JP Shreddin Transworld

So right after they built the mezzanine, before they really started making it look pretty, Josh Peterson decided to give the rail a try. I guess Blaine sent the footy to Transworld, because i was peeping it today and low and behold i saw Josh and those glasses that are instantly recognizable.
Check out JOSH SKATING THE 16
next time you see him, give him a hug..

Super Mega best posts ever...times 2.

So we're keeping pretty busy over here at the ol' skate association, what with being special, doing rad stuff, keeping it real..all that stuff.
So here's whats going on today.
In big news, some of our guys made it to the front page of the News.
check out www.medicinehatnews.com and go to the front page section to see the photo..GO QUICK..if you didnt go quick enough, go to search and type in skateboarders. The boys decided to do some investigation work and sent a couple people away in hand cuffs late Monday night.

In our skateboard news..our very best friend Ben Loates has started his own blog down in Spruce Grove. This is definetly a blog you wanna peep, Benny's got some time on his hands and has some video's you gotta see. He'll be doing updates all the time so keep checking that shnaz..
oh ya..the link is www.sglocs.blogspot.com


In other fascinating news..Our lovable pal Josh Swanson, with the help of Blaine B, made a nice little video for us to watch. Last year the skateboarders won $8000 in a competition and we've used it for a cafe for Central. In this video J Swa gives us a little tour of our building, something you gotta check out. He never ceases to make us laugh...." I wip ya head bie"

Central Update For YQ from Shrafta major on Vimeo.

More vids..

Some African Skating..

Last days in Africa...London!

Marshall bought this rad slingshot, and he was showing a couple kids how to properly use it..


Going to a banquet with the mayor, and we were the guests of honor, it was such a surreal experience...there was tons of local media there. Here Stu and Brent are showing off their customary Nigerian clothes..looking fresh!



We went to this massive church in Abuja, built by the government. We tried to skate it but they wouldnt let us..instead they invited us for a private tour..this place was huge!



We went to the stadium to skate and we happened upon this 14 stair rail..defiently never been skated..Josh Peterson decided to man up and give it a try



Here's JP locking in for the long 50 50..takes some huge courage to jump on that thing in Africa..you definetly don't want to be busting an ankle around those parts..lol. Ya JP!


This was one of the skate spots in Abuja. This place had marble ledges that stretched for miles.


We set up this bench in front of the football stadium in Jos. You can't see it in this photo, but the radio announced our presence there, and there were hundreds of locals watching.


We made it to London. Big Ben



Heres a photo of Buckingham Palace



Here's Benny Loates trying to unlock the gates to the palace..going to see the queen mum!!

Air conditioning and Swimming Pools

So we arrived in Abuja this morning after a 2 hour drive from Jos. We left at about 6:30 this morning, and we started skating as soon as we got in. We checked out three different skate spots, taking time to go to the biggest church in the city, the millennium park, and the sports stadium.
We got a great surprise when we left to go to our accommodations, Terence had informed us that we would be staying in less than comfortable digs. We were happily surprised when our vans pulled up to the Abuja Sheraton, a very nice hotel that is a nice change for all of us.
We are all putting our African clothes on tonight, the Mayor of Abuja has invited all of us out for supper. We are very honored to be able to meet some of the amazing people that we have met, and are looking forward to our get together tonight.
Everyone is excited to get on the plane tomorrow, but very sad as well. We had a team meeting last night where everyone had a chance to talk about how this visit has impacted them, some of the things that were said have been very profound. We can't wait to get back to share all the stories with you all.
London is looking like it is going to be a lot of fun. As soon as we get off the plane and into our hostel tomorrow, we will be heading to a play, which everyone is looking forward to. Friday is going to be spent searching the city for skate spots...so stoked!
Jenna is feeling great, she was splashing around in the pool today, and Tanner is looking like his usual self, although a little skinnier, if that was even possible!
Thanks for all your comments, and this could be the last post we have before heading home.
We're excited to see you all.
Bye for now.

Message to Tanners Mom

If your reading this...i'm going to take this time to inform you that two of our members have picked up Malaria...fun....
I know there is some stigma out there of what Malaria entails..but actually, in Africa, we've learned that it's just like having the flu. Jenna Loates got it 4 days ago, and is doing amazing, at this moment she is smiling beside me as i write this..she should be 100 percent in a day or two.
Our favorite mascot, Tanner Armstrong, has also caught the bite. He was pretty out of it for a couple days..but is doing much better as we speak.
He wants to let his mom know that HE LOVES HER, and he is doing way better, he is eating solid foods as of this morning, and he really wants to go swimming.

So, as we have all learned on this trip...no stress...They have received wonderful treatment from two separate doctors, who both feel that they will be perfectly well very soon.
Keep praying for our safety, and the speedy recovery of our team members..

Two new updates…

Sorry for the lack of updates, the internet in Africa is kinda hit and miss..if you look below there is another update that I posted today from a couple days ago.
So the whole team is now together in the city of Jos. We’ve been traveling today so most of us have been taking some time to relax. Here’s what’s been going on the last couple of days…
Wes, Janice, Luke and Cindy arrived two nights ago to help us with the big pour at the children’s clinic. The whole team met together yesterday morning at the hospital site. This was definetly a great time, and everyone was very happy to see each other. All three teams pulled up to the site and we started working rite away. The hospital foundation was very large, and lots of concrete needed to be mixed and pour. Since we were in a smaller village, and in a more remote part of Africa, getting a pumper truck was something that definitely wasn’t going to happen. We all came together and formed two large lines from the mixer to the pour site and back, using about 50 people in the process. It was amazing to see the Africans and Canadians come together to get something this monumental finished. The locals informed us that this was the very site that almost 100 years ago Canadian missionaries had come to help developed, the school and church that they built are still in use today. It was such an incredible experience.
After that, our whole team packed into vehicles, and we headed to the Yankari National Game Reserve to check out some wild animals. After waiting about an hour to check into the rooms, something we are finding very commonplace around here, we decided to go for a late night swim in the warm springs. This spring was so amazing, with crystal clear water that was so clean you could drink it, and we had an unreal time climbing the trees and swimming. As we were playing in the water, we heard some leaves shaking, and when we looked up we found a family of baboons playing above us, which was amazing! We’ve also found out that the power likes to randomly go out when you least expect it, which happened last night as we were swimming, leaving a group of us stranded in a body of water in the middle of the wild in Africa, something that nobody was stoked on!! After waiting about ten minutes the lights came on, and everything was fine.

Brent, Chris, Paul, Joel, and myself were introduced to a new way of getting waken up in Africa, a hungry baboon scrambling across your bed! I guess Shane thought it would be funny to lure a full grown baboon into our room with a power bar, then throw it on our bed. All I can say is that seeing a 100 pound monkey jumping on your body at 6 in the morning is something that we will never forget.
After we woke up we went on the safari, which was pretty great. As soon as we left we saw a family of elephants, which stood about 10 feet from Terence. The mother elephant puffed out her ears to protect her baby, and I think I saw some tears in the guy’s eyes..lol
We ended up seeing lots of great animals, we saw some hippos swimming under the water, some monkeys, buck, buffalo, warthog, but unfortunately no lions.
So after that we drove about 3 hours to Jos, and we’re getting ready to do some more projects tomorrow. So far we have been involved in drilling boreholes, refurbishing wells, building a childrens center, hospital foundation, and renovating a school, so we’re defiantly looking forward to what’s coming next.
Hopefully we’ll get another update for you guys soon, things are going great here!!!!

Okay, so things are still going great here in Bauchi. We have heard from the other teams that they are doing great, and tomorrow both the other teams will be traveling to meet us, along with Wes and Janice, and we will be pouring the concrete for the foundation of the children’s hospital. Yesterday, the group spent a few hours with the villagers collecting rocks along the country side to add to the cement, today, we have to smash those rocks to smaller pieces. It’s pretty crazy how much work goes into construction here, the work that took us 4 hours to do yesterday could easily be done in 15 minutes by a machine in Canada. It was great to get together with the villagers and start construction. We are finding that it is hard for our team to actually do hard labor here. The men in the villages want to work so much that they usually end up trying to take all the work from us, haha. We’re learning how to work together and when we aren’t doing labor, we’re spending countless hours with the children, which is a lot of work in itself!
Again, it’s amazing to see how receptive the children are to us here. We’ve been told by our guides that children in this culture are often pushed aside, so when an adult takes the time to engage them, it means the world. Yesterday we spent a few hours in another village singing songs under a tree, as well as playing soccer in a field we have names the “Widow maker”, due to the holes and bumps all along the playing surface.
A few days ago we we’re invited to a wonderful feast in a village, a family had prepared a spectacular meal for us. After the meal we had a chance to meet the elder of the village, a man who was responsible for the village as a whole. It was a very surreal experience, we all sat on mats outside his hut as our translater told us how happy the man was to have us there, definetly felt like something out of a movie.

After we work at the hospital site a bit more today we have decided to go on a hike. There are lots of large hills and mountains here so the group has decided to go on an adventure. Don’t worry though, the only animals we have encountered so far have been scorpions and snakes…so nothing to worry about..lol. But seriously, neither was poisonous, and our guides are good at keeping us out of trouble.

So that’s it for now, I’m trying to get some more photos and video’s up, but the internet is pretty slow here, hopefully we can get some stuff up for you to see.
Keep checking back, thanks for all your comments!!

News Story

I'm sure you guys are ahead of us there back at home, but we found this on the internet..the local news is doing reports for us..and here is one of them

go to
http://www.medicinehatnews.com/stories/topstories/article_8187.php

more pictures

African Pics

Brent showing us how to make some great stir fry...

African Football Stars!!!

Today was another amazing day. We are continuing to get blown away by how receptive the Nigerian people are to our team. Last night we welcomed in 2008 in an exciting way, with Matty Burke keeping us all laughing with his incredibly wonderful songs, I think Larissa even got in there and did some rapping!!

Today was a more relaxed day, at least for a while. We decided to take the morning to sleep in, and then had lunch at a local families house. The lunch was amazing, and the boys even took some turns helping prepare it. It is so amazing how people will do everything they can to make you feel so at home here. After lunch we headed to Das where the local pastor, a wonderful man named Ishaku, set up a football against the local village. It was actually an amazing occasion, with the local leader kicking the first ball, and hundreds and hundreds of local people came out to watch. We gave the Nigerian team brand new uniforms we had brought from home, and they were very happy. It was a very surreal moment, with the whole village screaming and shouting most of the time. Something none of us will ever forget.

Tomorrow we are heading back to Das to help refurbish the well. When we are not working on the well, we are busy singing songs and playing with what seems like hundreds of kids. We have had a few stampedes when someone shows a bag of candy! It is amazing to see the joy in the children’s faces when you take time to play with them. The whole team is meeting up again soon, on Saturday we will be getting together to pour the foundation for the children’s hospital, then spend the night at a wildlife safari.
The Jos team is doing amazing, we have been hearing rumors that they have bought a goat for 15000 Naira (150$ CDN) and are planning on making some fine food out of it…..hopefully they don’t get too attached! The Abuja team is also doing great, spending time working refurbishing a school, and skateboarding around the city, something the other teams haven’t gotten to experience.
Keep checking the news for updates, hopefully a story has gotten on there, our reporter James Neely has been wonderful to have around, joining in on everything we have been doing so far. If you want to leave comments for the boys to see you can definitely do so, I think you might have to create an account, but I know the guys would love to hear from you.
Check back for more photos soon….hopefully!!!