Latest / Wander the World with Pippa Hudson / Wander the World: Skateboarder Jay Vanporppal on his African fundraising adventure

Transcript

Wander the World: Skateboarder Jay Vanporppal on his African fundraising adventure · Wander the World with Pippa Hudson

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: In Wander the World. Today we want to share the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: story of a young man who has taken the concept
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: of wandering the world to a whole new level. He
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: has just completed a nearly six thousand kilometer journey in
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: one hundred and six days, traveling by skateboard from Uganda
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: to Cape Town. And if you've been anywhere near social
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: media in the last week or so, you cannot have
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: missed the videos of communities welcoming him with cheers and
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: open arms from Lansburg to Worcester, to Paul and yesterday
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: of course, to Cape Town. I'm talking about Jason Vanportpal,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: a young man who is undertaking ar has just finished
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: undertaking the third of his epic skateboard challenges, and he
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: popped into our studios a little bit earlier today, very
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: tired after finally putting his feet up at the end
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: of a very long and exciting journey, but very grateful
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: to have arrived safely in Cape Town, and very grateful
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: for the support for the cause behind this particular trip.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: So let's get We're going to share with you the
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: interview I conducted with him about an hour before we
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: came to a Jason van Portpal skated into the Cape
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Talk studios. Let's take a listen, Jason. Before we talk
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: about the trip itself, let me start by saying, welcome
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: to Cape Town and welcome to Cape Talk. Great to
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: have you with us today.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much. I'm happy to be here.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: How was your first night in Capetown?
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: It was good.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: It was the day when I pushed in, I got
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: to see everybody and it was awesome. And then I
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: came back to my room and I just like laid there,
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: looked at all my social media stuff just blowing up,
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: and I'm like, I cannot get to this tonight. So
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: I had to force myself to sleep around like one am.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: But the views are amazing. Where I was at I
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: got to see Table Mountain.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: It was fantastic. Well, it's great to finally have you
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: here after watching you make your way here all this time.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Before we talk about the trip, let's just talk a
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: little bit about your backstory. So a regular guy from
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: California who ends up doing a very irregular thing, and
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: it's not the first time you've done this either, how
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: did you end up being the sort of the global
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: skateboarding traveler that you are.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: It's just It's just as simple as the words I
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: always say, like this keep I just kept pushing, you know,
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: I kept going towards my goals, and like there's been times,
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: yeah I'm like a simple person back at home, and
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: I just kept going towards bigger goals, Like every time
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: something seemed crazy to someone I love, like the idea
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: of telling someone something and I'm being like, what, why
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: are you going to do that? And I'm like, oh,
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: that's kind of cool. Maybe let me try to prove
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: this person wrong. At first it was like that, like
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: and then I did what I did in America. I
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: skated across America. I was like, oh, I liked it,
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: so it got me to here. To this point, it's
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: kind of just like all fell into play to where
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: I'm just like pushing across different countries and continents. Now
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: I guess and yeah, yeah so. And I just love
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: posting videos online. I love skating. I'm super passionate about it.
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: Like none of this is forced at all, Like every
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: time I come somewhere, it's like by choice, Like if
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: I don't feel like doing something or if I don't
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: want to do something, I won't do it. So I
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: really do love it. It's not for the views or anything.
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: It's just kind of just comes with everything.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Do you have a day job back home in California?
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Or is this the thing for now?
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: So before I did for like, I've been doing social
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: media for like eleven almost twelve years now, and I
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: was working towards being a full time skateboard content creator
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: for that long and three years ago I finally were
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: able to make somewhat of a living to you know,
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: sustain my ways of living at home. Yeah, so now
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: I just do I just do social media.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: I mean a lot of people we sit in there
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: going wow, it's amazing that you can fund your lifestyle
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: just off social media. But literally that's the first people think,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: people ask after why is he doing that?
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: Is?
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: How on earth do you afford not having a normal
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: job and paying for an activity like this? Do you
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: want to explain how it works?
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So, I mean I've been back at home. You know,
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: I don't have I don't have a lot. You know,
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: it's super expensive out there, so I just make a
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: love I make enough barely to even just go by.
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: And I think coming out here it kind of got
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: me scared too, because I do I just got my
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: first apartment back at home, and I was saving up
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: so much money for I never had my own place,
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: and then coming out here, I was like, damn, leaving
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: my whole place behind and.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna still be paying.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: And it was just like always in my mind, but
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: I think it's possible for anyone. You know, you just
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: got to keep going and don't do it for the money.
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: Then the money just comes. I feel like if you
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: start just worrying about the money, it's going to stress
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: you out and you're just going to give up on it.
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: So I always told myself, like I want to make
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: whenever I make videos, I have to do it whenever
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: I want to make it, not because how much money
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: I have to.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: Make that day.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: But it was very scary coming here because I was
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: like people were telling me it gets a little more
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: expensive as you go down to South Africa, and I
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: was like, man, how am I going to pay for things?
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: But I was blessed enough for people to help us
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: out with accommodations. A lot of these lodges and resorts
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: were helping us, and people give us water and food.
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: So I just like, I don't know, I just like
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: trust in God and like he was going to help
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: me this whole way, and he did and it was
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: It's awesome, And.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Here you are at the end of the road. Now
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: we've kind of done this back to front because we
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: didn't talk about where you started and why. So, as
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Jason's already mentioned, previous trips have been skating across the USA,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: raising half a million rand or the equivalent thereof, to
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: donate more than one hundred skateboards to underprivileged youth. He
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: followed that up with a trip across Japan, raising still
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: more money to support skateboarders in Los Angeles. How did
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: you end up in Africa and why you Ganda specifically
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: as your starting point.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so I always wanted to come to Africa, like
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: I don't know something about it. Always just seemed interesting
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: to me, and I didn't know anybody out here at all.
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: It was just like an idea in my head. So
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: the reason why I came out to Africa because after
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: I finished my trip across Japan, it was obviously I
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: was posting videos about it, so people were watching it
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: and my friend, well, now I consider my friend now
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: because he was on this journey, but before I didn't
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: know who he was. He was a random person that
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: reached out to me from Africa and Uganda. His name
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: was Isaac and he reached out to me saying, hey,
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: if you ever think about skinny across Africa, like I
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: would do it with you. And I get like hundreds
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: of those messages all around they want me to come
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: to Australia. But something about that it was like it
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: was like a calling. I was like, yo, I want
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: to go to Africa.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: Let's see. So I got on a call with him.
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: I saw he gave me his page and it was
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: legit what he was all doing, like he wasn't He
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: was just a simple person as well. You know this
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: at home and Uganda, and he's the one that mentors
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: these kids compol a skateboard initiative and he mentions like, hey,
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: I want to do with my friend too, So it
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: was going to be three of us. So we started
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: talking for months and months and I just booked my
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: flight to Uganda. And that's the reason why I started
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: in Uganda because they're from Uganda. Originally I wanted to
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: do it from Egypt, but I know a bunch of
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: stuff was going on towards that time, so I just
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: decided to start in Uganda. I was like, you know,
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: it's already a far distance, so let's just start here.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: Got to hang out in Uganda for a minute, and
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: me and those two other guys Isaac and I Farim,
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: we just started pushing and we obviously made the decision
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: to raise funds for the kids, and they showed me
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: everything around, so we just started doing that.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: So the trip has taking you through seven African countries,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: and as you rightly say, half of Africa is still
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: a very long distance. It's Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: and of course finally South Africa. Now you've already mentioned
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: the role strangers and they kind has played along the way.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: People opening their homes to you, people helping you out
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: with food, obviously, people supporting the course you were raising
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: funds for to help those kids skateboarding in Uganda. Were
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: there any moments where you thought you weren't going to
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: finish the strip, where things went wrong, where you had
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: bad experiences or has it been an entirely positive one
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: for you.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: It's been positive for sure, But there's obviously a lot
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: of times where I wanted to quit. I wanted to
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: stop at the very beginning, because when you look at it,
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: when they I was on day fourteen, like I was like, dang,
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: I had to do this for probably like ninety more days.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: It was very difficult to even comprehend that. Soday, I
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: stopped looking at the bigger picture of how far I was.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: I would always go on Google Maps is looking I'm like, dang,
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: cape town so far, you know, And I was like, man,
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: I was looking at flights on my phone at nighttime,
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: seeing where I could fly out at that moment where
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: I was in like Tanzania, so I was like ready
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: to go home. I was tired of everything. And then
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: but I didn't want to base my decisions on the
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: motions I was feeling in that moment, because I feel
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: like that's what I do a lot, and I feel
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: like a lot of people can relate. Is like we
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: base we base our decisions off emotions, and then we
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: ended up for getting it, you know what I mean.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: If I would have went home, none of this would
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: have happened. And I'm glad I didn't go off that decision.
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: And I waited. I slept it off, and I woke
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: up the next morning. I was like, let's go and
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: but there's been multiple times I wanted to quit.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: A lot, but you just got up and got back
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: on the back, got of.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: Them, got back.
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, a lot of time I was in pain, we
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: were hungry, we starved a lot, We slept in places
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: that no one shall probably sleep. And that was just
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: in the beginning of it, you know, like no one
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: knew what we're really doing. I mean, it had some
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: eyes on it, but it wasn't until South Africa it
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: started getting treated like this.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: So we're going to talk about that for a second.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: I just want to say, for the sake of anybody
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: who comes into this conversation halfway that my guest is
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Jason van Porpol and he's the skateboard guy. He's beat
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: all over your social media for the last couple of
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: days as he skated across South Africa. He arrived in
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Cape Town yesterday, was met by it looked like a
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: pretty big crowd at the City Ball skateboard Park ready
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: to welcome you. Now, Jason, I mean, what shifted as
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: you got to South Africa, Because it was clear there
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: was just clearly such a groundswell of sudden awareness of
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: what you were doing, support for what you were doing.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: I want to even go so far as they love
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: for what you were doing. Because the videos we've seen
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: from places like both of Waste and Langesburg, kids running
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: on the street, riding their bicycles alongside you, police escorts,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: the whole town buzzing with the news that this guy's
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: arrived here. What do you think what brought about that shift?
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: Oh? I don't know.
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: I was so many people ask me that, and I
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: think it's just more. It's more than just like what
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: I see. I'm like, why do people care about a
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: kid skating across you know what I mean? Like, I'm
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: just like a person skating on a skateboard. It's like
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: a funny toy to some people. But I think they
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: see more than that. They dig deeper into it. And
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: I think it was an opportunity for South Africa to
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: come out, come together and show what they actually are
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: best at, is like loving, and I've seen a lot
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: of that.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: I see their patients, I see their love, I see
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: their care. And I heard.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: Someone told me they're like, yeah, we have this in us,
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: but we just you know, something has been I don't know.
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: I haven't been here long enough to know how it is.
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: Out here, but they just told me it's it's just
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: something they've been holding back on. You know, it's coming
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: together and it loving for something. And then I guess
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: this gave them that reason to come together and do that,
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: to show love and support that what they are really about.
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: And it's crazy to see how it has happened to me.
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: I'm really blessed to be that person.
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: I guess.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: Now you've made it safely to Cape Town. How are
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: the roads in South Africa? I have to ask was
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: it easy skating relative to the rest of the triple
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Was it quite a night baby? Because let's just say,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: our behavior of the drivers on the roads is not
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: exactly world famous for being good behavior.
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: Well, to be honest, I'm gonna give my honest opinions
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: about it. You know, I'm not gonna be biased. But
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: I love South Africa. But a lot of poholes. Yes,
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: there's a lot of potholes, But honestly, I didn't hit
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: too many potholes, only a few. But the ground when
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: you're riding on a skateboard, the ground is so rough
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: the stones stick out and everything. There's some roads that
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: have good smooth roads, but I remember, like when Jerome
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: was riding with me on the side. I pulled up
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: next to him. I was like, I don't like the
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: end one right now. The end one is not my.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: Friend right now.
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: I just wanted to say that, and I just kept
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: going and I'm just crunching on by crunching for hours
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: and hours. But yeah, it has is good and bad moments,
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: but I seem worse. I've seen really bad roads about
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: South Africa's not that bad.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: Look, I'm really glad that you made it here with
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: no encounters with our motor vehicle drivers because we're not
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: so good at those. But Jason, what about injury concerns?
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's a long, long, long way, one hundred
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: and six days. I don't know if you've taglied up
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: the total number of kilometers or miles. It would be
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: in your distance reckoning that you've covered. But that's a
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: lot of repetitive strain to put on the same joints
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: of the same muscles day off today. Has your body
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: held up?
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Okay? Yeah?
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: Body right now? My body feels good, like I feel fine.
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: You know, when you do something every single day, I
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: feel like it just becomes your natural thing at this point,
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: you know, you're still sore, you're stiff, and you feel
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: those like pains, but it's not nothing that's going to
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: stop me from like walking around it or anything. Like
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: I could probably go on a run right now and
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: be fine or go scathing again. But I did have
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: some injuries, Like the first day I left Uganda and Kampala,
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: like I just like I gassed open my elbow because
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: I was so excited, you know, we're going down the hill.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: And then uh, in.
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: South Africa, I got I fell down going really like
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: fast down a hill and it was wet, it was raining,
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: so I slipped and I like bust open my hip
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: and you know, all these little cuts. But then in Zambia,
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: I like I got a stomach virus.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: I had a Yeah, it was really bad.
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: I was throwing up everywhere while pushing and people were
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: telling me to rest, like you should have pushed it.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: I was like, but we got to be there in
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: this time. I want to be there. So it was
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: just really terrible.
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: But I'm glad I did that because they're good stories.
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: They're good stories to tell. And other than that, I
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: feel fine. Sometimes you get cramped. I mean, Jerome saw
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: me my first two days leaving Johannesburg, I was cramping
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: like crazy. But yeah, once you just keep going, it's
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: just it gets better, you get stronger, you start leveling up.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: I'd like to say, Okay, so the body levels up,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: what about the mind? I mean, it's it's it's it's
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: a mental challenge as much as it is a physical challenge.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: You've spoken about that that need to sort of coach
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: yourself to get up and get back on the board
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: and keep going on the days when you just don't
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: feel like doing it. How much of accomplishing this has
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: been mental strength versus physical.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: Mental it's way more mental than physical.
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: Like I always think that because when you're pushing out there,
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: you're literally out there for hours, like eight to ten
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: hours a day sometimes, and your mind is bounces off.
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: It's like a I don't know what game is that called,
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: but it's like bouncing on each wall and you're just
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: like good bad, good bad. Okay, I'm happy, but then
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: I'm sad right now and I'm like, oh man, what
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: I feel like this? And it just makes you, it
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: plays with you, so you have to just I started
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: learning how to like be okay with that emotion that
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: you have to sit with it, not to push it off,
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: you know what I mean, Because we all have like
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: this little darkness inside us, and I feel like it's
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: always good to shine light on that darkness because we're
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: all not perfect, you know what I mean, Like we
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: all have some stuff we struggle with, and I like
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: to just sit with that moment for a little bit.
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: And then after, like I started advocating for kind of
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: just being talking to people, like once you talk to people,
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: because when I was doing this journey, I was just
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: holding in all my emotions and I want to let
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: people know I'm strong. Like even my family, I don't
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: like them to worry about me, so they every time
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: they ask me, Jason, are you okay, I'm like, yeah,
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: I'm good, I'm good. But one night I finally just
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: like opened up to my dad and mom and I
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: was just telling them like, honestly, I'm not good.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: Like this is how I feel.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: And I started like breaking down crying, and it felt
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: very abnormal for me to open up like that. Yeah,
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: but I feel like it's definitely necessary because I felt
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: so good after and I was like, you know, I'm human,
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: you know what I mean, Like I'm not as strong
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: person as people could see me. But you know, I
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: just want to like, this is my growth, this is
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: how I need to grow. So I think it's good
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: to just open up and talk to people.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: I think that's such a powerful message because who wasn't
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: made this ridiculous rule that you have to be strong
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: like that all the time. I mean, nobody, nobody goes
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: through life without days like that. So I think it's
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: great that you recognize that and applify that message. So
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: final question before we wrap up. I mean, you hear
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: in Cape. Have you got some time to spend in
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: the city. Are there things you're planning on doing or
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: hoping to see while you're.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I want to be here.
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna be here for like two weeks roughly, so
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: two weeks I'm gonna go see all the cool things
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: and hopefully obviously climb table Mountain. I want to do
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: that that was gonna go. I want to go skydiving,
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: and yeah, just see everything.
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: I want to see. The penguins too cool.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: They're ready and waiting for your boulders. We hope you're
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: gonna have an amazing time in the city. You've raised
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: all this money to help the kids back and Uganda.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: Are you gonna be able to go back there to
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: do any kind of sort of check hand over or
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: sort of wrapping up of the process with them.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: So the next goal right now is I don't want
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: people to think like it because this journey is over
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: doesn't mean there's gonna be other stuff happening. I want
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: to do other journeys, which I have really good things
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: that I already have in my mind I want to do,
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: But as of right now, I'm a focused on getting
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: that skate park and raising more money so we can continue.
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: I'm going back to Uganda som next year, I'm gonna
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: come back to Uganda. Then I'm gonna come back to
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: South Africa and do some great things here too, because
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: I really love like the hospital has been here and
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: I want to continue to do stuff here too, But
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: first Uganda and then I'm coming down here.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Thanks you.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: We'll try and get them to smooth the roads up
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: for you before that happens, Jason, Yeah, we'll do our best.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: Awesome have you with us in the studio today. Thank
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: you so much for making time. Thank you too, and
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: all the best for the onward journey.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: So that was skateboarder Jason van portpal tading to me
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: earlier today after the successful completion of his skate from
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Uganda to Cape Town, which he concluded yesterday, and we
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: checked in on his go fund me page just before
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: we came to air. He is ninety eight percent of
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: the way there. He has raised close to forty four
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars or for target of forty five thousand dollars,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: so it's a little over seven hundred and fifteen thousand
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: rand by the current exchange rate. And if you want
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: to help him get over the line to building that
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: skate park in Uganda, it's a go fundme campaign, So
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: you want to go to go fundme dot com and
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: search for the campaign called donate to build the biggest
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: skate park in Africa at Jason Vunpodalk. If you want
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: to follow him on social media, he's at J Films
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: and that's J A a Y at J Films.