Sylvia's Journal

The blackberry that was offered to me to serve as my office phone during my stay here was incomprehensible to me. It is not an intuitive gadget. Worse, its alarm went off at 4:30 AM, just when I was getting into a deep sleep. I didn’t know how to stop the darn thing and ended up removing the battery. I gave it back this morning. I only took the simcard which I inserted into my own phone.

I spent the day getting to know the cast of characters, most of whom I didn’t know, except for some MSH oldtimers. I have basically three assignments in three different countries, one assignment consisting of two parts, an engagement with two different clients, each with a set of objectives that I need to clarify in the coming days.

Among the things I discovered is that I will spent very little time at the lovely guesthouse I am at now – mostly days in between travel to Namibia and Lesotho. I have never been to Namibia. I have been to Lesotho several times, the first time more than 20 years ago – with my then mentor Michael, a person who died before I was able to tell him how much he taught me. I don’t think he realized that. I still keep as my precious keepsakes from that trip a list of ‘Michael’s Maxims.’ One of those was ‘never swim against the current!’ This taught me early on to figure out the current – a very useful piece of advice that I am heeding even now. Today was such a day of figuring out the current. The day after tomorrow I will be figurng out the current in Namibia.

My colleague M took me out for a walk to a lovely lunch place – the place nicer than the lunch which tasted wonderful because of the high fat content but won’t do much good as I try to get back to my ‘before-the-Holland-vacation’ weight. South Africa is not a good place to try to do that. Japan was better in that sense.

The guesthouse lends itself well to enjoying open air cocktails. We did just that and in the process I got acquainted with a couple from Tennessee who had adopted M as their third daughter, mom knitting a woolen cap for M’s upcoming days in below-freezing Amsterdam. M had warned me that they are talkers and so we finally excused ourselves for having to do ‘work.’ We politely declined the extra table they had added to theirs for dinner and continued our ‘work’ at a separate dinner table.

Although the innkeepers don’t advertise the place as a restaurant, guest can have dinner as long as they let the staff know before noontime as everything is procured fresh on the day of consumption. The cooking is a family affair and produced a delicious dinner with an accompanying wine recommended by the innkeeper. We choose red and he selected Fundi: the only wine produced by a female black wine maker in South Africa – it was exquisite. I still can’t have more than a glass but it perfectly complemented the meal. I was wondering what Axel was drinking in Abuja – probably beer.

And now, after having unpacked last night, it is time to pack up again for 10 days in Namibia.