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.

Visiting developing countries

Among our travels, we have been fortunate to visit two developing countries:  Zambia & Ecuador.   While these two countries are quite different, they share similarities:  poverty, inequality, and disparity.

Zambia, which is in the southern part of Africa, is a really poor country, but one of the observations that I made about businesses is that they seemed to be owned by whites, while the blacks are the employees.  For instance, the lodge where we stayed was owned and operated by whites from South Africa.  Ecuador is similar to Zambia in terms of those with resources and those without.  The indigenous Andeans are similar to the blacks in that they seem to be the most disadvantaged.

But not all developing countries are the same.  Ecuador’s infrastructure, at least Quito and Galapagos, seem much further advanced than Livingstone, Zambia.  Quito is a large sprawling city of between 3-4 million people and from a distance the city is colorful and attractive … until you are actually in the city.  Livingstone is much smaller and more or less lacks a transportation infrastructure.

The big factor to consider when visiting a developing country is that services and infrastructure are weaker than what we developed country dwellers are used too.  Hygiene is another concern.  My travel physician advised me to avoid eating fresh fruit and vegetables that could not be peeled.  Oftentimes, developing countries use waste as fertilizer.  What may not bother natives may make us deadly sick.  So, I am a more cautious about what I eat and where and I always carry an ample supply of anti-diarrhea, antacids, ibuprofen, aspirins, motion sickness medicine, and the like.  Ecuador was different and perhaps more developed, although I was never able to find eye contact solution.  What about service … western-style service will cost you.  But even here, there are some things that are just unavailable.

The one stable across developed and developing countries is people.  There are decent people across the board and there are haves and have nots, except in developing countries the magnitude seems to be exaggerated.

As an aside, one of my irritations is when people refer to Africa as if it were a homogeneous country instead of the large diverse continent that it is.

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 II

Last year, when I visited South Africa and part of my visit entailed visiting Johannesburg or Jo’burg, as the citizens call it.  When we arrived from Livingstone, Zambia, I thought what a terrible airport, even worst than Atlanta.  Well arriving to Jo’burg was bad, but leaving was much worst!

Okay, we arrive at the airport, but quickly learned, there’s no place to check in for Swiss Air … we were flying to Zurich.  So what we had to do was actually walk past what looked like counters to check in … never would have figured this out, since there were no sign … not even pictorially.  So, we get in line with our bags, show our pass ports, and then seem to exit again, but this time we see what looks like ticket counters.  At this counter we were able to check in and then we went through security, which looked like the place where we just left.  Finally, we get to go to our gate.  If this sounds confusing, good, because that’s what it was like.  I am sure that I could not navigate check-in again if I had too.

Last word, I hope Jo’burg is ready for the World Cup in 2010.  They have a long way to go.  I thought the airport workers at Atlanta were the most incompetent, but Jo’burg may hold this honor now.  Atlanta is a close second.