Homeward Bound

I am both pleased, and saddened, to announce that four weeks from now, I will be boarding my flight out of Cape Town to return to the United States.

For those of you playing from home that are capable of simple math, let me answer your upcoming question. “But Thomas, that will mean you only spent about 9 ½ months in South Africa. I thought you were there for a year?” You would be correct, the original idea is to be in your placement for the full 12 months (give or take a month in either direction). The problem with that is my original Visa was only granted through the 20^th of July. For the past month and a half to two months I have been trying to go through the process to have my visa extended, but it has proven to be a lot trickier than I had anticipated. Between missing an interview due to protesting closing a road into Cape town, and then their website being down and not being able to get any advice on how to get it to work properly (you have to apply online first), and then job prospects back home, and etc. I finally just had a conversation with YASC and HOPE Africa, and it was decided that I would just continue with the original ticket date of July 10^th, instead of continuing to attempt extend the Visa.

I am happy to be going home because I miss my home and family and friends. I am saddened because I feel like I am not honoring the commitment I made, despite that it was not (fully) my fault (there is a decent chance that my application for an extension would have been denied anyway. South Africa has really cracked down on their visas the past few years). I also feel like there is a lot left for me to do here, and now much less time to do it (the decision was made around the 1^st of June, giving me just under 6 weeks to wrap everything up).

I will keep this post short and sweet (so unlike me) and end it here. I will post another blog within the next few days to talk about what my plans are for the last few weeks. So, United State, I will see you all on July 11^th.