Training in South Africa – Wednesday 1 to Saturday 4 Nov 2006

Well this adventure started off early and sleep deprivation seemed to be on order for the rest of the trip.

We got up about 4am on Wednesday and headed off to the airport. We spent an hour lining up to check in and get through passport control then climbed aboard the Air France plane for a 5 hour flight to Paris. Air France is a pretty good airline, even with the French staff!

The flight was uneventful (which is always good!). We both got a bit of sleep which was lucky because we arrived a bit late into Paris and spent forever walking around the airport trying to find a place to store our bags while we went into the city. Finally we found where we needed to go, but it was very expensive so Chris just left his laptop there ($15 euro just to leave a single bag!) and we just carried our little backpacks.

Once we got all of that organised we caught the training to the city ($16.20 euro each return) and spent the afternoon wandering around. We went to the modern art museum – Pompidou. There were some freaky exhibitions… one of them had some cool work – kind of like collages, all sorts of weird medium stuck to the canvas – doilies, newspaper etc. I liked them until I saw some of his later stuff that was just plain weird. A prime example being an angora goat, stuffed, with paint on its face standing with a tyre around its middle all stood on a canvass that looked like he thrown the pain can at it. I don’t care how much it was suppose to ‘represent the joining of the past and present’ or how it was suppose to ‘reflect the narcissistic nature of life today’ or whatever other bullshit explanation the critics gave it – it was dumb. That’s not art, it’s not something you can hang on the wall, or would even want in your house. Its just plain wired!

The next major exhibition was a guy obsessed with the colour blue. Admittedly it was a very cool shade of blue – cerulean blue I think. In one part of the gallery it was just white walls with about 6 canvasses of different shapes and sizes (most really big) all painted to a perfect finish with this bright startling blue. It actually looked quite impressive.

We spent a bit of time wandering around these exhibitions then went downstairs to the next freaky section. Some of these used TV screens to show the art, like lots of picture of different flowers flicking by at an epileptic seizure rate. One even showed the building of a car back in the old days, the first days of assembly line construction, but sped up to a minute for the whole process. That was fairly interesting to watch. Others were just weird… either weird ideas, weird medium or just plain freaky. Ok art critic I’m not!

Then we stopped at a café and had panni’s and crepes for dinner - very yummy J and then trained back to the airport. Funny thing was the train back was supposed to be the easy bit, but first we got on the wrong train (right platform, wrong train). Then on the right train, but going the wrong way. Then on the right train, but not going to the stop we needed. Then finally on the right train and it even expressed most of the way to the airport. I was getting a little stressed coz we were suppose to pick up Chris’s laptop by 6:30 and the place closed at 7pm… we got there about 6:50pm so it was fine. Then I rushed us all the way to the gate (we were suppose to start boarding at 6:40pm) only to discover the plane delayed (didn’t leave until nearly 8pm). I don’t think we caught a flight that left on time all week.

We finally made it to South Africa – arrived bright and shiny… well we arrived at least. We got in about 8am and got changed into work clothes in the airport bathroom. Then we got a cab to the Accenture office. We were so disorganised. Normally I’m a little control freak and need everything planned to the finest details, but this time I just got on the plane… We didn’t have the addresses written down, didn’t know them, didn’t know how much a cab should cost… absolutely zero planning. In fact we weren’t even 100% sure our accommodation had been booked!

We arrived safely at the office, but cabs in South Africa are weird. In fact they aren’t really cabs… not official looking in any way… they just some dude in his car.

The Johannesburg office is flash. Its huge too, its been built in a business park that’s fairly new I think. Everything is very shiny anyway! It’s very strict though – everything is cost code driven. I needed a phone so Phoebe (UK girl) could call Chris and I and they wanted a cost centre for it. I said but they are calling me, I just need to know what number to dial!

Considering Chris and I had been in transit for 24 hours we coped pretty well with the first day of the course. In fact the course was much better than I was expecting. We thought it was a ‘cultural diversity’ type course but it was so much more than that. We went through how the development sector works (very interesting), how certain treaties, wars and decisions impacted the developing nations. Evelyn (the facilitator) even went through how decision made with the best intentions, like those made by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the UN etc have long ranging impacts. The decisions like the loans given to developing nations (with string attached of course) helped them develop, but also had negative implications when interest rates rose. All in all a very interesting day. Almost unheard of at an Accenture function there wasn’t any presentations! Just lots of discussions and activities. We even played this game called the ‘Trading Game’ where we were split into countries – Tanzania, India and the US then we had to manufacture ‘shapes’ and sell them to the bank. It was a managed game – so the outcome was set from the beginning and we were manipulated towards that outcome (US ending up with all the money) but it let us experience what it would be like to operate from a position if disadvantage. Very funny to play because we were all carrying on, but good experience.

There were 5 of us at the course. Chris and I of course for our Egypt project, plus Amy (San Francisco – now in India), Bart (Chicago – now working in Atlanta and all over Africa working with CARE) and James (Manchester – now in Uganda). It was really good getting the advice, stories etc of everyone else. Most people had travelled to different places before and everyone had examples and stories that did and will help us deal with challenges here in Egypt. Even little tips like always carry your torch and pen knife with you are things I should know but hadn’t really thought about (I brought them to Egypt, but they’ve never been out of my bag!). Plus it was reassuring to have other people with the same challenges as us. People to reinforce that what we were doing was the right way to handle it. I even got a little pep talk from one of the guys saying that I wasn’t ripping off our driver man. That we were paying him loads and that he wouldn’t be driving us round and being so helpful if we weren’t paying him more than he could get for his normal job.

We went out for dinner at an African restaurant which was really good. The food was delicious – we got a bunch of entrees to share (including ostrich spring rolls which were delicious!!) then each got a main, but everyone tasted everyone else’s stuff. I got a rack of springbok for my main J it was yummy. Although I was a bit concerned about eating the national animal!

The hotel we stayed at was lovely – opulent luxury after the apartment in Cairo!! I’ve never been so happy to see a hot forceful shower and bed with crisp clean sheets in my life!

The second day of the course was really good too. We focused more on health and safety (again lots of tips and advice from both the facilitator and the other guys on the course). Then we talked about the AIDS pandemic and what the different types of organisations that work in the development sector do, what role they play. It was really good.

With the course over the only thing left was another 20 or so hours in transit back to Cairo. The return trip was pretty easy. We both slept most of the way between Jo-berg and Paris – guess we were exhausted.

The only thing to happen out of the ordinary was when we were boarding the Paris to Cairo flight. As we were getting on we could hear this guy moaning “No. No. No. No” over and over again. We assumed he was having a panic attack, but then the police took him off the plane. The airline staff then broadcast (in French which luckily Chris could understand) that he was being deported back to his home country and didn’t want to go. So I guess they’ll have to find some other way to get him home.

We arrive safe and sound back in Cairo ready to go back to work on Sunday. Spending the weekend in airport lounges is not ideal!