Sylvia's Journal

The hotel where I have stayed nearly every time that I was here in the past is located on a small square surrounded by terraces of 5 restaurants and a Starbucks. All these places can also be accessed from inside a medium sized covered mall as well. The mall has, among other things, several large supermarkets, many small clothing boutiques, home stores, some phone stores, hair and nail spaces, banks and ATMs and a drugstore. 

I sat on one of those restaurant terraces for lunch while waiting for my room to be ready, with temperatures in the upper 70s enjoying a lovely lunch and, of course, a nice glass of cool South African Sauvignon Blanc.  Lunch was about 13 dollars (with tip). The prices here are low compared to the US,  especially the cost of a glass of wine. 

My room turned out to be a 2-room apartment. It has a large living room, with on one side a fully equipped kitchenette. I could cook and serve a meal for 4 people.  There is even a washer and a dryer that I don’t even have to operate myself. The cleaning lady runs it for me three days a week. The large bedroom has a king size bed and, like the living room, a very large TV, a bathroom with a shower and an enormous bathtub I wouldn’t dare to fill.

I was able to receive my mentor coach N. in style. She lives in Pretoria. I have known her (on a screen  only) since 2019. I had watched her coaching demos and decided I wanted to get this amazing woman better. She has since been my teacher in an Ubuntu coaching course and last fall I engaged her as my mentor coach. This was our one (and only) live session of six. We made a date for dinner.

I thought that the large apartment was a mistake. In the past I had stayed in a regular room with none of those luxuries, but comfortable nevertheless for a single person. It was as good as an upgrade to first class on an intercontinental flight (which never happens). But this had happened, and it wasn’t a mistake. Consultants who stay more than a week are given an apartment so that they don’t have to take all their meals in a restaurant. And so, I started my week in my bachelorette apartment. 

On Saturday evening I said goodbye to Sita and her family for their long trip home. I thought of them in their cramped economy class seats while I had an enormous king size bed all to myself – better than first class.

On the morning of my departure to Jo’burg I enjoyed a solitary breakfast that Saffi and Faro would have loved: a machine that made tiny pancakes by simply pushing an ‘OK’ button, a dish full of whipped cream that was constantly being refilled, a syrup dripper and all the other things that they like for breakfast.  

On the website the hotel did not look attractive so I had reserved an hotel at the Capetown waterfront, but the logistics of dropping off cars and getting ready for winter made an airport hotel a better choice. The hotel surpassed my expectations. The young gentleman at the reception desk, after I mentioned my web impression, said he would tell the marketing people, implying that they don’t do their job (“they are just walking around”). Maybe they should talk with their guests.

The hotel is super sustainable-economy conscious, even the salt and pepper shakers (made from 100% recycled plastics, refillable, and recyclable again). The toilets flush with grey water, the bathtub has a sign that says that filling a bath would deprive society of 320 glasses of water which made me wonder why they even bothered to put in a bathtub, you get points for using fewer pillows and towels.

Now the work begins. I turned my vacation setting off and started to prepare for the next 10 days of work that involve both individual coaching, team coaching and who knows what other surprises await me. It will also be a time to reconnect with old friends, people I haven’t seen since my last trip three and a half years ago, when I made three trips here in 2019, the last one in November 2019 with Axel.

I landed in Jo’burg early afternoon and got my first chance to use my new Chinese smartphone which I bought in a mall in Noordhoek for 50 USD. It is rather slow and I should probably have bought the 10 USD flip phone because I only want the phone for local calls so people don’t have to call the US to reach me.

Of course I hadn’t fixed the settings. I had to get re-adjusted to using an Android phone. The driver Larry was calling me and looking for me but I didn’t hear the call. When I finally managed to call him he was standing right in back of me.

Load shedding, the turning off of the power grid was bad enough in Capetown (stage 2, which means two hours of no electricity several times per 24 hours), but here in the Jo’burg and Pretoria area it is worse: stage 6, meaning no electricity for 6 hours on end.

I observed the drivers navigate traffic light not working for hours because of load shedding. Pretoria is a big city. It is amazing how people manage. They are polite to each other and let some lanes go first and then ease into traffic and others stop. I tried to imagine big cities in the US without traffic lights and wonder whether people would be this gentle with each other.

And all this load shedding in a country that has tons of natural energy resources: wind, sun and water. When I ask why these free resources are not used. People don’t want me to ask that question because it is all about fraud, people at high places skimming off monies from all the subsidies. There is an area here where most of the embassies and senior government officials live. It is heavily guarded and you have to pass through a gate. In this area, I am told, there is no load shedding. Go figure.

I learned yet another perspective on the Trojan war, this time from Patroclus. He was the one disguised as Achilles and killed by Hector. Patroclus was Achilles’ lover. He watched Achilles tumble down from his elevated status, illustrating once more that pride comes before the fall. It is a story about hubris, and men with big egos. This story too is expertly told by by a ‘classica,’ Madeleine Miller (song of Achilles, who also wrote Circe). It’s a story of men again, though there are a few women in supporting roles, Helen, of course, Briseis, the Trojan captive who became a pawn in ego tussles between Agamemnon and Achilles, and Thetis, a minor goddess who bore Achilles after having been ravaged by his dad. More lust, more revenge, more (much more) bloodshed, prophecies and Gods who can override anything mortals think they can do.

I am done with the Greeks for now. I have adventured further east to learn about Salman Rushdie’s Victory City. There is more about hubris, ego, wise and not so wise men and women, magic, and the grand mystery of life. It is another vacation book that will hopefully see me through the long ride home two weeks from now.

I left for South Africa less than a week ago, with my son-in-law and two grandchildren.  It is their first African adventure. We are staying in a rather posh area that has little to do with most of the rest of Africa.  I hope there will be more, and different facets of the continent for them to explore later when they are older. 

Today they went to a private game reserve about 3 hours east of where we are staying.  I decided to stay home and take advantage of being in the Western Cape to see some old friends, two from my student years in Leiden and one from my early years at MSH.

The week went by fast. There is so much to see and to do that we made only one trip to Capetown for a day at the waterfront;  the aquarium for the kids and their parents and for me a day with friends and a visit to the Museum of Modern African Art. 

Tomorrow will be their last full day before they leave to return to winter on Saturday. I expect they will choose to spend that last summer day at one of the many gorgeous beaches down here.

Walking for me is becoming increasingly problematic; the left ankle with shooting pains that can last through the night, not to speak of the right knee. At least the latter can be replaced with a new one in a couple of months; the ankle cannot. 

Next week I will be in Pretoria for 10 days of paid work before heading home on the last day of the month.