My South African Adventure

After we went to the Lion Park outside Johannesburg, we went to a rugby game. One of the local teams is the Blue Bulls. I don't remember who they were playing. Rugby is a very popular game in South Africa. Rugby played a role in the end of apartheid. Here is an excerpt from a news article that quotes the South African national team captain François Pienaar about the events in 1995: "During those six weeks what happened in this country was incredible," Pienaar said. "I'm still gobsmacked when I think back to the profound change that happened. We started obviously with a great leader with a fantastic vision who realised that sport is important for the Afrikaner white community and to earn their respect and trust. "But on the other side I have such a respect for what he had to go through in the African National Congress because the springbok was a symbol of apartheid. The majority of South Africans never supported the Springboks, so to ask them to suppo...

The first Saturday in South Africa, the Country Manager for my company got us tickets for a rugby game. I had never been to a rugby game. It was going to be the Blue Bulls vs New Zealands All Blacks. The plan was to go to the Lion Park outside Johannesburg in the morning, have lunch at the Lion Park, then go to the Rugby Game Saturday night. Very exciting. I do remember getting breakfast at the hotel on Saturday morning. I remember it being very hearty and thinking that I could get used to this type of culinary choices. One of the things to get used to was they have Coke Light instead of Diet Coke. I used to work for Minute Maid which was owned by Coca Cola. Coca Cola as a company was always pointing out to employees how international the company was and how ubiquitous Coke is around the world .  Breakfast On the way to Lion Park I saw the first village with shacks. I had read up on the history of South Africa and this was my first time seeing in real life. The housin...

One of my worries about going to South Africa for the first time is the fact that as a former Commonwealth Nation, they drive on the left side of the road as opposed to the right as in America. One of the things we implemented over the course of the project is that anyone new to the project would not travel the four hours to Lephalale by themselves. Either a South African citizen or one of the experienced members of the team would go to JoBurg to pick up the team member. In any case my co-workers had been in the country for two weeks by the time I arrived. The decision was made from them to take a break for the weekend and come down to JoBurg for a little R&R and bring me back up to Lephalale. I have recently wrote about my cousin Debbie who has traveled extensively. Her advice was to get to know the people and be sure to interact with all that I met. I am a fan of Stephen Covey's 7 Habits. Habit 5 is Seek First to Understand Then be Understood. My goal was to try to limit...

I am looking through my photos and trying to figure out if I had breakfast at the hotel when I woke up in South Africa. I doubt I would miss breakfast since it is my favorite meal. I think I went down to have breakfast, then returned to my room to check email etc.  I later found out that my co-workers intended to pick me up for a meeting. They got stuck in traffic and ended up not coming to the hotel. This was serendipitous because I was not at the hotel. Around noon I went across the street to Sandton City , the big mall that encompasses Nelson Mandela Square . Nelson Mandela Square is the location of one of the Nelson Mandela Statues. The other is at the Government Buildings in Pretoria. When I crossed the street from the hotel, there was a woman begging for money. I ended up giving her change. I must have had a quarter in their that annoyed her. When I went back to the hotel later she gave me back the quarter. When I tell this story people will talk about the exchange r...

There is something to be said about the first time you experience something. This is the theory behind why time seems to fly faster as you get older. When you are young almost everything is a new experience so time goes slowly. When you are older you are repeating things you have already done so they time goes by quicker since you have been there and done that. I hope I never forget my first arrival in South Africa. I looked out the window the whole decent into the airport. I was surprised to see farmland relatively close to the airport. Had we flown in from a different direction I may have seen townships which are very densely populated. I have to say, getting off the plane was a little anti-climactic. I am not sure what I was expecting. I am sure in my mind the few weeks of anticipation created unrealistic expectations. O.R. Tambo Airport is a fairly big airport and there is a lot of walking to get to passport control. I am sure I was more excited to be in South Africa than the g...

I suppose I am going to jump around in these stories. I originally meant this post to be about when I first set foot in South Africa. My Facebook memories feed made me change my mind. I have always been an airplane buff. I've never had much of a desire to fly them myself, but enjoy being in the back of big ones. Not really a fan of little planes as I tend to get sick in them. Most of the times I had the compunction to fly in a small one I have regretted it almost as soon as the wheels have left the ground. I am at the Indianapolis Airport preparing to fly home today after two weeks of work away from home. Interestingly in 2014 on this day I was in airports too. I was returning from a four day trip to Cape Town. That was an amazing trip. We went to Table Mountain, The Cape of Good Hope, and saw Robben Island, the prison where Mandela was held. When I was planning the trip, I was unable to get affordable flights from JoBurg. We ended up flying out of Lansaria airport which is o...

I am looking at the photos from the the beginning of July to when I flew to South Africa. One thing is certain is that I was not sure what kind of food I would find there and I wanted to get a fill of my favorite comfort foods. My favorite meal is breakfast, in particular steak and eggs. This is the breakfast of astronauts . My next favorite meal is soup. I always find out what soups a restaurant has and hope it is a good one. So before I left the USA, I had steak and eggs and soup. Another thing that happened during the preparation was the people that were genuinely happy for me and expressed it. One friend sent me a pillow with a nice saying on it: Sometimes on the way to a dream you get lost and find a better one. Also one of my co-workers gave a card. I need to take a photo of the inside. On the outside it says This Place Won't Be the Same Without You. On the inside it says It will Still Suck, That Won't Change. As far as the house, I cleaned th...

I have to admit I had a lot of fear and trepidation about the prospect of going to South Africa. When you research the country you find out that South Africa was shaped by war and violence and there is still quite a bit of violence to this day. Private security is the largest industry in South Africa. My last day for my old job was 3 July 2013. The fourth was a holiday, and I took Friday the fifth off as a vacation day. On the third, I stayed late and went around to say goodbye to the various people I knew. A group of guys insisted I take a picture with them to show the Africans that I was a good guy. My late mother's birthday was 6 July so Independence Day always included celebrating her birthday. On the fourth I headed to my parents house to stay with them for a few days and celebrate my mother's birthday before I left on the big adventure. My cousin Sharon brought a cake celebrating the two events. My start date with the new company was 8 July 2013. So after sp...

This past bike week I found out an old friend passed away back in 2015. In the late 1990's and early 2000's there was a motorcycle group called Riders Club of Central Florida, RCCF. Bob Tucker was the elder statesmen of the group and extremely well respected. He really won the game of life having a military pension as well as one from the post office. Bob and his wife Helen travelled the country going from bike week to bike week. At the time there was a bike night on 17-92 every Thursday and often Bob would pull in from the other side of the country. 'When did you get back?' 'Just now.' 'Oh earlier today?' 'No, literally just now, back from California.' Bob was a legend in the Orlando area. he had a Yamaha Royal Star that he put over 150,000 miles on. Yamaha made him a goodwill ambassador and gave him the use of a Yamaha Venture for a year. That bike would eventually travel 253,000 miles. After the year was up Yamaha gave him a very good dea...

June and July of 2013 was quite a whirlwind. The submarine I was on has quite an active group on Facebook. I posted on there in June of 2013 that I wanted to make a change. A shipmate I never met and who had served on the Bergall 10 years before I did told me to send him a resume for a project they were staffing up in Kentucky. I sent him a resume on 9 June 2013. I got a call from a recruiter from the company on 11 June 2013 about a project they were staffing up in South Africa. My future boss contacted me to have a Skype interview on 14 June 2013. The following week I was in New York for my nephews bar mitzvah and was finishing up the interviews while I was with family. I will probably go into more detail on the interviewing process in the future. In the meantime I was offered a position and accepted it on 21 June 2013. The following Monday I gave my notice that 5 July 2013 would be my last day. My start date with the new company was 8 July 2013 and I would be on a plane heading to ...