There are so many new things that I learned from traveling to South Africa. It was a once and a lifetime experience that I would not trade for anything. Cape Town is a beautiful city that is far more westernized and developed than I expected. There are still many problems that the country is faced with and most are because of apartheid. This placed the black population at a huge disadvantage, but there are many people fighting to change that. We were able to hear the story from the owner of the first black owned wine farm. He told us his story about how his parents were farm laborers and his mother would buy him books to read even though she could not. After years of hard work he was able to purchase an old winery and refurbish it. It was interesting to hear that instead of hiring the usual companies to come out and fix up his property he would employ the people from nearby townships. One part of his story that really struck me was how he paid a man and his team double what they would receive from a normal construction company to build a road. They were tasked with finishing it in three weeks and they finished in two. The country as a whole seemed to have a completely different mindset about conducting business. One example would be Veldskoen, a South African shoe company. The company is 6 years old and growing at an incredible rate. It was started by this guy and his friend because they thought that the South African Olympic team looked terrible. He told us that there are now 22 other shoe companies just like his, and he had the opportunity to shut them down and not allow them to operate. Instead he was happy that people were able to create opportunities off of his idea. I remember him saying that he would be extremely happy if he could help someone create a business using his resources. My initial impression was completely wrong of the country. I knew that Cape Town was a tourist destination, but I did not expect it to be so developed and beautiful. This trip showed me that everyone around the world is struggling with similar problems, and that you can really understand the situations if you change your perspective. I believe that many people are blind to many things in the world and the world would be a better place if everyone took a step back and tried to think about things differently.
