Friday Update-Drinking Without you know DRINKING

Our key Monday Meeting was cancelled, it was very disheartening, but it is somewhat out of our control.

Lets see what is in my control...
For lunch we were outside of Nelson Mandela's law office and the  image of his love for boxing was a theme, so I had to get this picture.
Mandela as the conquering fighter lives in on South Africa, and his law office as said in a previous post is kind of a place of reverence.

After work I went with a few to Melville..

Melville was a happening scene, bohemian according to one description....there were many bars and it was pretty open.
The name Melville distracted me, could such a place be a cool hang out....turns out what is in a name?  No Much.  Melville was cool....

I had my green creme soda and joined the crew.

At a Restaurant..the group said these woman want to dance with me and another guy from our group.  I do not think they did really ask, but I had two options sit there awkwardly wondering or do something.....so I decided to one up them and start dancing with the ladies.  The ladies were surprised I even stood up. 
 I kind of forced Matthew in our group to dance with one as well.  This lasted 30 seconds and my group was shocked that I did that, so there is no photographic evidence....and no awkward sitting.

some of the crew needed help reading the menu

It was discovered one person looked alot like the waiters.

One thing, the team is sooooo PATIENT with me as I ask about their alcoholic beverages.  I never had the occasion to ask until now.... but creme soda is great.

Jamon
#CSCSA16

Day 21 It takes a Village-Thursday

We visited a community center called Orange Park, it mporphed from a farm, to recycling to a daycare, to providing pro bono legal work. 

We helped in the garden and entertained the kids with our crazy western games.

It was a small room, not one kid tried to leave.  They were supposed to take a nap as well.  So I tried to make it as fun as possible.


Was I it every time?  Yes

Did I teach a bunch of non native english speaking kids the English Popcorn song?  Yes I did...no videos I know of happened, but it was fun.

i also tried musical chairs, and wall sits but they were not as exciting.


Then we went to the IBM office, I saw Sandra the current IBM South Africa CFO and saw Mike Howard.  Then of course my bus left without me.  It is OK, I was only a few kilometers away.  Our DOT Liaison came back with her car to get me.  I was going to just walk back, which would likely have been OK.

Jamon
#CSCSA16

Workweek Updates

The workweeks blend together, so you will have to pardon me for going out of order.

We are now in full swing getting client buy in and discussion. Meetings are happening more rapidly.

I am just going to bore you with the customer detail.
Years ago I took a quantitative analysis class at BYU.  It helped me get pretty savy with Excel.
For data, everything is manual, and I signed up to look end to end at their process using just excel.
one night I ran excel and saw that the data was taking forever to recalculate, so I ran it and went to bed, I awoke and it was still at 70% completed.
Not alot of data integrity, so that has consumed my time.



On the personal front
Earlier I went to the mall to get socks to limit my laundry cycle needs.  I ended up getting a suit and trousers and a dress shirt.  A bathroom scale.  Then  the credit card company called and wanted to ensure the scale of all things was not fraudulent.  More on the scale below....


On top of all this I am in a diet challenge, Dieting in South Africa is like going to Hershey Park and refusing to eat chocolate.  It is possible, but why suffer?
The portions are so big here.  I have to curb what I eat.


On the subject of Food
Our lunch at our office is usually determined around 2pm when hunger pains kick in....and then we scramble to get it.

For dinner one night I ate Kung Ku Chinese Resturant.  I had Thai Chicken and it was good, but no one else liked their meal we walked a few blocks to get there through some dark allys.  A ward member was there and said it was a great value for the rand (money) place to eat. 

Weather
Our office is air is not very "climatized" either. It is an old IBM building which means few windows, many do not open.   I have threatened to wear shorts.

One day in talking to Rachel I realized it was warmer in NY than here...
There was a thunderstorm that rolled through and I updated the working file from the patio where we have breakfast, it was pretty cool to listen to and feel the cool breeze.

The next week it was planning to snow in NY, still hot and dry here.
There is now water shortages shown in different buildings, the hotel asked to limit showers for 3 minutes.

Collaboration
We had a group "Scrum," a pow wow among all the teams as to how we are doing.  The handed out emotions and we had to say what emotion we felt over the past few days.  My happy feeling was getting new socks.


Music Club--"Jazz"
Ok so Jazz is not Jazz here it is more R&B
That evening we had dinner and went to the music club that evening,
I kid you not it is a breakneck pace we are being driven.  We listened to the South African Band who coined this song "Gimme Hope Jo'Anna."  The band covered a few songs as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFcmNu4KdGI




Jamon

Getaway Weekend Near Kruger Game Reserve

We went away to a private game reserve near Kruger National Park called Thornybush.  It was 3 stars overall (at least what the lodge said).  This was pretty nice though.   We booked it Thursday and traveled at the beginning of the weekend.
I booked travel for a few people (I love USAA bank, they did all the security checks quickly and it went through).
The lodge was simple, small and beautiful  I stayed in a glorified tent bunked with Martin and IBM co-worker.  Glorified tent included running water, dresser,real bed, shower.
My tent mate Martin Broke his glasses.  I though was int he shower and obviously not wearing the glasses put the shampoo and other bottle in my hair. After I put it in, I read the label next to my eyes and saw it was repellent.  I did not get a bite, but it was so dry I did not need repellent.

The first night I intentionally did not sleep the night before and that helped me sleep through the noises.  Still there were noises all night long.


The next night with the rainfall, there was a white noise effect from the rain and I was fine.
We went on four drives, some at sun down and sun up.  We had an easy going day, while waiting.
It was oppressively hot.  Note Martin seeing a Nyla up close who wanted to drink from the pool.  I was asleep during this.  in the background you will see a triable that is the ONLY protection from the outside.  We were 14 KM from the nearrest paved road.  The whole camp was solar powered.

no bars on these cars to stop the animals from maiming us...

Overall the dives were in Toyota Range Rovers, they were peaceful.  The land was so dry.
I decided I wanted a range rover when I get a new car.  They drove in the brush and we saw wildlife everywhere.  The guides tracked tracks and looked for cats first, then we looked at herding animals later as they were easier to find.  The dive loved to take paths at caz angles.
We saw a pride of lions almost each trip, herd of elephants a few times... one was about to give birth with a head popping out while walking, hippos, Cape Buffalo, leopard which was a rare thing, Zebras, Impala, Nyala, alligator,  I could not believe how lucky were were.

Elephants:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp83BRNlbng
Bad sound



We saw giraffes on the way in and the way out, but the guides really did not focus on them as they are less rare.

The focus was on the cats.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3teIBS7XgI

a leopard, really hard to see and get close to

 The guides would drive anywhere on or off the road to get closer to the cats.
The cars were open, we could have been attacked, but the guides trained us well...to many animals we looked like one massive animal, and the fact that the game drives happen often, they were not surprised to see the cars.


The drives were just beautiful.

I feel I have now seen game drives, I am maxed out.


High tea was served at three, I had hot chocolate
Then  in the evening we did another drive
a little snack  out int he park, the guide made sure we were away from animals, then there was a dinner.


One time the guides both left us in our vehicle and walked off to find the lion trail, we were in a remote spot, but still to be alone...yikes.

It was great, I felt bad that I was enjoying everything with out my family

On our way back, We then took a tour of the rim and saw the diverse beaut of the area.  Our driver was great, he showed us the best parts and we made our flight back to Johannesburg.

Like all things in South Africa, the flight was delayed but it worked out just fine.

I am frankly all wilderness trekked out, it was fund but after 4 times I have had my fill of tea...hot chocolate.



#CSCSA16
Jamon

Day 11 The Monday Review

The drive in is always exciting some traffic jams with some people lighting fires in the streets.  Our driver had to change course to make the drive in to avoid areas with high congestion.  The cars get so close, I am impressed there are not more accidents. 

Monday was a long day full of sitting and talking, it seems with every interview we learn a new layer of the onion on the organization.
On the adventure front I went out of the building without an escort.  We walked across the street.  Very exciting.

This evening we had Indian food, that is two days in a row.  Jalpa a teammate took it upon herself to make the order and instruct us on proper etiquette.  I failed on proper hand eating etiquette....but it was good.

Right now we are getting ready to present to the client a checkpoint as to how we are doing.  It is a little nerve racking.  My job is to corroborate all of the data and see if I can map the customer from start to finish.  It is going to be very hard not only to do it, but make sure it is able to be replicated.

On the what have a I learned so far:
Blackberry:  I have a South Africa phone to use locally, and now I know how to use a blackberry.  They were kind of cool once, but swiping on a screen is soooo much easier.
Meetings:  It is so hard to get a hold of the people in some offices, they are doing so much and have little bandwidth. 

On the entertainment side....
For the past few evenings, I have been watching Cricket, South African League Soccer, and Rugby as it is on six channels each evening.
Tomorrow should be a fun day.

A little more on the subteam I am with:
Martin:  From Germany, we happened to tell the customer that he has a PhD and today they started referring to him as Doctor in the emails.  yes they do not call me Master...Ohh Well.  He is very good at cutting to the core issue, and very approachable and honest.
Jalpa:  From India, she works on the consulting side, so this is not as new as others. She can clarify problems really well, and is disciplined in her approach.  
Li Hua:  From China, This evening I saw her eat dinner with us and it was not Chinese.  This was something I was not used to recognizing.  She has a hankering for Chinese.  She is one who rolls up her sleeves and gets to work. 


Jamon


 

Day 10 Churchie Stuff-but inspiring I AM RECHARGED

I awoke early and raced out to catch a taxi to the Sandton Ward, In Randsberg.  When I arrived there was a gate and no way in.  I called the local church leader and got the security code.  Whew, I made it.  I showed my current temple recommend and was privileged to help serve in passing the sacrament.
People were there from all walks of life. 

I loved talking to people and finding out about them.  Many shared how they were not active in the Mormon faith for a while and then came back.  I asked what drew them back?  They said they just felt like they needed to come back.  I asked others about what they did, it seemed many had entrepreneurial ideas, but many do not have business sense about some questions.  This is a small sample size.
A woman talked about living in Zimbabwe, another from Durban and how they persevered up to now.
A teenager spoke to being grateful, and how she learned to give and she at least no longer felt depression in her life, just a nice solid talk.
A woman gave a moving talk about how after her husband passed away she learned to give more and more.  She wanted to give something meaningful and spoke on how she hated cooking but was willing to for meals on Wheels.  She felt it was an acceptable sacrifice.  She cuts apples and on her way to the temple hands them to the homeless who are in the middle of the road panhandling.  AMAZING.
Another person spoke about the Sacrament and preparing ourselves for it, It was inspiring, I took notes! 


While there I had heard mention of a car trying to tailgate into the building behind someone else a the font gate.  They were likely there to vandalize, they were aggressive and demanded to come into say their prayers. 
The gate was held closed from them and there was no incident.
Members were telling me of the common vandalism, I was amazed.
  It was suggested that I do not go alone back to my hotel.
A kind member with whom I have a common acquaintance with drove me back and it was nice to talk with them.

I then had lunch with another IBMer I said whatever  you want, I am at your mercy.  He was kind and ordered Mild Indian.  My forehead was sweating and I was consuming the Naan bread to break the heat.
I am such a weak eater

I walked around the more wealthy pat of Sandton with a fellow Christian and IBMer. We saw kids playing in a sprinkler play area and we missed our own children. We talked about of collective faith.
Anyways the short and long of it was...again....I was inspired.


Afterwards the weather was good, I was poolside and enjoying the 80 degree with a breeze.  

Enjoy!
Jamon 

Day 9 CSC Saturday!

Well I used whatever clout I had (which is little) to have a group of us head to Lions Park.  We took a mini game reserve tour.
We saw Lions, Giraffes, Zebras, Cape Buffalo....it was great

https://youtu.be/DGPRY4b8hgY


Turn the sound off, it was finicky

Then we fed Giraffes at Lions Park

I might have cut in front of line for this in front of the kids.....it was just so open to feed the Giraffe from the 2nd story deck

Giraffes do not like to be pet.
Saw Meercats

He is standing on the rock, I promise

They could be good mouses I was told.


I also pet a Cheetah
The tail was heavy and they use it to change directions like a rudder

The cat is not subdued, we are just not interesting, his tail is heavy.  We were very cautious and could not run or he would think it was a game with an unhappy ending for us.

Then baby lions, the sound comes on in a little bit
Here are the two lions, one was playing with my shoe.  They were raised very tame, and they were playful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOMt3ZA5pPU




Came back had 90 minutes and we were off again.  The organizer thew a house party.  We left at one AM, and I got the impression it could have gone much longer.

I relearned Rugby only to see the team everyone support lose.
Then we ate Braii (BBQ) and danced.  It was fun to talk to many of the host's connections and all were super great and friendly.


I got some compliments on my dancing, which I think looked more impressive when everyone was drinking alcohol.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnyZgbu_PYE




Boy was I tired.

Have a great Sunday!

Day 8 in CSC South Africa

The teammates that I am with ae geat.  Li, Jalpa  and Martin showcasing all the phones we have and all the power cods interconnected

We had no customer interviews..officially.  The customer took us on a journey through downtown Johannesburg by the Gandhi square and then we were fortunate enough to have excellent Chinese food.  Li in my group asked if the owner spoke Chinese.
The restaurant owner claimed she did , but then Li started talking to her with no avail.  She came back to the table and simply said "She does not speak Chinese."
It was still great food.  We passed by Mandela's original law office as well.  It was inspiring.

In the evening we went to a jazz club, but thee was no jazz.  It was more R&B, and it was nice.

 

Before the lights went out at the club

https://youtu.be/NZyoawCYGPo
 Here is the video while it was dark, we were kind of loud, but I was told it was OK

Found some fun labels while at the Store shopping

Jamon

Day 7 Breakneck Pace

We had a really good meeting today with the customers.
I am setting the schedule, I was told maybe I should not but it is faster and I was tied of waiting.
We met with some really good people who know the process 
They walked us through the systems and what I gained and understood is that you have to keep checking assumptions.  I came in at 11AM and I said Stanley is not on post investments, he is on post care for the loan distribution.  Some were shocked, others were like...eh no problem. 

People came out of the woodwork, the leader in marketing requested a meeting and some of our team walked her though the current approach.  Everyone seemed pleased.  
It is almost coming along too well, there is too much agreement.  It is like that scene in the movies where there is happy music....then someone says isn't everything great, and you are like yeah.....waiting for something to happen.

With the interviews, The customer was so patient and even taught us the handshake.  It is a little like Ralph Faneus used to do for me when I was a teenager. Thanks Ralph.

In the evening we recounted you view with the DOT team.  It was nice, it started slow, but it is  now going at a pace whee in the middle of the afternoon I was tuckered out.

Last week I inspected the local chickens near Soweto as the resident chicken expert. 

Thanks,
Jamon

Day 6 Talking to the Customer and should I really go see bones?

We had our first real scheduled meeting with the client and it was great.
We UNDERSTOOD the requirements.  Frankly while we were waiting we went through every scenario we could think of and we kind of put it as "Here is the universe, where should I point my telescope."
We had some good customer discussions, based on limited access I might have booked a few back to back.  I think it worked out well, we only forced one person to delay his holiday.  OK I feel bad about that one. We gained alot of insight.
My team was happy that I could talk financial terminology with their portfolio team.


No Strange foods really to report, I was barely able to have any lunch.
We are now in data deluge....The best thing to do it hash out what we learned and put it together.
I was printing just about everything on the customer printer and I put the paper in when the feeder was out.  The feeder tray would not close.  A kind woman came up to me and noted that in South Africa they load the paper on the right and the steering wheel is on the right.  Ahh even the printe paper is backwards

 A typical van scene is from the back row.

OK so poor camera quality, but this is also what life for me looks like without glasses.  A bouncy van.

When we get back to the hotel it is like a party!  The poor people in the lobby.

All are talking about the upcoming calendar.

Touring Question for the Readers
I will likely go to church on Sunday and I asked all who were going to the Cradle of Humanity to go on Sunday.
Cradle of Humanity does not interest me in the least.
So if you have read this far, please feel free to comment, should I go or not?  I asked Rachel and she did not think it looked interesting either.....
I have seen enough bones in my lifetime....what makes this special?

If I was with my child and the school subject that year covered evolution, that is fine...but bones really?

Jamon
#IBMCSC #CSCSA16

Day 4 & 5 With the Customer.....well kind of....does the building count?

I am sorry this may be the beginning of the end of the tourism section.
We have to get to work here!
As described in the first blog, this is a Copoate Service Corps, we are here to help those in need.
There are four subteams, I do not know what the others do, I am somewhat myopic.  I know some are e govenment, health, and e education.  I could not tell you who is on what except the health folks as they got to visit hospitals in the surrounding area.

When I should have been paying attention, I would have learned during the kickoff section what each team was a part of.  My team was first to talk about the project at the kickoff and after that, I was too busy meeting the client.


We had a kickoff session at the Sci-Bono centre (see that spelling?) The meeting was very nice, the subteam that I am a part of is below

A little secret with my suits fo this trip, they all go with my brown shoes.#Savinonpacking 

Larger IBM Team with clients and DOT the group that put this together

We met the customer, they are a government mandated group to help grow small business in the province that includes Johannesburg and Pretoria. It is no small task.  Is there limited funding?  Yes.
After being shuttled to the office, we saw the security they took my finger prints to enter the office.  There is more security here than I am used to, but it is different.  For example, they really want to check your laptop on the way out of the building to ensure you are not taking anything.  I had to sign in the serial on my laptop.
They told me it is not safe to go out for lunch (I love eating in anyway ask anyone in the office).
Sadly on an official basis, besides the group head, I was not able to meet anyone due to meeting conflicts. 
I did not get alot of client face time..... so I talked with just about anyone..with a pulse. 
 I wanted to do something at least so I conducted my own interviews.

• I interviewed the security at the door, and learned how many visit the office, my initial assumption is that they had a problem getting the word out...oh no that is not the case.
• We talked with the IT guy who helped set up the wifi
• I also spoke to the administration assistants, who honestly were so down to earth and nice

I love finding out about people, how they got their position, what keeps them up at night.  I actually gained insight just chatting, not a full scale interview, but just asking about the work and what they do.  We worked up some scenarios which helped us figure out a model we assumed about the customer.

I exercised after and worked up such an appetite, I got a filet Mignon at the local Italian place.  Yes I am still trying to lose weight and I have tried many local foods, but man that filet was soooo good.  Anyways after currency conversion my total bill with a generous tip is $20.  I love strong currency!
One member has a bank limit on how much they can withdraw and that is tough. 

Day 5
On the fifth day I was looking at commonly published financial data that is readily available to help with benchmarking.  There was little, so the morning I was very sad.
I am just trying to find any public benchmarks for entrepreneurial financing, but the findings are mostly one off academic studies.  i am looking for a benchmark that all can use.

Our team did more of an ad hoc unofficial interview.  The guy setting up the printers was kindly interrogated, but he was great.   Toward the evening, after I learned the name of the contact.  I spent over 30 minutes finding out with the accents if her name is Yolanda, Yolinda, Jilonda and Jolinda. It was Jolinda but two doors down from her is Yolande.  It turns out everyone in the office pronounces it with their accent.  
Jolinda gave me the first taste of some real data from the customer
I was like a kid in the candy store...all this data!  I was loving it.  I stayed up late just analyzing and putting it together. 


In the evening we had a security briefing.  She went through all the typical issues, don't walk around with large sums of money, be aware, don't sollicit prostitutes.  I shared my day 2 adventues and she appreciated the money in the shoe story by saying "Wow you are really lucky."  I know.

Food Update
For breakfast there were little blue herrings on a toothpick.  It was delightful.  Apprently this is common in Europe nd I reintroduced myself to the British Beans, Cooked Tomato and Toast.  It was good.  My calories in the morning are usually over a 1000!

Matthew from another CSC team is in the picture, I told him I wanted to snap photos of his fine clothing

Lunch we ate out and had to be escorted.  We went to the TransNet building, We saw alot of Johannesburg from a high level.  I am told we are OK to go another time on our own. I only carried cash, the women in my group took off earings and did not bring thier purse.  We followed two people from the office with just a  few bills wadded within our pocketed fists, we stayed together.

For dinner we went to a high end restaurant and I had Lamb Curry.  Yummy.
In all this high end place came to $20 USD per person!
The finance minister was arrested and the currency tanked today.  Oh it was a good day to do an exchange.
That is the update so far

Jamon
#IBMCSC #CSCSA16

Day 3: Church and Soweto

Since the local Mormon congregation was watching a tape delay of General Conference (I saw it last week).  I went to the local Catholic Church instead.  This could have been the beginning of a joke, a Catholic, Episcopalian and a Mormon walk into a Catholic Church and.........
It was a nice service.  No singing for the 7:30AM service which I LOVED.  Like drumming, music is not my strong suit.

Then we toured.

We saw the Apartheid Museum, which was put together really well.  I could have explored much longer.  I am a self described speed tourist, but my goodness it was a great display.  I could have spent more hours there.  Perhaps it is that I am getting old and I kind of remember this when I was young.  I also read Mandela’s Biography a few years ago.  So I was engaged.

They had colored sticks and people can find a Mandela quote with a color, then you put a colored stick on the walkway.

 


Soweto is an area that is not as well off as other parts of South Africa.
They have a strong history of helping curtail apartheid.  Here is a cool link for you history buffs.
 http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/june-16-soweto-youth-uprising
Kids you can make a difference!

I loved seeing the street, and the homes  We spyed Desmond TuTu's residence and Mandela's dwellings.  Two Nobel Prize winners a few blocks apart, the call the street Nobel Laureate Walk.

I am a little out of order but it is flowing better this way.  We had lunch.
It was delightful, I even had a wifi signal and woke my wife wife for Church (2PM in South Africa is 8AM US).   There were these woman that ran a 5K for cancer, and they skipped everything in line for one thing...SAMP a kind of bean.  I followed suit and it was good.  However I was not enjoying any other part of the meal.

We saw a few other things
Here is a human rights monument that was a foundation for the Partied.  There is a symbol of the X everywhere that I was told was for voting.

I am one of the tallest, that has not happened since I was in first grade!

We also saw some old election day signs that we found fun....

How great is that smile!

I kept it pretty relaxed this evening.  I was tired.  We have customer meeting tomorrow, so we have to get ready.
Enjoy
Jamon
#IBMCSC #CSCSA16