By Rosalie van de Coevering
One of the major projects at the Kwa Ford Primary school is the Garden. The Kwa Ford Primary school used to have a beautiful garden. This changed after the government decided on cutting of the water, as a result all the plants in the garden died. Freewalker raised enough money to install water tanks and is now trying to build up the garden again. At the moment the garden is covered in weed, so the first step is to get all the weed out of the way. Sandra, Jessica, Jordie, Murray and Alex worked together with the children on getting the weed out. It was hard work, but in the end it was worth it. The children really like it, when they can help you with something.
A garden is nothing without plants or vegetables to harvest. You can plant the seeds for the students or you can involve the students in planting the seeds. Freewalker believes in the importance of education therefore they involve the children in planting the seeds. You can’t just put the seeds in the ground over here you firstly need to let them grow a bit and afterwards put them in the ground. Sandra, Jessica and Jordie worked together with the children planted the seeds in egg cartons. They are growing at the moment and when they are big enough they can be transferred to the garden.
I finally did it! I bungy jumped of the highest bungy jump bridge! It was something I wanted to do since two of my friends did it years ago. They told me about it, how they felt and I saw their movie. So when it was sure I was going to South Africa, it was also kind of sure that I would jump of the 216 meter bridge. The moment Murray and Jordie told me we were going to Pletterberg Bay for the weekend, I was fifty percent sure that I would bungy and the nerves started to kick in. However I had one condition, I would only jump if someone else would jump as well. I wanted to share it with someone and not be the only one all nervous, while the rest was watching me bungy.
Nobody in the Freewalker house wanted to jump. So my last resource were the guys from Addo Elephant park, who were joining us for this trip. On our way to Plettenberg I finally heard that someone from Addo would also jump. It was definitive now, I am bungy jumping today. That was also the moment I got more nervous. I can tell you one thing, it isn’t fun sitting in a car knowing that you will jump and still have to wait for almost two hours. I just wanted to get it over with.
After a long journey we finally arrived, I filled in the forms and paid! Now there was no way back. We had to wait a while, which in my opinion at that moment felt for ages. Sandra, Jessica and the others were aloud to walk to the Bungy place, so I had some support. Upon arrival there was music playing, which kind of pumped you up. I always say music can change your mood. After a group photo, it was time to jump and thanks to Murray, Jordie, Sandra and Jessica I was the first one to go. Now I was really nervous, they put all the equipment on me and told me what they were doing, but believe me at that moment you don’t really listen anymore. You are just thinking, what the F*ck am I doing.
Then they put you on the edge and say 1 2 3 BUNGY! and I jumped without hesitation, which is actually kind of weird. When you noticed that you are falling you think ooooooh Shit and then this feeling changes into happiness. It was a great and an awesome experience. They say bungy jumping is addictive, before my jump I thought yeah right, but now I just want to Bungy again!
After the Bungy we continued our journey to Plettenberg Bay. We stayed in this lovely house nearby the beach, because of all the adrenaline we were pretty tired, so that night we went to bed early. Besides two guys from Addo were skydiving the next day. They asked me if I wanted to go as well, but I had enough adrenaline for one weekend, next time I will definitely go. Freewalker made a special deal with the skydive company in Plett and a deal were the participants landed on the beach.So we drove to the beach and waited there for them to land. After the skydiving we went snorkeling, the water was freezing and you kind of got a brain freeze, but it was cool to see the life of the underwater world.
Then it was time to go to Knysna Elephant Park, this is a orphanage for orphan elephants. Female elephants stay together there whole life. You have grandmothers, mothers, grandchildren and great grandchildren all living together. The male elephants only stay till a certain age in the group. Anyway the elephants in Knysna do not have a family anymore and therefore they life in this park. The elephants are trained and you can touch and feed them. It was for me the first time I saw an elephant from so close by. It is such a beautiful creature. The elephants at Knysna Elephant Park weren’t fully grown yet and I already thought that they were really big. The guide told me that a elephant keeps on growing until the age of 35.
After knysna we went to Robberg Island, also know as the seal island. This is a beautiful island were you can take nice hikes. There are so many seals nearby this island, while walking you can see this black spot and when you come closer you see that the black spot are actually seals. Where there are seals there are sharks. People always say that when you see a seal you should get out of the water, as a shark will be close by. These people are right, as we spotted a great white shark, nearby the seals. Everybody was hoping to see some action, the shark attacking a seal, but (un)fortunately that didn’t happen. I know it is the circle of life and that is nature, but I just don’t really enjoy the sight of seeing an animal get killed. It was an amazing experience, it felt like you are on a deserted island, there was nobody there only us.
Monkey land is the biggest monkey sanctuary in the world. It is a place in which they created an environment similar to the natural environment of the monkeys. You have a lot of different monkeys at Monkeyland king Julien from Madagascar to Mr Nielson from Pippi Longstocking and they are so cute. These monkeys walk, jump around freely, which is very nice to see. They don’t really seem bothered by the humans walking around. They just continue eating, jumping and playing with each other.
As the students at the Kwa-Ford Primary school would say!
Hamba Kakuhle!