Day 1: Arrive in South Africa

What did I have to do to come to South Africa?

• Get Shots, I was sore the next day, but I am still taking some pills. 
• Go through hours of training, mostly on Thursday mornings, but there was some homework.  I am part of IBM's CSC Program.  What an honor to be part of an amazing group!  
• I have had to learn new acronyms..IBM has acroynms, but now I have South Africa acroynms to learn.    
• For example I am helping GEP which is part of the DED align to the GPG TMR strategy. 

Got it?  Good

Day of Departure
I taught an early religious study group in the morning, then hopped in a car and went south...way south.  It was to JFK.  Rachel drove with traffic in and traffic out. 

I am contemplating all the things I will miss while I am gone for just over one month.

• Halloween
• Church Activity & Church New Temple Open House ( I went once but will not get another crack at it)
• Child's First School Soccer Game
• Rake Leaves from the Pool
• Mulch the leaves in my yard
• Gather the wood pellets and ensure covered for winter
• Clean the Chicken Coop
• Clean the roof
• patch drywall
• Church Children's Program which 4 of my kids will be a part of.

The journey
After 14+ hours on a direct flight including 3.5 hours of movies later in the narrowest coach seats of my life, I arrived.  Then I waited for 2.5 hours in the customs.

The customs wait was starting to take a toll

I read over 200 pages on Industry readouts for the upcoming assignments.  I have more questions than answers which is typical at this point, but it distracts me.  I have learned so much on just getting to the right hypothesis before asking the questions.  A novel idea, I know!  This is part of the training.
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Back to the journey:
I am a chatty person so I learned some random facts on this trip.

• Did you know that in Alaska they hunt for squid using just lights?  He was showing me photos.
• An NYC Woman next to me in customs line went to school in the same New Jersey town I did.  She was meeting her South African Boyfriend.  While waiting they were texting and I threw in the question if the Yankees and Dodgers are the top baseball teams in America, who are the trademark South African Soccer Teams?  Answer from her boyfriend (the native) are the Chiefs and Pirates.
• A tax auditor for the State of Wisconsin and tourist shared that he looked forward to going in one of those cages and swimming with Sharks.  That is why he was there.  I have to admit, I was jealous, I I think I muttered about it all day while traipsing around Johannesburg Sandton. 
• After learning I went to BYU, an Iranian woman shared with me that some of her foster children in Los Angeles eventually joined the Mormon Church.  She told me about 5 times "I love the Mormon Church." Me too.
• For security, Did you know they have sensors that were checking people with fevers?  I had to remove my glasses.  Then they had me place my fingers on a sensor then my thumbs.  It was...different.  That was part of the delay.

Anways we were graciously picked up.  IBMers in the van that transported with me to the Hotel were from Brazil, Czech Republic, Canada, Brazil, and Ireland.  I like to keep track of nationalities. 

Not wanting to be stuck in a hotel, the early arrivals like me we ventured a few blocks out.

We went to the mall in Sandton in the middle of the afternoon.
We had lunch at Piatto, it was good...a little too good, a little too American.  I am opting to take the adventurous path on eating.  I had a boiled pear Gorgonzola salad.  It was a large salad...it was Teaxs sized. I saw the Mandela Statue.  Those that were wandering with me were mainly the group from the airport except we also were joined by an IBMer from Germany. 

We are just trying to stay awake to get acclimated

After getting back I had to stay awake:

• I video chatted using facebook messanger some of my kids to wake them up for school, since I am six hours ahead.  I showed them how awesome the hotel pool is.  I am a great father.
• I typed up all my notes which helps me organize my thoughts. I was was nodding off.  
• I walked around
• Ironed some clothes...anything to stay standing.

Then I joined a group of six and we went to dinner. We wanted (and got) to a more authentic African cuisine.
After I got  the address wrong, and the Uber driver taking us all over Johannesburg we finally arrived.

We got two of those mountains of meat.  One is displayed here

After a pat down in an unnamed building in a restaurant that had non printed menus.  We got a real taste of some African food.
African cuisine, what fun.  I learned that I am not a big fan of Ox Liver.  It was OK, it was just overshadowed by other foods. I loved the sausage called Voss, butternut squash, and the cabbage.
We ate thetexas sized portions about half of the meat....but it was good.
The restaurant was called Mash Braai and it was popular.  Friday night so it seemed most other dinner guests were out for the night. It was packed and quite entertaining.  Everyone was so kind, I had no idea on some of the phrases.  I felt terrible having to keep ask over and over and over again what something meant.

This woman was SO PATIENT with us pointing out which is the Ox Liver

From our group at IBM, nationalities represented at Dinner were Japan, Brazil, Canada, Cost Rica, India, Czech Republic and the United States. 

I ate way too much and had to work out at the gym before going to bed.  I did it.  I stayed awake all day!


Jamon


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