Baby Orphanage

This morning we visited an orphanage. It was very sad. This was an orphanage for babies ages newborn to 2. It was a home and there were about 20-25 babies all of which have been abandoned for various reasons. Some of them were left somewhere, some of them given from teenage mothers, and many of them from mothers who have died. We had an opportunity to visit and feed the babies for about an hour or so. It was an experience I will never forget. It was so sad. I was on the verge of tears the whole time I was there. I kept imagining that it was my 10 month baby boy lying there on the padded floor with all of the other babies. These babies were all starved for attention. At one point I have one baby on my lap and three others walked up to play with me because I was giving them all high fives. It was a wonderful feeling to make them smile. After feeding a newborn baby she fell asleep and I put her to bed in her little craddle in a room with 4 other newborns. It seemed as if the only attention the newborns got was when they are fed, then they are placed back into their craddle. There were about 4-5 women there taking care of the babies and they do the best they can but you can only imagine how difficult it must be for 4-5 women to watch 20-25 newborns. I wish that they had more help, I wish that they had better resources. Unfortunatly they did not allow us to take any pictures which I completely understand, but even without a picture I will never forget these babies.

Church

Today we went to church at a local Johannesburg ward. It was a really cool experience. It was very different but also very much the same as the church in my home ward in Utah. It was definitely a new feeling being the only white people in the congregation. The people there were very friendly...maybe they were just sympathetic because our team lost last night...ha ha. It was a good experience though. It really is amazing to see how much progression there has been in the church in South Africa. I was able to talk with some of the people there and met a couple of nice guys, one was from Cape Town and another from Botswana. After chuch we had a nice dinner and then just watched England lose to Germany 4-1...HA HA! Now we are going to watch Argentina beat Mexico.

Johannesburg Temple

USA vs Ghana

The US team that we watched play against Ghana was not the same team as the US team that we saw play Algeria. They were just not on their game. It all started when Bob Bradley decided to start Ricardo Clark instead of Maurice Edu. Once again Clark lost the ball in the midfield and the counter attack resulted in a goal for Ghana. Then minutes later Clark nearly gets a red card but is given a yellow. At the 30th minute Bradley finally pulled him out and the US did much better for the remainder of the game but they still were just not playing as good as they could. That first early goal really hurt them being that it was the 3rd time this cup that they had been scored on in the first 10 minutes. Also Tim Howard should've saved both of Ghana goals. The highlight of the match of course was when Dempsey broke through the defense and was fouled in the box which earned a PK that Donovan easily put away. That gave US a lot of hope but then they just didn't step it up as they should. It is amazing how fast I went from being sooooo excited about this world cup to being very dissapointed. Now I have to watch Ghana vs Uruguay in the quarter finals Friday....yay. :( I'm very sad that the US lost and I wish they would have perfomed better because they really had a good position to make it all the way to the semi's if they wanted it bad enough. Oh well....4 more years till Brazil 2014. But first I get to see Portugal vs Spain this Tuesday in Cape Town!!! SO EXCITED!!

Lion Rhino Park

Lion Rhino Park

Lion Rhino Park

Lion Rhino Park

Townships

Spain

Spain just beat Chile and finished in 1st in group H and Portugal tied Brazil and finished in second in group G which means I get to see Spain vs Portugal Tuesday in Cape Town!! Ronaldo, David Villa....holy crap this is going to be awesome!!

Fan Park

Today we went on a tour of a diamond mine which the world famous Cullinan diamond was found. This mine is known as one of the greatest mines in the world and has many well known and rare diamonds which have been found there. They also had a showroom and were offering 20% off all diamonds....too bad I didn't have an extra 2-3 grand in my pocket. Then we went to the fan park just outside of Pretoria to watch Portugal vs Brazil. They have fan parks all over South Africa which are free to the public. It was pretty cool to see so many people gathered together from all around the world, all there to watch and enjoy soccer. We met a couple from NYC who were selling some tickets to the next US game and my uncle who is giving us a ride to the game Saturday didn't have tickets so now we are all going to be able to go to the game against Ghana which is good because we won't get home untill about 2-3 am. The guy selling the tickets told us that he got them from an Algerian at the airport. He said that between the airport and ads on craigslist there are a ton of England fans who thought England would take 1st in their group now selling or looking to trade tickets. The fan park was cool and not nearly as scary as I thought it would be. There was security all over and you had to go through security to even get into the gates. After that we thought we would drive over to the Irene Lodge which is where the US team is staying. We figured that there would be no way we could get a chance to meet any players or even get in the gate but we thought we would at least try. We were right....we couldn't even get past the gate, oh well. I'm starting to get very anxious for the USA vs Ghana game tomorrow!!! If USA can get past Ghana which I think they can then they will play the winner of Uruguay vs Korea. They are set up very good to have a chance to make it to the world cup semi finals!!! We have tickets to the quarter final game if USA wins so I sure hope they do. The quarter final game would be the day before I fly out and it would be in the Soccer City Stadium in Jo-Burg which holds 92,000 people. That would be the coolest thing ever!!!! Bring on Ghana!! GO USA!!

Bird Sanctuary

Today was mostly a recovery day from yesterday. This morning we went to another market to buy some more souveniers. Africa has some really cool and original stuff. Then we went to a place called Monte Casino. It reminded me a lot of Las Vegas, not just because it is a casino but everything about it such as the design and the stores. It even had an attached mall with the stores designed to look like individual buildings and a blue sky ceiling. The whole mall and casino was decorated by Fifa because there were a lot of people staying their for the world cup. While we were there we went to a bird sanctuary. It was pretty cool. They had a whole bird show with some very rare and beautiful birds. After that we went out to dinner at a nice place in Jo-burg. It was just a nice relaxing day. I guess we are trying to save up our energy for Saturday's game against Ghana. Go USA!

The house

The house in Jo-burg we are staying in. We are very lucky!
View of Jo-burg from the house.

Razor wire & electric fence surrounding the property. We are very safe. There is also two gates before the house and a security guard 24/7.

GREAT DAY

The best day of my life was the day I got married, the second best day was the day Jack was born......today is the third best day! I woke up at 6am and headed out into the african outback on a jeep safari. It was incredible!! We saw zebra, wildabeasts, lions, elephants, warthogs, springboks, gazelles, cape buffalo, giraffs, and much more. I can't explain how cool it is to see those kind of animals in their natural habitat. We got so close them, at one point we were surrounded by 10 lions. They came right up next to the jeep. It was crazy!!
After the safai we headed to Petoria to see USA play Algeria in a must win game. It was absolutly insane there. Crazed fans filled the streets. You could hear the vuvuzela's blowing from blocks away from the stadium.
The atmosphere was unlike anything I have ever seen before.
The game was awesome!! USA played well having many chances to score but just could not finish. Algeria was in the same boat. It was tied 0-0 when it aproached stoppage time. I had been on the edge of my seat the entire game. By this time I could feel my heart beating in my throat. USA needed a win to move on and as the clocked ticked I watched with hopes that USA could get a goal in stoppage time to win. Then in the 91st minute Landon Donovan scored a goal!!!! The stadium errupted!! Minutes later USA won and the crowd continued cheering and going crazy for the next 20 minutes inide the stadium. Then we went outside the stadium where the celebration was even greater. Fans were jumping, screaming, running, and blowing their vuvuzela's. IT WAS INSANE!! Words cannot descibe how unbelievable it was to be there to experience one of the greatest games ever for US soccer!!
The best part about it is that since we have tickets to the winner of group C in the second round...WE GET TO SEE THEM AGAIN ON SATURDAY!!! YAY!!!! USA USA USA USA!!!

Safari

Safari

Safari

USA vs Algeria

USA vs Algeria

Celebration!

Celebration!

USA WINS!!

Day 1 in South Africa

Today we visited an elephant sanctuary. This gave us a chance to drive through Johannesburg for the first time since our arrival. The whole city is filled with excitement for the world cup. There are flags from every nation lining the streets and decorating businesses and vehicles. Johannesburg has about 33% unemployment. It was intersting to see hundreds of people walking many many miles to work. A lot of these people have to come up with there own ways of making money. Many of them sell merchandise on the streets. You can't stop at a single traffic light without a person standing in the middle of the lanes selling different things such as newspapers, vuvuzuela's, or scarfs and flags. Another way some of them make some money is by helping you park your car and watching it for you while you shop or eat expecting a tip upon your return. There was even a person collecting people's trash from thier cars while stopped at a light in hopes for 1 or 2 rand(African $). I was amazed at the lengths people would go to earn just a little bit of money. When we got on the freeway the on ramp has about 25 people lined up down it. They get up early and wait there in hopes that somebody might need some work done for them. I guess it is the known spot to hire some workers for a small day job.
Another image which is something new to me was to see how many people you could fit in the back of a pick up truck or a convy(taxi). There taxi's are VW size Toyota vans that have four rows of seats. In one van I counted 16 people packed inside. I also saw several small old Toyota pick up trucks packed full of people headed to work.
Our visit to the Elephant Sanctuary was a fun. We had the opportunity to feed, touch, walk, and even ride on elephants. Our tour guides name was Edmond. The best part of the day was when the elephant gave my dad a kiss and nearly sucked his face off with his trunk. The most disgusting part was taking the elephants for a walk. In order to do this you would have to grab there trunk with two fingers on the inside of the trunk and the others on the outside. It was pretty gross as you could feel the moist warm breathe coming from the trunk. Riding the elephants was fun. It was actually a little scarier than it sounds as we rode them barebacked, so there wasn't anything to sit on or hold onto. Also when the elephant walked the muscles on his back would cause you to rock back and forth which each step, which is scary when you are 10 feet off the ground.
On the way back home from the sactuary we stopped at a market to buy souveniers. It was crazy in there!! You couldn't walk more than a foot or two before you were dragged into a booth and shown every item in it. They wanted to sell you everything and the all claimed that their booth had the best stuff in Africa....and then came the price negotiating. The prices they started out with were ridiculous. They really thought that we had a lot of money and wanted to get as much as they could. But after talking them down to about half of their asking prices we were able to get some really cool souveniers. The funny thing about this experience was that when ever I told one of them that I was from Utah in America they asked about the Utah Jazz. They all knew and loved Karl Malone and John Stockton. Also when talking to them about soccer they all showed a good amount of praise for the U.S. soccer team. They think that they are
playing very well and would like to see them do well.

Elephino's

Riding elephants!
Feeding

My dad getting his face sucked off...ha ha.

Elephino's

Elephant Sactuary Hartdebeetsport, South Africa