Crowne Plaza Hotel Johannesburg-The Rosebank

... Park. Here our luxurious safari tents surprised all of us. Perhaps Maureen and Don were thinking mud huts would be the typical accommodation? A gift package sent by Valerie (Steph’s mom) was better than Christmas and Steph modeled colourful new clothes gleefully (In true Valerie style, she even included rhinestone flip-flops). We introduced Maureen and Don to the animals of Africa with a night drive where we saw rhinos and trumpeting charging ...

I'm happy to report a safe arrival in Johannesburg, South Africa, on April 25th. Yahoo! Paris was stunning, I had a great nap in the airport sprawled across my backpack and a row of seats in the airport. Tres bien! It's been so exciting to actually be here and moving on to the next phase of the pilot project. As most of you know, A Peace of Music was created in order to raise funding to support music and music therapy initiatives in South Africa ...

... the bad and the ugly; <br><br>Namibia tour: <br>Reaching the top of Sand Dune 45, watching the sunset and running down giggling like a child. <br>Going down that random mountain with Nikki in Bethania singing "I touch myself". <br>Having Toby teach me to chug by pouring a whole bottle of beer on my face. <br>Kayaking with Nikkie on Orange River. <br>Seeing the magnificent Namibian sky while on my way to brush my teeth at 4:00am. <br>Witnessing the guys take care of ...

... her beautiful apartment in Barcelona and walking the winding, cobblestone streets of her "hood".We ate paella in the sun at a tiny beachside restaurant and developed a new love of Spanish wines. We met the great staff of Urban Junkies in Taryn's Soho office.We have stayed at a hip hotel in London, The Metropolitan, that she had arranged for us. The perfect ending to one incredible trip. It truly was the trip of a lifetime. See you all soon.

... same border crossing and it took a bit longer this time. It only took about an hour though, so it's still not bad as what it could be. It was much drier then the time before, and much nicer for that reason. While the others went on a boat cruise i took the time off and wandered around. I had already did the boat thing the week before. The next night we stayed at a place called Elephants sands. Were we were to take a walking tour but the grass was to high ...

... determine if that was a clock I was looking at or some ticker moiving slowly. When I realize that it's the time it registers that we are supposed to be boarding at 19 something. I look nat my boarding pass and says boarding 19:10 - oh my gosh - but the flight does not leave until 20:25 (got time). Well I look up at the marque and it reads "Johannesburg - Flight Closing ...

... Joburg for another couple of days and went to Soweto Township too. There are various pictures up on ringo, I'll try and write what most of them are of if I have time. It was all very interesting and a bit of an insight into how people around there live.<br><br><br><br> On Monday I went on my safari and had a really good four days. There was a nice group of people and the place where we camped ...

... for service and household jobs etc. Our guide, Charlotte, was very helpful and she had lived in her township for 12 years, almost since it was created. This was one of the newer townships in South Africa. Charlotte was hilarious and very informative and told us all about various aspects of township life, from the negative things (like the 40% HIV infection rate in this particular township) to positive things such as community life, schools ...

OK don't go to a private hospital in South Africa. That experience FREAKED me out. The doctor wasn't identifiable as such: no white coat, no ID (!) as far as I could see. And I could see his entire grayish/khaki attire. Here goes: He says my hand isn't broken, just very bruised (it's literally three times its normal size on the back of my hand). He calmly says that after I went to get x-rays done and I could see where it was broken, which is exactly where I had felt it snap. The x-ray ...

... regime. We were fascinated with what we saw and learned today. We felt like we had a better idea of the Black struggle in South Africa, however, we seem to have even more questions about this history than we did yesterday. I guess that this is a sign of being educated: education should provoke one to search further and to continually find the next question to be answered. What an experience! The remainder of our day was filled with picking up a few items and groceries at the ...