Mandela, Zebras and Lions

I’m 6 hours ahead of Washington, so it’s about 7pm on Sunday and my weekend is more or less a wrap! But it’s all good, because it was excellent!! I’m sitting reminiscing on everything and I can’t even believe all the things that I’ve been able to experience so far this year and the opportunities that are coming my way. I’m in awe. WOW!! I have been to Ghana to unite with my (long lost) family, the Caribbean with my girls and I’m now enjoying my second trip to South Africa, courtesy of my J.O.B. Who could ask for more? I am so thankful and I appreciate all these blessings so much that I can’t fully encapsulate my emotions in words. Okay maybe one word, GOD!!!!

Back to this weekend; I actually stood on the premises where the great Nelson Mandela and others involved in the struggle against apartheid were once held prisoner. Mandela or "Madiba" (an honorary title adopted by elders of his clan) as he’s referred to in SA along with others led the revolution that eventually awakened the rest of the world to the situation in South Africa. Through sanctions, protests, and intervention from global powers, the Apartheid regime was ended in 1994 and Mr. Mandela was elected President of South Africa; but not after spending 27 years of his life in prison simply for demanding freedom and justice in the land of his birth. Can you image? Honestly, 1994 was only 5 minutes ago in the historic landscape and the aftermath of apartheid can still be well felt in South Africa. This is still a very segregated country, especially in the Western Cape area. I’ve been told that Johannesburg has a larger population of middle class blacks, but I’ve yet to visit Johannesburg. The other thing that I hear that’s synonymous with Jo’Burg is the high crime rate. Now I’m not crazy and I try to use wisdom but I kind of smell foul play when the area with the most well off black people in this country is also black balled with the violence stigma. Maybe it’s as bad as they say and I’m being a conspiracy theorist or naïve, but I still want to visit this place, and I will.

July 18 was also Mr. Mandela's 90th birthday so the whole country has been in celebration mode. This made the visit to Robben Island so much more meaningful. There were people from all over the world on the tour, what an awesome impact he's had on humanity.

Happy Birthday Madiba!!!! Thank you for your selfless sacrifice for freedom, your leadership, strength, and courage. And for being a revolutionary.

Saturday we hit the marketplace again and I got some commerce goods to bring back to the states. I got orders, I got customers and now I’ve got some more supply! LOL!

Today we went on a safari at a private game reserve. It was really cool. Of course the animals aren’t allowed to totally run wild, well they are because they aren’t behind a cage like a zoo, but they seem pretty trained to stay in their lane. I also heard that the tour guides have guns and they aren’t afraid to use them, but overall it was a great experience, topped by the fact that we did our tour on horseback!!! That right there made the whole experience so worthwhile. I had never ridden a horse. I’ve taken a 5 minute guided ride at church picnics and such like any other child, but never really rode a horse, until today. The tour was two hours on horseback and then we got in the car to get closer to the lions, who are actually a bit more contained because, well because they are lions and they just don’t play as nice as other animals. The only disappointing thing was that the lions were in chill mode by the time we got to them and they weren’t in the mood to come closer for photo ops. Also the elephants were MIA. After all they are allowed to roam around so I had to just get over it. Back to the horses, that was great! After I got off I was so darn sore, wow!! I thought I was in shape, ha!!

My weekend was great and I’m ready to get back to work. I have a LOT to do and I'm prepared to handle any drama that might ensue, like the true soldier that I am.


Peace