Fear is temporary, Regret is forever.

I don't really know where to start. Last week was the most crazy insane adventure that most could never have the opportunity to experience in a lifetime and it was packed into five crazy days for me. Started the week off rough Monday morning waking up 10 minutes till we had to be on the bus(4:50AM) probably because I didn't get to sleep until a couple hours earlier trying to finish my laundry for the week. Flustered. To say the least. But there was a lot of those early mornings still to come and I just had to keep a good attitude and realize the amazing things ahead of us each day. So we aboard our "Africa Adventure" bus, or pretty much the size of a dumpster truck that literally sits at least 6 feet off the ground. The week consisted of driving up the "Garden Route" which is up the Eastern Cape and staying in different hostels along the way. Our final destination in total was I believe 11 hours away, although we split it up well, it felt like we were living out of the bus. Our first stop Monday was the Cango Caves. I thought this was just going to be like going into caves in Kentucky where you look around for a little bit and leave. But this was very different, we didn't just have the typical tourists tour, we were scheduled for the "adventure" route. This ended up being a lot cooler than I expected. We made our way deep into the caves weaving through tight places that I seriously shouldn't fit in including the "Tunnel of Love" in which we had to turn our body sideways and squeeze up through the cave and then there was "Devil's Chimney" where we had to crawl this hole the size compared to the size of the little dog holes some people have on their doors and then immediately get vertical and army crawl/squirm/climb up this hole that didn't not get much bigger for at least 15 more feet upwards and then we still had to army crawl to the "Postage Dropoff" which was the smallest opening that we had to squeeze through and it went right into a little slide after that you just slide down on your belly face first. The caves were so much fun. We drove in the big green bus some more after and continued the bonding time which would be constant on the bus throughout the week playing card games, jamming to some music, and my personal favorite was our game of karaoke and the rules of that game is someone else has to pick your song and you don't know it until you put headphones in and you turn the volume all the way up so you can't hear yourself and then just get into it and jam. And I was chosen to go first... which provided for some great entertainment...we then went to the ostrich farm which was a lot fun basically because it was just hilarious. For example, our guide picked me and two other guys to go into their little fenced in area and we had to put the food in our mouth and see whoever the ostrich picked to kiss, well I won, but that didn't end up being the best because she caught some lip and not all food, she was a biter. It didn't hurt too bad though, more funny than anything else because I wasn't expecting it because we had just done something similar with a small gentle ostrich. And then people 165 lbs and under had the opportunity to ride the ostrich, needless to say I didn't make the cut, but it was really funny to watch and I got some good videos. So we then make our way to our first hostel which was surprisingly really nice and right on an awesome beach. This is where we met up with the other adventure group who had done some of the things we would be doing later on in the week and swapped stories. This would lead to a long night of drinks and laughter around a campfire they had out in the sand in the back area of the hostel bar. Another early morning...wake up 5 minutes before I'm supposed to be on the bus, once again. 5:55AM. We get on the bus and go about half an hour till the Neisner Waterfront which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful places in South Africa, which really says a lot. Snapped some photos after climbing up on some rocks as the waves crashed against them. I'm still attempting to wake up at this point. But it was an incredible landscape and it was such an awesome moment to take in and reflect. After this we got back on Big Green and our next stop hours away was zip-lining. This was no normal zip-lining. There was 8 different long zip-lines with the longest being 216 m that literally went right over a waterfall. It was lightly raining at this point, but I think it made the experience even better for some reason. For lunch, we went to Jeffery's Bay, also known as J-bay, which is the surfing capital of South Africa with huge waves. We then made our way to Addo National park where we went on a night safari game drive where we saw a lot of Khudu, elephants(including some baby ones), foxes, owls, which was all really exciting because our guide had not guaranteed us to see anything since it had rained earlier that day. We were bummed we didn't see lions because we heard the group last week did even though it was really rare. But we had a morning game drive as well. This one was 10x better than the first. We saw zebras, warthogs, more khudu and elephants, and then we came up on 3 lions laying out in this pasture. Our bus went crazy and we were all excited because the attitude of the morning was disappointment we hadn't seen lions. These lions just laid there perched. We then notice to our right, a pack of red-hartebeest(fastest animal in the park, antelope looking) approaching the lions. Even our guide was getting excited because there hadn't been a kill ever sighted in the park. This standoff lasted at least 30 minutes as the head antelope was tempting the lions and ran up ahead acting brave and then quickly turn back at the slightest flinch of the lion. This was way cooler than watching "Planet Earth" since it was happening right in front of our eyes. The kill never occurred, but it was still quite the sight to see something of that nature happening naturally before you. This would be the start to one of my favorite days of the week. From here we left and were schedule to go play soccer with some kids in a local community that was near the bridge we would be jumping off of later that day. We got to the field and there was some miscommunication and the kids weren't there unfortunately, but everyone was okay with it because apparently it was a legitimate high school team that destroyed the other groups. Instead, some of us played our own game while the other half of the group did yoga? haha one of our TA's on our bus is a yoga instructor and would causally get some of the bus doing some yoga stretches spontaneously throughout the week. I did not join. Okay, only once. So now after all that nonsense, it was time. Time to jump off the world's highest bungee bridge! To be honest, the whole day I was more excited than nervous. This was a huge attraction to the trip when my friend was telling me about it last year. Some people on my bus were not as much as excited as they were really scared and nervous. Some girls were even in tears when they got up on the bridge. But some of the shirts they sell say "Fear is temporary, regret is forever." This can be applied to many areas of life, but it really helped some people get through that fear and jump. We only had 2 people on our bus that didn't do it. The other bus the previous day had everyone jump. Some of videos are priceless of the girls who were about to pee their pants. (Funny story: a random girl that wasn't with the our group had literally peed her pants while she was on the bridge getting harnessed up). As for my jump, I hop up to the edge, they have the music blasting, I'm dancing and smiling to loosen my nerves, as the guys hold me, I ask if I could look down at my death before I jumped. And then they did the chant "5, 4, 3, 2, 1..BUNGEEE" and they guide you(slightly push) off the bridge. I've never experienced such a moment of silence in my life. Everything was still. Except for me plunging down into the canyon underneath me. It was the most adrenaline I've ever experienced. I enjoyed every second of it and would do it again in a heartbeat. I have a video and pictures for evidence too. We went to our next hostel which was one of my favorites with a bar, pool table/foosball, a fire and just a really cool environment for everyone to hang out. Thursday morning was our day to go play with the elephants! The only problem was the weather. It was raining and not letting up very much. We were all really disappointed when were were told we would not be able to ride them like all the other groups had done because of the rain. But we were still able to walk them by their trunks and feed them,  and watch them do tricks. I wanted to be able to say I rode an elephant, but it really didn't ruin my day. The rain finally let up after we left and we were scheduled to take a dolphin cruise but that had to be cancelled because of the weather as well. This ended up being a blessing in disguise because everyone said they could have gone without seeing the dolphins saying they can do that in the states, and instead we go to Tenikwa: An African Cats Farm. Basically it was a farm with leopards, cheetahs, caracals, servals, and many more different breeds. And for the most part, we didn't just look at them through a cage, we were able to go in and pet some of them. I was able to pose behind two cheetahs for a picture. The leopard was the most entertaining for me. He was in a fenced in area and our guide would take us around and get the leopard all hyper and he would come and jump on the fence at us, which scared some girls but he did this multiple times and I thought it was awesome. The leopard was so fast and its spots are gorgeous, I even got to pet its side as he rubbed against the fence one time. So the cat farm ended up being a great alternative. We arrived back to the same hostel we stayed in the first night seeing everyone from the other group again. This was another really fun night. There was a community room where we had a short meeting and then we watched a lot of everyone's bungee dvd's while having some drinks before dinner and it was hysterical seeing some of the faces on people right before they jump. Friday. Last day. But I was so excited for shark cage diving. And the weather was perfect for our last day. The other groups had terrible stormy weather when they went out leading to multiple people getting sea sick but ours was calm with beautiful skies and no one got sick. We got in our wet suits looking all sorts of goofy, especially when I put my goggles on. I drop into the cage. Never did I think I would get this opportunity in my entire life. This seems crazy to me, I am usually uneasy about the deep ocean just for the very reason of sharks and here I am swimming with them. I was apart of the first 5 in and we had sharks swimming right in front of our face and even had one charge our cage and the nose came through the cage slightly was inches from my face. WOW. This was by far my favorite part of the week even over bungee for me personally even though its so hard to compare everything I had done. There was extra time after everyone had gone and so me and some others hopped back in and had some great views of a shark coming at his bait that they were luring him with and he rattled up against our cage even more. When he actually did get the bait, he wouldn't let go, and one time they literally couldn't get the bait from him from like 5 minutes and he was dragging it under the boat so it felt like we were about to tip. Craziness. I loved everything about it. That was the end of our adventure week unfortunately but it ended on a great note and I still had an amazing weekend to come with the rugby game and skydiving Sunday. The rugby game Saturday was crazy! The majority of us students cheered for the local Cape Town Stormers and they were playing the Pretoria(northern South Africa) Bulls. We had jerseys and face paint and our adventure guides that we had gotten to know put on a "brye"(barbecue) for us which consisted of some good food and brew. It felt like a game day in Athens and all the Springbocks and Bafanas (our two groups of 50 separated on adventure and service week) were all back together again. The game itself was so much fun and a good group of us managed to make our way down to field level seating literally right in front of the action. The Stormers barely lost with one crazy play at the end coming up about 5 yards short, but it was still an awesome time and I felt like the biggest Stormers fan in the stadium by the end of the game. Sunday would complete the craziest week of my life. I jumped out of a perfectly good plane 9000 feet in the air above Cape Town. What a rush. The free fall for 40 seconds was the most amazing feeling in the world. I feel insane and so incredibly blessed to have had these opportunities this past week and will never forget a moment of it. Even though I wrote a novel in this, I feel like I could never be descriptive enough to really capture the essence of everything I experienced.

 Hostel the first and last night

 5,4,3,2,1...BUNGEE!!!

Little Sally Walker...(Service Week)

Wow. This past week was incredible. Although I've always loved this type of service and working with kids, one of the most appealing aspects of the the trip for me was the adventure week that is next week for our group and we leave at 5 AM tomorrow for that! But I can easily say that was one of the best weeks of my life. From the time I stepped off the bus Monday until we were waving goodbye through the windows on Friday as our bus rolled away, the smiles from ear to ear never ceased. I have been fortunate to have had great service opportunities in the past in Peru and Nicaragua, but this was a truly different experience for me. Much of my joy from my mission trips in the past was being able to see the tangible ways in which I was able to help a community whether it was giving shoes and school supplies away in the hills of Peru or helping commence the building of a medical clinic in the little fishing village of Jiquilillo, Nicaragua. Do not get me wrong, I definitely thrived off the love I was able to give as well, but the way this week was organized was aimed towards planting roots and building relationships so that our impact will be sustainable and lead to growth by having different "families and soup moms" for the week along with 4 other students. This was awesome because I was able to become very close and able to open up along with our soup mom opening up as well telling us her story. She was such an encouragement to me. The first night we were there she was talking about the joy she has in life. She says that is what keeps her going, she finds the positive and the good in everything she is "blessed" with even though her living conditions would suggest otherwise. Its incredible what our society values versus her attitude, her happiness is centered around her faith and family. The other different aspect was the curriculum behind the service. "Service-learning" is different than normal service because it is based off a reciprocal relationship in which both sides are mutually benefitting. I always go into service thinking about "what I am going to be able to give", but much of this week was what we were able to take away as well. The smile on my soup mother's face every time I saw her was enough reward for me for the whole week. But even more rewarding for me was Courtney(program director) coming up to me tonight at our Sunday night dinner and telling me that she had interviewed Ms. Eunice(my soup mom) and that I had made a huge impact in their family. She said the hug was just what she needed every day and that it made her so happy to see me loving her kids the way I did. And it meant a lot to her that we didn't come into her house and judge her situation or even try to empathize with her but rather just came in and genuinely wanted to get to know her and build a relationship.

Radian and Jaquan

Hope: The baby of our family.

Some of my boys Sean and Sirwin putting on our game face

probably cutest kid award 

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK

1. FRIDAY FIELD DAY-On Friday, we had all the kids down to the fields by the school and played all sorts of old school games like three legged races and wheelbarrow races. This was my favorite day with all of the kids.

2. RUGBY- all week with the teenagers. An important part of this week was to connect with the older kids in the community and not just spend all the time with all of the "cute" kids we see. This was emphasized so the love will trickle down and still progress whenever we leave.

3. Little Sally Walker- this is the old school playground game which breaks all the kids out of their shell. Its basically where everyone gets in a circle and sings the song little sally walker(which will be stuck in my head for a long time..) over and over again and a girl/boy walks around the circle and picks out someone to do the dance to and then they switch. Heres what the lyrics consist of..haha "Little Sally Walker walkin' down the street, she didn't know what to do, so she stopped in front me and she said"hey girl, do yo thing, do yo thing and switch'"

4. SMILES/Hugs- from every kid I came in contact with it was either a high five, simple smile, or they would jump on you for a hug. I am literally sore from this past week from kids crawling up my back and on my shoulders every day this week. But it was well worth it.

I have to finish some laundry and pack and wake up early for another amazing week ahead!

Robben Island/Old Biscuit Mill/Goldfish/Sir Lowry's Pass

So we've had a busy weekend and I'm just now getting around to catching up on some of the highlights of the past few days. Friday was a day that I had been looking forward to since I've been here. It was our day to visit Robben Island. This is the place where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years along with many other political activists that were among the movement against apartheid and oppression in South Africa. We were guided around by a former prisoner, whose name is Thulian, that served unjust time along with Mandela. His stories were very powerful and moving. The conditions for black prisoners on the island were  awful. We were able to witness their living quarters as they were stuffed into rooms too small like sardines in a can. He then took us to the actual cell that Nelson Mandela served his time in. It was tiny. White walls. Isolation. Everything that should eliminate any sense of hope. Instead, he proved to be a inspirational leader from inside these cell walls and to be released after negotiations in 1991 and go on to become a Nobel Prize winner in 1993 and the President of South Africa in 1994 implementing a path for a new future to a country that had been oppressed for so many years.

 Nelson Mandela's cell

Sunset Friday night 

Saturday morning we woke up and went back to the Old Biscuit Mill. This is the fresh open food market with live music and exceptional food. I was brave an tried an ostrich burger this time around. It was actually delicious. I was able to take some pictures this time to give an idea of the unique environment it is so hopefully my internet will allow me to post some here.

Some of the Global Lead staff told us about a local South African music group called "Goldfish" when we got here two weeks ago and told us there would be an opportunity to go to a concert while we were here. We started listening to them after they suggested it and really liked them a lot enough to all buy the concert tickets for Saturday night. My roommates and I decided it would be funny if we tried to dress South African for the occasion. This type of South African look I speak of is essentially the same as the young hip european look with v necks/crazy graphic shirts and gelled up hair looking all sorts of weird. Not guido exactly. But similar. That turned out interesting to say the least. Hopefully I can get a picture of that up here as well. The concert itself was awesome, we all got rowdy and had a great time. It was a good majority of the students that went too which made it even more fun having everyone there.

Sunday was a relax day. Also a day for everyone to write our first paper that was due this morning. Our room didn't exactly use our time wisely. Instead we just pushed the paper off watching the random movies that come on the channels here such as Pocahontas, Dukes of Hazard, Happy Gilmore. We would finish our papers after dinner/this morning. Study abroad isn't supposed to be about studying...duh...just kidding mom.

Today was the start of our service week. The premise of this is week is going into the chosen township of Sir Lowry's Pass and do more than just do something material for them like build or paint houses. BUt instead just instill a sense of love and hope in the kids and adults. This will be the third year that Global Lead has been in this particular township. The connection is through the "Soup Moms". They have about 8 moms that will provide soup for the children of the small, extreme poverty stricken town every other day. Our group of 50 that is then split up into about 5 or 6 of us students per mom and family. This is our "family" for the week. As we arrived today the weather was pouring down rain but still when our bus showed up, the kids just came from every direction and were following the bus with the biggest smiles from ear to ear on their face. We were told this is most of the kids favorite time of year the past two years. A simple two week visit from a bunch of kids that genuinely show them love and compassion. From the moment we got off the bus kids would run up to us and grab our hand and guide us along as we walked to the center building where we first gathered. The head soup mom "Mrs. Cheryll" guided us and the kids in some fun songs and dance to welcome us. After a general welcome and introduction, we were allowed to just have some play time with the kids before we ate dinner with our respective families. The kids were climbing up my back non stop. I would be spinning one kid around and a few more would line up in front of me wanting the same attention. I loved every minute of it. This is the type of thing I have enjoyed on mission trips that I've experienced in the past. But after this play time with the kids, each group went and introduced themselves to their mom for the week and got to know our families. I've seen this type of poverty before from the outside looking in during transactional exchanges of things like shoes and school supplies in Peru and Nicaragua. But I've never experienced the actual living experience the way we were able to tonight. We were invited into their homes to have dinner. (This home consisted of a 10x10 room with one stove and water dripping through the tin roof as it was pouring rain outside, and one smaller backroom where everyone slept) We walked in and our mom "Mrs. Emily" said "Well, there's the pots and pans". (we were told the moms would be cooking for us) We were happy to make the spaghetti that Lead provided for the families. As we were cooking the food, I was able to get to know the family a little more. Mrs. Emily is single with no kids but her sister and brother lives with her as well in this tiny house along with her sister's husband and kids. I was going to be bummed if we didn't have kids in our family so I was happy to meet the rest of the family. They still had a TV and dvd player in this tiny little shack. They put in a dvd of some African Gospel and dance because apparently each of the adults there are all in a choir together that sings similar music. I asked them to give me a little taste of their skills, but they were too shy on the first day. I hope to get it out of them at some point this week. They loved the spaghetti and we made enough to last them for a couple days which I think they appreciated as well. Today was more of just an introduction to the families because we left shortly after dinner. We aren't allowed to stay overnight with our families because of the unsure safety at night and the added stress it would put on the mothers. The kids were already sad to see us leaving but we assured we would be back tomorrow and the rest of the week. I am already excited for tomorrow because we get to spend more time there with the kids and can really start to make some connections. This is the week I was looking forward to the most for a reason and the first day has proved that even further for me.

Just the tip...of Africa

Today was awesome! I feel like I can say that everyday but today was really something else. On the agenda was seeing the penguins at Boulder Beach, Cape of Good Hope, and Cape Point. I feel like I've been fortunate to see some pretty cool places in my life, but I've never been so blown away by the natural beauty of a landscape like I did today. I've learned on this trip that South Africa has most diverse fauna(animal species) and flora(plant species) in the world and even further that the Cape of Good Hope national park is the more diverse than all of Great Britain and this contributed to what I was able to see today. Our first stop was to play with the penguins, not really play, because they apparently vicious little creatures and have an intense bite. But that first penguin you see is great. Its like, "they're real life". Although they didn't exactly dance like I was expecting them to like in the movie "Happy Feet", we did get to see a baby penguin being born which was pretty cool. After watching the penguins for a while and snapping some photos, we got back on the bus and headed to the Cape of Good Hope. On the way in we were greeted by a lot of baboons which are little monkey creatures that have bare flash for their booty. Apparently they are dangerous and are not shy or afraid to attack you for any scent of food so we were sternly instructed to leave all food on the bus! Stepping out of the bus was just like stepping into paradise. The huge waves crashing up against the cape and the water crystal clear. Me and the guys instantly ran up to the top of the cape. I'm not even going to try and describe it, I'll attempt to let the pictures do it. We weren't satisfied with just the tourist view, we saw the waves crashing down at the bottom shoreline and wanted to be down there. We went outside of the path and went down the side of the mountain. As we were going down, the rocks starting sliding under my feet, this was just a small scare. It was well worth the hike down once we got to the bottom. I got some great videos and pictures. Our last stop of the day was Cape Point. This was thought to be the most southern point in Africa for many years but its actually just east of the point at Agula's National park. But I'm pretty sure Cape Point still wins for me. We went all the way up to the lighthouse and looked over the whole area which included Cape of Good Hope where we had just been playing on the rocks. The lighthouse wasn't all the way at the very tip so we kept going past the "No entry" sign and went further down the rocks, which got a little dangerous at times, have some cuts and bruises, but it was well worth it and I'm still alive. Snapped our last pics of the day and headed back. I am now exhausted and Brooks is cooking for us again, chicken on a bed of steamed rice with some vegetables. Robben Island tomorrow to see where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for years.

Gentle Giant

Today was our visit to the vineyards in Franschhoek, South Africa, which was about a 45 minute ride from where we're staying. The countryside and the landscape were beautiful. The forecast was iffy but it ended up being great weather while we were there. This particular vineyard actually receives the most precipitation per inch than any other vineyard in South Africa as it rests between two mountains. To switch things up a little bit from last year, they organized an unorthodox way of wine tasting. They split us into teams of about 8-10 people and we had different stations where we had about five bottles of their different wines and the competition was to create the best blend and bottle/name it and the winners got a free case(12) of their great tasting wine. We started passing around the glasses and tasting the different types of wines from the merlot, cab, shiraz, petit, and a desert white wine. As a group we decided their petit and merlot were the best tasting so we used a majority of that in our blend. My roommate Brooks took it very serious marking down the stats of how we individually ranked each wine and then wrote down the ratios of how much we would use of each. While creating our masterpiece they brought around their signature wine Gentle Giant and each table received a bottle. We were presented with an opportunity to purchase a package of three bottles of their best stuff for 200 rand which is around 40 USD and it was discounted about 30 percent for us from retail price. I bought this package to bring back to the states to share this great South African wine. After some deliberating and much thought, they were ready to announce the winners. They counted down from 6th place and we made it to the top two and they still hadn't said our name. They announced 2nd place. It wasn't us. So our group went crazy as they announced "Elephant Walk" wine as the winner. We then took our group photo and went into the little town and ate pizza. Just woke up from my nap and I think we are going to have a laid back movie night.

Finishing blog catchup of first week

So the sunset cruise was awesome and I managed to still finish my assigned blog for the day so Wednesday was an overall success. After the cruise, a lot of our group went down to the restaurant/bar called Quay Four right on the water that had some good live music and just a great atmosphere. We got all got rowdy and had a good time dancing and what not, needless to say, we stood out as Americans haha but I loved it. We didn’t stay out too late though which was good because we had a great speaker the next morning.

Kevin Chaplain, a very successful businessman and chairman of the Amy Biehl foundation, which we became very informed about, was our guest speaker Thursday morning. This foundation provides a source of education and builds schools and facilitates them for the kids in the poor townships. He was brilliant and spoke with such meaning and enthusiasm giving us advice on the social responsibility aspect of business and recognizing that you always owe something to the community and those who are socially responsible are rewarded. I encourage you to read up on the Amy Biehl story further because it is a powerful moment in the history of South Africa. But long story short, Amy Biehl was an American girl that spent time in Cape Town peacefully fighting for the oppressed people in apartheids and wanted freedom for them. The people for whose freedom she was fighting for ironically murdered her in a riot. It was an anti-white riot and her car was stopped by mobs of people and she was stoned to death. The powerful part of the story is her parents starting this foundation in Amy’s name because they knew she would want something positive to come out of her untimely death. And positive is an understatement, this organization was started in 1998 and has made great strides in improving the quality education of these poor kids. Amy’s parents came out and were able to publically forgive the 4 killers who murdered their daughter and furthermore defend them in their sentencing trial. Amy’s mother saw such a bigger picture, she said it wasn’t those people who killed her daughter but rather the horrible system of the apartheids and the conditions those kids were in. Seeing her strength was incredible along with the dad. The parents have come face to face with the killers and accepted apologies and even work with two of them frequently as one of them has a position high up in the Amy Biehl organization. This was a very moving story to hear before our first township visit which we went on later that day. We went by the exact place Amy Biehl was murdered. We then continued to the schools and saw the great programs being implemented to root a legitimate core education in these kids and also offer the arts like dance and drama. This visit got me pumped for the our full week of service as this was only a taste. The last stop of the day was a little dance show they put on for us which was unbelievably good. The kids were breaking out moves like Michael Jackson x5. Apparently we are going to have to make up our own dance like that during service week which should get interesting…

            Friday was Table Mountain Hike day. Favorite experience so far this trip. Its just indescribable and the pictures really can’t do it enough justice. There’s a phrase in our Global Lead book that says “it’s not about the destination, its about the journey”. This really applied well to this hike because all I thought about the whole time was reaching the top and how great it was going to be when I finally reached the summit, but just the experience of the climb up and making it through the pain with everyone was very unique and so rewarding. I can still feel the burn in my legs…literally, and today is Tuesday. The view over the city was breathtaking, I’ve never seen something like it, and it felt like I earned it from hiking up, which made it better hah. There was a huge restaurant/shop at the top that we ate at and then took a group picture. By this time my legs my whole body was starting to cramp in places I didn’t even know I could cramp but I had already committed to hike back down the mountain with the group with some people. The original plan that the majority of the group did was ride the cable car back down the mountain but we didn’t want to cut short the experience so we asked if we could hike down. This was even more fun than hike up, but a lot more dangerous. When you get you’re momentum going fast its hard to stop yourself, so my new kicks saved me quite a few times. Thanks mom. Needless to say, this day was one of the coolest days in my life.

            Weekends are our free days and we woke up Saturday morning and went to this really unique place called the Old Biscuit Mill. It was this open-air food market that is only open on Saturdays from 11-2. Its basically setup as a square that small individual local venders setup and have samples of their food and they either sell food/beer to eat there or take home. Its all so fresh like we got some homemade pita bread and hummus. Hopefully we will be going back this Saturday and I’ll take some pictures and post them. After we ate and looked around for a while, we went further into town to the Green Market Square. This is a “Chinatown” type of place where you nickel and dime and try to bargain down for better prices. We didn’t stay too long but I got a couple of good jerseys, but we will be back because it’s a great place for souvenirs. Sunday morning we went to Hillsong church, which is a family church of the Hillsong’s around the world that began in Australia. This particular church in Cape Town was unique because it was located in a building that used to be the biggest night club in the city at one point and was shut down because the owners were involved in dealing drugs. So it has since then transformed into a huge church. It really reminded me of Passion City church in Atlanta that Louis Giglio pastors that was located in the Tabernacle. The band was awesome and the pastor was even better. It was nice to experience church in such a different culture, but the message stays the same. Right around the corner(literally) from Hillsong was Canal Walk which is the largest mall in the southern hemisphere. This is where we spent a good majority of our afternoon exploring and we still didn’t even come close to going end to end. The food court was probably the coolest part, it lit up like Vegas.

 Yesterday morning we had our morning lecture over Leadership Theories. We basically discussed how different people and different situations require different strategies. We talked about many different aspects of situational and developmental leadership and connecting individual and group values, but one thing that sticks out is how controversy and conflict can be a good thing. We discussed how with conflict there can be no new stimulation of thought and then there would be no new ideas initiated. After the morning lecture we had the option of doing an extra activity of a museum tour and initially me and my roommates were definitely going to go but we had heard that you want to have more time at one of the ones they were touring was closing soon so we decided that we would wait and go in a smaller group on a different day. But we weren’t going to just lay around all day, we asked Ish to take us on an “adventure”. He had Corbis(Ish’s employee) take us out to Camp’s Bay where the nice beaches are located with the nice cafes/shops lining the waterfront overlooking big rocks on the beach. We were mad because we all forgot out cameras and we were out on these big rocks on a sunny day. So we just got a disposable camera, which may or may not have been a mistake since we can’t “delete” any photos. (that would come into play later). After playing like children on the rocks for a while we went to Café Caprice, which is where celebs such as Leonardo de Caprio, Gerard Butler, and Kelly Slater names were on the wall saying they had been there. So this was a hot spot to be and we got here around 3ish and this would turn into a longggg, but fun, day. Funny story while we were sitting outside. These sketchy people would keep walking up and try to sell us anything and everything from sunglasses to “handcarved” African things. We had already turned many away when one of them came up with a table that actually got my friend’s Brooks attention. It was actually pretty cool, it at least looked all hand carved and had three legs that folded out and you put the handcarved looking circular table in the grooves. Maybe there’s one of it on that disposable. But basically after sending the guy away plenty of times and being the natural heckler that he is, Brooks had him down from 450 rand to 120 rand for a legitimately nice wooden table that he wanted for their families new lake house. He was so excited and proud about his little purchase because it took so much effort to get it to such a good price.  So we had gotten a little rowdy at this point and had fun on the way back to the hotel with Corbis in the taxi taking stupid pictures on the disposable and stopped at Mickey D’s for dinner, which was delicious. But anyways, funny part of the story. We all sit down to eat the rest of our Mcdonalds, and the couch and extra chair was taken so Tim decides to get out Brooks brand new table and try to sit on it and it instantly snapped. We all started dying laughing! Hahah at that point Brooks couldn’t do anything but just laugh cause he knew Tim felt so bad. We got back in time for Trivia Night too! This was organized by Global and was optional but it was in the Lagoon View room where we typically have our class and it was Byob/Byowine, ha as they said it. This was a lot of fun, and our team won, which made it better. Our prize was a free cab ride and back to the Waterfront, which will be convenient some day.

Today the Dooleys spoke! They were incredible. Vince and Barbara both were hilarious and a lot of fun while also giving some great insight and advice. Me and roommates sat front row today because it was necessary since there was a legend in the room. Not just any legend, but the one who turned around Georgia football forever. Him and his wife were so intelligent and have such an interest in this Global Lead program and it speaks volumes that they took time out of their schedule to come meet us and talk to us about life. Oh and my group didn’t win that competition to have lunch with them today unfortunately..but I still was able to meet them which was more than enough for me. Later this afternoon we got out first rugby game going on the beach since we bought a ball at the mall Sunday. This was everyone’s first time playing except my roommate Tim who played when he lived over in Australia and England. We actually picked it up pretty fast and it was really fun, that might become a daily routine. So now we are just hanging out and I believe Brooks is cooking for us tonight since we bought a lot of groceries today to cut back on some the spending we’ve been doing at restaurants so far. Anyways, I’m new to blogging so I know this long, but its hard to brief my experiences here and still vividly describe the extraordinary experience that it is.

First Week

“It takes a certain type of person to come on this trip” my roommate Tim has said this when speaking about the people and relationships we’ve been able to develop in such a short time period that we’ve been here, and as each day goes on I couldn’t agree more. And it does. This program attracts a certain type of person that has the desire to get outside of his or her comfort zone and discover new things first hand. I believe this is the reason that everyone on this trip loves meeting new people and are able to mold together so well. It’s only the fourth full day and I haven’t been able to interact with everyone yet, but I have set a goal for myself to be able to learn everyone’s full name by the end of this trip and to not just interact at the surface level encounters but rather get to know everyone on a level one step deeper than that. I have met a lot of really interesting and appealing people so far. Jack Konas, for instance, is a guy that I probably would not have meet if I did not attend this trip, but getting to know him and his unique/absolutely hilarious personality has been such a fun experience and I think I can literally speak for everyone on this trip when I talk about him, and despite my passionate hate for Auburn recently and their scams and invalid championship, he’s just one guy you can’t help but love. Cam Newton is still theWORST, by the way.

Go Dawgs 

Another early morning followed by another late night. From eating the local Mcdonald’s Big Macs late night in our room with Ish (our decorated Taxi driver who already has, and willbecome much more than simply a taxi driver), to waking up to a great breakfast cooked for me hours later by my small group leader, has become quite the experience/routine. I hate it when that dreadful alarm clock goes off in the morning. I am not very perky in the morning typically but once I actually got involved in the activities, I realized how lucky I am to be here in Cape Town, South Africa and don't want to waste a minute. The days are packed from sunrise to sundown and nothing gets boring for me here. I feel that I am constantly engaged in the speakers and the discussion in our small groups. When I woke up this morning, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that our community leaders would be cooking breakfast for us and I was not disappointed. Paige- the eggs were exceptional. Today was the real introduction into the leadership curriculum that we will be studying while we are here. One of my initial interests, besides the awesome adventure opportunities presented to us in this program, was the service aspect. This comes natural, as I have been fortunate to go on mission trips to Peru and Nicaragua and have always had a genuine interest to go out and connect with those that are in need and less fortunate than myself. But I didn’t think much about the leadership aspect of our studies, thinking that these were going to be the typical lectures I’ve heard at leadership seminars in the past. Mallory (one of our Teaching Assistants) headed the meeting this morning and her passionate attitude about the material was very obvious and sincere, just like all of the staff with us. I am able to easily notice that they love what they do- and they do it well. We looked deep into our strengths and Mallory emphasized how we do not need to dwell on our weaknesses and worry about “fixing” them, but rather develop our strengths, and use them in the most efficient way. We used a test called StrengthsFinder to view our top 5 strengths. I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion we had regarding each of our strengths. It enabled me to understand what I need to work on and what I need to utilize as we continue our service during our trip to South Africa.

This was one of my first opportunities to truly connect with my community group and get to know everyone on a more fundamental level. We were able to expand upon our strengths and we discussed the strategies that we would hopefully implement in our optimistic goals that we set for ourselves. I loved the strategies that the staff put into practice to further our development, for example: they were constantly encouraging different people to join different small groups within the activities that we completed. This is one attribute they intend to include that supports me in my goal to get to know everyone’s name on a more personal level rather than just a casual “Hey, how are you doing?”. We split up into even smaller groups of three to discuss these strengths additionally. This is actually one of my strengths that I learned about myself through the test we participated in that I wanted to intensify and develop in the category of “Woo” which me, Jack, and Erin basically described as a genuine interest in striking up conversation and having that desire to love people for their positive attributes and also aspiring for the people we interact with to love us back. After the meeting we had an excellent activity to advance our relationships within our community/small groups even more by having a fun, detailed scavenger hunt that was easy to get interested and connected in by taking goofy/funny pictures of our whole group around the local landmarks and local people of this community. This was a great time while simultaneously allowing me to observe the different personalities within my group and gain a greater appreciation for everyone in meeting them past the “classroom”. The prize was a private lunch with Barbara and Vince Dooley so me and the only other UGA student in my group, Carrie, were the only ones who could have the legitimate appreciation for this great grand prize. Despite the others distance from our school’s great history of a legend coach, the other team members put forth great effort and I believe we have a valid chance of victory but we will find out the winners tomorrow. I have rambled on long enough on this blog considering I finished the second half after our amazing sunset champagne cruise that has been my favorite night thus far most likely. I can’t wait to continue this journey of new discoveries and adventures! I LOVE THIS PLACE.