Mark Jannetta. South Africa Trip. July 1- 18th. Day 1, 2 ish Travel and more travel, blurred 2 days into one long one; 4 flights, 3 Stopovers and a lot of sitting around finally got me to small airport called Pietermaritzburg 25 hrs away. Fortunately when I got off the plane the guys from ‘Son Skate’ who are hosting the conference, were there to meet me and unfortunately my bag was not. Good start… however we stopped at a petrol station and I was pleased to see it stocked up with English goodies, so dinner was made up of crisps, aero bar and a steak and onion pie to sooth my English soul. With a great exchange rate dinner cost me about $2. We went back to Richard’s house and I was able to catch up on email while they watched the God channel and everything going on in Lakeland. Makes for great discussion! Real Day 1 We headed over to the church to get some things lined up for the conference. This mostly didn’t involve me so I made good use of the ping pong table till they were done. We then headed out to the mall to get all the food for the weekend ahead. Was interesting to see so many car park attendants, but the jist is you pay them a small charge to watch your car while you are in the mall. We ate Breakfast first for a cool 10 Rand, about $1.50 and then did our shopping. Dudes and shopping is an awkward mix, but we survived and left the mall heavily laden and ready to sleep. Well I was anyway, so that’s what I did: slept. We all gathered at the church for dinner from our fresh supplies and tried to bring some order to kick the conference off with a prayer meeting. There’s about 30+ guys here for the conference with different Son Skate ministries from Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. A large number of them are just teens, not so much leaders. So the talks are being tweaked more to build them up and encourage them than focus on the leaders. You can tell it’s mostly skater kids, as they all left at 10:30pm to go find a sketchy Skatepark to skate till 1am. The more mature (older) of us went to bed! Bradley and myelf found a small room at the back of the church far, far from where all the ‘groms’ were sleeping. A wise move no doubt. Day 2 SKATE CONFERENCE Managed to get my butt up early and join the leaders to pray. Good to do. After breakfast we had our morning session with everyone. Worship and talk. Each leader shared a little on their neck of the woods. I represented the US as best an English man can. In the break I went and bought much needed underwear. I was happy to see my first real and loose on t streets monkey and thought of Ella and her funny monkey noises. Wish she was here to see it too. Richard informed me they were like a vermin here and would sooner run it over than stop the car to look at it. Nice. Headed back for session two. As Bradley the main coordinator started talking he had a phone call which he took on stage. It was the airport and my bag had arrived. Praise God. That counts as a miracle. After lunch Bradley borrowed a car and drove me to pick up my bag. It took us about an hour and a half, so I got to see some South African countryside… oxen, shacks, forest fires and Africans pee- ing on the road side. All quite normal sites I was assured. By the time we got back everyone else had left to go skate. My eyes were heavy so I did not fight the chance for another good nap, from which I could hardly wake myself from. Dinner was good and boys being boys had a little hot sauce eating contest to finish things up before our evening meeting. I grabbed a much needed shower and change of clothes first. After a few videos and worship it was my time to speak. I shared some personal stories and challenged the guys to build on a foundation of faith. Faith being to believe what God has promised. The guys responded positively and we prayed to end and a few guys hung out to talk and pray some more. After that the English cravings kicked in so we borrowed some BMX’s and did our best to cycle up the hill to the nearest petrol station and buy some chocolate and crisps. All three of us were worn out by the time we got to the top. So unfit! Coming down the hill was just as amusing since Johnty had no brakes on his bike. Ping Pong was next on the agenda and I managed to destroy all the competition. The Anglo- American- Italian-Scotts would be proud. Back to the computer to email and it was 11pm before I knew it. Bed. Day 3 SKATE OUTREACH The morning session kicked off without me… I managed to sleep through worship despite our room being right next door. Guess I’m still jet lagged. We had some free time, so the guys dispersed in different directions. I took the chance to hone a few more table tennis skills and school the South Africans. Unfortunately one of the kids got arrested for carrying weed and was taken off to jail to learn a lesson. He later rejoined us, but I think this upset a few of the leaders. Today was set for more of an out reach to the local community with a skate and BMX comp. So after lunch I grabbed my board and skated a little with some of the guys. The park is small but we made the most of it and had some fun, before the contest started. Caught myself by surprise landing a big, beautiful fakie tre flip first try. Mostly skated terribly otherwise. The comp consisted of an open format best trick contest on a small quarter pipe area and then a stair set. After several minutes of a few simple tricks and more spectacular bails and those of us spectating felt content to call the skate contest complete and give the bikers a chance. No one got seriously hurt, prizes were awarded and everyone maintained good attitudes, so overall it seemed a success, despite the little drug bust upset earlier. The night finished out with some punk music. Not quite my scene, but I enjoyed watching the guys jumping around and hurling themselves into one another. The highlight though was when one of them got the mic and intermittently throughout the bands performance let off a very low and deep ‘death metal’ style growl. I don’t think the band quite knew how to react. They jut carried on playing. I kept on laughing. Finally managed to talk to Annalise on Skype and then headed to bed once again. Day 4 CHURCH We were woken at 7am to find there was an early morning church meeting and we had to tidy up and eat breakfast outside...quickly. At 9am the main service began and there was a total contrast between our skaters and the rest of the congregation who were mostly: old, artsy, eccentric, white and well off. They totally made all the skaters feel welcome though and Richard introduced everyone. A couple of the kids spoke and had us rolling in the isles laughing. The pastor spoke a good message although he managed to slam about every other denomination and had a few digs about American Mega Churches. The service was broken up by the occasional snigger of the kids trying not to laugh at some of the more flamboyant goings on by the regulars, who weren’t shy to wave flags, speak out and share loudly with everyone what they wanted to say. It was strange but with such a warm welcome wasn’t threatening. They called us all up front to have the church pray for us. Bradley and myself hid behind a wall of ‘groms’ just to be safe. As church ended a Graffiti expo started outside in the park and a number of guys came through to spray the park and walls. Again it struck me as quite amazing that a church of this demographic was open to such things. I managed to get myself a sausage roll, Cornish pastie and another Aero bar, so lunch was the best! Watched ‘Indescribable’ with Louis Giglio which was equally as inspiring as my lunch and described the enormity of our universe in Gods hands. A couple of the guys expressed they wanted to give their lives to God so the leaders prayed with them and gave them some words of wisdom on what that really means. This is the last day of the conference and there seems to be a good bond between everyone. No one has fallen out with anyone else and there is continual good natured banter. I think it helps make for much better reception to the messages when presented. I spent the afternoon with some of the Cape Town guys down at a skate park by down town Durban Beach. A real mix of cultures from: white; to Black; to Indian. The Skatepark was a large concrete one… and free. Took me ages to warm up and I got bored so I went for a walk down the beach.