Masphumelele

We started this morning the same way we left off yesterday, in the township of Masphumelele. The globetrotters loved the kids they saw and Shane has told me that he could arrange to have a band who lived in the township play for us so I had him set it up.

Masphumelele is a community like any other with barber shops, grocery stores, pharmacies, etc. It is just a very very poor community. It was fascinating to see how they could set up a grocery store in what was just the backend of a trailer, or a funeral home in a broken down shack.

It was a really unique morning as the band set up in the middle of the street with their xylophones, African drum and Kudu horn. The band is called Buyambo and they have a very unique sound. As they played people came out in the streets and our kids started doing the Electric Slide to the African beat. Wow! It was amazing to watch as a group of American kids danced to the music in the middle of a township in South Africa early on a Thursday morning. What a sight!

The kids stick out in your mind as the victims of poverty but the amazing thing is how everyone still seemed so happy. It is amazing to see how money is not the root of happiness in many African communities. I guess when you think about it, money is never the root of happiness for anyone anywhere.

Shark Diving and Base Jumping on Table Mountain

The rest of our afternoon was full of adventure as we did our shark cage dive and base jumping on Table Mountain. We headed out in our shark boat towards Seal Island. Seal Island is about 25 minutes off the coast, an island with over 40 thousand seals hanging out on it. When you get downwind of the island the smell is overpowering. Unfortunately not a recipe for a bunch of kids who are seasick which is exactly what happened to almost all who went for the dive. Some sweated out the sickness and jumped in anyway, just two were too sick to think about jumping into 50 degree water.

As we anchored they dumped the cage in and tied it off to the side of the boat, then started chumming. Madelyn, Minesha and myself were the first to jump in. The crew had a fish head tied to a rope and a seal decoy they would toss out. When a shark came along they would lure it towards the cage.

The sea was pretty rough and you were constantly worried about a limb slipping though the cage and a Great White nabbing your arm or leg. Sometimes as you came up for air a swell would come at the same time not giving you any room to breath or your snorkel would fill with salt water leaving you gasping for air and a mouth full of salt water but when they lured a shark close enough to the cage you got up close and personal with one of the most dreaded creatures on earth. It was exhilarating!

The shark would grab the bait sometimes and the crew would bring the shark within a couple of feet or even inches of the cage. A couple of times the shark would actually bump the cage. These creatures are magnificent! Watching from the boat was just as thrilling as 10 to 15 foot sharks swarmed our boat right on the surface. 

I could not have been prouder of our Globetrotter kids and want to thank all the parents for loaning us 10 amazing people. People thank Lou and I all the time for giving these kids amazing experiences. The real secret is that we are granted an opportunity to mold and watch your children experience a whole list of “firsts”. It’s like letting us teach your child how to ride a bike and getting to watch them the first time the can ride without training wheels. Thank you so much!

Watching a bunch of high school kids, some who have never been on a boat, jump into a cage in freezing water when they are sick as a dog, throwing up over the side of the boat but still tough enough to do one of the scariest activities in the world is an experience that I will never forget. These kids are AWESOME! So you don’t owe us any thanks, we owe it to you!

I can check one more thing off my bucket list. As for the base jumping, it was off a park bench but Table Mountain gave us some spectacular views of Cape Town.

Going to the End of the Earth to Find Hope – Cape Hope

We joined the first group in Cape Town and were relieved that we all finally made it to Cape Town. Our guide, Shane Pinear picked us up and after dropping off our bags at our beautiful guest house, Moon Bay Guest House, we headed to the Cape of Good Hope. The kids were amazed with the beauty of the cliffs, the crashing waves and the flora and fauna. We made it to a restaurant overlooking the ocean and had a wonderful meal that was finished by all the wait staff singing some African songs. Really cool!

Then we climbed up to the lighthouse. The kids got to see penguins, a whale, and ostriches and millions of sea lice. You quickly understood why the coast of Africa is so treacherous. The kids finally got to see some of the incredible beauty of Cape Town.

We went into a township and the kids got to see how many of the people of Africa live. The township was really awful but a country club compared to some of the shanty towns.

So here are some of the pics you have been waiting for… 

Rough Start

Never a dull moment on a Globetrotter trip and our first 48 hours of this trip were no exception. It started with a flight delay in Greensboro that almost made us miss the last plane to Johannesburg out of Atlanta. We found ourselves running through the Atlanta airport to catch the flight and jumped on the plane as the doors shut. Missing that flight would have meant we would not have been able to fly out until Tues night, we dodged one bullet.

The second bullet came three quarters of the way through the flight when Lou told me she was having severe abdominal pains. Neither one of us had any pain killer so she toughed out for a couple more hours before she said she couldn’t stand it anymore. I know she is in serious pain when Lou let the flight attendant page for a doctor onboard.

A really nice doctor came forward and we found some strong pain reliever. The flight attendant radioed ahead for an emergency removal from the plane. The doctor felt that Lou was suffering from kidney stones. Then they moved us into first class. What a cheap way to get into first class. Unfortunately by that time there was only 45 minutes left in the flight.

A wheel chair was waiting for Lou when we touched down and we went to the medical clinic in the airport where they checked her out. The pain killer had kicked in and she was feeling better so rather than have an ambulance take us to the hospital my good friends Paul and Mike were waiting in the lobby took us to a private hospital.

Meanwhile back at the airport, since we were so late getting into Joburg we missed the last flight to Cape Town. Marty started working his magic with his co-workers in Greensboro, (thank you Melissa) to find a hotel and rebook our flight. Melissa called me at the hospital and Paul suggested that he make the hotel reservation since he was local and knew a good hotel close to the airport. After the hotel reservation was made we called Marty and the rest of the group and told them to go to the City Lodge Hotel, which they did. Unfortunately there are two City Lodge Hotels. Yeah you guessed it, they went to the wrong one. Now don’t forget Marty has two leaders, 10 kids with baggage and 14 duffle bags full of “give a gallon” bags.

Meanwhile back at the hospital, Lou is feeling much better. They still think it is kidney stones but not much they can do for her so we head for the right City Lodge. We finally meet back up with the kids about 11:30pm after starting our journey 33 hours earlier.

We got all the kids in their rooms and settled down about 12:30am on Wed and told them we had to be up at 5am to try to catch the 7am flight to Cape Town.

Everybody was up and ready at 5am and off we go to the airport. When we arrived they told us to get on the 7am flight we would have to rebuy all the tickets at $300 per person but if we waited until 12pm we could go for $45 per person.

That would mean we would not get into Cape Town until 2pm and another day would be wasted. I knew there was a chance that we could get Delta to help us because their delay made us miss our flight so I left the group and ran to the international terminal.

Of course when I got there Delta desk was closed with no one to be found . Now am I running back to the domestic terminal. Suddenly I remembered that our trip insurance included flight delay and cancellation coverage. I called and they said it should be covered, the only problem was there were only 9 seats available on the 7am flight and 8 seats available on the 7:30am flight and it was 6:15am, we had 45 minutes to rebook, check our luggage and get on the flight.

Marty was working the ticket rep and I was getting the kids ready. He told them to put Lou and I along with 7 kids on the first flight and the rest of the leaders and the remaining three kids on the second flight.

They close the flight 30 minutes before takeoff so we had 15 minutes to get our tickets and check our luggage. As they printed out the boarding passes I sent Lou with the kids to security. Our boarding passes were the last ones to print. They had printed all 7 kids boarding passes and they had headed for security when I was informed that the flight was closed and we would not make the flight.

Now I am running towards security to stop the kids because we have no leader on the flight. When I get to security I see Lou sending Lauren through security the last one to clear, all the others have already gotten through. So I grabbed Lauren told her she had to make the flight without an adult and we would be ½ hour behind them.

Here we go again, I am running back to the counter to try to make the 7:30 flight. When you are in a hurry nobody seems to move fast enough and as the clock ticked the second flight was about to close. We got our boarding passes just in time and again found ourselves running to the gate. Again we were the last people on the flight as they shut the door behind us.

Lou is feeling much better and we are on our way to Cape Town with enough running through airports to last me a lifetime.