South Africa...my new home

Hi everyone!

I will not even begin to explain where I fully disappeared to but I will say I have been busy having fun and discovering myself. It has been a journey full of ups and downs but I am so grateful that I have gone through it-heck, I am still going through it!

So I recently went to South Africa to volunteer for approximately three months focusing on developing health and hygiene within a township in Grahamstown.

Lovely experience? Where do I even begin? From the lovely community and the mama's, to my host family, amazing counterpart and diverse team of people I was working with.

It was an experience that I can never forget and I will be sharing more of it in due time.
For now I am going to share a few things that I learnt in true Rubologs tradition:

1. Everyone deserves the chance to smile
I don't actually know how to explain this point lol but let it marinate in your mind...

2. Patience is a virtue
It is hard working in a large group of people with different characters and personalities and this was a major challenge that we faced during our placement. However, being open to accept people for who they are and what they stand by truly helped me to work with rather than against them. It is good to work with people you have a lot of similarities with but at times it limits your personal growth.

3. As faces differ, so do their needs
It was not always obvious until you got close to someone to hear their life journey and their aspirations. I now know not to always judge a book by its cover but to sometimes get closer to people.

4. Access to practice good health and hygiene should not be taken for granted
In the community I was working in, health and hygiene was an issue we were dealing with. We did this in various ways through community workshops, events and lessons in schools. Whilst the knowledge was being passed on, it could not always be applied. How do you maintain personal hygiene, if the water supply was turned off for three days?

5. South Africa has winter
No but they actually do. I was soo ignorant of the fact that just because I'm in a tropical country, it automatically means bikini! Wrong. It was freezing and I had a cold.

I have learnt a lot during my time away and will cherish these moments and the people I met forever.

For now I will leave you with a few snaps...see you soon!

Plenty of love

Rubo xx