The First Day in Photos

South Africa is so beautiful in the morning.

I awoke at 7AM today to the sounds of chickens and roosters and lions roaring in the distance. In South Africa, the sun rises at about 530AM and by 600, it is like mid-day. As I walked out at 7, it was seventy-five degrees, sunny, and reminded me of noon at Coney Island.

And I think the students like it, too.

I have uploaded some pictures of our first full day. I hope you like them. Please rest assured that we are safe and sound, only 8000 miles away. We could not have had a better first day.

Enjoy the pictures. And the clever captions. We'll speak again soon.

These first two pics are of a group of South African from Mamelodi who were eagerly awaiting our arrival. They did an African tribal dance for us and welcomed us to their country.

Okay, that first caption was not entirely true. This group from Mamelodi was actually awaiting the Crossroads group, but we came in first and they mistook us for them. (Seriously, shouldn't they be able to tell apart twenty white people from Cincinnati?) We still enjoyed their dance, and the vuvuzelas. You will enjoy hearing these at the World Cup.

Our group on the bus. They were very cramped today. Beginning on Monday we will have a 22-seater. This one falls just short.

One of the coolest things we did today was visit Loftus Stadium in Pretoria. This is the site where the semi-finals of the World Cup will be played. And we were there.

The boys, being boys, in the stadium. The only thing our guide (left) asked was that we don't walk on the grass. No problem.

The ladies, and more stadium shots.

Our whole group at Loftus. And yes, I am wearing a Bengals jersey. Proud of it.

The Union Building of South Africa, where the offices of the President are located. The students had seen this on Wednesday during the movie Invictus, so it was nice to see it in person.

The view from the Union Buildings. The large soccer ball in the middle is near Loftus.

At the Union Buildings, there are various shops and places to buy souvenirs. This was one of the vendors. He was very nice, but DID make a joke about having more than one wife. Right after this picture.

After we returned, we had a game drive (mini-safari) at the Farm Inn. This is the group in the back of the cruiser. Fitting picture.

These are Wilda beasts. Not the most attractive animals.

This Cheetah was beautiful. While the large animals at the Farm Inn are kept in cages, none have been taken from the wild and placed into captivity. That makes me feel a bit better.

Our guide Benny went into the cage with the cheetah. He paid for it with a bite. Just kidding, he is not really getting bitten by a cheetah.

Benny then brought a lion cub named Jack Sparrow on board our cruiser. Jack was grumpy, but he was a real hit with the students. A beautiful white lion who will be deadly to humans in about four months.

This is Apollo. He is very large; about 600 pounds. We were lucky to see him move since he sleeps about 22 hours per day.

Awwww... I think Jack is holding Paiten's hand.

This was a nice move by our hotel. No, I don't know what Etvall is.

Victoria was very happy to sit in front of the cruiser on the way to our Tribal braai. Did I mention she was happy? And excited?

The survivor-like wooden area where we had our fire and cooked the meat for the braai.

Alysse, Morgan, Victoria, and Paiten just before dinner.

There is quite a story with this monkey. He was very unhappy with us and was jumping, screaming and threatening us for quite some time. He didn't like me at all. At one point, he threw something at me. Yes, I think it was that. Gross.

Our great dinner crew grilling above the fire at the braai.

Our girls with Mike, one of the dinner crew. An outstanding job. We were very appreciative of him and the staff.

Grady had his turn. And forced me to take a picture.


Overall, it was a wonderful first day! We will post more again soon. Pray for us.