30 young people from PeacePlayers Northern Ireland, PeacePlayers United States and PeacePlayers South Africa are in the middle of 10 days of basketball, leadership development, community volunteering and cultural learning. Declan is one of those 30 young people, and he’s bringing his first hand perspective about what it’s like to be part of the Exchange. He’ll be a regular contributor through the end of the exchange.

With the kick off of our 4th day of the Global Exchange here in South Africa, there has been much to do and to see around this beautiful country. We started off the day with a long bus journey to the Nelson Mandela Capture Site way out from Durban. The museum caused a few tears to be shed, deep thoughts to be had and much new knowledge to be acquired amongst the participants and coaches alike. We all felt the impact of learning the history of Nelson Mandela and his struggle for equality here within South Africa.

After this emotional journey, we departed on the bus once more, this time headed for the uMgeni Valley to witness the amazing nature reserve and waterfalls all around the area. After a long and tiresome, yet beautiful, hike up and down hills, valleys and stairs, we arrived at the first waterfall of the day; we all gathered round the edges of the fall and got our photos and took in the majestic view before moving onwards to the next.