The last of our African Adventures...

Wow, where did the time go? Before I started this journey across the world I thought that 10 weeks was quite a long time. However, after going through the program with Mr Price, 10 weeks is not enough time. South Africa is such an amazing country and they have so much to offer that I could spend a year here and still not have seen everything.

It has been a while since I last posted so I have a lot to catch up on. After going to Cape Town with Mr Price and seeing how wonderful it was I wanted to take Lindsey back so that she could see it for herself. Therefore, we took off early one Friday and jumped on a plane to Cape Town. The first place we went was to a wine farm called Spier. Having never been to one before I didn’t know what to expect, but it was a lot of fun. Spier is a bit more commercial than your average wine farm and really had a lot of neat things for us to do from sightseeing, interacting with Cheetahs, to enjoying a nice meal with some great wine.  Below, are a few pictures from Spier.

The rest of the weekend in Cape Town was pretty leisurely. We really didn’t have any plans and just took some time to relax and take in everything.  We tried to go up Table Mountain, but because it is their winter months it was closed for maintenance. L It was still really pretty from the height that we were able to travel up the mountain and we were able to get some really good pics.

Definitely Lindsey’s favourite part of Cape Town was all of the shopping they have there.  In the middle of the bay there is a mall called the V and A Waterfront that has tons of shops to look in. One of my favourite shops is pictured below with Table Mountain behind it. Cape Union Mart is an upper- market outdoors store with lots of cool clothing and gadgets.

The following weekend, we took off on Friday to go to a Private Game Reserve in Lady Smith, just a few hours’ drive from Durban.  Being quite the outdoorsman I was looking forward to this experience and after having the experience, I am blown away from the beauty. The lodge we stayed at was called Nambhiti Hills game reserve and it was all of 5 stars. Everything from the food, staff, lodging, and tours was top notch. Every day we were able to see lots of Wildlife, including several Lion kills. Below is a video of 2 lion cubs eating a Warthog. It's hard to see, but watch for movement.

The next weekend, Lindsey and I spent some time at the beach. Even though we are in the middle to end of Durban’s winter it is still warm enough to go and enjoy the beach. Everyone still tells us that this is the worst winter they have had, so I can’t imagine how good the weather is in a normal winter. Nothing like the 2 foot of snow Northwest Arkansas was hammered with last winter. After walking down the beach we decided to go to Ushaka Marine Sea World. This isn’t the largest Sea World I have been to, but it probably has the coolest aquarium that I have ever seen. They have a huge abandoned ship that you go down to the bottom of and can then see all of the aquariums throughout the park. It is really neat because while you are underground it appears as if you are in a sunken ship, its really cool. Below are some pictures of that weekend.

Justin and Claire invited us to a party some of their friends were hosting. The theme was “hippy night.” We didn’t dress up, but we had a really good time. Lindsey even showed Justin how women in the South drink! Haha.

We couldn’t leave South Africa without seeing the Springboks play! Thankfully, Mr Price set us up with some great tickets for the game. Unlike the last game we were actually in the middle of all of the fans and it really made for a great environment. I always enjoy watching people get really excited about a sport, and boy where these people excited! Haha. They really do love their rugby in South Africa and it has definitely rubbed off on me. I will continue watching and supporting the Sharks and the Springboks when I return back to the states. Below are a couple pictures from the game. It was a great time and I had a lot of fun with everyone even if the Springboks choked and gave it up to the Aussies.

While I have been working, Lindsey has been volunteering at Mr Price’s Redcap Foundation. She has been helping with several programs, writing grant proposals, and visiting local schools in the area. Below are two pictures of 2 very different schools. The first picture is of Justin’s mom Karen at a school called Crawford. Crawford is a private school and one of the best in Durban. The other picture is of a school just 30 minutes North of Durban. It is a public school and as you can see has much less resources and facilities to help teach the kids. Mr Price is helping to ensure these students get the education and physical activity they need and Lindsey was happy to help where she could.

Well, that about wraps up my experience in South Africa. I can’t say it enough, but it has truly been a wonderful time. Mr Price has gone out of their way to make sure that we are comfortable and have a good time. I have had the best summer and really appreciate everything that they have done for us. I am leaving tomorrow to head back to the United States and am going to miss all of my new friends in South Africa. Once I get back and settled down I will write one more post wrapping up the experience and discussing everything that I have taken away from it. Once again, thank you to everyone in South Africa for make our trip so special

Last week, part II

 Okay, so I finally found a little time to post the second part of last week. Unfortunately, I don't have much time to explain all of the pictures. Hopefully, "A picture says a thousands words!"

The first two pictures are from a local pub called Stoker's Arms. Justin and Claire invited us to join them with a couple fo thier friends. Everyone was really nice and we had a lot of fun here. They had an Englsih guy playing the piano that was absolutely hilarious. I hope that we can make another trip to Stoker's Arms before we have to leave South Africa.

Saturday morning we went to Justin's uncles house to watch the local air show and had a braai. The food was great and as always we had a lot of fun hanging out with Justin's family. We even took turns teaching each other rugby and American football.

 It's a good thing we had a crash course in rugby because after the braai we went to an actual rugby game. The Mr. Price Sharks played one of thier rivals the Blue Bulls. Justin arranged for Jason, Lindsey, and myself to sit in a Mr. Price box right on the field. It was amazing. Probably has to be the best way to watch our first rugby game. The best part of the night was that the Sharks won!

That's all for tonight. Lindsey and I leave for Cape Town in the morning. Ill be sure to post when I return back to Durban. Good night everyone! 





Happy (belated) Birthday, Madiba

 "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure."

This is one of my favorite quotes from Nelson Mandela. Madiba, as people in South Africa call him, is an inspiration to everyone that knows his story. On Monday, he celebrated his 93rd birthday and to celebrate everyone was asked to give 67 minutes of their time to help serve the less fortunate. Members of the Sheet Street team organized an event at a local township to give blankets to the elderly and asked if I would like to go with them. Of course, I said yes and really had a good time. The people were excited to see us and very thankful for the blankets.

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Lindsey has arrived!

Hello, again! Howzit? It has been forever since I last posted. A lot has happened in just a little over a week. So much has happened that I am actually going to split it up into 2 posts. I’ll write a little bit tonight and then finish the second one tomorrow.

Lindsey arrived a little over a week ago. She was quite exhausted from the 2 days of travel and 7 hour time difference from South Africa to the U.S. so she slept for the first couple of days. After resting up, she was ready to go for the weekend. Justin and Claire took Lindsey, Jason, and myself to one of the largest surfing competitions in the world, The Mr. Price Pro. I think there were approximately 35 of the top 50 surfers in the world there.  The competition took place all week long, but we decided to show up for the semi-finals and finals. The weather wasn’t the best; however, the waves were humungous! I would have been scared to be out there surfing.  Below, is a picture of all of us watching the competition, the 2 finalists, and the winner of the competition (which I have to say was from the U.S.! haha)

On Sunday, Lindsey and I headed to the Sharks Board. This organization is responsible for keeping the swimmers safe from the sharks and researches the various sharks in the region. To protect the swimmers from sharks, the Board places nets along the coast. Unfortunately, these same nets often capture and kill the sharks that get too close to the beach. Every morning the Board goes out and untangles the sharks from the nets. If they find a shark that is dead they bring it back to the Board to study the shark. Throughout the week they have times when the public can come in and observe the dissection of the shark. Lindsey and I went last Sunday and watched them cut open a 6 foot tiger shark. It smelled terrible, but was pretty interesting to watch.

On Monday of last week, Mr. Price flew Jason and I to Johannesburg, South Africa to get a look at different stores through the country. We were taken from store to store by local Area Managers that oversee the operations of the same stores. It was really neat to be able to be in their life and to watch them as they observe the status of the store. Each Area Manager had their own details that they thought were important and you could really tell this by the small differences in each of the stores. Because I am doing my project over Sheet Street I paid close attention to the differences between SS and Mr. Price Home.  Even though they are owned by the same company, Mr. Price Home and Sheet Street are one of each other’s biggest competitions.  Below, is a picture of one of the many stores that we toured in the couple of days we were in Joburg.

Besides touring stores, we also toured a lot of the local tourists’ sites. Below, is a picture of the Johannesburg soccer stadium that was built for the 2010 Men’s World Cup. Speaking about the World Cup, I just finished watching the Women’s Final. USA had tons of opportunities to win the game, but in the end just didn’t have enough energy to finish strong. Congrats Japan!

One of the biggest stops of the trip was a tour of SOWETO, or Southwestern Township. I believe SOWETO was started when the gold mines brought black workers into Johannesburg. These workers were often housed outside of the cities in small townships. SOWETO is the largest township with approximately 2 to 3 million people living in the area. The contrast between the different neighborhoods in SOWETO really shocked me. At first, we went into a community with million dollar homes. Then we went into some of the poorest areas I have ever seen. Below, are some pictures of the worst part of SOWETO.

Another great stop in Joburg was at the home where Nelson Mandela lived before he was arrested. The house has been turned into a museum where visitors can see how he lived his life before going to prison for nearly 30 years.  

I think this it probably enough for tonight, I am getting quite tired and I have to get up early for work tomorrow. I will be sure to post the rest of the week’s events tomorrow night.  It is sure to be another exciting post. It will include pictures of a local pub, a braai, an air show, and a rugby game. Have a good night!