Tyler's Travel Blog: #8) Before I Die

So the reason that I haven’t updated in the past few weeks is because I’ve been struggling with major writer’s block. I’ve sat down a few times in an attempt to write out my experiences, thoughts, etc. but I’ve been unable to get past the first two paragraphs before deciding that I just wasn’t pleased with the product. The good news is that today I found inspiration while showering and this post will have a little different focus than my other posts.

Two things happened that kick-started my imagination:

1.) I received an email from one of my best friends, Marissa Miars, who asked me about how I’m feeling about everything rather than what I’m experiencing; and

2.) I was reorganizing/looking through photos of the past month and a half in South Africa and stumbled upon this picture I took of street art in Johannesburg:

This interactive street art installation was in the Maboneng Precinct of Johannesburg outside of a weekly Sunday market called Arts on Main. The market included restaurants that cooked awesome food on-site, unique, hipster clothing outlets, arts and crafts boutiques, and a bar area with a chill DJ and relaxed lounge area with an extremely diverse crowd. In a city that has a reputation for dangerous, sometimes violent crime this market was really quite a surprising find – but then again it was also located in a part of the city that had been mostly gentrified and privately developed. Regardless of the neighborhood, however, the sentiment behind “Before I Die” mirrors some of the feelings I have been exploring on this trip.

Basically this wall on the street was covered with a chalk board material with the phrase “Before I Die I want to _____________” and a nearby bucket of chalk encouraged people to fill in the blanks with their personal goals and aspirations. People had already written so many different dreams down on the wall that others were writing them in any blank space available – “teach”, “change the world”, “visit Istanbul”, “love”, “be happy”, “meet Oprah and Mariah”, “marry JB”, “build a city”, “be a nomad”, etc. It was really interesting to see how differently people interpreted the phrase and what direction they wanted their life to take in the future and it got me thinking about my own.

What do I want to do before I die?

If you were to have asked me a few months ago I would have probably said something related to future career success – something like “run for public office” or “earn enough for a comfortable life”. If you were to ask me today my answer would be based on a personal life goal instead – something like “learn to scuba dive” or “backpack Central & South America”. Now don’t get me wrong, after this trip I still want to go on to have a successful career in some politically-relevant field, but this trip has already refocused my personal priorities.

I’ve realized just how ultra-focused I was on an arbitrary definition of success – one that revolved around achieving specific steps in a chain that has been culturally engrained into us as a measurement of success. Reflecting on it now I can see that I pushed a lot of my personal goals to the wayside while I pursued this particular definition of success - I would tell myself that I don’t have time or that X dream was impossible if I have to do Y or Z to be successful.

Some people asked me before I left what it was that I hoped to gain from this experience. One response that I gave very sincerely was that I hoped to expand my idea of what I thought was possible in this world. What I meant at the time was more career-focused - that I hoped to find out how it would be possible to impact/improve the world we live in with the global mindset that the fellowship fosters. I can say now with confidence that I did gain exactly what I hoped, but not in the way that I thought I would - now my dreams and goals that I once thought personally impossible don’t seem so anymore. Rather than pushing those personal goals to the side in pursuit of a particular definition of success, I’ve instead widened my definition to actively include those goals.

If I hadn’t had this experience of travelling for 8 months – this break in the regular chain of events from college to career – then I think it would have taken me a lot longer to realize the importance of defining success in your own personal terms. After all, no one can tell you exactly what it is that you want to do before you die - you have to make that judgment for yourself.

So to prove you’re actually reading this even without the pretty pictures I usually post and to make this blog more interactive I’d like you all to fill in the blank yourself (“Before I Die I want to ___________”) and put it in the comment section below if you feel comfortable doing so. I read somewhere that people who write down their goals publicly are more likely to achieve them because they’ve made a written promise to themselves in the presence of others. I don’t know if it’s true but it certainly is good to dream, isn’t it?

Buuuuut, I won’t leave you all hanging without any pictures or life updates – that’s just cruel. Rather than writing it all out in excruciating detail, however, below you’ll find a bunch of pictures of some of the exciting things I’ve done since arriving in South Africa. Enjoy!

(Side note - I dropped my camera when I was hiking Table Mountain last week and unfortunately the stock lens that came with the camera broke and I'm not able to get it repaired here in South Africa because Sony doesn't sell its products in the country. But the good news is that I bought a new compatible lens that has more functionality than the stock lens so you can expect even better pictures in the future! Blessing in disguise I suppose?)

This is the Neighbourgoods Market - it's a weekly market in Johannesburg that features food, wine, beer and some clothing/crafty shops. It was really nice to spend an afternoon there in the sun and I was really struck by the diversity of the crowd - especially in a country with such a divisive racial history.

This is the Apartheid Museum near to Soweto. The architecture of the museum was meant to be very austere and mimic a prison like the one that political prisoners (like Nelson Mandela) were kept in during the Apartheid era. The exhibits were very thorough and I spend the majority of the day wandering through and absorbing the history of pain and discrimination. Thankfully they designed the place to have a garden at the end just so that visitors can have some time to unwind and reflect without leaving feeling so heavy and sad.

A broad shot of Soweto - the most famous township in South Africa. I decided to take public transportation there because it felt unethical to take an organized tour - I feel as if it almost makes the township into a human zoo. I stayed in the area near Vilakazi St where Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu had their houses and since it is a more touristy area it is safe to visit on a solo trip. I was very surprised by the houses on the left because they look middle class and weren't at all like the metal shacks that I expected to see when I arrived. I've been told that as black South Africans achieve greater economic empowerment post-Apartheid they often prefer to stay in the townships and improve their homes rather than move to new areas because they feel more comfortable in the townships where their social connections and community remain.

These are the isolation cells of Section 4 and 5 where the black prisoners were kept in the prison on Constitution Hill in the center of Johannesburg. I was the only one walking through the prison at the time so it was that much more eerie.

This is the Supreme Court of South Africa located on Constitution Hill in Jo'burg. It was built using some of the old foundations of the prison. On the facade it says "Constitutional Court" in each of the 11 official languages of South Africa. It was really beautiful designed inside and out.

The (Southern) Drakensberg Mountains - I spent two weeks on a horse farm and backpackers here surrounded by this amazing scenery.

Looking out over the farmlands at the base of the Drakensbergs. The horse closest to me in the photo is Zach - he and I had a special bond by the end of time there.

Sunset from the patio of the backpackers.

BAAA RAAAM EEEWE! A fluffy sheep on shearing day. South Africa is just coming into it's summer season so it was time for them to lose their winter coats that have accumulated all year.

The shearers were on contract from the Wool Board of South Africa. They are all from Lesotho where there is a lot of sheep farming and they are trained in the traditional way of shearing. No electric razors - just manhandling the sheep to the ground and then a *really really* sharp pair of scissor-like shears.

The shearers take off all the wool in one massive piece to preserve the value and quality of the wool - it's a lot like peeling a living orange. Each sheep took them maybe 15-20 minutes each and they get paid based on how many they shear for the day. It probably would have taken me all day to sheer one - it takes a lot of physical strength and skill to get it off in one piece.

The shorn sheep. (Say that 10 times fast). The blue stuff is an iodine solution that they spray on any nicks or cuts that the sheep sustain from the process in order to prevent infection.

The shearers "skirting the wool" - meaning they are removing all the pieces of wool on the edge of the fleece that would be dirty/less valuable because it touches the ground when the sheep is doing its sheep thing in the field.

Fleece! The length, color, softness, etc of the fleece all contribute to the value of the wool when it goes to auction. Because the shearers are directly from the Wool Board they can appraise the quality immediately and give it a grade so that buyers know what they are getting.

These are the discarded bits - they are still valuable but not nearly as much and they are auctioned off separately from the whole pieces.

Sharpening the shears on a whet stone. They had to break to do this maybe every 8-10 sheep. It's really important that they are as sharp as possible so as not to damage the wool or the sheep - you'd definitely lose a finger easily. (It's a little counter-intuitive I know, but the sheep are much more likely to get nicks and cuts because a dull blade could snag.

This is Karoo - one of the dogs on the farm. He loooved to play fetch.

This is Smeagol - she is an Anatolian Shepard Dog and she protected the sheep from jackals and other threats. She was trained as a puppy to believe that she is actually one of the flock. We had to warn new guests to be wary around her and not to pet her since her training is so specialized - but by the end of my two weeks there she would lay on her back and let me rub her belly.

Raymond - the farm's crazy cat. He liked to find lizards around the farm and torture them to death.

A baby foal that was born while I was on the farm. As you can see it had the most beautiful grey color - unlike any of the other horses on the farm.

So exhausted - this was only a few hours after birth. The foal couldn't figure out how to sit/lay down without falling for the longest time but then finally it was successful.

Another shot of the mountains. There was loads of great hikes in the area and I went on a few of them while I was there.

The area was filled with so many different types of interesting wild flowers that I'd never seen before.

For some reason this rock was covered in little lizards. I don't know why they liked it so much.

This lizard has big dreams.

Steve Black and I - he owned the farm with his wife Lulu.

Lulu and I in front of the backpackers on my last day.

Candice and I in Lesotho. Candice is Steve's daughter and she helps to run a lot of things on the farm.

Lesotho - I went on a two day horse trek into the country and it was absolutely stunning.

The view from the spot we stopped for lunch. It was really cloudy that day so we could not see the mountains well.

Another shot from where we stopped for lunch.

A sneaky lizard I found under a rock.

The holiday house of the Lesotho Prime Minister. Not exactly what one might expect - but Lesotho is a very small, poor mountainous country.

A sheep herder's house. The Basotho herders use the natural rock formations as a roof and then build up walls to protect them from the elements. They typically with only use these during the summer months when it is warmer - because it was still spring this one was abandoned.

The clouds on our way up made it impossible to see anything more than a few feet in front of us.

But then! A miraculous break in the clouds as the wind picked up and the sun shone through. This mountain formation was right next to us but was completely obscured by the clouds.

Candice guiding us forward into the valley.

More mountains + clouds!

The valley where Sehlabathebe village is located. We stayed around the bend in the next village over.

Pretty much the only non-blurry picture I got of Sehlabathebe village. It's really hard to take pictures from horseback. Little baby cows in a pen and a few houses on the left side.

Another non-blurry picture of the village.

Between Sehlabathebe village and the one we stayed in (sorry, I can't remember the name) we got poured on by rain for about 10 minutes. And then just like that it was over again - here is a picture of just after the rain.

A stream on the way to the village. One of Lesotho's best natural resources is its pristine mountain water.

Finally made it to the village. The horses deserved a rest after about 6 hours of riding.

Much easier to get pictures once I was off of the horse. This is one of the houses in the village that we stayed in. If you follow the road that you can see on the bottom right you get to the village center. There was a little shop in town run by a very kind woman where we went and got snacks and such.