A quick trip home...

I arrived back in South Africa on Friday after spending two weeks at home in the UK. I was lucky enough to fly home to be there for my Grampa's funeral. It was really special to be back with my family and share this time with them and although I went back in sad circumstances I can honestly say that I really enjoyed the two weeks; loads more than I thought I would.

I did have some problems dealing with the huge shift in cultures though. I needed to buy some shoes to bring out here so I went to Birmingham to get some. I found myself standing infront of a wall covered in shoes, wanting to buy a pair but not being able to spend the money I'd been given. So I tried the next shop. Then the next. Then a few more. But there I was on the train home with the money in my pocket; I just couldn't bring myself to spend it. It was really frustrating because I needed the shoes and I'd been given money to buy them but for some reason (that I still can't put my finger on) I couldn't buy any. I went shopping three times in those two weeks, to three different places and still came back without the shoes I needed. I started getting angry at myself for not know why I couldn't spend it.

Another thing that I thought a lot was "What am I going to do when I'm back in August?" but I've come to terms with the fact I have no idea and I'll have to play it by ear for a while, should be interesting anyway...

But I'm very happy to be back in SA for the next 6 weeks, now I've seen my family and friends I think I'll have more freedom to enjoy my time without missing them too much.




Also, there should be a vlog coming soon about my time in some communities in Zambia.

A rough week and some vlogs:

The last week and a bit has been a weird one, early last week I was told my Grandpa had spent the weekend in hospital. I won't go into details but on Thursday afternoon he passed away. He had been ill for a long time so it wasn't a shock, but still that hardly helps with news like that. So as a result my week has been a bit muddled up, I've been doing all the usual work and jobs but I've done it with an odd feeling of being a bit far away from reality which isn't a nice feeling.

On Saturday I entered a 36km mountain bike race with Dave, Juanita, Paul, Cathy and their son Mathew. It was the best race I've done yet and I came 19th in my category despite having broken my chain and then a badly signposted section (about 50 of us got lost) which must've cost me at least 20 minutes. I only finished 13 minutes behind Dave so I was happy with my performance, then that evening we all went for a braai at the Paul and Cathy's. Then on Sunday afternoon about 20 volunteers got together at Hands and had a great game of Ultimate Frisbee so I'm pretty tired after a sporty weekend.

I've finally managed to upload a few more video blogs so here you go:

Mankele race weekend: https://vimeo.com/67327835

Swaziland camping weekend: https://vimeo.com/67336599