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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
