Finally done!

Friday, Oct 7
Hooray! Final discussion went well today and we were all happy it was done. Had our last lunch in the cafeteria and I have to say I won't miss it much. Most of the time it's something fried, greasy or full of fat. Yes, there's a pattern there. If it's a pork chop half of it is fat. However, the food in the restaurants we've been to is very good though. The seafood is really fresh here. The guys love meat and I found myself eating more than I want to.

Today the general manager Manie told us this was one of the best audit that he has experienced and he was really happy at the way we helped his team get better. How nice!
Just enough time to finalize our report and send it to germany. Rene & Federico dropped me off at the guesthouse before heading to the airport. It's so quiet without them! We got along very well and had a lot of fun. I got to brush up on my spanish a little bit with them.
Tomorrow I go on my week of safari, to say I cannot wait is an understatement!

TIA describes perfectly the attitude here....

Our general obersavation here is that our SA colleagues are very relaxed about time schedules. Before each audit we establish an interview schedule with different topics and individual for 9am to 5pm for the first 2 weeks. Based on experience we know generally how much time is needed for each topics. Ofcourse some topics might need additional follow up depending on what we discover. Anyway, we soon discovered that 9am could be anytime between 9 or 9:30 or 10. It's crazy! Especially for someone as anal as me! Soon Federico and I started to get relaxed about the time as well! We would clarify with each other if we mean german time or south african time, lol!

Anyway, Rene was telling me a story about their wknd in kruger. Their game drive was supposed to start at a certain time but ofcourse it was delayed. One of the tourist started to complain and the guide told them "hey it's TIA" which means This Is Africa! That's so perfect! This morning the guys were driving to an external warehouse while I work at the hotel. They were supposed to meet everyone there at 10. I find the guys still eating breakfast and talking to me at 9:30. I asked Federico shouldnt they be leaving now if they are meeting everyone at 10? And he's already telling me TIA! Talk about assimilating to the local culture! Both Rene and Federico are more latin than german so I think this relaxed attitude fits them fine! Me on the other hand, I think I might have been german in one of my previous lives because I'm a stickler about time, especially when it comes to work.

Local lunch at Lesedi village

October 1

Wonderful food for lunch. Typical south african dishes include stewed meats with some kinds of greens, the traditional maiz mash called pap, butternut mash and grilled meats. I tried them all including ostrich, crocodile, lamb. The grilled beef sausage and roast beef was also good. Had to admit that it was a little too much meat for me but what the heck. We made sure to save room for dessert. I loved the mulva dessert which was basically a warm type of cake baked in a casserole dish. You scoop a portion into a bowl and then pour hot vanilla pudding onto the cake. Dorothy promises to send me her recipe so I can't wait to make some at home.

Lesedi Cultural Village

Zulu man

Man from South Sotho tribe

Highlander tribe

A young tribal dancer

Oct 1

Lesedi village is a cultural center depicting all the traditional tribes of south africa. On the tour they take you through actual examples of tribe living including the types of home (mostly huts) and how they live and hunt. At one village they just finished taking off the hide of a buffalo and the hide was hanging on their wooden fence. It was the most foul smell, like fresh cow dung but worse! Even our guide couldn't stand it and had to give her tour of that village standing on the outside!

At one village there was an offering of the Mopani worms to the group and some people took a sample. No thanks! It was so interesting but I couldn't keep up with all the tribal names. THere are 11 national languages in south africa. 1 is english, 2nd is afrikan which has some dutch origins. The remaining 9 are tribal languages including zulu. Our tour ended with a wonderful song and dance from different tribes. It was wonderful, so energetic. I took so many pictures. At the end they invited us to get up to dance with them. I'm usually the last person to do something like that but it was fun.

One common custom among the tribes was the way a dowry was paid. If a man wants to marry a girl he must pay the father of the girl at least 11 cows. Some tribes are more expensive and it could go as high as 26 cows for a chief's daughter. Nowadays they still practice this in a way. So if a cow is worth 5,000 rand then the man must pay 55,000 rands. Each village usually has its own place that holds it cattle. This is usually placed in front of the hut of the chief - supposedly the first thing the chief wants to see when he wakes up is not his wife or his children, but his cattle because this is a sign of his wealth!

Some of the huts are built out of dry and hardened cow dung, yuck!

With each different village the guide tried to teach us how to greet the village chief in the local language. Some we could repeat but some it was impossible especially if it involves some weird noises in the back of the throat. One spear they named it after the sound it makes when it goes into the enemy's midsection and breaking his ribs!

It was a really interesting day, everything is so colorful! I wanted to get some culture in while I can. My week of holiday after this audit will all be safari, cant wait!

Joburg and Nelson Mandela's house

Nelson Mandela's house in JoBurg

Johannesburg, Sandton in the distance

Oct 1

Today Rene and Federico went for an overnight to kruger park to see the big 5. Thorsten and I did a day tour to a cultural village northwest of the city. On the way Dorothy our tour guide took us through Joburg and it wasn't what I pictured. It was more green and woodsy than I thought. Dorothy drove through some neighborhoods and showed us Nelson Mandela's house. He's 93 now and still very much beloved by the people of south africa. It was his birthday earlier this week and you could see some pebbles that the children had put in front of his house as well wishes.

Dorothy told us the interesting history of south africa as we drove to Lesedi village. The white settlers came to south africa in the 14th century. First it was the dutch, then the english, then other europeans. This country is know for its great wine and supposedly it was a combo of cultures that brought it together. The dutch came and planted grapes, the germans came and taught how to make barrels and the french came and made the wine. The language of the Afrikans is a mixture of dutch, french and other europeans languages.

Gold was discovered in the 19th century and Joburg became a huge city overnight. Because of a hugh meteor that hit this area many years ago the gold is buried pretty deep in the ground and not very easy to mine.

It's not a huge country but it has so many different climates and geographical differences. Where we are is savanah, then you have the desert in the northwest, the tropical forest in the east and southeast, and coastal in the south. I really regret not having enough time to explore more.

Our resident bird

Hadeda Ibis bird

Here's a picture of the bird that wakes me up every morning! Louder than my alarm! Jane says they usually go in pairs and are very shy.

Dinner at the guesthouse

The audit team

Sept 28

This is crunch time, we are aiming to finish the report friday night so that we can have the 2nd wknd free as well. This means some late nights this wk to get it done. Since we didn't have time to go out for dinner which is usually a 2+ hr affair. So we took advantage of the guesthouse making a dinner for us. It was a lovely night so dinner was served out in the patio. We had some homemade lamb stew and a steak & kidney pie. For dessert Jane the owner made us a delicious sponge cake with hot pudding poured over it. So good!

My team this time is an international one. Rene is from El Salvador but lives in germany. Thorsten is german and Federico is from argentina but now lives in germany. We all get along very well and have a lot of fun together despite all the work.

Our colleagues at work are very nice and are great to share all things south africa. Its soo interesting to learn about the different cultures here.