Consistency, Frequency, Emotional connection and Duration are the cornerstones in the mentoring journey. However, to make it slightly easier for all our mentors,  LifeXchange organizes activities which mentors and mentees can participate in at no costs! One of these activities was our recent trip to Robben Island.

“Thus ten mentors and their ten mentees had the privilege of a guided tour.”

Thus ten mentors and their ten mentees had the privilege of a guided bus tour. My personal highlight was learning about Robert Sobukwe and, of course, visiting Madiba’s prison cell where he lived for 18 years. Here we learned that he had, remarkably, gardened regularly for the duration of his stay, something which we thought said quite a lot about someone in prison.

One of our tour guides was an ex-political prisoner with whom we had the privilege of talking with at the end of the tour. His answer to the question: “How do you feel towards the people who put you in Prison”, was “ I have no bad feelings towards them, it was not the people who did it, it was the system”.

We experienced very rough seas on the return trip that Heritage day!  Fortunately only a handful of us were unlucky enough to feed the fishes…but I was very impressed with the crew members’ efficiency in cleaning up the fish food that was spilled on deck! All in all, some great memories were made and our mentees had the experience of a lifetime!

We’d like to extend a Big Thank You to the Robben Island Museum who made this activity possible!

by Corné Krogscheepers