2011 Muscle Evolution Grand Prix

Michelle Price and Joe Manjoo warm up backstage during the pre-judging phase of the IFBB South Africa Muscle Evolution Grand Prix held at the Lyric theater at Gold Reef City, Johannesburg.

Nina Richter in blue warms up backstage whilst Louise Van Der Nat prepares before taking part in the Ladies Body Fitness section.

Chris Finn gets the final touches before going on stage to compete.

The Masters section during the pre-judging phase of the IFBB South Africa Muscle Evolution Grand Prix held at the Lyric Theatre at Gold Reef City, Johannesburg.

Duduza Tornado

I've lived in South Africa, most of my life and I have never heard of a tornado happening here. I drove to Duduza in Ekurhuleni after hearing about an apparent tornado. I assumed it would just have been a strong wind storm and expected a few roofs to be broken, some windows smashed and the like. When I arrived I was shocked, everything was destroyed. I spoke to some of the residents that confirmed it was a tornado. Some houses were simply gone, and just the foundations remained.

Roof sheeting wrapped around a telephone pole in Duduza, Ekurhuleni following the tornado.

A man cleans up the debris around the rubble of his house.

An elderly woman sits on the rubble of  what used to be her home.

The South African Aid agency, Gift of the Givers responded with R2 million aid package which included building temporary shelter for 150 affected families, supplying food, new clothing and bottled water and other necessities.

Kruger National Park

A Tawny Eagle sits in a tree next to Napi road in the Kruger National Park, South Africa.

This Lion was just lying on the side of the road, it was quite good of him to stand up for a few seconds to allow me to get this shot. Then he just lay down again.

 A Baboon sitting on a rock, lost in thought?

Three rare Wild Dog pups seen along Napi road in the Kruger National Park.

A young Baboon jumps from a tree as we drive by.

This large group of Hippos seemed very tense.

This lone Hyena came walking up to us along the road, he stopped at our car, had a look, wasn't interested in us, and simply carried on walking down the road.

Tembisa Protest

Protesters block a road during a service delivery protest in Tembisa, Ekurhuleni, near Johannesburg, South Africa. The protesters blockaded roads with rocks, bottles, burning tyres and various other things they could find. The protest is mainly about the community wanting to buy electricity from Eskom directly and not from the Municipality, which they claim is full of corruption and nepotism.

Little Hasan

The Gift of the Givers medical team had been in Mogadishu for few days, before they moved into an area that has been under the control of al-Shabab for years and they went into one of the only buildings that was in a decent condition in the area. They transformed it into a fully functioning hospital overnight. There was a large group waiting for them in the morning, the range of ailments was endless and the doctors got down to the business of helping the people.

5 year old Hasan Mohamed was one of the first seen. His arm was broken a few weeks earlier and some untrained people put his arm in a cast, but it was too tight causing his arm to swell drastically. His case was not the worst by a long shot, but you could see that he was nervous and scared.

As I sat with him and his father whilst they waited and then watched Dr Livan Turino change his cast and show the type of compassion they had probably never seen before, I knew that the Gift of the Givers team was in the right place.

After a simple changing of his cast, I could see that his nervousness and fear had gone, even his father seemed more content.

Hasan was just one of hundreds of people that the Gift of the Givers team helped, many of them much worse off than Hasan, but as he left in his fathers arms, I felt privileged to be in Mogadishu to see the great work that the medical team was doing.