Back in Denver, reflecting on the three weeks in South Africa...

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I am back in the United States after one of the longest travel days I’ve ever had. Wow, South Africa is FAR AWAY from Colorado! Sorry, Jimmy and Corey, I know you had even longer trips.

I said I’d reflect on the trip, and I have. The only problem is that I’m all over the place in thought!

I expect to be asked often, ‘how was the trip,’ or ‘how was Africa.’

For me, the overall experience was great. The details that make up the trip can be interpreted anyway you’d want - for some it'll sound like a bad experience, for others it sounds awesome. I personally bring back many, many positive memories that I expect we’ll talk about for years to come.

We only saw a small portion of South Africa, so I don’t think it’s fair for me to generalize on the country or continent. We really weren’t there to do much more than attend the World Cup, and when time allowed, we tried to fill the days with other activities that were near us.

South Africa is a pretty modern country with many of the same things we have in the States: malls, roads, museums (I think), bars, and restaurants. There are game reserves where wild animals live - but it's not like these animals are crossing the street with you in cities. 

There are definitely things you see and wonder, ‘what the heck?’ or ‘how can they not see there’s a better way to do this.’ There are also clearly some social and infrastructure issues; but the effort is there, it appeared, to correct some things - although some may take years or generations before changes are noticed.

From a personal level: I have mostly traveled on such trips on my own. So it was definitely a new experience to be part of a group of seven, then six, then five – for nearly three weeks. And I know that I would not have had nearly the same amount of fun or been able to do even half the things we did had I attempted this trip on my own.

Our group lives in five different cities; Chicago (Curtis), DC (Ryan), Los Angeles (Jimmy), England (Brett), and Denver (Clint, Corey, me). Some had not seen each other in 4-8 years; some had never met or hung out before South Africa. We planned and kept in touch via email and facebook, and on June 11 we met up at the About Guest Lodge in Pretoria, South Africa.

At one point that first night, with Castles in hand, we laughed that this could be an epic trip, like the movie “The Hangover.” For a few weeks we would become a seven-man Wolf Pack. It’s a credit to all the guys being a good people and putting in the effort that we all got along as well as we did!

We once talked about whether we were lucky or fortunate to be in South Africa. I agreed that it wasn’t luck that allowed us to be there, because we had made a plan to get there and followed through. But we were fortunate that loved ones, work, and life allowed for the trip to happen without interruption.

Each one of us on this trip will have different points of view on the entire experience. But I know that we’ll all agree to one thing – how cool it was to be there for those games; and for me, how great it was to be there with this group.

I would be writing all day if I tried to describe all the details that stand out and the thoughts I’m left with on what we DID see, or from the people we talked to, or from my own observations. It’ll tell you more next time we chat or meet…the following quick notes stand out as I write this email:

• Our pack will remember our reaction to the comeback on Slovenia, and the late-winner against Algeria. The face paint!
• We’ll remember: “USA ain’t noting to F with.” “One-nil, and you fucked it up.”
• Dancing with the Ghana fans…watching the home-team play…being asked to pay the Argentine fans (for cheering? We’re not sure)…the box suite at the Spain game…chanting with the Cameroon fans and earning their protection from the ushers…
• We’ll look back at things that we complained about and remember how we laughed at these together.  The vuvuzelas; the awesome road signage and directions; the queues, or lack thereof; the roadside fires and filthy air; the one-lane roads; the time it took to order or get food; the size of the second car – the Ant; and when all seven of us fit into the Taxi ‘ant’ and had the driver take us to McDonalds at 3 am. 
• We’ll remember getting those two little kids in the USA v Slovenia game…We’ll remember the awesome breakfasts at the Lodge, and Smoking Lounge, the Castles, Black Labels, and various bottles of wine. We won't forget the 7 am wake up calls, done with saws and hammers as the worked on the building.
• We’ll remember the conversations with locals (and our GPS lady); being offered an opportunity to join the black diamonds business; the hookah people in the square; the massive pizzas – hot and cold; having locals at a bar write down all the places we should visit; the gross buffet that had to have used 1-2 day old food; Wimpy Burgers (not recommended); the best bargain in town – Romans Pizza; The Stone Lion and Springbok steaks; the drives to the malls; singing K'Naan's "Waving Flags" and Shakira's "And this is Africa."
• We'll never forget visiting Nelson Mandela's house, or our day trip to Soweto; or watching South Africa nearly advance with locals in a bar in Soweto. 
• We’ll remember the safari – how we froze our asses off while we looked for animals; petting lions at the Lion Park, and having lions surround our cars; the window being down when one passed by, or watching two tear apart a Brazilian flag…having a giraffe straddle the ant!
• We'll remember our day trip to Sun City, playing black jack and roulette.
• We'll remember "Ke Nako" and "Ayoba Time!", and much more...

Thanks to everyone for your encouragement and emails. I hope you enjoyed being in Africa vicariously through our emails, photos, and stories.