Heading "offsite"

I'm in quick this morning and then we have an "offsite" at Makwande Guest House today and tomorrow for the Municipality's Strat Plan for the second half of the 06-07 fiscal year. Sounds very consulting-ish huh... Btw, I'll save my posting about all the similarities I'm finding about my consulting at home and my consulting here (jargon, acronyms, etc.) for another day. The Municipal Manager (who is just the best guy - always a smile and a handshake, very motivated and happy to see everyone) has invited all the UNDP team to join the leads from the Muncipality for the next two days.

Other thing to mention... it's amazing, but I am so engrained on the daily drive already that I know a lot of the upcoming twist and turns, what you see coming over different hills, which houses are where. I was sitting in the backseat typing on my computer this morning, catching up on emails, and when I happened to look up, I knew exactly where I was, what little tavern was right around the corner, and which rondeval would be coming up on the right.

And things that seemed so out of ordinary two weeks ago - that I would see on the drive, walking through Bizana, or just how things operate at work - seem so standard and just part of being here. I guess that comes more and more over time, but it's a sign to me that I'm pretty well settled in.

Challenges, Comets, and Cape Town

Week 3 at work and I am no longer "transitioning" but fully engrained. I'm finding some challenges off the bat. It's a lot harder to bring ideas or plans to review, and difficult to implement or push things through and see results. And for a lot of different reasons - lack of budget or municipal hierarchy, lack of motivation or direction in the department, no set timelines or structure, or that the department manager is often away at meetings and workshops, so her presence and support in the department is sometimes absent. But I have to keep level and remember that I'm not here to implement per se, but I'm here to help them build skills, work together, and become more effective - carrying those trends so that they can implement and see those results long after I am gone. Everyday is a challenge, everyday I learn something new.

Managed to see that Pats game... I have an ESPN station in my villa and they showed the CBS broadcast believe it or not. So here I am 7 hours ahead, in the middle of the night, and when it ended at 515 AM, I got ready for work soon after. Funny huh. Tough loss for me to watch obviously, but good for Peyton and Dungy to make it to the Super Bowl, wish them the best.

To keep the astronomy thing going, landing in Cape Town on Friday night our pilot pointed out that to our left was a comet, Comet McNaught... the odds of us being in a pitch black sky with the comet viewable in the distance was unreal, just a streak dashing through the sky. Vivid and glowing and something you don't see everyday - or ever again.

We didn't make into the city at all (but I'm going back in a month), however, explored some areas around Cape Town which were amazing. Did wine tasting in Stellenbosch and hit up a few great wineries.



(Here, the view from Sylvan Vale)


Also last weekend at the University of Stellenbosch was the Touch Rugby World Cup... and Siobhain had a friend on Team England that had traveled here to play... so we went and supported and watched a few matches.



Sunday drove down the scenic route along the cliffs to the Cape of Good Hope. A lot of small towns along the way, and we stopped at Boulders Beach to see the only African Penguins in the world. Just a bunch of penguins hanging out on the rocks in the sun. Quite amusing to watch them. Here's me and Bryce and our new pal marching towards us in the background.











At the end of the cape is Cape Point, which is magnificent. To actually be on this continent and travel to something that is geographically significant that I remember learning about in school was pretty cool. But to stand at the point and look out at how vast and beautiful it is where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet was incredible. The wind is uncontrollable, but the glow of the sun off of the waters is unforgettable. It was a pretty clear day and you could stare off so far into the world.

Turn the world upside down

If my 6th grade teacher, Cora Leonardi, were to read this right now, she'd be happy. Of all the school subjects and lessons I've even studied in my life, one of my most memorable and enjoyable was the section on Astronomy in that 6th grade class - learning about the stars and planets, different constellations, etc. Each night I had to keep a log of the time I went outside to look at the sky and what I saw. Somewhere tucked away in my house, I think I still have those log books as well as my star chart, any tests or papers.

I don't remember a whole lot, but I still can recognize a few constellations - Orion the Hunter being the one I can pinpoint immediately. Orion is distinguishable by its "belt and dagger" and shows up clear over my house in Randolph in the winter sky. I recall looking up at it one night just before leaving for South Africa.

So... here I am in Port Edward last night and looking up, I saw probably the most stars and clearest sky I'd ever seen... so much that the Milky Way was entirely recognizable.

And there was Orion straight above me, but this time it was completely upside down. Whereas the dagger normally faces down, this time it was facing up. I just found this so intriguing, looking up at the sky in a totally different perspective, a moment where I realized I really am in the Southern Hempishpere on the other side of the world.

Off to Cape Town tonight for the weekend... with potential rugby match, trip down the Cape of Good Hope, and wine tasting in Stellenbosch in store. Once again... GO PATS!

Photos! Photos!

As many have been asking, I'm finally getting some more photos up. Here is a mixture of pics that take a quick look into my day to day and really capture my first week or so...

This is the view during sunset from the back porch of my villa - as you can see, the villa resort/hotel is aptly titled The Estuary - flowing into the Indian Ocean

What the traditional homes looks like - the circular hut with straw roof is called a rondeval - you see these all over the place

The Mtumvuna River emptying into the Indian, which we drive over daily - this river separates KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape

The road to Bizana... 40 km away... R61 is the road we drive everyday

Pretty standard view of hilly land and sparsely located homes along the way


Fields just go on and on into the distance

Driving through the main street in Bizana - this is across the street from the municipality building

Driving through Bizana...

Driving through Bizana...

Colleen's last day - with the team outside the municipality building - you can see a few Colleen in her "pondo lady" outfit as well as the Manager and a few of the LED officers

Colleen and I toasting to my successful transition

The Accenture team (minus Mike) and UNDP team out for dinner

Amapondo Backpackers Hostel

If you look close enough in the center of the photo, you can see two monkeys in the tree... we saw about 15 of them on our walk to the beach in Port St. Johns (and have spotted them around my villa as well)

Relaxing on the rocks in PSJ

Watching the waves come in

By the way...

You probably got tired of looking at my smiling close up. This new one, Mike caught of me this weekend in Port St. Johns at Amapondo. Relaxing, staring out at the sunset and the ocean (you can kinda see through the dip in the treeline). Not a bad spot.

Keep reading below about my day yesterday (with photos!).

Mpunzi Drift and Greenville Nursery

So the kids are back in school today (their holiday vacation is obv a bit longer), so the ride to work was even more interesting with students walking in packs all along R61.

Yesterday I had my most exciting/craziest day of work so far. This is how the morning started en route...

One of the big initiatives as I told in my blog is this massive vegetable production/nursery, etc. So yesterday I went and did two site visits at irrigation schemes - Mpunzi Drift and Greenville - with my client, who is the Mbizana Development and Planning Manager, and a few of her counterparts from the Dept of Agriculture. Last week we had a meeting about the project, but hearing about the "need for a better access road" in a meeting and then seeing it first hand, nothing really comes to life until you're on site. (One Up friends - consider this my agricultural equivalent of doing a site expo at a plant or a DC.)

Below, I am here at Mpunzi Drift talking about initial plans for growing the nursery and next steps (or as called here, "way forward") to execute.

Next it was off to Greenville. Below, is the team of workers at the Greenville Nursery welcoming us. As you can see, the women wear traditional Xhosa headbands and clothing when working with the crops. These are some of the strongest people I have ever met, you can see the labor in their hands and feet. We had a meeting with the Greenville group to talk about the vegetable project, and the Dept of Agriculture (DOA) Councillor and Managers talked about the growth plans. The meeting was held entirely in Xhosa, which the Manager translated for me. Then as is custom for a visitor, they asked me to say a few words (they show such appreciation of my presence and work hearing I am with UNDP). I introduced myself and spoke of my excitement and the honor to be there... really they just want the confidence, belief, and the upbeat motivation that they can be successful in the vegetable project, that we are there to help. The DOA Mgr translated my words into Xhosa and minus the language barrier, you could see a similar connection and understanding between us all. Here I am, the outsider and only white/American in a simple tiny room (4 cement walls and a tin roof) and I am so welcomed. It’s extremely humbling.

Lastly, we finished the day transporting 50 bags of potatoes from Mpunzi to another home closer to Bizana, which would eventually go to market in Bizana. As you can see, we're unloading the bags by throwing them to one another in assembly line fashion - here I am with the DOA Councillor. Pretty fun catching and tossing bags of potatoes.