Dr. Don Wood shares how family trips to South Africa and Cuba taught his kids empathy and gratitude. A visit to Robben Island and Langa Township showed them Nelson Mandela's forgiveness, while a baseball trip to Cuba taught youth players to respect what they earn.
Chapters
We take a family trip every year, and this year we went to South Africa. And part of the trips, I want to have them have a great experience, experience another part of the world, but also learn something, right? So we went to. First we went to Nelson Mandela, Robben island, where Nelson Mandela was there. And we had a guide who was actually in jail with Nelson Mandela, and he started telling stories. And one of the best stories I've heard was Mandela used to go to the guards, and he used to say, when we go out to the recreation, can I use this plot of land to just plant vegetables and flowers and things? And. And every time he asked, the guards would just beat him, Call them names, beat them. And he'd go back the next day, he'd ask the same thing, beat him. This went on for about eight years, and finally things were shifting politically. And finally the guard, guard said, you know what? He asked again. He said, go ahead, use the land. And for the next 90 days, Mandela with. With the other inmates treated this land like the most important land they've ever worked on. Tilled the soil, you know, put seeds, and all of a sudden, it took about 90 days to come to fruition. So there was all this fruit, vegetable and flowers. And he. He had a basket, and he picked it all out, puts it in the basket, and guess who he gave it to?
The guards.
The gods. These guards are sharing this story, crying, saying, this man taught me what unconditional love was and forgiveness. I would not know what that is in my life without this man. You don't have to change the world like Nelson Mandela, but you can change your family. You know, we went to a place, and my kids are amazing. Went to a place called Elanga Township, and I met this guy named Savi Way who was from there. He was touring, bringing us there, and he was probably top five, top three most inspiring people I ever met. Just. Just a great personality. We go there, and we wanted to go to the township, and we're going with the kids now. My. My older kids, they were here when they saw me grow my business and become, you know, well known or whatever it is. My youngest ones just had. My youngest one has had a really good life. He never really appreciates the struggle, and he couldn't. So. So sometimes, you know, my wife and I, we have five kids together. Our two youngest ones, we sometimes have this feeling like you guys are a little, like. What's the word? Entitled. Like, so. So. So we have this thought. We go. We go there, but we know we're teaching them Every day. So we go to Langer Township, and the first guy we meet, he has a wood box and he has a coffee pot. And I said, what do you got here? And he said. He looked at me like, what are you talking about? Can't you tell? And I was like, oh, sorry. And he was like, just joking, actually. Let me tell you what's here. He says, this is the first coffee shop in the Langa Township. And I said, really? What can you make? He said, I can make anything. So I said, really? I said, give me three espressos and two iced coffees. He runs down the block, gets iced coffee, right? Makes it. And it was a great moment for the kids to see. Like, this guy just had a box. And the pride he took, he was so joyful. So, like, the people in the township, they didn't have much. They came, they had joy. They had joy in them. And there was a saying. Seviwe said. He said, people call it a poor neighborhood, but we're not poor people. And I said, tell me more. And he said, poor people for us, means character. You can have all the stuff in the world, but if you have poor character, you're really poor. When we left, the coffee guy in Seville said, listen, we thought you and your kids were from here. I said. I said, what do you mean? He said, because when you walked through, you didn't walk through like you were Taurus. It was like you really connected. We felt your heart. And so I had to. I had to, like, eat some cry. I went back with my wife. I looked at the younger kids. I was like, maybe y' all aren't so entitled. Like, you know, like, we don't. But my point is, like, my job is to give my kids experiences. It doesn't have to be traveling, but for us, we. We, wherever we go, we want to teach lessons so that they can embody what they want to embody in love and forgiveness. There's basic tenets of humanity that I think is important for kids to experience, because being in Queens or being in America, sometimes, you know, you go someplace, just walking down a block could be traumatic, depending on what happens. So I like to expand their horizons. And it was a good story of. Of reminding me that, you know, sometimes they're usually absorbing more than you give them credit for.
For sure. They're. They're pulling it all in similar. And that's what I love about sports. Sports is being such a great teacher for me, and then even for my. My oldest son. We used to live in Canada, and baseball was his sport. So I was. I coached his team, and we actually got to play for Canada. So we represented Canada against Cuba. So I took his team with some other players that we had picked up. And what an experience to go down there for our kids because they had never seen anything like that in terms of poverty. We're playing against their different academies. As you probably know down there, the kids go to school for baseball or they go to school for soccer. So you're playing against the best in their country. And so we go down there, and the first game we're going to play, the catcher doesn't have shin guards, right. And we were thinking, he's just warming the picture up, and he was getting ready for the game. I mean, we left all our equipment down there, you know, for them. But our kids haven't seen that. How does a kid play without shin guards? Can you imagine? And we were at dinner one night, and one of our guys had a Michael Jordan T shirt. And the guy who was working at the hotel asked if he could buy it. And so our guy, now he's 14, right? He takes off his T shirt and says, here, I'll give it to you. And the guy is handing him $3. And Mike goes, no, no, no, no. I don't want any money. He goes, no, no, no. He's insisting on the $3. That's a lot of money for a guy working at a hotel. $3?
Yep.
And he's going, no, he won't take it.
Yeah.
So Mike comes back and he says, I'm trying to give him the T shirt, and he won't take it unless I take his $3. And I don't want to take his $3. I said, take his $3. He wants to earn it. He will take more pride that he spent, you know, two weeks working to pay for that T shirt. You get 10 of them for Christmas. But for him, that is so valuable. Our kids learned so many lessons just playing against those kinds of kids and just understanding how different their life is.
