Thanks for visiting my fundraising page. Whilst the trip itself is over, I am still raising money towards the legacy fund.

In relation to the two weeks I spent in South Africa, where do I start? From the opulence of the Durban waterfront to the poverty of the people living in the Valley of a Thousand Hills, from the electric atmosphere of the Fan Zones on match days to working with those people that the World Cup passed by. I think I experienced every emotion possible in my two weeks on the Lionsraw project.

There were many highlights:

       Finishing our project on time despite having no builders in our team

      Taking some of the orphans on a safari - most ignored the animals and spent the day resetting our watches and taking an immense number of photos using our cameras

     The bar in Inchanga - I say bar, it was more a reinforced shed - First time I have been served beer through an iron grill.      Getting some of the Durbanites into the Valley for the first time - some were shocked by the poverty       The number of people with nothing who simply thanked us for being there and making a contribution      Watching children who had nothing sharing everything we gave them (food, football kit etc)      A real life lock-in for the England match - the bar let us in then locked the door behind us to stop anyone else getting in

All this was possible thanks to the kindness and generosity of all those who sponsored me.

and some lowlights:

      Setting off from home at 4:30 am on the Sunday and arriving in Durban 5pm the following day (although the Ostrich spotting competition between Johannesburg and Durban killed some time).       Having a project that overlooked the mass graves and watching the excavators and body carrying vans.        Seeing some of the kids being stopped from playing football due to malnourishment and dehydration.       Accidently walking one street too far back from the hotel and suddenly noticing a lack of police and an increase in local interest – that was a scary moment       A lot of the children looking at least two years younger than their actual age       Being told by the pilot for the return journey that the flight would be straight forward - First thing he had to do was taxi from one end of the runway to the other as ' 6 1/2 miles of runway was ‘not enough for this type of plane to take off in a head wind'      The broken toys in the orphanage playground (direct funding to the orphanage where my project was based does not cover the things that lets kids be kids)

 

Well, as you are here and looking, if you could spare the odd pound or two or donate a prize for a raffle or auction it would be much appreciated. All sponsorship however big or small is more than welcome. Hopefully you don't need convincing but if you do, go to the Lionsraw website www.lionsraw.org and watch the videos, in fact, go and watch them anyway if you haven't already!.

Thank you.

Adrian