Getting to Know South Africa

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 my expectations, that is to realize from the beginning that I am not in the USA, that of course things will be different here. In the Tao of Poo, there is a passage that talks about getting angry at the rain. The rain is neither good nor bad it just is. There is another book called the Phantom Tollbooth where there is a place called Expectations. The following is a description of Expectations: 

“What kind of a place is Expectations?” inquired Milo, unable to see the humor and feeling very doubtful of the little man’s sanity.

“Good question, good question,” he exclaimed. “Expectations is the place you must always go to before you get to where you’re going. Of course, some people never go beyond Expectations...."

The whole point of this is that I did not want to have any preconceived notions of how South Africa should be. I wanted to learn first hand about the people I met, understand their lives and backgrounds, and come to my own conclusions. 

My co-workers on the other hand had lots of preconceive notions and expectations on what South Africa should be like. I think their expectation was it would be more like America. Needless to say they were very critical of their experiences and the people they interacted with.

On Friday night we went to Montecasino, a casino, mall, theater, and nightlife spot in JoBurg. We went to a steak house there and during dinner my co-workers harangued me with how messed up things were in South Africa. My answer to this was #1) thank you for that information, I would like to come to my own conclusion. And #2) I don't think it is as bad as you say it is.

Both of these things seemed to annoy them. Their reaction to the first statement was 'don't worry you'll see how right we are'. The second statement really annoyed them. 'How dare you question any statement we claim is true.'

In any case Montecasino was a nice place and I would return to it several times over the time I was in South Africa. It was always a place to get a good meal. I saw a South African performance of Rocky Horror there as well. There are many stages and performance areas there and a good time is had by all.