Ryan's excursion

Johannesburg was a strange city. To be completely honest I didn’t really like it. I know that’s kind of unfair to judge a city after only a week, but comparing it to Cape Town, Johannesburg came up short. And to be fair, we didn’t even really go into the city, which was disappointing. We stayed in a hotel in Sandton, a smaller very business oriented town outside the downtown Jo’burg. There were shopping malls and large sky scraper sized buildings, but other than that, not a whole lot. I wish we could have spent some time in the downtown area so I could make a fair judgment of the city. We did go to a lot of historically relevant places, however, what I found funny was that everywhere we went, there were venders. Outside Sharpeville, the Hector Peterson memorials, everywhere we went were people selling us stuff. I found it to be a little uncomfortable to be honest. It’s like these people are taking a tragic event and then trying to make money off it by selling “African trinkets” outside. It reminds me a little bit of the whole “Boston Strong” movement. People took a tragic event such as a bombing, and now sell T-shirts, bumper stickers, key chains and anything else they can put a logo on. In the meantime, none of the profits go towards victims of the bombing. Wire figures and ebony salad spoons are in no way the same as a Boston Strong T-shirt, but they both made me feel the same way.

However, Kruger National Park was my favorite part of the trip so far. I am a person who loves animals, I like to be off the grid, and I don’t mind not having an internet connection as much as some of my other co-educators. So naturally, Kruger made me feel right at home. We stayed in rounded huts with thatched roofs, and a screened in kitchen, perfect for reading in. The bedrooms were air-conditioned and the beds were comfy. My favorite part was the Game Drives. I could have stayed a Kruger for months, going on game drives and never get bored of it. But one of the best experiences was while sitting by the river at the camp. While sitting and reading, I spotted and elephant across the water. I followed the path to be as close to it as possible. While the Elephant was shy, it did eventually come close enough to the water to drink and eat, giving me the opportunity to take some really great pictures.

While I was a little disappointed with the city of Johannesburg, Kruger National Park made up for all of it. Resulting in an overall very pleasing excursion.

Ryan & Savannah on trip home from excursion