunteer Southern Africa t-shirts and Sam and Bernie in their QSI T-shirt that we gave them. 

We gave our last hugs and tried to hold back tears. The tears couldn't be held back for long, They rushed out once we were in the car. Our driver was really sweet and asked if we would like him to go in the opposite direction from the airport so that we could stay. We all said yes eagerly, but we knew that it wouldn't work. Every good experience that creates a memory eventually comes to an end. The special part is being able to re-visit those memories and hope to make new ones in the future.