I tried to post last night but had a bit of trouble getting internet...
Yesterday was another good day, still transitioning on the work front, and quite honestly, I can't believe today is Friday and first week done. Colleen has been great getting me acclimated to work, and sadly she leaves on Saturday and heads back to the States after a trip to Mozambique. We'll be going out for her departure tonight, then Saturday the rest of the team is headed to Port St. Johns for Sat/Sun - supposed to be a beach and backpackers/hiking town. Oh, and we're meeting the other Accenture UNDP team as well - there is another group of 4 Accenture colleagues doing the same work in Umtata, about 4 hrs from here.
As for my work, I promised a little insight. (I will try to keep these shorter in the future, but in the first week there is a lot to tell.)
The people of Mbizana are wonderful, gracious, friendly, and extremely passionate. They've made sure to welcome me immediately by teaching me Xhosa words so I can greet everyone appropriately in the morning. My work is really two fold - one is to help the Development and Planning department on basic project management, really just capability building. They certainly don't lack for ideas for projects to stimulate economic development. But some of the basic management skills to see those ideas through need to be improved - planning work, tracking status, learning Word/Excel/Power Point, things that are inherent to a lot of us sometime. A lot of my work is going to be helping them break down their ideas to come up with plans, to focus in on them a bit more and understand the importance of priority (because they all are great ideas!) - so that they can deliver on those ideas in the short and long term.
The other half is really helping to drive home what us consultants like to call "quick wins" (KJT - stop laughing), shorter projects that can be successful and help gain momentum. I'm working with the Tourism Officer and the Environmental Officer to help them manage initiatives that we can certainly achieve during my time here, stimulating some economic growth - which would prove to them and the community that the capability is there. That little oomph and confidence can go a long way. Mbizana has a great deal to offer and they need to promote that.
Lastly, I talked about the neverending land here. In a few short days I've learned quite a bit about agriculture, irrigation schemes, and the crops that grow well here. As I said in my last post, many people only farm for their subsistence here. One of the visions is to really build out ways that people can become a bit more entrepreneurial, profit on their farming, and have the means to sell their crops to places in need (markets, restauarants, etc).
It's been a whirlwind of information, but I am learning quickly. Completely different than anything I've ever done before.
OK, that's all for now, I'm off to work in a few. Next post I will have a few photos.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Shall we braai?
Last night the team had a barbeque for dinner – which over here they call a braai. Normally I think a braai consists of having a pretty big pit to grill on, but we did what we could with our hibachi. Word is, the sign of a true braiier is if you flip the meats on the grill with your bare hands, so I gave it a shot and came out with my hand still in tact.
Today is my 3rd day at work and so far so good. I’m getting acclimated and meeting a lot of employees of the Municipality, specifically in the department I am working in, Development and Planning. Depending on the day and how many trucks are on the 2 lane road, it takes us about 45 min – 1 hr to get to Bizana. Mbizana is the name of the entire municipality, and Bizana is the actual town where we work.
The road to Bizana is certainly a sight to see. I haven’t transformed into photog mode and brought out the camera just yet because really I’m first trying to capture it mentally day by day. The road is one of many twists and turns, many hills, and a fair number of potholes from which we swerve away. The land is just so expansive, rolling hills of green for miles and miles, and within those are many small homes – mostly what look to be one room homes. Some of the land is used for subsistence farming, but most of the land is just as is – untouched. If you live close to the road, you might likely have electricity, but the further off you live, chances are you don’t. No running water either – what was striking to me is that many of the homes have large tubs next to them to capture rain water coming off of the roof. Daily we see women who walk balancing jugs of water on their head, and I’ve been told some walk 10 or more miles total a day to fetch water. And if not water than it’s batches of tied up firewood.
What I find most dangerous, yet entirely normal here, is that people just walk on the shoulder of the road when cars are flying by at a good 60 mph or more. That’s just part of the driving terrain here and something else to keep an eye out for, just a normal part of driving here.
And lastly, there’s the animals. Already had my first impromptu cattle crossing – but there’s a plethora of animals we see en route – cattle herding, horses dragging anything and everything, goats, the list goes on. At any given point they could be an obstacle right in the road.
This is certainly an eye opening way to start and end the day.
Next posting I’ll give a bit of insight on the work I am set to do, some of the initiatives we’ll be leading (which have to do with all that land) what I’ve learned in my first few days.
Today is my 3rd day at work and so far so good. I’m getting acclimated and meeting a lot of employees of the Municipality, specifically in the department I am working in, Development and Planning. Depending on the day and how many trucks are on the 2 lane road, it takes us about 45 min – 1 hr to get to Bizana. Mbizana is the name of the entire municipality, and Bizana is the actual town where we work.
The road to Bizana is certainly a sight to see. I haven’t transformed into photog mode and brought out the camera just yet because really I’m first trying to capture it mentally day by day. The road is one of many twists and turns, many hills, and a fair number of potholes from which we swerve away. The land is just so expansive, rolling hills of green for miles and miles, and within those are many small homes – mostly what look to be one room homes. Some of the land is used for subsistence farming, but most of the land is just as is – untouched. If you live close to the road, you might likely have electricity, but the further off you live, chances are you don’t. No running water either – what was striking to me is that many of the homes have large tubs next to them to capture rain water coming off of the roof. Daily we see women who walk balancing jugs of water on their head, and I’ve been told some walk 10 or more miles total a day to fetch water. And if not water than it’s batches of tied up firewood.
What I find most dangerous, yet entirely normal here, is that people just walk on the shoulder of the road when cars are flying by at a good 60 mph or more. That’s just part of the driving terrain here and something else to keep an eye out for, just a normal part of driving here.
And lastly, there’s the animals. Already had my first impromptu cattle crossing – but there’s a plethora of animals we see en route – cattle herding, horses dragging anything and everything, goats, the list goes on. At any given point they could be an obstacle right in the road.
This is certainly an eye opening way to start and end the day.
Next posting I’ll give a bit of insight on the work I am set to do, some of the initiatives we’ll be leading (which have to do with all that land) what I’ve learned in my first few days.
Monday, January 8, 2007
My First Few Days
I’m staring out at the Indian Ocean, right now. I’ve never said that before. But you can see the ocean from sitting in my living room. It’s not a bad deal.
But yeah, I made it, and just fine I might say. I haven’t had travel this smooth in a long time. From London I flew to Johannesburg, from Jo-burg to Durban (where I met my teammate Heather), and then a cab ride an hour and change to Port Edward. With all the travel, layovers, and time changes I arrived not too tired and after one good night of sleep on Saturday, I was back to normal.
On my flight to Durban, I sat next to two girls from The Netherlands who were coming to SA for 8 months, working in Durban on a development project about HIV/AIDS… so we chatted the entire way as we were all just arriving to new projects, first time to South Africa, and discussed our excitement about our upcoming jobs, all the things we wanted to do/see with work and travel in our time here. We exchanged emails – so who knows if I gained some travel buddies somewhere along the way.
My Accenture team is great, so welcoming! There’s Cathy from Minneapolis, Mike from NYC, and Colleen from NYC, all who have already been here 3 months - Colleen actually leaves on Saturday, I am taking her role on the Local Economic Development (LED) team, transitioning with her this week. Then it’s me and Heather from Chicago who are just joining. It’s nice to have a few teammates who have been here because they’ve gotten a lot of logistics down and they have answers to my non-stop questions.
We all live in a villa together in the Estuary Hotel in Port Edward – 3 BRs, living room, kitchen… perfect accommodations. I’m pretty much set up in my room and feeling right at home. Already have had a taste of the few of the Port Edward restaurants, driven around a little bit, plotted out a running course… it’s a pretty small town.
My work promises to be enlightening, challenging, edifying, but I’ll have my first idea after our weekly Monday morning 8:30 meeting… more to come…
This blog should definitely get a bit amusing when I learn to drive standard in our car, which alone should be an adventure, never mind on the opposite side of the road.
It’s certainly exciting to be here! As Big Dave (my Dad) told me when he dropped me off at the airport… “Soak it all in!” I know he was referring to this entire experience… but I guess those will be words to live by when I do my laundry by hand in the sink the first time too.
But yeah, I made it, and just fine I might say. I haven’t had travel this smooth in a long time. From London I flew to Johannesburg, from Jo-burg to Durban (where I met my teammate Heather), and then a cab ride an hour and change to Port Edward. With all the travel, layovers, and time changes I arrived not too tired and after one good night of sleep on Saturday, I was back to normal.
On my flight to Durban, I sat next to two girls from The Netherlands who were coming to SA for 8 months, working in Durban on a development project about HIV/AIDS… so we chatted the entire way as we were all just arriving to new projects, first time to South Africa, and discussed our excitement about our upcoming jobs, all the things we wanted to do/see with work and travel in our time here. We exchanged emails – so who knows if I gained some travel buddies somewhere along the way.
My Accenture team is great, so welcoming! There’s Cathy from Minneapolis, Mike from NYC, and Colleen from NYC, all who have already been here 3 months - Colleen actually leaves on Saturday, I am taking her role on the Local Economic Development (LED) team, transitioning with her this week. Then it’s me and Heather from Chicago who are just joining. It’s nice to have a few teammates who have been here because they’ve gotten a lot of logistics down and they have answers to my non-stop questions.
We all live in a villa together in the Estuary Hotel in Port Edward – 3 BRs, living room, kitchen… perfect accommodations. I’m pretty much set up in my room and feeling right at home. Already have had a taste of the few of the Port Edward restaurants, driven around a little bit, plotted out a running course… it’s a pretty small town.
My work promises to be enlightening, challenging, edifying, but I’ll have my first idea after our weekly Monday morning 8:30 meeting… more to come…
This blog should definitely get a bit amusing when I learn to drive standard in our car, which alone should be an adventure, never mind on the opposite side of the road.
It’s certainly exciting to be here! As Big Dave (my Dad) told me when he dropped me off at the airport… “Soak it all in!” I know he was referring to this entire experience… but I guess those will be words to live by when I do my laundry by hand in the sink the first time too.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
