Bryan's excursion highlights

This blog will completely focus on the Excursion to Jo’Burg and to Kruger Park. I think that in order to not write a 20 page blog I will only talk about the things that truly stuck out to me or made me think. The first thing was the overall feel of Jo’Burg contrary to what most Cape Town residents might say I didn’t get the feeling that Jo’Burg was fast paced or that people were only concerned with going to work it was actually very similar to Cape Town. I really didn’t get to explore much of Jo’Burg but I have to say that the night when I did go out for a walk I felt the exact same as if I walked in Cape Town. I also feel that it’s usually an unfair comparison when people compare places like Rondebosch to the city of Jo’Burg instead of the downtown area in Cape Town or the waterfront in which I feel there is far more of a similarity than comparing a city to a suburb.

One of the great things that we got to do on this trip was volunteer at a boys and girls club. I think that this was really a reminder of my childhood because like these children my community relied on the usage of a boys and girls club in order to help get children from going down the wrong path and I feel that I was able to kind of repay the debt I owed my community back in Hartford by helping out here. Two major events stuck out to me the most on this trip. The first was when the only broom they had, broke when I was sweeping the floor. I actually felt a little guilty, due to the fact that I knew they most likely had funding issues and the idea of making them spend money on something as insignificant as a broom just make me feel terrible. I then proceeded to offer to pay to buy them more brooms as a way to make up for my actions but what surprised me was how they just laughed it off and got one of their members to fix the part I had broken. The second event happened at the end of the day when we were taking a group photo at one point a lot of my fellow classmates were holding kids on their shoulder and this little chubby kid who reminded me of my brother comes up to me and he asks me if he can get on my shoulder and for me I notice that a lot of the time when kids are slightly chunky, they tend to get excluded in simple things like this, because no one can physically hold then for long or they refuse to do so and this leads to isolation of that child. I told him it was fine if he got on my back and even stood on my toes to try to make sure that he was one of the highest kids in the picture. I can still remember him screaming with excitement as he got to ride on someone’s shoulders and what made that moment even better was the fact that after we took the picture he was screaming so loud that he ran out of breath when I put him down on the seat that it looked like he just went and carried me and it was all worth it just to see the smile on his face as I gave him and high five before leaving.

Kruger Park was a very interesting place because not only did we get to experience the untouched nature that South Africa has to provide but also because the rooms we stayed in had A/C and comfortable beds which was an upgrade from the room that I currently have in Rondebosch. I really enjoyed the sunset safari that we went on it was my first time actually being able to be that close to wild animals. I must admit that I really did enjoy the driving aspect and I don’t think I would have liked the walking tour, because the ride just added on to the experience of being literally in the wild because as you drive and you get to see the landscape you notice just how natural Kruger Park really is.

This was also a different experience because I got to celebrate my birthday in Kruger Park which was so different than how I would typically celebrate due to the fact that one I was in the middle of nowhere with no entertainment besides the game drive and secondly I usually don’t get a cake and so it was weird finding out that night that Marita had made arrangements for the staff there to prepare a cake for me after the braai which I have to say was one of the nicest things that anyone has done for me and I really appreciated the gesture.