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While many people her age were traveling to various college campuses, Margeaux Riehm (12) was lucky enough to travel to Africa this summer. The Riehm family, Margeaux, her parents, and her 3 sisters, spent about two and a half weeks visiting in South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe.

Margeaux’s dad travels a lot for work, so he builds up a lot of airline miles. When the oldest Riehm sister, Michelle, reached her junior year of high school, their dad let her choose any destination in the world for the family to travel to. Since that trip, this has turned into a Riehm family tradition. Whenever one of the sisters gets to her junior year, they get to pick a trip. After already traveling to both Asia and Europe, Riehm chose to go to Africa because she really wanted to see animals in their natural habitat. The thought of this summer trip is what helped get her through the rigor of junior year.

Traveling to Africa was also very special for Riehm’s older sister, Megan. While at VHHS, Megan was very involved with the “Dress a Girl Around the World” charity through the sewing classes. However, she graduated before the school started to take students to our sister school in Africa. Once Riehm decided on Africa as the destination for her junior year trip, she and her sister started sewing these dresses again. They started sewing last December, and did not finish until July, right before they left for the trip. In addition to sewing about 100 dresses, the Riehms gathered around 50 pairs of shoes and 50 T-shirts.

The Riehm family created quite the itinerary for their trip. Their vacation began with a treacherous, eight hour flight from Chicago to Frankfurt, Germany. Not wanting to waste any time, the Riehms took advantage of their 12 hour layover, hopped on a train, and toured the city. They then flew to Zimbabwe, and spent the night touring Victoria Falls. The family spent the following week-and-a-half on various safaris, exploring in Botswana and in South Africa. Along the way, the Riehms got to see elephants, hippos, cheetahs, caracals, and meerkats all in their natural habitats.  While they were never scared for their safety, the family had to stay quiet whenever they were  close to any animals.  They also spent a day venturing off into the mountains and canyons. On Day 13 of their trip, the Riehms visited an orphanage near Kruger National Park in South Africa. They volunteered through the local charity, “Sizabantwana,” which translates to “Caring for Children” in English. Here, Riehm and her family spent the afternoon playing with the children and handing out the dresses, T-shirts, and shoes that they had gathered. The Riehms then flew to Capetown, South Africa, where they spent the last few days of their trip. Here, they visited famous sights like Cape Point and Table Mountain and had the opportunity to spend time at a cheetah sanctuary.

“[I]really loved the safari and seeing all of the animals roam free, but [I] also loved giving away the dresses. That day at the orphanage was so fun!”