(SFYI students travelled to South Africa in early 2012 to provide much rewarding service to the people of Transkei. And what an adventure it was for them. What follows is an excerpt submitted about their adventures.)

Today our community service efforts for our South Africa Winter 2012 Session come to a close as we will be headed for some much deserved R&R in Cape Town before flying back to France this Sunday. Although everyone is exhausted from all the hard work, it is agreed that all we have done down here has been life changing and extremely rewarding.

The largest part of our community service efforts has been building a sustainable homestead for a tribal headman. His house will serve as a model home for the rest of the tribal region. Right now the community has to carry 20 liter buckets of water from a dam down the road just to be able to water their crops and shower.

We have been building a dam so that the headman's property can collect enough rain water to water crops and livestock and provide showers. In addition we have built a rain catching gutter system and water tank, a composting toilet system and a homemade water heater system using a 200 liter holding tank. All of this was accomplished by using two liter coke bottles and plastic boxes, which we painted black to attract and absorb sunlight/heat. If all goes well, we hope the greater community will also want these things and we will in turn reach out to the government to help provide the funds for such simple, but life changing advances.

On top of the water system, we had the honor of visiting the local children's hospital and AIDS clinic. TransCape went through the long process of getting permission for us to spend time with mothers and their children during their once-a-month support group meeting. These beautiful women and their adorable children were so excited for us to spend time with them and the time we had with them was truly magical.

SFYI staff and students spent the afternoon coloring and painting with the children. We did face-paintings, which the children loved, especially when we took their picture and could show them what they looked like. The mothers were as sweet- we took their photos, gave them bracelets and sunglasses and simply sat in peace with them. For a group suffering one of the most atrocious epidemics in their country, they demonstrated such a warmth and genuine sense of humor.

Our time in Transkei has been rewarding in so many ways. Tomorrow morning it will be a bitter sweet "until next time." We are proud of the hard work that we have done together and although we have to say goodbye, we know that in a few short months we will be back to see our wonderful friends again.

Totsiens!