Going to Africa is like Coming Home

International Student Volunteers had us working on a private game reserve in South Africa called Lapalala. It was the most incredible place I could imagine. Our group of 23 people split into three working groups and everyday two of the groups would go out and do field work and the third group would stay on cite. Days that we did field work, we would wake up around 5:30 in the morning and after breakfast we drove into Lapalala's vast 36,000 acres and do three bird counts in different areas (each one for 10 minutes where you listen and look for birds and identify them). Then, we would do a habitat assesment (measure the biomass; ie height and amound of grass, trees, bushes, etc; of a given area). This lasted approximately 2 hours. After eating lunch in the field, we would go out on a game transit. On game transits you drive around the game reserve and look for animals and count them. Typically we would see rhinos, impala, wildebeast, worthog, giraff, zebra, nyala, hippos, and crocodile. On the off days, we would have lectures in the morning and then relax in the African sun. The accomodations were very nice, eight people to a rondauville, four to a room and there is also a common room. There is also a fire pit, pool, kitchen, dining area, bar, and group common room. In our free time we hung out, read, jumped in the pool, went on game drives, hiked, and looked at the stars (you could see hundreds). The entire experience was so incredible and everyone on the trip got really close. This trip really gave us a very different view of the world and made us appreciate everything we were given more. Another unique option about ISV is that after your two week volunteer trip, you can go on another two week adventure tour trip and do things that you would probably never do on a family trip like caving in granit caves, kloofing (cliff jumping), go to Kruger National Park, go to the Tofo beaches, and a lot more. I would recommonend this program to anyone, it was one of the best experiences of my life and is something that I will talk about for the rest of my life.