Last Day in Cape Town!

Yesterday was our last day in Cape Town! It was filled with learning and celebrating.

We met on the bus at 9:20 and embarked on the journey to Africa House to meet Free to Fly, an anti-human trafficking organization.

A member of Free to Fly introduced the organization, and for a warm up we sang the lion sleeps tonight from the Lion King. Afterwards, we heard that they intercepted 70 potential victims of Human Trafficking in the Cape Town Airport. In order to introduce the concept of trafficking in media, the member mentioned “Taken” as an example, as well as “Cinderella” . We talked about the definition of human trafficking, the three concepts required to define a crime as human trafficking, including the act, means, and purpose, and watched several videos from A21 in which we were to identify red flags. We learned to take note of many red flags, including fear, removing documentation, drugs, anxiety, inability to leave, restriction of movement, and more. Lastly, we were able to have a q&a with the speaker to better understand their organization as well as his journey to getting involved in the work.

Around 12:40 we went to lunch at the Farm Village in Noordhoek, where we had 3 options to choose from for food. Mostly everyone ordered pizza from Cafe Roux, however I got avocado toast with an egg, feta, and arugula (it was not good) and fries. I also got a coffee which was amazing! After we finished our lunch, we were able to walk around a bit and go to the stores that were surrounding the restaurants. One store, Tenga Tenga, had a lot of good gifts so I bought a candle for my boyfriend, a card deck for my mom, a sticker for my sister, and some socks for me. A few of us got ice cream and sat in the sun while we waited to leave.

After lunch, we returned to the Africa house where everyone did their final presentations. At first, we weren’t sure if we would be able to because of loadshedding. However, everyone got to present and they did an amazing job.

Around 4:30 we left to go back to the hotel and had a little bit of free time to do what we wanted.—- scratch that! We actually didn’t have free time because of horrible traffic, so we got back to the hotel with only 15 minutes before we had to leave.

We went to a restaurant called Gold where traditional African food was served in four courses. When we first got there, we were able to participate in Djembe Drumming, which was awesome and something I have not done in a long time. Afterwards, we were served our first course and got to experience the live performances happening on stage, and around the restaurant. There was a person wearing a costume that made him very tall. I loved him. We also got the chance to get facepaint which the majority of us did, and finished our delicious meals. The food was amazing and Ashley ate a chili pepper which was way too hot for her….. She ended up being fine, but the ordeal lasted for a while. Anyways, the entire experience was amazing and it was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip.

Overall, 8/10 day, I was cold again.