Minnesota musician and writer Dessa is covering the Minnesota Orchestra's trip to South Africa for Classical MPR. Here's what happened on Day 1. Scroll down to see more.

Be sure to follow Dessa as she explores South Africa and tags along with the Minnesota Orchestra. Throughout the trip, she'll be posting to social media using the hashtag #DessaInSAfrica. Those posts will be collected here on 

, too. Follow along for photos, little stories and scraps of overheard conversation.

Listen: Explore the music of South Africa with our playlist

More: Dispatches from Dessa, and other South Africa stories

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Dessa &nbsp;

For Dessa, Wednesday was for traveling and reintroducing herself to the members of the Minnesota Orchestra as they all landed in South Africa. It was a late night, too -- keeping in mind that South Africa is seven hours ahead of Minnesota time. See what transpired in her first field report.


Dessa and Mike Gast, principal horn of the Minnesota Orchestra

Day 1 in South Africa: Dessa flies and dines with the Minnesota Orchestra