It is very interesting talking to people about our trip to South Africa. Some are very interested in hearing about the people we met and the state of the country today, others want to hear about how beautiful South Africa is - they want to hear about the game drive and the animals and the wide open plains stereotypically associated with Africa. Still others seem to only want reinforcement of their stereotypes, they want to hear about the poverty and the townships but they don't seem to care about the people who lived there or ways in which to improve South African economy. But the thing is - our trip was a little bit of all of that. It was about the people we met and their stories, it was about the beauty of South Africa, it was about the poverty and the townships and sometimes even our own stereotypes, but it was also about breaking them.
South Africa is a truly unique country that is full of contradictions. I don't think it is possible for me to come up with one moment that defined the trip - the entire experience was necessary to create a tiny window of what South Africa is. And so I'll leave you with, not the most touching moment of the trip certainly, but one of the most endearing:
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