South Africa

First off I would like to address two things 1. sorry for the delay in any updates there hasn't been computer access for a week but I now have it available, 2. Please look past any spelling errors as my education has not exceeded the 5th grade/I dont have time to proof read. That being said...

I made it into SA last week and our frist week or "orientation" has been crazy. For the frist week the group stayed in the burbs of Johannesburg. We went to the Aphartied muesum and toured around J'burg. SA's struggle w/ Aphertied can still be seen very easily in the everyday fabric of SA, but from all we have heard the country is moving in the right direction. A noted speakers that we have heard from were from Andrew Fluck who was the ex minister of police under the Aphartied regime. His story was very interesting and long story very very short he has since reconciled his actions during the previous government and worked towards an equal SA. During our first week we lived in Wilgesprite which is a community area that played a large role in the promotion of equal rights during Aphartied. The area is beautiful and hilly and in the hills across from us it is rumored that Nelson Mandella hide in the caves of the mountain during exile. Needless to say Francis, Yoshi, and I found the cave picture below.

Yesterday we left Jo'burg and traveled 8 hours to Bush Buck Ridge where we are currently staying at the Southern African Wildlife College (SAWC) until Friday when we move into our homestays. The drive here was beautiful resembling New Zealand with its huge mountains down to rolling green hills. The weather is hot and sunny all the time with an occasional rain shower that lasts only an hour or so. At SAWC we are in the middle of Kruger park and at night we can hear lions roaring from just outside the protected areas that we are staying. While on a run this morning just on the other side of the fence we looked on to herds of gazelle and wildabeast and even an elephant.

Tomorrow classes start up again and we will continue our studies on health and the community with visits to hospitals, local traditional healers and other site visits. The National Center for Youth Development has also offered out group to participate in a data collection task to gather information on what needs the youth in Bush Buck Ridge have. So over the course of the next 3 weeks we will be partaking in this study as well. It is going to be really cool to have work that we do actually implemented to help positively affect the health of others.

That is all for now but there will be much more to follow as well as some more recaps if time permits. I hope everyone is doing well! (Picutes arent working at the moment, but I will update with them soon.)

Joel