Since my return from South Africa, people have often asked me: what were your most memorable experiences, some extraordinary moments/situations or something you were really impressed by during your stay? I've always had difficulties answering that question (especially when the question was asked during a live interview on the radio!), since my whole stay was so impressive that it's hard to point out something particular.

Now that I've had time to reflect upon everything I've experienced and I've come to view some things in a new light, I will attempt to give a better answer to that question. Below I've described some of my most memorable experiences. These are ordered randomly, there is no order of relevance.

• I remember my arrival in Cape Town - it was on the morning of July 8th, after a sleepless 11 hour flight, both because of my inability to sleep in any vehicle, especially in an airplane and because of being too excited about my arrival in South Africa and the anticipation of what lies ahead. I got the first spectacular impression when looking out of the window of the plane (the weather was exceptionally cloudless and clear for that time of the year) when approaching Cape Town. The view was magnificent and unreal - Table Mountain, Lion's Head (I have to admit, at the time I had no idea which one was which), the Cape of Good Hope. I was stunned - this was magnificent, especially for me, as I'm coming from a flat country (the highest 'peak' is 318 m!). I felt very nervous and intense when stepping out of the plane and going through customs (although I had a visa and therefore nothing to worry about) and then... stepping into the airport arrivals area, not knowing who would be there to meet me (if anyone!). And then, seeing a big group of black people there, holding a sign with my name written on it!!! Then it all happened so quickly. We went out of the airport, I was trying to absorb it all, since everything was new to me and having trouble understanding the people (because of their unusual accent!) and therefore asking them to repeat almost everything twice! ;o) And then, driving to Cape Town, towards the huge and impressive Table Mountain (which I admired every single day of my stay, except the times it was covered with clouds and if you arrived in Cape Town on one of those days and didn't know that there was a huge mountain in the middle of the city, you would be completely shocked when first seeing it on a cloudless day! Yet, many locals told me that they had become so used to the presence of the mountain that they hardly ever noticed it any more!) I'll never forget those first moments. It's hard to describe all the emotions I had, but if I had to sum up my feelings with one word, I would say it felt UNREAL! I couldn't believe that I was actually in Cape Town, South Africa - 10 000 km from home, on the Southern Hemisphere, where I've always longed to go to! When I arrived back home after the 4 months spent in Africa, I had huge difficulties readjusting to the life at home. During the first week home, when waking up in my bed in the morning being still sleepy and confused in the first moments after having just awoken, I first couldn't understand where I was and when I realized I was at home, it felt unreal and I couldn't understand what I was doing here instead of being in Cape Town! Although my emotions have become less intense with time, which is inevitable, not a day goes by when I don't think about South Africa.

      

• The day when Tobi and I drove to Khayelitsha for the first time, left a strong impression on me. Since it was school holiday when we arrived in South Africa, we had about a week to settle down in Cape Town, to find accommodation, rent a car and familiarize ourselves with the surroundings. As we had to be at the school 8 am in the morning on the first day after the holidays, to be introduced to the staff and students before their classes would start, we woke up very early. The first thing what struck me was the complete darkness at that time in the morning - since it was winter in the Southern Hemisphere then, it only started to become lighter once we had arrived at school (this was another thing I had trouble getting used to in the beginning, coming from the summer in the Northern Hemisphere). Although it was still dark, I paid close attention to our way to Khayelitsha and the surroundings. Although I had heard of and seen photos of Khayelitsha and the shacks there, seeing it with my own eyes was something completely different, it produced different emotions and it created so much more intense feelings. I cannot say I was shocked when we passed the shacks along the highway, I felt more surprised and amazed.
When first entering the school and meeting the teachers, I felt very intense - everything was new and all the faces were unfamiliar. Tobi and I both found it extremely difficult to remember names and faces and even more difficult to put these two together!

      

• Many of the moments in South Africa which were the most emotional, happy or in some other way intense and memorable, are related to personal experiences. Even if I tried to relate some of these, they would not mean anything to people who haven't been in those situations and experienced it all. For example, it was once during the second half of our stay, in October that we went to a beach in Khayelitsha with 4 students (Mandisi, Sizwe, Khayniso and Thandile). It was Mandisi's birthday and before that we had given him a cake and celebrated in the computer room. So, everyone was feeling particularly happy that day. We all fit nicely into the Beetle (as always! ;o)). We had such a great time at the beach, we were running around and joking the whole time! I especially remember our drive to the beach when the guys were singing traditional Xhosa songs!! I felt like I wanted to be in that moment forever! I'll never forget that day!

      

• Another memorable experience I'll tell you about is related to the school and our multimedia groups. Tobi and I had been teaching the webpage group for months already, at times growing a bit frustrated when we had to repeat some things in 3 consecutive lessons and still seeing no results. Then one day we decided to have a little experiment which would involve the advanced students teaching the beginners everything we had taught them. We were not quite sure if this would work out, but we decided to try. So, Tobi and I sat among the students and watched. The result was just amazing! The guys did absolutely great! This was much more than we had expected - not only did it show that they had understood and mastered what we had taught them, but even more importantly, were able to pass their knowledge to others!! On that day I felt really proud of them and so happy because I knew then that the work Tobi and I had done, had justified itself!! And this was our reward - it's hard to imagine anything better!

      

• Blouberg's Beach and the Cape of Good Hope are two magnificent places which I visited more than once - I think these are the most beautiful places I've ever been to! We always went to Blouberg's Beach in the evening of some weekday, just to relax there and watch the sunset. This is the place where I saw the most amazing sunsets! And it was so relaxing there, except that it was always rather cold because of the wind - once I even watched the sunset from the car since it was freezing outside. Once we tried to jog along the beach - I had never done it on a beach before and it proved to be quite challenging because of the feet sinking in the wet sand. I remember one occasion when we drove to Blouberg's Beach right after the school. It was a particularly cold and windy day. Despite that we stayed there until the sunset. Since there is a magnificent view from Blouberg's Beach on Table Mountain, I decided to sketch it. I have to admit that I'm not that great at drawing, yet I attempted it - what I found most difficult to draw was the surface of Table Mountain: while the basic outline of the mountain is quite regular and easy to draw, a closer look reveals countless shapes, shadows and curves on the sides, which is why drawing the mountain is no easy task. Moreover, while I attempted to sketch the shadows, the sun was moving and therefore the shape of shadows it cast on the mountain, changed, this making it even harder to draw the whole scene. When it became too dark and cold to draw, I gave up. Since the drawing is not that great, it's not worth showing it to you here. Yet, I'm glad that I at least made the attempt, because as a result I have an even more vivid image of Table Mountain in my mind.

It is the scenery that makes the Cape of Good Hope so spectacular - high rocks surrounded by sea from three sides, offering a great view to the ocean and if you happen to be there during the end of the Southern Hemisphere winter (that is August and September), you might get a glimpse of whales and dolphins coming close to the shore. Yet, there is something more to it, something which gives the place a somewhat mysterious quality and draws people there - it is because THIS IS the end, the end of the land, the southwestern tip of a great continent and you are actually standing on the edge, surrounded by the great ocean (it is often falsely assumed that this is the meeting point of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans or even that it is the southernmost tip of the African continent). You imagine the map of the world in your head and then mentally pinpoint your location on that map. And you think of the famous shipwrecks that happened here and the explorers who sailed around it centuries ago. And then you look around you - the great open space and the endless ocean which stretches beyond the horizon - there are no words to describe the feeling. No wonder it draws people so much.

      

• The party at Sizwe's place, in Khayelitsha. In the morning of that day, my braids were finished and we went straight to Sizwe's place. There were quite many people already, Sizwe's family was there and his friends had come. To our surprise, Tobi and I were not the only white people (it felt a bit unusual, since we hadn't really met many whites in Khayelitsha before). First, the people gathered inside and some speeches were held by the elders (which we didn't understand, since they spoke in Xhosa). After the speeches, it became more interesting, as they started drinking home-brewed African beer, called umqombothi. The beer was kept in a huge container from which it was poured into smaller ones - it is perhaps interesting to note that the small containers had originally been paint buckets, now used for the purpose of serving drinks! ;o) The buckets were sent around and everyone took a sip. I have to admit that the beer was not that tasty (considering that I don't even like regular beer) - this one was thicker and it's colour was something between white and beige (the smell wasn't too appetizing either!). Afterwards, we went out on the street where we took lots of nice photos of children and then continued the party at a local pub (these are called shebeens ). That was a great day!

      

• Driving the Beetle - this is something I experienced every day and never got tired of! ;o) I remember my first drive with the Beetle. We were at the Beetle rental, which was about 20 minutes from Cape Town and had just signed the contract and were ready to drive back home. Neither Tobi nor I had ever driven a Beetle before (by the way, that particular car was older than us, it was produced in the 70s) and neither of us had driven on the left side! So, first we thought it would perhaps be wise to practice for a few minutes by driving around the block before plunging into the big traffic. I started driving and to be honest, my first thought was that I wouldn't make it - driving on the left side was just so unusual and the Beetle felt strange too! However, I managed to drive to a gas station nearby and then from there to Cape Town without having an accident. When I finally parked in front of our house, my clothes were wet because I had been sweating the whole way. By the way, I've never seen more careless drivers than in Cape Town, it's not that bad even in Estonia (I know that most Estonians find it hard to believe!). Since then, my driving improved with every day and not before long I was enjoying it so much that I wished to drive a Beetle for the rest of my life. Although, to be honest, during the first few weeks I was a ghost driver for a couple of times (just for a few seconds though!), but luckily I had Tobi in the car drawing my attention to the fact that I was driving on the wrong side! And I reminded him the same more than once - the most memorable incident of him being a ghost driver occurred during our weekly holiday on the Garden Route - we were on our way back (covering about 600 km in one day) and Tobi was driving, he turned from a gas station to the highway and since we were all quite tired, we did not notice anything unusual. Only after a few minutes, when a car was approaching us in the same lane where our car was, did we realize that something was not quite right - luckily, Tobi also realized that he was on the wrong side of the road before it was too late!! During the first weeks of driving, I had to constantly remind myself to keep left, until it became natural to me and I didn't think of it any more.
Our Beetle served us well and never once broke down during our adventures (except the one time it was towed, but that was because we had poured too much oil in it!). We also did some 'extreme driving' once in a while: it was particularly amusing when we drove the Beetle on dirt roads and in high mountains - everyone else had 4WD and they were always smiling when passing us, some of them even waving to us! ;o) Another time we had a lot of fun with the Beetle was during our holidays - we had been surfing and had to drive back to the hostel about 5 minutes from the beach. Since we did not feel like walking with the surfboard, we tried to fit it in the Beetle - after a few attempts we succeeded. Well, driving with the surfboard in the car wasn't so much fun I have to admit! But we made it! Another time, when coming from a beach and returning to the Beetle we discovered a baboon climbing on it!

      

• Not really one particular event, but something I experienced throughout my stay - meeting and getting to know South Africans, more particularly the black and coloured people (I don't really like this classification of people according to their skin colour, I'm just using it for the purpose of clarification here) and discovering that despite the fact that we come from entirely different backgrounds, we are yet so alike, and that is because we are humans. Although we are surrounded by ‘layers' of culture, upbringing and environmental influences, these are not so thick and thus they can be peeled off - and then we are revealed what is truly human and this is the same for all of us, no matter where we grew up or, regardless of our culture and beliefs or skin colour - we share the same basic needs, wants and emotions and that is why we laugh and cry at the same things. This was perhaps my greatest discovery and the most wonderful experience of my whole stay.

      

I have very many other unforgettable moments (some of these are too personal to share here ;o)), in fact, I could even say that my whole stay was a sequence of those moments and even though most of the time we lived and worked according to a fixed daily pattern, it never became a routine for me because in each day there was something unique and unexpected. Thus this list could be extended quite a bit, but I decided to keep a reasonable length for the readers' sake.