Amazing. Unique. Breathtaking. Heartwarming. Grateful. Enjoyable. Special.
Its hard to pinpoint exactly how I felt but these are words I would use to describe my experience over the course of 12 days I spent in South Africa. The list goes on and on about what I learned, enjoyed, and witnessed. So with that said, I am going to break down these words and why I used them. Amazing: The whole trip. As cliche as this word is, it truly was amazing. From the food to the people to the places we saw. Everything was, well, amazing! Unique: This one is simple. I was in South Africa. South flippin Africa. Not many people get to say they have stepped foot there and I am proud and honored to say I did. The landscape is unique itself. We were on the beach, hiked a mountain, drove through what looked like the Great Plains of the U.S., we were in the Wilderness and we even stayed in the city. Talk about a place that has it all! Breathtaking: This word goes hand and hand with Unique. Everywhere I turned, I found myself just admiring the view. Having Table Mountain be seen from just about any place in Cape Town was what did it for me. Heartwarming: The people made this trip heartwarming for me. I absolutely loved every single interaction I had with everyone I cam across. Whether it was the Beyond Sports people in South Africa, Peter the bus driver, the cashiers at Pick 'n Pay, or the kids and their parents, I always felt welcomed. They didn't have to be nice to us tourists, but they went out of their way to make us feel as though South Africa was our home. Grateful: I am grateful for this opportunity to not only play internationally but be able to sight see in a whole other part of the world. I am grateful for the people I met, both the Americans and the South Africans and I am grateful for the things I got to do such as kiss an elephant and teach the game of softball. Enjoyable: I don't think there was one time where I didn't have a smile on my face. This trip was definitely something I needed and it taught me to stop sweating the little things and love what you have and the people you have in my life. Special: I would recommend this country as a place to visit in a heartbeat. The people are special. The environment is special. The history is special. The food is special. South Africa is special. Now I am going to talk specifically about some things. First, I am going to reiterate how awesome the people are. I can talk for days about the South Africans, but also the girls I traveled with are some awesome people. We came from all over the U.S. I met people from San Diego, New York, Wisconsin, Boston, Colorado, Ohio, New Jersey, Iowa, Michigan, Chicago and there was even a Canadian! I would like to personally make a shout out to the back of the Group B Bus. You guys were awesome and thank you for listening to me rant about life! Even though we all met in South Africa, we were there for the same reason and I left with about 40 new friends. No matter where I travel in the U.S., I know there is a teammate that will be there with open arms. Next I am going to talk about what I learned and believe me there was a lot. I absolutely loved learning about the history of South Africa. It allowed me to have a better understanding of this country and I greatly benefited from learning about things like the Apartheid, what townships are and the impact they have on people today. Now I understand why they call Table Mountain one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, why their accents sound like a British accent with their own twist, and why safaris are a main attraction! Finally, here are my takeaways. I left South Africa a different person. Because of what I saw, both good and bad, the people I crossed paths with and the experiences I had, I can say that I have a different outlook on life. I vow to never take anything for granted. Before we arrived, Cape Town was experiencing a drought. They were so low on water that even the hotels had to tell their guests to use the water wisely as they wanted to conserve it as much as they could. Some of those kids didn't have equipment or even the correct shoes to play softball. We are so spoiled to have softball so developed in the U.S. We have dirt fields and access to the best gear on the market. I came to appreciate just all of what I've been given whether it is being able to go to an out-of-state school or continuing to play two sports, or receiving private lessons growing up in order to improve my game, or traveling. Lastly, I appreciate being able to sleep comfortably on a bed in a warm home every night. People keep asking me what my favorite part was. Honestly, it was all equally amazing, but as for the two things that stood out the most, it would have to be the kids I was able to teach the game of softball to. Every time I autographed something, I included the words "Dream Big!" because that was what my idols told me and because I dreamed big, I was allowed to fulfill and continue to fulfill them. I have to say the elephants really made the time truly unforgettable. Such gentle giants! Before I wrap it all up, I just want to take a moment to thank some people. First off I want to thank my parents for allowing me to chase my dreams and travel the world and thank you to people who donated. Because of you, this trip was made possible. Next I want to thank everyone involved in Beyond Sports. Erin, Grant and Alyssa: thank you for giving me this opportunity and for being apart of an amazing company. You three are some of the coolest people I ever met and I hope to stay in touch! Nawaal (so sorry if I spelled it wrong): thank you for tirelessly working around the clock to make everything seem like it was supposed to happen that way. Nesh and the rest of the crew: you guys are unbelievable. What you do for those kids doesn't go unnoticed. Keep it up because you're changing lives. And of course thank you to my buddies Nicky and Sammy for just being so great! I'm so glad we became friends because you two are awesome. Everyone at the LOC: thank you for hosting us and for the delicious dinners. The moms: thanks for being some rad moms and for being great fans! My teammates: thank you for playing the game with me and for all the drinks, laughs and memories. Thank you to everyone that wrote an article about this trip and for all the support and the excitement from everyone else! When I got on that plane and left South Africa, I feel like I left a piece with me. I was so impacted by that place that I would go back in a heartbeat. I can't say enough about how I was treated, the people I met and even the touristy things I got to do. This trip is something I will remember for the rest of my life and I will share my experience with any one who is willing to listen. I checked four things off my bucket list this trip. 1. Go on a safari. 2. Interact with elephants. 3. Step foot on every contentient and ocean (well this is a work in progress, but I checked off Africa and the Indian Ocean) and 4. Make a difference. I made a difference in some kids lives. If you have the opportunity to travel to a place you've never been, DO IT. The lessons and experiences are priceless. You'll find a way to pay off the expenses. :) So, with that being said, I just wanted to send an extended thank you to all the people that read my blogs. Thank you for bearing with me, my typing on my iPhone and the errors that came with it, and the spotty wifi. Thank you for all the likes and comments. I promise they meant more than you know. Softball is the definition of a universal sport and I hope it continues to grow one country at a time! Hopefully I will be able to open this blog again and just change the title for my next adventure! And as always, thank you SO much for reading! :) To travel is to inspire and be inspired.
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I feel as though I just landed here in this amazing country and now I am packing my bags to head home. It's hard to describe my emotions because this place, these people have given me so much. When I finally reach home I'll post a reflection post about the trip as a whole.
As for the last day, it was nothing short of busy and heartwarming. We started our day at 8am and drove to the Turfhill stadium, the original place we were supposed to play but it was damaged by the strong storms just prior to our arrival. Turfhill stadium is something Cape Town, especially the softball community, takes pride in. Many people in South Africa are familiar with the three major sports: Cricket, Rugby, and Soccer. Softball doesn't get much attention, but in Cape Town, the softball community has an army behind it willing to bare all in order to get the sport known. And it's working. Back in 2011, Cape Town and Turfhill stadium hosted the Junior Women's World Cup of Softball. A first of its kind for South Africa. The city of Cape Town takes pride in this stadium and I can see why. It's used for both men and women's softball and its equivalent to Hall of Fame Stadium in OKC. For those of you who don't know, Hall of Fame Stadium is like the crown jewel of Softball stadiums around the world. Anyways, once we got to the field, we got a tour of the field and of course took thousands of photos. After that, we headed to the other fields for another youth clinic. June 16th is Youth Day in South Africa so we had around 160 kids of all ages in attendance. It was a three hour clinic and once we got things rolling it was a lot of fun. I declared myself on photographer duty for majority of it because 1. I love capturing candid moments and 2. I wanted to capture the interaction between the Beyond Sports people and the kids. After a while, I couldn't stand it anymore and I put down my camera to help with the infield. We interacted with kids who have never picked up a softball to kids who are on a travel team just trying to soak up as much information as they could. All of the kids were eager to learn and I could tell they just really loved being out there. I was talking to a coach and he said that programs like these help get the kids active and out of bad home situations. He said they are so grateful that we were willing to spend our morning with them. Little did he know that these kids did just the same for us. The biggest thing I take away from those clinics is this: it doesn't take much to make an impact on someone. In a conversation with a couple people a few days prior, Erin, one of the staff members in charge, said something that really stuck with me. She said, "it doesn't take much energy to make someone feel value." And I couldn't agree with her more. I am usually really good about high fiving people and encouraging them, but for this clinic I made sure to give every kid I came across a high five or tell them great job or ask them how their camp was. To see the look on these kid's faces is priceless. Their eyes lit up almost as if they were thinking to themselves, "wow. Someone really cares." And that, my friends, is what I strive for every day. After the clinics were over, we had a bite to eat and then played our final game. We decided to have a little fun this game because, why not. It was a beautiful day in South Africa and we had nothing to lose! After we played in our regular positions for the first few innings, we got to mix it up. I ended up bringing out the good ole pitching glove, take the mound and throw two innings. Although I only threw fastballs, I still had it and I was so excited to be back on that mound! From a hitting stand point, I hit normally the first time and went 2-2. For my third at bat, I had a bunt single and for my last at bat, I soft slapped my way on. Coach Kelley if you are reading this, I still got all the tricks in my bag :). Overall I really enjoyed myself and my teammates around me playing the beatutiful game. That night we had our farewell dinner. This wasn't your ordinary fare well dinner. We had a Spitbraai which is a South African version of a BBQ. We had lamb, potatoes, beans and salad. It was pretty delicious and a great final meal. We also had the opportunity to witness a traditional African Dance by the Oscar Mpetha Dancers. They are a group of students who train Monday-Friday as part of a MOD- Mass Opportunity Access and Development Center. The MOD center offers opportunities for students to explore arts and sports after school. These kids were absolutely mesmerizing! I couldn't stop watching in awe. Not going to lie, I had tears in my eyes when it was over. To end the night, we had a couple speeches from players and other important people and again I had tears in my eyes. Such an experience and something that has impacted me forever. I couldn't have asked for a better final night. The memories and atmosphere was second to none and I say this a thousand times over, I will be forever be grateful for this experience! *pictures are of Turfhill Stadium, Grant, the co-founder of Beyond Sports and just a genuinely amazing person, me and a group of kids, the field we played on and view we had, and lastly the amazing African dancers. Not much happened today, but there were memories that were made! We left the beautiful Wilderness and headed back to Cape Town to finish up our trip. We stopped and ate at a really cool restaurant called Tredici. I had a BBQ pork wrap. A little different than the BBQ in the U.S. but it was still pretty delicious! I bought a bottle of wine and we were again on our way.
Once we reached Cape Town, I did some last minute shopping and got ready for a game we were playing that evening. The game was against a local elite South African team. This game in particular was special because we got to face some of our locals that have been helping us get places for the past two weeks! The team was short some players and they were the first to step up and play! Shout out to the dynamic Jones sisters, Nicky and Sammy for being a great pitcher and catcher pair! Nicky made us swing and miss on some of her pitches and Sammy was a wall behind the plate! And I can't forget about D in the outfield and Ester at First! For being thrown into the fire, they made it out alive! I couldn't help but smile every time I was up to bat because it was such a fun atmosphere to be in! From a softball standpoint, I was 2-3 with 3 RBIs. It was cool to play under the lights again because it's such a different game at night! After the game, we had homemade burritos and some Koeksister which are pretty much cinnamon donuts! They were heavenly!! I kept this one short and sweet because I know the next two are going to be rather long as they are about my last day in South Africa and a reflection on my whole experience. Stay tuned and thanks for reading! **pictures are of my buddies Sammy and Nicky, my lunch, and a selfie with one of the wittiest people I know, a Beyond Sports staff member, Erin Norris! Day 9 was a day I will never ever forget. I can say that about any day I've spent here so far, but this one is up there as one of the best! Today me and four others drove about an hour to the Knysna Elephant Park in Knysna. This particular park is a sanctuary that "adopts" these precious animals and then eventually releases them to other sanctuaries. They offer a chance to walk with the elephants, feed the elephants, hug and kiss on the elephants, and to just be able to be with them. The park sits on A LOT of land. I kept looking around and the scenery just kept going and going so you knew that the elephants got to roam free!
From the minute we parked the car, I was grinning ear to ear and it was hard for me to contain my excitement. Now, I really love elephants. I think they are one of the coolest, most majestic animals. I have an elephant tattoo on my foot if that tells you anything about my love for them. So being able to interact with them was a dream come true and yet another thing I get to check off my bucket list! The first thing we did was we loaded up into a shuttle that was pulled by a tractor. They called it the limo. Once we arrived in the fields, the elephants came from the hills one by one. They are smart animals and they knew when the limo came because they knew there was going to be food. The elephants lined up side by side and patiently waited for us to hold out our hands and offer them a delicious snack! It was such a surreal feeling when their trunks came over grabbed the food from my hand. They were so gentle and patient; it was amazing! After that, we got to touch the first elephant named Keisha meaning "the favorite" and I now know why she was named that because indeed she was everyone's favorite! I was the first to touch her. I did a little hop, skip and a jump up to her because I was just overly excited for that moment. Pure joy was written all over my face! She was one of the smaller elephants, but dang she was still so tall! I was almost as tall as her leg! Come to find out, elephants liked to rubbed behind their ear and their belly! We had a personal photographer with us capturing all the precious moments. There wre a total of ten elephants in the park and about 20 Zebras (we took a little detour to get a picture with the Zebras). What probably made the trip was our tour guides, Davidson and Joshua, both from Zimbabwe. They would call us Elephant lovers instead of visitors and they would have an answer to every question we had. They allowed us to see every elephant and technically we were supposed to only be out there between 20-50 minutes but we were out there for 2 ½ hours because Davidson and Joshua wanted us to get the full experience. What was also great was that we would walk with the elephants and once they had enough and started to walk away, we just let them. There was no force involved and that made me really happy! The elephant that probably got the most love was Sally. She is a 28 year old elephant that is the pioneer of the park and they like to call her Big Mama because she is the biggest elephant they have. She was so chill and let me hug her trunk, but she would definitely let you know when she had enough and she always was the first in line for the food! The other elephants were Thato, the youngest, Shungu and Mashudu, the best friends, Shaka, the teenage boy, Nandi and Thandi, mother and daughter, and two others they were introducing to the park. All of which we got a chance to touch or observe. The park also offered internship opportunities where researchers would come in a observe the behaviors of the elephants. Who knows, maybe I'll come back and intern after college! Overall, it was some of the best 3 hours I've ever had and I would highly reccomend the park to anyone even if they don't really like elephants because there's not many animals out there who are as kind, patient, wise and loving as elephants! I keep going back and looking at the photos because it was something truly amazing! It was hard to put into words exactly how I felt but I feel as though I expressed most of it! To to put a cherry on top of this amazing day, we went back and ate at a local restaurant and headed down to the beach and prepared a proposal for one of our coaches and her girlfriend. We had the task of putting out rocks in the sand that read "marry me?" Some of us were also on photographer duty as we tried to get this moment from every angle. We pulled off the surprise and she said yes!! We headed to dinner that night and I got a drink called the Alabama Slamma. It was interesting tasting but good! Once we made it back to the hotel, most of us stayed up and just told stories and shared insights. Something that has also been special on this trip. All and all, today was definitely a day I'll never forget! As always, thanks for reading! The highlight of day 8 was by far the safari. It was included in the trip so we knew it was happening and it was one of the things that sealed that deal for me. To say I was excited was an understantment. Anyone that knows me, knows I love animals and just to be driving past them is such a surreal experience. I mean doesn't everyone that visits Africa go on a safari?! Anyways, we left our hotel about 10:30am and drove about an hour inland. Once there, I ate a nice meal consisting of a chicken sandwich and salad. Something interesting about the salads is that they are never served with dressing.. So majority of the time I'm eating straight lettuce! The place was like a resort equipped with a restaurant, lodge, wedding chapel and resort.
Once we finally got to the safari part, I was more than pumped! There were nine people and a guide. Our guide was Kalvin and he was great! Our first animal we came to were Elephants! And if anyone knows, I LOVE ELEPHANTS!! So, after the first 10 minutes, I was satisfied! I had my zoom lens and it allowed me to get up close and personal with them. I sat in the middle so my hands were all up in my friends faces taking photos. Next, we saw some rhinos. During this whole time we learned facts about animals and we were open to ask anything and everything! Come to find out, male rhinos are only into females to mate. They don't form a relationship. After that we headed to see some Zebras, Springbok (the national animal), and Elands which are relatives to the antelopes. About halfway through, we found the giraffes. One adult male, a young female and another young male. They were pretty sweet to see up close! Finally, we finished with the Lions. To see them up close was breathtaking. We couldn't get that close, but some pictures my group got were out of this world!! We headed back to the resort and finished our night with a nice pasta dinner before we went back to the hotel. Some of us went to a local restaurant, called Coccomos, that had excellent drinks and live music. By the time 10pm hit, I was beat and went to be rather early knowing that tomorrow will be an unforgettable day! Stay tuned and thanks for reading! Day 7 was a light day. We embarked on a four hour drive to Wilderness. We passed multiple towns that each had their own unique quirk. We first went through the town of Grabouw (Elgin Valley). This Town was known for being the fruit capitol of South Africa. Just in the foothills of the mountains. As we drove up the mountains, there were baboons in the mountains which was weird to see. Since it's winter, they don't come out much but I was fortunate to see one running by! Our first rest stop was in a town called Riviersonderend meaning river with no end. As we continued on, we passed Swellendam which has a famous river with water sports and attractions. It is also known for producing dairy and wheat. We stopped for lunch as a little restaurant called Blue Crane. It was run my women that made all their own food, spices, and jams. I had an open faced chicken salad sandwich. And bought some delicious jam that is made from berries only found in that part of South Africa. Finally, we went through Albertinia which is known for their Aloe plants and thatch. We reached our destination shortly after that and we are staying at the Wilderness Beach Hotel right on the Indian Ocean. It's a pretty sweet spot!
For dinner we went into town and ate at a place called Pomodoro. I had an Alla Mama pizza with bananas, onions, feta and chili. They replaced the red sauce with chili and it was HOT! Too spicy for my liking, but I ate what I could. Even though I slept majority of the drive, I did wake up when our South African local, Nicky, came on the microphone and told us a little tid-bit about each town. Then I double checked with her to make sure my spelling and facts were right!! The safari is tomorrow and I CAN'T WAIT!!! Stay tuned and thanks for reading!! Day Six was the day of plan Bs. We were originally supposed to visit Robben Island and play another softball game, but because of the rainy weather and the choppy seas, our wonderful tour leaders came up with plan B. Plan B was a trip to Cape Point, Simon's Town and a tour of a township.
Cape Point and Simon's Town was right on the Indian Ocean (another thing I checked off my bucket list). It was a cute little town with houses and very talented craft vendors. I did get myself an elephant painting and I'm beyond thrilled to hang it up! Anyways, the thing that brings people to Simon's Town is Boulder Beach. Boulder Beach is home to African Penguins. They look like normal penguins, but they are only found in this area. We got to walk a boardwalk that the Penguins surrounded and we could take as many pictures as we wanted with the little guys! Even if you took away the penguins, it was still an amazing view!! After that was over, we came back to the hotel and had an African lasagna. It was different, but I enjoyed it! At 2:30 we headed back on the bus (by the way, our tour guide Peter is the real MVP for driving us anywhere and everywhere!) and took off to right outside of the city into the suburbs of Cape Town. We visited the local township called Langa. Townships are underdeveloped areas that are in the urban areas outside of town. It was such an emotional experience in all honesty. We started by going to the local recreation center where we got a tour of some of the rooms. There was a pottery room, mosaic room, dance room and a general gathering hall. Each served a purpose to educate the children that grow up in the township and teach them either how to do the art work or get them into schools. Our tour guide was amazing. He actually grew up and lives in the township so we had a first hand experience and story telling. He started off by giving us a brief summary of the history of South Africa because he believe it was an important thing to keep in mind as we continued along the tour. Our tour lead us through the streets of the township. We witnessed run down houses with just enough bedding to get by and shops made out of freight boxes. There were children playing on the streets wearing minimum clothing even though it's winter here. We saw women preparing food and we were invited into homes where around 10 people stayed. It was eye opening and breathetaking. At one point we had a group of children run up to us just to say hello and give us a hug because they love visitors. And when a Range Rover drove through, something very uncommon, everybody was hootin' and hollering at it. There were a few things we learned and things that stood out. First was the living situation. I was amazed that these people made it work with what they had. Second, was the freight boxes for businesses. Our tour guide said they can't build permanent buildings because of the influx in population. The people in the freight boxes were on the waiting list by the government to move their business into the "nicer" stone buildings. We walked past women cooking lamb heads. When they cook them, the lamb's muscles and lips shrink. This causes the lamb's full teeth to show and they believe it resembles a human's smile. Another thing is that lamb heads are rare in townships and offer little meat. These women would sometimes work 12 hours a day to cook and sell the meat just to make money to support their family. Our tour guide repeatedly said that "we the people of this township have hope and optimism." And "its a lot easier to destroy than to build." The people that believe times will change have hope and it's written all over their face. It was truly amazing to see people have that attitude. One thing that has been mentioned multiple times and that Erin, our leader, told us about was that South Africa is rich in nature, is a huge tourist attrsction, has a famous history and has even hosted a World Cup. And because of this, it should be the crown jewel of Africa, but it's not. Many believe it is because of the Apartheid (day 5 blog has a summary of this) since it only ended not even 30 years ago. Ever since that era, things have never been the same. It might have taken for me to go half way around the world realize just how lucky we have it. And I know it's also in our backyard. We have just been so blessed to have things like phones, cars, and even shoes and jackets. First world vs third world problems are a thing and we should be forever grateful for what we have. There were some people, including me, that had tears in their eyes because they were so impacted by the hour that we spent walking into these peoples home and Town. They welcomed us and looked to us as almost a light in a dark place because even though it's a rough place to be and not the most appealing, us tourists bring them money and hope that one day maybe they can have clean sheets and heated rooms. All the emotion I experienced in that hour made me want to go out and help the world! After al of that, we went to a local restaurant and I had a burger and fries but it was cooked the African way. It was so juciy and perfectly cooked! And I was in bed by 9pm but stayed up to write this. Tomorrow we are off to the Wilderness! Stay tuned because it's going to be great! Thanks for reading! Day five was a day full of history. We started our day at the Disrtict Six Museum and then we went to the Castle of Good Hope. Both are major historic places in Cape Town.
The District Six Museum is a museum designated to the history of the Apartheid and the impact it still has on South Africa today. The Apartheid, or the "state of being apart" in Afrikaans, was a system of institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination in South Africa between 1948 and 1991. Under this system, cities and towns were cleared of all non-whites, restrictions were placed on their movements, public facilities were designated for certain races, and opposition was met with state-sponsored violence, torture, imprisonment, and even death. Nelson Mandela went to prison because he lead a resistance movement against the Apartheid. In Cape Town, the government created townships in the Cape Flats region just southeast of the city. The townships were created to house all the non-whites who worked in the city, but weren't allowed to live there. Each township was designated by race. The three races in South America were Whites, Coloured, people of different backgrounds and cultures, and Black Africans, people from the Bantu tribe that migrated down from other parts of the continent. Non-Whites were forced to these townships. The most infamous forced removal in Cape Town was the removal of District Six. District Six was a vibrant, diverse cumminity near the heart of Cape Town. The government though, believed that District Six should be a white only community. Therefore, they forced out around 60,000 non-whites and dumped them into townships. We can most closely relate to the Jim Crow laws that the US had in the South. The museum itself had pieces and pictures from the times during the Apartheid. The coolest part was that our tour guide was a child during that time and his parents lived through it. He had first hand experience of it all and was willing to share it with us. Something truly special. The Castle of Good Hope is the oldest colonial building in South Africa. It is a pentagonal fortress built by the Dutch colonialists in the 17th century. Located in Cape Town, it served as the seat of government and military operations for two centuries. Each of the five bastions housed its own garrison, magazine, store rooms, and specialized production centers such as bakeries. We specifically toured the military museum inside the Castle as well as the dungeon that was used to house the ammunition. We also toured the dolphin pool which the important ladies would bathe in. The Castle is painted yellow to reflect the sun and one of the entrances had an adjoining moat that lead right to the water and made it easy to spot enemy ships coming to the shore. I've never been inside a castle so that was pretty cool to see and most of it is the original structure which made it that much more authentic. Once we arrived back at the hotel, we had some free time to walk the streets of the business district. We visited one street specifically, Long Street. Long Street is the place to be for young , bohemian people. It houses a lot of shops, bars, clubs and restaurants. The thing about walking on these streets is there are a lot of beggars. They will beg for anything from money to food and they will follow you for a few blocks before they give up even if you tell them no. They can spot tourists within 20 seconds so we had to walk fast and if we didn't know where we were going, we had to make it look like we did or we would be approached by the beggars. On Long Street, we stopped at a restraurant called Beer House. It was known for their 99 different beer varieties. I had a fruity ale beer that was actually pretty darn good! For dinner we went to a restaurant called Moyo that served traditional African cuisines. I had steak and shrimp called "Nyama na Kumba", or as our leader Erin likes to call it, the Timon and Pumbaa, and it was delicious! The place had live music and traditional African facepainting. Overall, I was very much exhausted as each day is jammed packed! I am just very fortunate to be learning all about this great city and it's rich history! *Pictures: Street signs from the District Six Museum, the lay out of the Castle of Good Hope, Beer House, a view down Long Street and the restaurant Moyo. The short version of my day: I hiked Table Mountain in the morning, helped run a youth clinic in the afternoon, and played against a Cape Town softball team at night!
The long version: it was an exhausting. I was beat, but it was worth every bit of it! We started our day at 8am and drove about 5 miles to Table Mountain. Now, I've hiked some mountains at college and I had on hiking boots so I thought I was more experienced than some of these girls that have never hiked before. I was wrong. For one, this mountain wasn't anything near the trails on mountains like I'm used to. This was literally a straight stair stepper the whole 3 miles up. Add a wrecked hip flexor to the mix and I was on the struggle bus for a bit. In total I hike up 208 floors and almost 15,000 steps. All within 2 ½ hours. It definitely challenged me mentally because it was a tough feat and there were times were my hip was so bad that I just wanted to ride the cable car up, but I found it within myself to keep pushing along because I knew the view and sense of accomplishment I would recieve at the top would be so gratifying. And let me tell you, it was just that. The pictures really don't serve it justice. One side you saw the whole city of Cape Town. Like when you type Cape Town into google, you'll get numerous pictures from Table Mountain looking down. On the other side, you would see Lion's head and mountains in the distance. Then you'd also see water and Robbin Island. I could have spent days up there just soaking in the view. Although it was cloudy, the view was clear and breathtaking. We met a lot of people hiking that mountain. We met an aspiring doctor from Norway, trail runners from Britain and Ireland and even old retired people who just did it for the fun of it. The best guy I came across was an Enligh man that told me "just keep on keeping on!" It's definitely my new motto. Although it was challenging, 95% of us made hike to the top and then rode the cable car back down! In the afternoon, we ran a youth clinic. Over 100 kids from local recreation centers, schools and teams came out to learn things from us Americans. Their ages ranged from 5-15 years old. We split them into age groups and had four different stations: infield, outfield, hitting, and base running. Ironically, my team was in charge of base running. I may not be fast, but I can definitely teach it! We started with the young ones and taught them the basics, then had middle aged and older kids and then finished with the young ones again. Some of the cutest kids I've ever seen. They were out there with huge smiles on their faces and it was awesome to see some of them use the equipment we donated. They were so appreciative of the donations and for having us out there. I have plenty of videos of them running and just having a great time. If the South Africans have anything, they have speed and a lot of it! There was a group of girls around 12-13 years old who had their coaches there with them. To see them eager to learn how to properly run and to see them practice their lead offs while they waited their turn brought a smile to my face! They also love selfies and pictures. They just want to be in front of a camera! So, I have many of those too! After the clinic was over and we stared warming up for our game, some girls came up and asked for my autograph. It literally melted my heart and brought tears to my eyes to have some little kid say they wanted to be like me. 😊😍 We ended up playing the second game of the night at 8pm. Before that any after the clinic we had a bowrewoes or "nice sausage" as our staff member put it! South Africans are known for their sausage and its unique because of the spices that are cooked in it. Anyways, we played a softball game and although we beat this team, they never gave up and had heart and just a love for the game throughout the enire game. You could tell they just liked the experience! For the softball people, I was 2-3 with 3 RBIs and a inside the park home run. Yes, inside the park (they didn't have fences).. What struck me the most was talking to some of the coaches and having them tell us that they never play on dirt and they are always on a grass field. We played on grass fields today because the weather damaged the stadium. They told us how their isn't college softball and not many high schools have them. These kids are out here for the love of the game. It really opened my eyes because it shows how fortunate we are in the U.S. I am really glad I got that experience. Well, that's a wrap! It was a long, but certainly memorable day filled with joy, accomplishment and exhaustion! Thanks for reading! **pictures are of the hike and some of the groups and kids we worked with. Day 3 started with breakfast at 9am. We had a food line with a variety of breakfast items. I had eggs, fruit, and toast with homemade jam. We then had orientation to talk about what to expect during this trip. After that, we were on the bus at noon and on our way. Due to the recent weather, strong winds and heavy rain, the original practice facility was damaged. Because of this, we moved to a baseball facility on the same side of town. Once there, we are lunch. Our lunch was catered from a restaurant like a Panara. I had a chicken salad. After that, we had a two hour practice. We finally got to split into our teams. I'm on team Giraffe! My coach is from USF so it's crazy to have a coach from my area. The other teams are team Cheetahs, Penguins, and Zebras. The other coaches are from Piedmont College in Georgia, Carlton College in Minnesota, and Notre Dame de Numar University in California respectively. During practice we did the usual softball stuff. Nothing to out of the ordinary and it was cool to get different coaching perspectives.
After practice we headed back to the hotel and had dinner at 6pm. We got to mingle with our teammates, the staff and the people of South Africa. It's been such a joy to talk to everyone because we all have different backgrounds and experiences. The locals are some of the nicest people I've ever met and they have so much hospitality that I feel so welcomed here! At dinner, we had a four course meal that started with little appetizers that had curry as its main ingredient. Next came the chicken and curry soup followed by the main course of chicken, rice and curry. The locals two favorite foods are chicken and curry so we've definitely had a lot of that! For dessert, we had what they called a biscuitt. It was definitely different than the biscuits we are used to! It was like a cookie crumble topped with whipped cream truffle. Today I did face one of my biggest fears. Most of you guys will laugh at this but I have a big fear of chewed gum that's not in someone's mouth. On the bus, we kind of made our own assign seats and of course I pick the seat with chewed gum on the window sill. Now, I usually like gag when I see it, but I was brace and made it through! #proud Tomorrow we are hiking Table Mountain bright and early and we will have a game and a clinic in the afternoon. I'm super stoked for tomorrow so stay tuned! As always, thanks for reading!! *pictures below are of the mountains from the interstate, the field we practiced on, my team, our dinner setting and of course my dessert! :) I finally made it to my destination for the next two weeks! After a delayed flight, we finally took off from Doha at 3:45am local time and started our 10 hour journey down to the very tip of Africa. My sleep schedule is so off, but I made the best of it!
On the flight, I watched the movie Hidden Figures (highly recommend), a documentary of animals in the wild, and half of the movie LaLa Land. The airline fed us "dinner" around 5am. I had chicken, rice, a veggie salad and a chocolate coffee truffle. Then it was back to more sleeping. Breakfast came at 9am local time. I'm six hours behind Eastern Standard Time for those of you trying to keep up! Breakfast consisted of bread pudding, yogurt, fruit and a muffin. I tried my best to stay awake, but it was hard because my eyes would get heavy from staring at a TV screen for multiple hours. I was smart on this flight because I wore my glasses instead of having my contacts stuck to my eyes! Again, I was on the aisle but in the middle section. I definitely got bumped a lot like I didn't exist, but it made it easier when I would go to the bathroom. I must say, I was impressed by these plane bathrooms! We finally arrive in South Africa around 4pm due to some delay with landing thanks to the weather. Shout out to the female pilot who landed the massive plane with ease! Once we landed, we all got together, went through customs, grabbed our bags and loaded up on busses that took us to the hotel. There is probably close to 60 people on the trip so it was definitely a challenge getting everyone through and to the hotel. But, we are with expert travelers and guides who made every transition such a breeze! The weather here is rainy, windy and cold. It is the end of their Fall and the beginning of their Winter so the temperature ranges from about 55-65 degrees Fahrenheit. They received a huge, and very much needed, rain storm over the past couple days so everything is pretty wet! Hopefully it won't interfere with our excursions! My eyes were wide in amazement as we drove to the hotel. Out one side of the window, you see slumps and people sleeping on the street. On the other, you see nice and well kept houses and in front of you, there are mountains! Definitely a different cultural experience and I'm excited to learn so much more! Once we arrived at the hotel, we had a lite snack provided by the hotel and we checked into our rooms. There are two of us to a room and my roommate is from San Diego Christian. It's cool to get someone from the other coast! We came back to the room and slept a couple hours before our dinner at 6:30pm local time. I had a mix of chicken, noodles, potato salad, fruit and jello. I chatted with the girls around me as we all shared our experiences, how we got here and what we are most excited to do! So, for now it's off to bed as it's almost 10pm here and my sleep schedule is out of whack. They said sleep now to help prevent jet lag. Tomorrow we will have a light day involving a practice with our team, orientation and welcome dinner! the picture is a view from my hotel room. I believe that is Lion's head Mountain in the background, but I'm not 100% sure. As always, thanks for reading! Well, Day 1 was full of swollen ankles, a lot of food, my neck pillow and fascination of being on my first international flight and being in the Middle East even if it was for less than 24 hours!
I left Tampa at 1pm and flew to Atlanta where I had to manage going from the domestic terminal to the international one. If any of you know, Atlanta is hard enough and I had to make my way all by myself. I made it though! Once I arrived in ATL we had a four hour layover before we boarded our flight to Doha, Qatar at 7:30pm. The plane and the service I received on the plane amazed me! For one, the plane was huge and fit A LOT of people, but let me tell you about the service and food I received. For being on a 13 hour flight, the flight attendants were great to us all. I had a meal consisting of beef and potatos, a veggie salad, a roll, water, and a chocolate truffle for dinner around 9pm. After I ate, I played games on the TV screen in front of me and watched the new Beauty and the Beast! Then I managed to fall alseep and I was fortunate to have an aisle seat next to a pretty easy going Mom and her son! I was woken up about 3am when the flight attendant came around serving drinks and turkey sandwiches. After that, I watched some Ted talks about being a multipotientialite- someone with many interests and creative pursuits who doesn't quite know what they want to do with their life, and another comedic one on procrastination. Both very relevant to my life! Then it was back to bed until I ate breakfast at 7am. I had an egg soufflé, fruit, yogurt and a Twix bar. Pretty hearty food if I do say so myself! At this point we had about another 3 hours so again, I fell asleep until we landed. Once we arrived, it was about 4:30pm local time. We had to make our way through customs and got shuttled into the city of Doha where we stayed in a nice hotel for our layover. Doha is a very beautiful city! The airport is in the middle of no where, but the city had beautiful middle eastern buildings. Our hotel was great. Once settled in, my roommate and I crashed for a good four hours. We woke up with an hour to kill so we decided to whip out our gloves and do some short hops. I hope the people below us didn't mind since it was about 10:30pm local time! We finally headed to the airport at 12am local time and our flight from Doha to Cape Town takes off at 3am. Another 10 hour flight ahead of me until I finally touch down in South Africa! More to come when I get there! Thanks for reading! *attached are some pictures. I can't add captions but you'll get the gist of most of the pictures! Once I upload them to Facebook, when I am back in the US, I'll have specific captions for them! I am just three days away from take off and I still don't know how I feel. It hasn't quite hit me yet because its been a long time coming, but I am beyond thrilled to spend the next two weeks in South Africa! I haven't packed yet. I have things ready to go, but they aren't physically in my suitcase! I will be bringing two bags and a backpack. It may seem like a lot, but one of the bags is for clothes and the other one will be a bat bag full of softball donations. Between the things I have and the donations I received, I will be packing the bag with pants, old uniforms I wore in my glory days, fielding gloves, helmets and some bats. They asked specifically for left handed gloves and being a lefty myself, I was more than excited to donated lefty gloves!
I will be flying into Atlanta Monday afternoon and waiting about six more hours to board my flight with the rest of my crew. From there, I'll fly from Atlanta to Qatar and then down to South Africa. There is about an eight hour lay over in Qatar so my anticipation to finally touch down in South Africa will be through the roof! I know it will be worth the wait! I am officially a week away from embarking on this amazing journey! I still haven't packed, but I have a pretty good idea of what I'm bringing. One of the cool things we get to do, on top of instructing youth clinics, is donate equipment we don't need anymore. I have equipment from so many years of playing that I don't use any more and the people of South Africa don't have the privilege of having new helmets or gloves with every new team. My heart is happy knowing I can give my equipment to the youth who will forever be grateful for it!
It hasn't quite hit me that I am about to travel half way around the world. It all happened so fast that its hard to find my emotions. I am so excited because I am all about discovering new things, but of course there are a little bit of nerves because I'm going to a completely new place! I don't think I'll realize just how awesome this opportunity is until I get on that plane and have that long flight! Hello! My name is Rachel Taylor and I am a rising senior, two-sport athlete at Maryville College in beautiful East Tennessee! I am a biology major and I am a goalkeeper and first baseman. What you might be wondering is how exactly I got this opportunity. Well, my softball coach sent me an inviation via email that said I was one of four student athletes from Maryville College selected to represent Division III softball. The criteria included statistical leaders, all-conference recognition and coach's recommendations. My parents and professors have always encouraged me to travel abroad during college because of the experiences and knowledge I will gain; I will have the chance to learn about the culutre and history.
I will be playing with people from all over the U.S. and Canada and will be playing against girls from other countries. Softball is a universial sport, but every person brings something a little different to the game. I had the opporuntity to travel to Europe with my soccer team over Spring Break 2017. Unfortunatly, because it was during spring break, I was unable to attend because it is in the middle of softball season (one of the few downsides to playing two sports!). Once this awesome South Africa trip came about, I knew I had to take it! I want to thank my parents and friends for supporting me, Coach Kelley for forwarding me the original email, and Beyond Sports, the organization in charge of this trip, for giving me this opportunity. |
About the trip
In short, I am representing Division III softball as I travel to South Africa to not only play softball, but also get to explore the sights and sounds of this awesome country! |