What I learned from “Joe”

The summer of 2007, I visited Johannesburg, South Africa and I learned a couple of things from “Joe.”  The first thing that I learned upon arriving in Johannesburg was that the warnings about crime were not exaggerated, but beyond this I learned quite a few things from Joe. 

Joe was our driver while we were visiting the city.  Our gated hotel, the Peech, recommended using a driver and Joe, a native South African, was a contracted driver for the hotel.  Interestingly, only after the end of apartheid was he allowed to operate his self-employed business in Melrose. 

So, unlike universities in the United States and Europe, access to the University of Wits is controlled by security.  I asked Joe, “so, we have to go through security to get to the University.”  Joe explained that there had been many campus crimes, including crimes involving vehicles.

When Joe was younger, we was not even allowed to attend the University of Wits.  There were very few schools for blacks and those schools were inferior.

As Joe was driving us around, I kept seeing signs, offering to help people who have been black listed.  My thoughts were that this related to apartheid … people who targeted by the previous system of government, but no.  Being black listed refers to people who are equivalent to being bankrupted.  After the end of apartheid, the government was wrong-headed in providing loans to almost anyone who wanted them.  The result, people could not make their loan payments and defaulted.

While Joe was driving us around, he told us that he lived in Soweto.  I learned that Soweto is diverse, but there is a lot of black on black crime and that there is a lot of envy among residents in the area who believe that some people are uppity and deserve “to lose” their property.

While Joe readily acknowledged the problems and lingering effects of apartheid, he also recognized the work that he and fellow South Africans must do to continue healing their country.  I probably learned much more riding with Joe than any other encounters.

Livingstone, Zambia and Taita Falcon Lodge

One of the hardest decision that I had to make when visiting Livingstone, Zambia was where to stay.  Accommodations, service, and comfort are vitally important.  No disrespect to Zambia, but the country is developing and making travel arrangements are not as easy as developed countries.  For instance, I had not trouble make hotel reservation online for Cape Town and Johannesburg, but for Zambia, I had to wire funds to the hotel.  Yes, I am a suspicious American and like to use credit cards because it is easier to get your money back from scam artists.

So, after as much investigation as I could do online, I decided to go with Taita Falcon Lodge.  I debated about choosing the lodge over the one 5-star hotel in Zambia, but decided that a lodge would be more authentic and something different … we stay in 5-star and 4-star hotels all the time, but this would be our first lodge and why not Africa.

Here’s how our stay started:

We land at the airport and pass through customs and immigration and our guide, Bryan, is waiting for us.  This allayed some concerns that I had not wired my hard earned money to some phantom lodge.  Bryan greets us and loads our bags into a well used van.

As we are driving from the airport through the town, Bryan tells us that we will be our guide during the stay and he points out different features as we make our way to the lodge.  He does warn us that the drive will be a little bumpy.

Once we turn off the main road, it seems as if we drive forever on this dirt road to what seemed like no where.  The lodge is truly in the bush, but it overlooks the Zambezi River.  We enjoyed the soothing sound of the river.

Now for bush living, this is luxury.  The lodge is made up of individual free-standing units.  We had a large sitting area bedroom combination [we had a netted bed], a dressing room, bathroom with a fully functional toilet, shower, and a large enclosed outside sitting area.  The one surprise was that the unit was not fully enclosed from the outside.  So, there’s no heaters or air conditioning, which was not a problem for the time we were there — June.  But other than that, the room was nice. 

    

Because the room is not fully enclosed and Zambia has quite a temperature range, the early morning cold temperature, made it hard to get out of bed!

Once we settled and unpacked, we met Bryan and the owners of the lodge to discuss our itinerary.  We were staying at the lodge for two nights and three days, so we had three activities that we could choose.  We selected the fully inclusive option which includes a guide and activities.  Our itinerary was flexible to the extent possible. 

  

So, we decided on a Zambian village tour, a safari drive, and of course, Victoria Falls, our main reason for visiting. Is Victoria Falls worth it to make a special trip to Zambia? Yes, totally!

Our stay at the lodge included three meals, we even had a picnic one day by the Zambezi River.  The food was excellent as was the service.  In the evenings the family who owns the lodge had a table and ate with visitors.  Food is served buffet style.  I have to say again that it was really delicious!

Each day, when we left the lodge, the staff cleaned our rooms and in the evening they prepped our room for bedtime, which included a hot water bottle in the bed … believe it or not it works!  We even has a mild incense for the bathroom.

Last words, these people understand the concept of service.  They really try to meet your needs and accommodations.  The Lodge is not going to be the same as Livingstone’s one 5-star hotel, but if you want a different experience without giving up too much in the way of comfort, I can attest that Taita Falcon Lodge is a good way to go! 

One word of caution, for the all-inclusive package, domestic beverages are included; however, if you drink international alcoholic drinks, even from South Africa, it will cost you. 

Remember, you are staying in the bush, there’s no TV or radio, but do you really need one?

See our Zambian photographs.

Soweto, is that an African word?

Last year I visited South Africa, the country, and one of the cities I visited was Johannesburg.  I made sure that I also visited Soweto, one of the townships making up the area.  Soweto is famous for being a turning point for blacks and their plight for equality.  Up until our tour of the area, I thought that the word Soweto was African.  Soweto actually is an abbreviation for south western township.  This was the first of many myths that were dispelled.

Jo’burg, a truly wired city

June 2007, I visited Johannesburg, South Africa to present a paper on culture and medical education at Wits University.  I was “culturally shocked” and found the lingering and persistent effect of Apartheid pulsing throughout the city and its character.

We didn’t stay exactly in Jo’burg, as the citizens call the city, we were in one of the “upscale” suburbs, Melrose, at a boutique hotel.  The hotel was nice and the staff were friendly and helpful, but it did seem to attract a somewhat pretentious crowd, especially for an event the hotel was holding; however, that is a tangent.

Since we arrived to Jo’burg late, it was not until the next morning that we realized how wired the city is … wired in the sense of barbed wired and security.  One of the things that we like to do is take a walk after dinner … not advisable here.  I don’t even know if the hotel staff would have allowed us.  So, the next day as we are out with our driver … yes, the hotel has a contract with a driver to transport guest around, because it is too unsafe to walk.  We did not see any buildings that did not have barbed wire or jagged glass atop their gates and barriers.  We passed large beautiful homes that were enclosed like prisons and secured with barbed wire.

Then, there are personal security firms that provide escorts and security officers.  Our first inkling of the security concerns was our hotel with was gated and manned with a private security officer.  I thought, “I thought I got a nice hotel in a good part of town, why do they need this type of protection.”  One night, we went out for dinner via our driver and noticed that many of the whites walking and dining had black escorts, while the blacks did not.  I thought, how interesting.

Last word, despite the vast disparity between the wealthy and the poor in the suburbs, they both are prisoners trapped in the status quo.  The whites, typically the wealthy cannot or will not leave and threaten their lifestyle, so they leave in fortresses, prisoners to safety issues.  The blacks who seem to make up the majority of the poor do not really have anywhere else to go either and many consider Jo’burg home, as do the whites.  These two cultures are like binary stars, circling each other with one feeding off the other.

JNB … the worst airport in the world! Part III

I have been very critical of Johannesburg airport and they deserve it, but the problems with their airport runs much deeper than confusion, lack of organization, and rude incompetent employees.

While in South Africa, I learned that the country has a quota policy for employment where blacks are at the top of the quota system, followed by colors [which is not considered pejorative like in the United States], and finally whites.  The intent of this policy is to reverse and remedy the generations of apartheid.  So, what the country is experiencing is a degree of white flight by whites who can leave or don’t have so much invested in the country that they don’t want to leave or don’t have to leave.

So, a lot of blacks who were denied equal education are getting jobs that they are not qualified to do.  Not jobs that they can’t do, but jobs they have limited training to do.  Does this mean that the country should do nothing, but displacing whites before blacks can be trained is not the answer.  The result is a brain drain … a la Zimbawe. 

The airport is just one example of the disastrous effects of displacing capable workers with people who have not been trained.  This also further divide people.  The quota system also has the effect of creating a feeling of entitlement.  The majority of the airport employees that we encountered were rude, disinterested in what they were doing, or seemed completely overwhelmed.

I certainly think that South Africa should remedy the legacy of apartheid, but is this the way?

JNB … the worst airport in the world! Part I

Last year, I visited South Africa for my first time … actually that was my first visit to the continent of Africa.  The purpose for my trip was to present a paper about the integration of culture into United States medical schools.  So, the presentation was my primary reason for going to Johannesburg or Jo’burg as the citizens call it.  Besides I had talked extensively with a South African who said there was not much reason to go there.   She was right, except she didn’t tell me how terrible the airport is!

Our first experience, we fly from Livingstone, Zambia to Jo’burg on South African Airlines [great airline by the way].  Our first signs of trouble started with customs … we were coming from Zambia.  Remember, English is the common language spoken in South Africa, but we couldn’t tell from the airport employees, who seemed quite irritated that there were all these people in the airport.  And, yes they did speak English.  Okay, maybe this was just an example of lazy employees.  Practice your maze skills before you go … you will need them if you want to exit the airport.  Even as a native English speaker, this is something is I should have done given the poor signage. 

So, we finally think that we make it were we need to go and we had, but where are all the taxis … “oh, they can’t come to that part of the airport, you have to use a shuttle and the last one is about to leave,” is what we are told.  We honestly did not see any taxis either.  So, we have to pay this employee and he gives us a receipt to give to the driver.  I thinking, is this a con job, is this guy just taking my money and not going to take me anywhere?  A little confusing, no?  The ride was not inexpensive either.  Well, this is apparently how you get to your destination from Jo’burg International (JNB), since we presented the specific driver we were told to wait for with the receipt and he took us to our destination.

Trying to depart from the airport is even worst!

When animals attack … no!

While on holiday in Cape Town, South Africa, we had a “when animals attack” experience … almost like the ones that you see on the television show, ”When animals attack.”  I have to confess that I have never seen the show except for the promotions, but in retrospect, I can laugh about our almost-animal-attack.

We were on a tour, or should I say adventure, around the Cape.  As citizens of the United States, we had never seen baboons in the wild.  Our first siting was on our way to the Cape of Good Hope. 
We thought, how cool.  Our tour operator, Hendrien, warned up that these “cute” animals are animals and can be quite vicious.  So, she gave up some tips about what to do if a baboon approaches up.

1. don’t run, stand still.
2. show the baboons your palm, not fist, or threatening.
3. don’t look the animal in the eye.
4. look slightly away.

  We learned that human expansion, much like what is occurring in parts of the United States, is encroaching upon their territory.  Frequently, these baboons are attracted to food and will fight for it.

So, as we are walking to the parking lot for the lighthouse, a baboon, seemingly from no where, starting running toward us.  Remembering Hendrien’s advice, I remain still, show my palms, and look away.  To my surprise the baboon stops! 

So, the moral of the story, animals attack when human encroach.