Adventure Week!! Day 2

We woke up at 6am for breakfast and climbed up our safari bus and were off to a rainy day on the road. "like a Rolling Stone" would be a pretty good slideshow song for today. We went to Nieznahead which is some cliff but I wasn't dressed well for the weather so it wasn't an awesome experience. More of a yep, yep, okay moment. I just snapped a few pictures and headed back to the bus. I'm on the way to the zipline now and trying to decide if it's worth the money with the sucky weather.

Dustin, our adventure leader, convinced me to zip line and the weather ended up being sunny. Zip lining wasn't exactly as extreme as riding an ostrich or bungeeing but it was a lot of beautiful scenery: waterfalls, rivers, cliffs and i'm really glad I did it.

We arrived at our hostel around 5pm but it looked more like a summer camp. trampoline, swings, mini ziplines and little cabins scattered around a lake.

We got changed into warmer gear and headed to our night game safari at Addo elephant park. Lions!! Elephants and their babies!! Kudu!! Hares!! Owls!!

It. Was. So. Cold. but seeing the lions was a once and a life time experience. Apparently, the guide we were with has only seen the lions on a tour three times in his 4 years working at the park so we felt very honored.

Adventure Week!!! Day 1

Monday

After less than an hour of sleep, we headed down to the lobby at 5am. To our surprise, two Africa safari buses were waiting for us outside.

We drove for6 hours, stopping in small towns for snacks and bathrooms along the way. Our final destination: CANGO CAVES. I've learned this week is supposed to be full of surprises as they told us we were supposed to be touring the caves and we ended up spelunking and army-crawling through rock tunnels no bigger than my head. Leaving the cave, I was convinced I wanted to become a professional spelunker, but as usual that dream changed as soon as we reached our next destination, which brings me to THE OSTRICH FARM.

Here I was inspired to become an ostrich jockey. At the farm we had the privilege to get acquainted with Betsy, the friendliest ostrich on the farm. Betsy posed for pictures with the girls and got a little more frisky with the boys. Our guide put ostrich pellets in each of the boys mouths and Betsy proceeded to pluck them out one by one, giving the allusion of a kiss. Adorable. We also met a dwarf ostrich named "pick me". Kind of sad but pickme didn't seem to notice or care about his dwarf size. Next, we went tot he jockey pen where ostriches had sack like saddles on their backs. He asked if anyone was brave enough to ride an ostrich and lucky for me, my hand shot up first. The jockeys caught the relatively temperamental ostrich, but as soon as they covered its head, it became extremely obedient. Then, they led it towards a tiny pen where I mounted it. Our guide pulled the blind fold off and the ostrich went crazy, running around with the jockey chasing it and me struggling to hang on. They pulled me off after a minute of riding and caught me. Definitely one of those experiences that you look back a few minutes later and ask yourself "Did I really just ride an ostrich?" We then got to look at some ostrich eggs. Our guide described that they are extremely durable and we could all stand on them without breaking them. So one of the biggest guys in our group, Harrison, takes a running start and jumps onto an Ostrich egg and it cracked. That was awkward. We left shortly after and took a long bus ride where I fell asleep.

Robben Island

sorry my posts have to be strictly summary in order to catch up BUT

We headed out to Robben Island on Friday.

We took a ferry out and back.

It was a really cool experience. We got to see Robert Subuqwe's confinement area on the island along with most of the furniture and letters he wrote to his wife. His wife and their romance along with his drive to end Apartheid really moved me.

We were able to see the limestone fields that Nelson Mandela dug in everyday. Then we went through the prison and saw the cells of the political prisoners and read some of their stories.

We then met with a man named Thulani and he was inprisoned along with Mandela and knows him personally. He spoke of the hardships they endured in jail as well as his admiration not only for Mandela but all of the prisoners as they all contributed to Mandela's journey and mission.

The whole room was silent when he started to tell us about the mental and physical torture he endured on Robben Island. He explained that when he father came to visit him in prison, he was shot in the back and the prison guards came to Thulani to taunt him and tell him they killed his father, even though he had survived the attack. He also told us that the guards would pull him out of his cell for play time and string him up and mess with him. "Messing with him" consisted of shocking him, putting cigarettes out on his private parts, punching and hitting him when he could not defend himself, and yelling at him. The guards dehumanized these men in every way and it's hard to believe this sort of abuse went on so shortly ago just because of someones race. Robben Island and Thulanis's story really opened my eyes to Apartheid and how awful it was for the people that were willing to stand up and fight.

Barbara Dooleys speech

Barbara Dooleys speech was about overcoming obstacles. The thesis of her speech was that attitude is the only way to solve obstacles and also the only thing you can control in life. She then told many anecdotes that supported her claim on attitude. She explained how coming to UGA in the midst of the big football drought, the school spirit was very low, especially lower than Auburns. She then decided to fix this she would start a tradition of painting the town on homecoming and this tradition still exists today. She also suffered 11 broken ribs and a punctured spleen in an awful car accident during her first few years at UGA. She made it her goal to get well and make it to the annual Georgia Florida game. She ended up still being incredibly weak and sick but she came anyways and had a ball sitting in a trailer outside of the game watching it with her closest friends. She also spoke of a miscarriage she had and the positive attitude she contagiously spread to her family and community that was expecting another baby when she dealt with it so well. She also fought breast cancer and during her chemotherapy, she would have "chemo parties" with her family and friends to keep her spirits high after treatment. She feared losing her hair but when the time came she had a "head shaving party" and had a blast. On her last day of chemo she walked into the lab with all the patience enduring chemo and announced she was done and throwing a champagne and marijuana party. I hope to implement Barbaras positive attitude through out the rest of my trip. She spoke of having no control over so many obstacles and the only co try give way to deal with them is with a positive attitude. She also spoke about how a woman's attitude is like the thermostat for the home as she sets the mood. Barbara was both inspirational and hilarious and I really enjoyed her speech.

Day 12 Haut Espoir vineyard tour and tasting

The day after Cape Point we headed to a vineyard less than an hour outside of Cape Town called Haut Espoir. The owner of the vineyard, Patrick, was nearly 7 feet tall and had a precious little boy that tagged along on our tour. Patrick walked us around the land and explained the process of growing grapes and showed us the different vines that make certain wines and the strategies to grow them. I learned that different cultievers need different amounts and intensities of sunlight so each row needs to be planted strategically based on landmarks around them such as the mountains and trees that would affect their sun exposure. He also gave us big samples of plants that cure hangovers and told us he shreds them into his tea every morning.

We got to the winery and were broken up into teams to first taste different wines and then come up with a blend and submit it to Patrick for a chance to win a free crate of wine. With this type of prize a stake, our group was pretty intense. We blended some dark reds to make a velvety, smoky red wine blend and we ended up getting 2nd place. So close. We weren't too disappointed as we had a nice happy wine buzz and headed back to cape town with only the wine we bought, not the wine we wanted to win.

Day 11 Cape Point tour

For sake of time I am going to quickly summarize my 2nd week.

We had no class today and a group of 50 of us headed to Cape Point. So so gorgeous and we saw an ostrich and wild baboons all around us. This is one of those sights that words and pictures don't do justice and you just have to see. The cliffs reminded me a little bit of southern California except this area was a national park so no buildings or houses were anywhere to be scene. Our group hiked up the cliff and to the lighthouse. From the light house you can see for miles and it's so cool to think that you are actually on the very tip of Africa. The beaches below are pristine and clearly are not touched by humans often.

The Dooleys

The Dooleys came to our morning class and each gave equally motivational speeches. Vince Dooley spoke about being a leader as a football player, coach, and community leader in athens. To describe his techniques he used an acrostic poem of PRIDE: Preparation, risk, integrity, determination, everybody. He told us that he would tell the UGA football team that "proper preparation prevents poor performance". Then he touched on risk. He used a quote that went something like this:

“To dream anything that you want to dream. That's the beauty of the human mind. To do anything that you want to do. That is the strength of the human will. To trust yourself to test your limits. That is the courage to succeed.”

He then went on to tell a story of how he was behind the bidding for the Atlanta Olympics and how he and his partners risked a lot of money, time, and ego to bid for it but it ended up paying off. The quote/ this part of the speech really inspired me because I realized I have taken very few risks in my life. This feeling came at a good time because adventure week is the following week and my opportunity to take some risks like jumping off of the tallest bridge in Africa with just a flexible rope attached to my feet. oh and swimming with great white sharks with only a few metal bars between you. I'm super excited!! Vince also eluded to risk when he told the story of being just 31 and the junior coach at the rival school of UGA, Auburn, and then taking the head coaching job in one of the biggest droughts in football in UGA history. (sounds like we need another young vince to come along again for this season).

I also liked the segment of his speech on determination (and drive). He described that through his experience as a football coach he learned that talented people work. Period. Hershal Walker was not the fastest in high school and did not have access to a gym but did hundreds of pushups every night until he collapsed to the ground. Vince spoke about how Olympic athletes are not always the most talented athletes in their family but all have the common theme of working the hardest.

Vince also spoke about the concept of "everybody" and selflessness of a team. He said that when he was coaching, no one could ever accept an award as an individual. You must always contextualize your defeats and realize how you got there.

His speech definitely motivated me to be a more powerful leader. I was able to figure out what skills I lacked and what skills I could sharpen and am really excited to see how his advice aids me on the rest of the trip.