While the pictures paint the story of beautiful scenery and wonderful sites, the real beauty of this place has been the people. The people are incredibly nice, the weather is amazing the campus is beautiful the sites are breathtaking and I have made many good friends, both Americans traveling with me and Africans. I have been relying heavily on my interest in sport to help relate with many Africans, such as a man named Max from Ghana who I spent about an hour and a half talking to at a bar one night. While Max and I have very little in common and don't know any of the same people, we were able to forge a friendship based on our love for sports. He was obsessed with Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, and could not believe I was from Boston. While many people see sports as an activity without much else, I urge you to look at the history of South Africa. SOuth Africa has seen sport be used for so much more than just a game. Sports are an international language that every sports fan can understand, people will do crazy things in the name of sports.
Case-in-point: A symbol used in sport, recognized everywhere, by all ages
Just as SEC Football may be seen as overly obsessive, so are the South Africans for Football, Rugby and Cricket. Sport can unite a nation, a continent or even the world. South Africans will tell you that when they speak of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Every local who I have talked to said it was the greatest experience because people from every country in the world came to one place, and for a few weeks all of the racial or cultural tensions that existed just disappeared. People became so infatuated by the sport, everything was alright. The story of the South African Rugby team in the 1990's, made famous by the movie Invictus with Morgan Freedman and Matt Damon, illustrates further how the world of sports holds a special place in South African culture and history. I am proud to be a member of the world of sports and have a new found appreciation for all that sports are beyond, "just a game."
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