Me, falling off of a cliff

So here's the video of me going off the edge of the Big Swing -- a 68 meter free fall in Mpumalanga, South Africa. You fall straight down backwards and then bounce around a bit at the bottom. Amazing!

I went to Mozambique today: SHTAPPEN'S

The name of this bar we drove past today in Mozambique would make a good summary for the day.

Actually, we used a much stronger word.

We went on a day trip today to Mozambique. The whole day started off on bad footing when our guide showed up a half hour late in a nice big bus and promptly told us we had to switch to a tiny van. but first we went and gassed up the big bus (one supposes for some other, luckier tourists) and then drive to some guy's house to make the switch. Basically, an hour of mucking around before we hit the road.

The then "two hour drive" turned out to more like three and very chaotic hour-long border crossing. I don't want to kvetch too much, but the day trip was not great. Mozambique is a total hole -- especially on a Sunday in winter. We went to a boring deserted train station ("one of the main tourist attractions in Maputo") and drove around the dodgy downtown area. It's no wonder that the town is a craphole -- the Portuguese got kicked out in 1975 and hardly anything's been built or repaired since then. It reminded me a lot of the films I've seen of Cuba -- lots of patch work and decay.

What else did we experience? Getting shaken down by some AK-47-carrying police (one of us took a picture of them from a distance, then they wanted a bribe.) Missing the market which apparently closes early on Sunday (remember how we left an hour and half late?) A crazy and semi-scary reentry into South Africa at night at the Mozambique border. Spending about ten hours of driving in a cramped bus.

Ok, now I've vented...here's the good part:

• I have a Mozambique stamp in my passport
• Ate some decent seafood
• Walked out to the edge of the Indian Ocean (I dipped my toe in!)
• Played with some kids on the beach who wanted to show us their kool karate moves
• Took some interesting photos
  
• We got back in one piece and Mary organized a great dinner for us

Also, I'll say that it refreshed my memory about how awesome it is to be from New York, where everything is well organized and safe. I might not have said such a thing a couple weeks ago. And the day trip also reminded me how great South Africa is -- and how well organized and safe it is. I might not have said that a week ago either.

We encountered more hostility today (in the form of people giving us the finger, interrogating us, intimidating us, begging aggressively etc) than we have in the whole time we've been here in Africa. It's just a different world in Mozambique. As a touristic day-trip, it really stunk (and I'm fairly certain our guide fleeced us a bit too). But at least I've had the aperture of my personal perspective broadened once again.

A day of danger: chimps and cliffs

A quick post because I am soo tired. Today we saw chimps and jumped off a cliff.

In the morning a group of us went to the Jane Goodall Chimp Eden, where abused chimps are taken care of by a dedicated staff in an incredible facility. They have about 30 chimps in all. I had no idea how dangerous chimps are until the guide showed us her stump of a finger where a chimp had bitten off half. Apparently they also like to hurl rocks at tourists (video to come!)

In the afternoon we headed up to a gorgeous gorge (cliche, I know...sorry) with an incredible view...and jumped off of it! It's an attraction called The Big Swing. First, you do a zip line across the gorge, then you do a 68 meter, 3 second free fall backwards into it from another platform. That's like a 23 storey drop. All I can say is that the experience was dreamlike. I often dream of flying and the free fall into the gorge was as close as I've come to the sensation in reality as ever. I laughed the whole way down. And yes, I was scared shitless at the moment I jumped.

After the incredible gorge experience (I am still laughing every time I think about it -- it was THAT good) we headed up to God's Window -- which was also incredibly beautiful. It's a high point and canyon with a celestial view of South Africa.

I have some great photos and video (thanks to Chris, Zach and Caroline) of Anil, Scott and myself on our high-speed journeys into the chasm, which I'll post later -- just putting up a few shots now because it's late and tomorrow we are getting up very early to go for a day trip to Mozambique.

Busted!

No, Anil and I have not been arrested :-) Actually, one of the advantages of hanging around with cops is that you get to ride in their cool cars. In this case, it was Commander Cornelia's a tricked out BMW 5 series...hot!

We met this morning with a private security firm affiliated with the police -- they seem like really good guys who want to make a difference in the region (along with, of course, making a good living doing security.) They were so interested in our project and really willing to help. We learned from our client (Business Against Crime) that this region is different fro the rest of the South African states in that there is an unusually high level of cooperation between the state police and the local security firms. Before I left the US I'd seen a documentary that presented these firms in a very negative light -- and it's true, there are some fliy-by-night operations out there. but there ar also a buch of firms that are really doing good work in conjunction with the state police and filling gaps in under-serviced areas.

One of the things my little team is going to do is to build a prototype web application for smart phones that will help people report security incidents and get help etc. It will be a like an iPhone application. Believe it or not, we learned that the local phone provider has already deployed a 3G network in the area (that's the super-fast wireless network) and they are introducing iPhones and other smart phones to the market now. I say 'believe it or not" because the state of Mpumalanga is quite rural, but that doesn't mean the people here are happy with slow wireless!

In other news, we have been making group meals with everyone...tonight is my turn. I'm making veggie lasagna, salad and garlic bread. We have a few people who are vegetarian and, well, it's hard to go wrong with lasagna. So easy and I can serve the whole group in one shot. Also, we've been eating soooo much meat...it'll be nice to have something alittle lighter.

Just now I was teaching a few of the other people on my team how to use the Sony Vegas video editing software -- they are so excited about it and it's fun to teach them. It's nice to actually know what I am doing for a minute and feel like an expert on something. Being here is great, but very foreign -- even when I was teaching the software one of the people had it in Spanish, so it was a bit of a challenge to teach it without really being able to read what was on her screen.

Oh, and driving has been fun. The GPS has been indispensible and now I know how to drive on the left side of the road :-) Which some people claim is the right side of the road.

Ok, time to put away the computer and get some lasagna in the works!

Stars, wireless providers and a safari

The funny thing about the southern hemisphere is that the stars are actually different. You look up at night, see a zillion stars and then you realize you are on the other side of the planet.

Back on earth, this afternoon we had a very promising meeting with the largest local wireless provider -- if we can get them to work with us on this project, it would be a major windfall. I think the meeting went really well; the head of their regional marketing group liked our ideas, spent more than an hour with us and agreed to help us out initially. We'll see whether they come through or not, but it looked good.

Elsewhere on planet earth, this morning my little team got a special treat. Those two lovely SAP (South African Police officers) husband and wife couple, Ozzie and Cornelia took us to a private game reserve. We had to promise not to disclose the name or location because it's the private property of some gazillionaire they know -- he has more than 200 rhino (each of which cost about 200,000 rand) not to mention Kudu, Giraffe, buffalo, warthog and roan antelope...to mention a few. The owner of this private reserve protects these rhino by removing the horns -- this way, poachers are disinterested. He also makes sure the property is free of predators that would harm them. It was simply incredible. We were just a few feet away from these animals.

At one point the rhino actually charged me and Anil...we thought we were done. but it was just trying to intimidate us (it worked) and it stopped short of us by a few feet -- a thin wooden fence was between us. Gulp.

Here are the rest of my photos from today.

Another amazing day...and a lizard in my room

I can hardly describe all the stuff that happened today...but let me try a few bullets.

• Yoga in the morning and then a jump in the freezing pool
• Met with the South African Police force
• Went on a massive tour of the crime-ridden, under-serviced rural South African areas with two really cool cops
• Listened to the cops' mind-blowing stories about everything from narcotics busts to how to evade a rhino on foot
• Saw the cops' incredible collection of weird artifacts, evidence and zany items (including the elephant tusk)
  
• Visited the old 10111 center (the South African equivalent of 911) and then visited the new 10111 center, which is under construction...they were literally hanging the big flat screens when we arrived
• Ate a pretty gross chicken sandwich
  
• Went back to the office and planned our next steps, consolidated a bunch of information
• Jumped on a trampoline with Anil outside of the super market
  
• Saw a little lizard in my room
• Decided it was a friendly lizard
• Ate some pizza and hung out with the other CSC folks
  

Donating gifts for a local school

My IBM Corporate Service Corps team pulled together a pile of gifts and collected money to buy school supplies and sports equipment for a local school while we're on assignment here in Nelspruit, South Africa.

People in South Africa abuse Powerpoint too

Yes, folks...it's official: people in South Africa have no compunction about putting 500 words on a single slide. Ahh, just like home.

But seriously, today we attended a working session about a set of guidelines that the various local security, tourism and governmental agencies are proposing as a means to improve security for tourists in the region. The main speaker presented the guidelines and accompanying research -- much of which was presented as tons of words on charts. But he was a good speaker and there was a fair bit of debate and discussion. It wasn't very well attended, but those who were there were really passionate about the subject. They are totally committed to the idea that that the tourism industry is the rising tide that could lift all boats.

We ate lunch with the head of a local security firm and the chief operating officer for the local airport. Both of them are incredibly comitted to growing the economic well-being of the region.

Then in the afternoon, we worked the rest of the day while sitting on the back porch of the manor (decent internet connectivity when there are only a few of us around). It's super nice to work from the porch -- the view is just incredible (the photo on this page is actually from upstairs at the breakfast room). We did a little mini-presentation with our client, Yvette who is pictured above on the far left.

Tomorrow we're meeting with the South African police and going for a tour of some of the hotspots -- and by hot, I mean places where crimes are commonly committed. Should be interesting to say the least. Oh and then in the late afternoon, we're meeting up with a local cell service provider to see what their interest might be in partnering with us to roll out the SMS emergency broadcast system.

First day at work and giant hairy spider in my room

Ok, so today was simply amazing -- as I mentioned in my earlier post, we started off with meditation and a jump in the very, very cold pool. After I went back to my room and changed (and wrote that earlier blog entry) we were supposed to meet with our clients in a conference room here at the lodge. I was late. Why? because as I was heading out of room I noticed a huge, vicious-looking spider on the ceiling above my bed. Blargh!

Aparently it's just a Red Roman spider, which will rarely bite humans. But what the heck do I know?...when I saw the giant hairy thing (about seven inches across) I collected my things, took this photo from all the way across the room and let the hotel staff know that I'd appreciate if they removed it for me. I tried to be cool about it, but whoa!

Anyway, we got to hear a presentation from the MTPA Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency all about the region and then an overview from each of the project partners/clients. Looks like we have some really interesting work ahead of us. As I mentioned, I'll be working with Business Against Crime (BAC) on a project that will entail meeting with a bunch of stakeholders over the next few days and then trying to help the local groups implement a wireless emergency alert system.

We met for a couple hours with Yvette from BAC and then she and I headed off to the airport to pick up the rental car we'll be using. I was very happy to see we'd gotten an automatic transmission -- i can drive a stick, but still. And learning to drive on the left side of the road was a bit thrilling, but I think I've got it down.

Tonight we're going to barbecue ("brei") at the hotel. Here's a shot of the sunset from where I'm writing this now.

First full day in Nelspruit

It's our first morning here at the Sunset Manor. There's a very cute dog who seems quite willing to come hang out (especially if there happens to be food present).

A group of us got up early and meditated led by one of the guys on my team, Anil. It was so cool. What a wonderful way to start the day.

And you wouldn't believe this place we're staying. It's on a hill top overlooking the whole city -- in the morning sun the view is spectacular. We did the meditation session on a patio next to a fountain in the brisk morning air. Incredible. I think we're going to end up doing yoga/meditation every morning.

In about an hour we're going to meet with our clients, though I actually bumped into mine (Yvette from Businesses Against Crime) in the driveway. We talked for a few minutes and she seemed very optimistic about the possibility of some progress. She also seemed acutely aware that the proposed scope for our project is enormous, which was good to hear because I think she has realistic expectations about just how much we can possibly get done.

I am beginning to think that just having us meet with all the interested parties will be helpful -- because each time we meet with them we'll be making the case for the emergency SMS system we're proposing. More on that later as it unfolds.

Oh...and I need to tell you about the breakfast room here...it's on the top of the building and has open air-windows overlooking the view. So nice. And they had some nice strong tea for me too :-) I'll get some photos for you.

My room is fine -- it's sort of an addition to the hotel (a bit of a basement, but with a really nice private outdoor space and I'm right by the pool.) It's a bit damp and chilly, but nothing I can't handle. Especially because the rest of the facility is so amazing.

Ok...off to meet the clients for the first-day overview.

First day in South Africa

(I actually wrote this a couple days ago...)
I am in the hotel in Johannesberg. Looks like a hotel. No monkeys yet :-) Just lots of IBMers. I got in really late last night and a few of us went out for burgers. The place we went was kind of funny because clearly during the week it's more like a cafe/pub -- but on a Friday night it was hopping. There was a loud DJ and it was a bit club-like, which was funny because all of us where exhausted from the trip and just wanted a quick bit. The food was good though and we had a laugh about the loud music.

Today we went to IBM's office here and met the senior guy for South Africa, Mark Harris along with a bunch of other people from IBM South Africa. Wonderful hosts (especially Claudia stone who rolled out a teeny tiny red carpet for me...thanks, Claudia!). We then went to the apartheid museum, which was very moving. And we drove by both Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela's homes. Pretty neat. I'm off to dinner soon. But I'm still so exhausted from the trip, I think it'll be a few days before I start feeling normal.

Tomorrow we drive the 4 hours to Nelspruit, where we'll be staying for the next four weeks. The weather here is great -- like autumn temperatures and it was nice and sunny today. Chilly willy at night.

For the most part the people on this trip with me seem like good folks, though with any bunch of people you can expect that I'll have more in common with some than others.

Here are a few photos from today: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ethanmcc/sets/72157619911550165/