Here are the long awaited photos from Alex's trip to South Africa over the Christmas Holidays. Click the words in orange above to see the photos and videos. Sounded like a pretty relaxed time. They stayed in a relatively unpopulated area and spent quite a bit of time playing cards. No TV, no internet, no video games. Still, he came back unscathed and in good health. Never thought he would have survived that long without the electronic distractions!

However, the distractions he did have were quite exciting. Walking with elephants, snorkeling, hiking around waterfalls and oh yeah, skydiving. He did a tandem jump from 10,000 feet. About a 30 second free fall and then a nice landing back at the airstrip. He said he was pretty nervous taking off, then calmed down and enjoyed the view on the way up, then got scared again as the altimeter signaled they were ready to jump. Anyway, he made it. Check that off of his bucket list.

The Rau family was very gracious and kind to include him on this trip. Sounds like the South Africans are quite a bit like the US people. There are even racial issues that rival some of the issues we have.

Alex is actually getting a second trip to Africa this year. The High School has a program called INTERIM whereby the kids are required to get out and away from their comfort zone and take part in service projects. Last year he went to Queensland, NZ. This year, he gets to go to Tanzania. They will spend a bit of time in the bush, see Kilimanjaro and then spend a few days in one of the local schools teaching English to kids. I remember when our HS filed trip consisted of a trip to the planetarium. My how times have changed!