KARL Class XII arrives home...

It was not an easy travel day, but KARL Class XII survived 30-plus hours of airline travel on Saturday into Sunday evening.

Our first flight of the long trip home went well. We arrived in London (I went and got a shower) and a short tome later we were on our way back to the states!

We taxied, and taxied, and taxied some more. We seemed to be doing a kot of moving, but not taking off. Then we sat. And sat a little longer before taking off an hour late. 

The flight was a mess. The airline swapped to a smaller plane at the last minute, and several folks that requeated (and purchased) extra leg room didn't get it. The flight was jam packed. 

My seat mate was a violent sleeper. I was jabbed, kicked once, ans snored on. Lovely. I wasn't the only one that had a rough leg. Another classmate had a young bot sitting next to him that started vomitting during the rough landing into Atlanta.

South Africa - Day 11

(Publishing a day late from London. Three flights left!) 

Class XII got to sleep in on Saturday morning! 

Today is our final day in South Africa. It's bittersweet because we are all ready to be home, but are not quite ready to leave this beautiful country. This has been such an incredible experience that has been made memorable by the fantastic people I am surrounded by. 

We are heading to a crocodile farm. When we arrived we were able to taste crocodile, and it was pretty tasty!

South Africa - Day 10

Our first speaker was Dr. Riann du Preez, a local vet who talked to us about South African animal health structure and the role of Afrivet. Afrivet's goal was to make African farmers successful. This has become an income generator, as well as a community service project for Afrivet. 

The focus is now mobile apps to help diagnose animals. There are 1.1 billion people and 1.6 billion call phones in Africa. This is why there is a push for mobile applications. This also allows animal health professionals can assist via smartphones. 

Africa is the new breadbasket of the world. They need training, hence, smart farming program was built. Partnerships are needed in several aspects of the industry.

South Africa - Day 9 (Part II)

Alena joined our bus Thursday afternoon to talk about Soweto. She is a born and bred Sowetan. 

Soweto is an acronym for South and Western Township. Nelson Mandela is from this area. 

The hospital in Soweto is very large and employs 10,000 people. It is a government hospital that provides free care if you are unemployed. There is also a private hospital in the area. 

The population is 4 million and many are unemployed. Many are affected by HIV. 

There are stoplights, but they do not operate. The taxi cabs are horrible drivers. The taxi cabs must bring in 500 Rand per day, so they overload and speed. 

The towers are the old energy source. They are now painted and a recreational center. Bungee jumping is done there. The right tower with Mandela represents their hope and friendly demeanor. The tower on the right represents the vuvuzela.

South Africa - Day 9 (part I)

Today we had a long drive to Heidelberg, and a big feedlot. 

It was a rainy day today, and the traffic through the city was bumper to bumper. One thing we noticed is that several labor workers ride in the backs of bakkies (trucks). They even do this on the interstates. 

South Africa - Day 8

Today we left scenic Hannah Lodge and headed west. 

The drive west was one filled with cropland, mountains, plains, and small farms with workers busily irrigating and trimming roadsides. We passed Lyndenburg smelter for chrome where 70 percent goes to the United States as an export. This area is a big agriculture district, as well as mining. Lyndenburg is known as the town of suffering because so many people died from malaria in the early days.

South Africa -Day 7

We left Hotel Numbai at 8 a.m. and headed to Graskop for some shopping "for the ladies." It is a very small town and they love tour buses. We were able to mosey through shops, and barter in the small open booths that were street-side.   

Once we pumped up the Graskop economy we headed to our next stop. On the way toward the canyon we passed several small villages with astonishing unemployment, and they also have a high number of people dying from AIDS. Three of five babies born in this part of South Africa are born HIV positive.  

South Africa - Day 5

It was a travel day for Class XII. 

We had an early start Sunday morning. We packed the bus and loaded up to head toward the airport for our flight to Nelspruit, which is near Kruger National Park (we'll take our safari on Monday). 

Our flight was a tiny plane, but better than I expected. We were served a light lunch and the passing scenery was a little similar to flying west in the States.

South Africa - Day 4

Today we adventured on the scenic Cape Peninsula. 

Words will be tough to describe some of the scenery, because it's incredible. 

We pulled off at a Woolworth's in Hout Bay, a small town off our coastal drive. We purchased lunch for a cape point picnic later in the day. 

Some of the area we visited had been recently destroyed by large wildfires that burned over 7,000 hectares (18,000 acres approx). The fire damage also kept us from taking certain routes down to the cape. 

South Africa - Day 3

Class XII got a lesson in South African politics and a country's evolution today on Robben Island.

After a one hour ferry ride this morning we arrived at the harbor and made the walk toward the prison that was exclusively used to house political prisoners until 1996.

Glen was our tour guide. He was a political activist that was imprisoned for six-and-a-half years, so his knowledge and perspective was unique and fascinating.  Many have asked Glen why he would come back to the prison to relive the experience everyday, and his need for employment brought him back. He has been giving tours for 12 years on the island.

South Africa - Day 2

Good morning from Cape Town! 

Class XII got much needed rest last night. It was the first time I had laid down since Sunday, and a full night of sleep was pretty amazing. 

We had a full hot breakfast this morning before loading our bus to head out to wine country. The wine industry in South Africa continues to grow, and is globally popular. 

Our first stop was Paarl (pearl). This is the largest industrial town in the western cape. It was established in 1680 and continues to have strong French influence.

South Africa - Day 1

We flew across a continent in 11 hours and 40 minutes. Class XII has arrived in Cape Town South Africa to begin our international study seminar.

We landed and were met by our travel guide Marius Botha, who will be the brains of our operation for the next 10 days. Next on the list was money exchange. If you have never exchanged money, it feels a little bit like getting your nails done. They are speaking to each other (while waiting on you) in another language and it very well could be about you. It was, however, the first time I felt filthy rich. I exchanged $240 and got back 2700 Rand. I also heard from a classmate who used the ATM, "seeing your account balance in rand is pretty exciting!" 

We were met by our bus and kicked off our journey with a trip up to Table Mountain. This area of the cape is very prone to fire, and recently have experienced massive fires. This is very similar to California. In fact, fire is also a way to make certain the area survives.

KARL layover in London...

Following our 8-hour flight to London we had about 15 hours to layover in this European city. 

Joseph and Tim arranged for a bus to pick our class up at the airport and haul us around to the big sites of London instead of rotting in the airport all day. 

By the way, everybody knew we were here! London is one of the safest cities in the world and has more cameras than Wal-Mart (said, bus driver Steve). For every minute you walk the streets of London you are photographed 17 times. We were here about eight hours. You can do the math.

It's getting closer...

I went through my travel book!

The countdown keeps ticking away, and I am not even sure what day it is.

I am prepared. I have all the documentation I need, I have my suitcase packed, I have things ready to cram into a backpack to carry on, I have my itinerary tucked into a travel binder with reservations and information, and I even went through my travel book and marked off larger points of interest for quick reference.

However, I have officially hit "oh poop!" mode.

I have learned that traveling internationally for a longer period of time is nothing like traveling domestic for work.

(In case you missed it, what I'm actually saying is that I am starting feel a little overwhelmed and out of control and I don't admit that often ever).

Packing is difficult...

You would think with all the traveling I do for work packing would be simple. You would think wrong. Very, very wrong.

Packing for an international trip is hard. I'm not exactly sure what I'm getting myself into and I'm not positive I could run down to a corner drugstore to pick something up. This is what makes things difficult.

I want to have everything I need, but I don't want my bag to weigh 100 pounds. I want variety, but I don't want to over pack. I want to be prepared, but I don't want to weigh myself down with things I don't necessarily need.

The countdown begins...

Maybe our plane will look like this!? (South African Airways)

In case you've missed it, I'm going to South Africa.

I've started counting down and in less than 30 days I'll be headed out on my first international adventure with KARL Class XII. I'll be really honest and say I've only thought about packing a tiny bit. I have a few things laid out, and I've been pinning some packing tips, but that's about it.

It's going to be here before we know it!

I've done some prep work and mapped out our trip. This is our tentative itinerary.  I'm certain it will change, but at least it gives us an idea of some of the cool things we'll be seeing and doing.

Hotel chirping...

I've stayed in some pretty dumpy hotels as I've traveled all over.

I've stayed in hotels where I had to actually ask a co-worker if I had glitter on me after sleeping in one of the beds, or if he thought we all smelled like hookers. We've stayed at a place that likely just got done vacuuming the chalk outlines out of the shag carpet. I've even stayed at a hotel that didn't require the use of a door. We just took the window right off the room and crawled in!

Last week I had another experience to add to the list.

It wasn't the classiest of places and it wasn't even that clean, but it had a bed and a shower. I wasn't really even in the room that much. However, I did learn something during my stay.

Did you know the little table in between hotel beds makes a great ladder?

KARL explores global leadership in Wichita...

We couldn't take pictures, so I borrowed. (compositesworld.com)

I had a moment during the last KARL Class XII seminar in Wichita as I was watching the fuselage (that's the nose) of an airplane being built. It was moving along the assembly line at a snails pace as workers and machines crafted the massive structures that take me from place to place.

"I am never telling Dad this is basically made out of duct tape,"  I said to myself as I watched and listened to our tour guide at Spirit Aerosystems. "Seriously, freakin' duct tape."

OK, so it's not real duct tape, but it's like duct tape. It's a composite of metal that looks and feels like stiff electrical tape. It comes in gigantic rolls and they spin the fuselage about a gazillion times layering and wrapping this composite tape around. Then they cook them to melt the tape all together and you have yourself a nose of an airplane. It may be slightly more complicated, but that's the diluted version.

KARL explores creating a future in Greensburg...

The Big Well.

The KARL experience is starting to wind down, and I'm a little lot sad about it. This has been a great experience for me and has taught me a lot about myself, my ability to adapt, and how I build relationships. I've learned to not sweat the small stuff, and that it is perfectly OK to not have control of a situation 100 percent of the time.(I'm growing!)

Our 10th seminar sent us to Greensburg. If you aren't familiar with this small community, or it's story, you need to go check it out. This particular seminar had a human interest aspect to it that we really hadn't experienced before, and I think some of the stories hit home for those of us who do live or come from very small, rural communities. It made me evaluate a few things, and my favorite parts of the trip were the crisis management aspects, and how they've built a plan for the future based off the structure flaws in their experience.

KARL explores adapting to change in Pittsburg...

Gotta love a college town!

The KARL Program is back in full swing for year two of the two year program, and I'm still blown away by the takeaways I come home with. Pittsburg was no exception.

We started our trip to Pittsburg with a stop at Pittsburg State University. If you have a college-aged kid thinking about school and is into technology or woodworking, or mechanics, you need to look at Pitt State. The entire class was impressed by the resources this small, affordable school has at its fingertips. We had a graduate of the program in our  class and she mentioned just how far the program has come. It's fascinating to see such a gem and the type of students the state of Kansas is churning out in high level jobs, and the job placement they have is incredible.