One of the best experiences in my life!!!

This experience offered by ISV was an amazing opportunity for a student to get out of the comfort zone and travel to a completely new continent in the safest and most well planned way possible. For me, it was definitely one of the best experiences I have had and possibly will ever have.

I participated in the one month program. The first two weeks of the experience were spent in Cintsa, East London where our team of 12 worked on the refurbishment of the Cefani Primary School. The work itself involved plenty of scraping and painting but was not too tedious and was extremely enjoyable. The two weeks were also filled with team bonding activities, a few hikes, some cliff jumping (also known as kloofing) and plenty of cultural immersion. We even learnt some basic Xhosa which was the local language. The highlight for me was the kids who dropped by everyday. To see the smiles on their faces and the constant joy that they had was very uplifting and heartwarming.

The next two weeks were spent on tour where we got to do so many amazing activities! These included (but were not limited to) caving, diving, more kloofing, visits to reserves and of course the Kruger National park. I personally enjoyed the caving in Swaziland where we crawled around on our hands and knees in a granite cave.

Through the entire process ISV were completely supportive and helpful, answering all questions we had. We had two amazing leaders (shoutout to Kieran and Tasch!) for the project and tour who guided us and took care of us so well. No doubt they enhanced the overall experience!

Overall the experience was excellent and I would strongly encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and join one of the programs run! I am very sure you will love it as much as I did!