Rainbow Nation with Random Strangers

I have been traveling since I was a little girl when my parents started sending me abroad. I love to visit new places and by far South Africa is my favorite place. Meeting new people and seeing new places is my favorite thing. ISV was able to give me this opportunity while helping people in need. My group just happened to be composed of 11 girls from ages 19-24 and for me growing up going to all girl schools this was completely fine for me! We were told we were going to be building a playground and honestly I wondered how we would finished in two short weeks but we worked so hard we finished it before the two weeks ended. We were working at a daycare in a little village and we got to interact with the children, which was my favorite part. This one little boy at the daycare every morning when he saw me he would smile crawl over to me and lift his hands up as to ask me to pick him up. He wasn't even a year old and he made my days better everyday. We had a very diverse group of girls we worked with so when we had discussions we got to broaden our views by seeing the viewpoints of others. ISV made sure we learned about the country we were in and the problems this country we were in were facing and have gone through. This made it an amazing learning experience. After completing 80 hours of service we went on to the adventure part which was so much fun. This adventures pushed our comfort zones to say the least. I sadly misplaced/stolen so I had to go on an adventure of my own to get a new passport in a foreign country. This was definitely pushing myself out of my comfort zone but ISV helped me find accommodation and made sure I was safe along the way and got me caught back up to the group after my two day delay. We got to not only visit South Africa but we visited Swaziland and Mozambique as well. Who cannot complain when going on one trip and seeing three different countries. It was a three for one deal. I learned a lot about myself on this trip. For example, I never knew I didn't like enclosed spaces until some of the activities we did. I also got to learn about the people I met and how much their lifestyles are different than mine. Because of ISV and this opportunity I have changed my major and I am not changing schools to be able to follow my dreams of starting a nonprofit school or orphanage one day and I am forever grateful of that!