I, along with the COC (Canadian Olympic Committee) and Canada Basketball visited the SEED Basketball Academy in Dakar. Our visit to their campus began with meeting the coaches. You could hear their thirst for knowledge in the questions they were asking. They were passionate about what they do and wanted to equip their young athletes with everything they needed to be successful.
To think that I have now been inducted into the town of Milton’s Walk of Fame is both an incredible honour and also a bit of a shock. I am honored that my name was even considered for this incredible distinction and I have been incredibly fortunate, but I feel like I’m not done. There is so much I have yet to do, and goals on my list I have yet to reach.
After he gave us our wet suit, snorkels and flippers, we jumped into the water. The first sea creature I saw everywhere was jellyfish! So, obviously I - and the family I was on tour with - started freaking out! It turns out that these jelly fish (which were a beautiful purple color and looked so graceful and soft in the water) were called moon jellyfish. Although they can and do sting humans (it feels like a mosquito bite or small zap), they're not poisonous. Of course, I did not learn this until later in the day, so whenever I saw a large group of them during the actual tour, I…
As I was leaving the botanical gardens, I noticed a tiny garden of poppies. Growing up, I’ve always worn the pins on Veterans Day and have seen pictures of poppies, but I don’t recall ever seeing a poppy in real life. So, obviously I snapped some pictures! This little garden was called The Legacy Garden, with a small plaque in front that said the following…
If you were to look at my phone, you would probably find a good 500 pictures purely of nature; plants, trees, flowers, leaves, ponds, the ocean and green sceneries. I am obsessed! I feel close to God in many instances, but when I am consumed by nature, surrounded by it, observing it, sitting or walking in it silently, admiring its beauty, listening to the quiver of the leaves in the wind, the birds chirping, the crashing of the waves, or a disturbance in the bushes - just me and my thoughts - that’s when I always feel engulfed by Him.
I, along with the COC (Canadian Olympic Committee) and Canada Basketball visited the SEED Basketball Academy in Dakar. Our visit to their campus began with meeting the coaches. You could hear their thirst for knowledge in the questions they were asking. They were passionate about what they do and wanted to equip their young athletes with everything they needed to be successful.
Over the next hour or so, I became well aquatinted with Cody, Alex and Cheryl. They were all super friendly, kind, and made the entire experience a lot of fun! Not only will they take your picture, but they will also give you ideas about how to pose in the most realistic location so that you appear as if you are part of the art. They also have an interactive app that I recommend you download called Art Vo. Through the app, there are certain paintings that move, allowing you to create a movie within the painting. Super cool…
First stop was the Spring Gully Lookout. Less than a 10 minute drive away, I was able to get a pretty nice view of some of the surrounding land and wineries in the area. I do appreciate the variation in the land, vegetation and views that Australia has to offer. Being on this hill by myself was so serene, I felt like I had all this land to myself.
The second thing I noticed was the texture of the ground as I walked closer to the lake. It didn’t feel like sand, and the hard crunch under my feet reminded me of winters spent trekking through hardened, packed snow. Except, it obviously wasn’t snow – it was salt. In some of the photos I took you can see a faint pink color but…
Driving around lost allowed us to see beautiful mountain views of the ocean, take some fun pictures and we even encountered a blue-tongued lizard! When we finally reached our destination, thanks to a friendly older Australian couple, I was blown away. First, there were so many kangaroos! Male, female, joeys, just hopping around freely in their environment, it was so cool to see!
While there I had to make a lot of adjustments. The time change was definitely the hardest, 14 hour difference! It took my body 2 weeks to properly adjust to the time change, way longer than I expected! Language barriers are nothing new to me, as I had plenty of experience with this in Russia, however, in Russia the letters were similar to the English alphabet. In Korea, its completely different, it was symbols, and complicated symbols at that! My apartment also didn't have…
My sister wanted to do XPLOR because there was a zip-line. Me and heights are not the greatest of friends, but since I was under the impression it was one zip-line, I told myself to suck it up and do it for my sister. Well, I clearly didn’t read the fine print because it wasn’t one zip-line but seven! Once you did one zip-line, you had to compete the other six it to get back on land. My sister was aware of this and didn’t feel the need to inform me. I prayed so much and thanked God profusely when …
